Shooting Indoors

hsphotos · Jan 23, 2012

I need some help picking out equipment to help me shoot indoors. I was at a birthday party for my friends daughter this past weekend and while some of my pictures looked nice because the kids just happened to be near a window, many of the other ones were blurry, grainy and dark. When I tried shooting on manual, the flash took forever to go off, missing the shot I wanted to get with a kid.

I don't plan to do a ton of indoor shooting, but I want to be prepared. What would you recommend? I don't want to spend a ton of money, but would like to get quality products. Would a 50MM and an external flash do the trick?

MLeeK · Jan 23, 2012

You need to learn how control the exposure of the image and not allow the camera to do it. It's probably 80% knowledge that you need. For equipment you'll probably need a speedlight and a good, fast lens of f/2.8 or better. What camera are you using?

hsphotos · Jan 23, 2012

I'm using a D90 and i have the kit lens and also a 55-200MM lens.

EIngerson · Jan 23, 2012

Raise the ISO to 800 or more if it's low light. If you're using the kit lens, I assume it only goes down to F3.5. You should be able to pull off some nice indoor photos with that. Set it to Aperature priority and go.

hsphotos · Jan 23, 2012

That was probably my problem.. I think I only had the ISO set on 300. So do you think a flash is unnecessary?

Robin Usagani · Jan 23, 2012

You need the flash. The reason it takes forever is because your flash was shooting at full power everytime so it takes a while to charge full again. It sounds like you dont know the basic of digital photography. You should start reading about it.

hsphotos · Jan 23, 2012

Schwettylens said:
You need the flash. The reason it takes forever is because your flash was shooting at full power everytime so it takes a while to charge full again. It sounds like you dont know the basic of digital photography. You should start reading about it.

That's why I was asking for help. I normally do all my shooting outdoors, this was my first time doing it inside with insufficient lighting.

KmH · Jan 23, 2012

That's ok. A good understanding of photographic, camera, lens technical and lighting fundamentals will help your outside shooting too.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...allery/267492-info-those-new-photography.html

hsphotos · Jan 23, 2012

Thank you so much for the link! I'll definitely read through those! Do you have any recommendations for a decent flash to go with my camera? I would be willing to spend up to $300 on one, as that is what my budget allows for right now

ph0enix · Jan 23, 2012

SB700:
Nikon SB-700 Speedlight Shoe Mount Flash 4808 B&H Photo Video

KmH · Jan 23, 2012

I am not an advocate of using flash in the auto TTL modes, mainly becuase it is quite complex and difficult to learn how to use, and even then it's inconsisant because the camera is really just a stupid machine.

A Vivitar 285HV Auto Professional Flash
will do the job nicely, and you won't have to spend a bunch of money on features and functions you really don't need.

EIngerson · Jan 23, 2012

hsphotos said:
Thank you so much for the link! I'll definitely read through those! Do you have any recommendations for a decent flash to go with my camera? I would be willing to spend up to $300 on one, as that is what my budget allows for right now

You're at a great budget range to get a good flash unit. (I didn't see what brand of camera you were using) If you use a canon you can get a 430 ex II all day.

Amazon.com: Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash for Canon Digital SLR Cameras: Camera & Photo

hsphotos · Jan 23, 2012

EIngerson said:
hsphotos said:

Thank you so much for the link! I'll definitely read through those! Do you have any recommendations for a decent flash to go with my camera? I would be willing to spend up to $300 on one, as that is what my budget allows for right now

Click to expand...

You're at a great budget range to get a good flash unit. (I didn't see what brand of camera you were using) If you use a canon you can get a 430 ex II all day.

Amazon.com: Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash for Canon Digital SLR Cameras: Camera & Photo

Thank you - I use a Nikon D90 though

$300 is really the max I'd like to spend, and that's on the high end, but if it's for something that will be a good, useful tool should I need it, I'd like to have it.

KmH said:
I am not an advocate of using flash in the auto TTL modes, mainly becuase it is quite complex and difficult to learn how to use, and even then it's inconsisant because the camera is really just a stupid machine.

A Vivitar 285HV Auto Professional Flash
will do the job nicely, and you won't have to spend a bunch of money on features and functions you really don't need.

Thank you, I will look into this one!