Help - low light indoor.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Hi all...

Quick question: I want to take indoor pics in dark conditions, but without the flash bouncing off the wall behind the subject (a child) preferably with softish edges. I was using candles as light during a powercut, but it either blurred, or came out with the subject far too dark. Have tried playing around with the white balance, but no joy....

Any ideas asto how to do this...?

Thanks,

Ip.

PS Camera involved is a Finepix 6500Fd if that helps - ta,

sineadw

Can you change the ISO rating on that? Put it up higher. Means you'll get grainier shots though. Or you could try bouncing the flash off the ceiling or a wall?

I'm sure you'll get lots of better advice

kuroino

I guess you need proper light(s) and bouncing screen(s) for that. If you would use SLR, I would advise a bright fixed focus lense as well.

spidermonkey

alternatively you could use the inbuilt flash on the camera, just try placing pieces of paper over the flash to dampen the flash, you can get some cool shots, or maybe use a mirror or bounce the light off a different wall. even your hand works!

with regard to the paper over the flash, if you use coloured post-it notes: subects in the foreground will be in a tint of that colour while your background will stay normal. check out www.lomography.com some strange things can be done:)

Ponster

Have you tried the "Picture Stabilization" Shooting mode which takes the ISO rating up to 3200 and take the shot with the flash turned off?

You also have a "party" scene mode which may do the job.

Biro

Turn the ISO setting up a bit, try the candles again, as they should give a nice warm colour, as well as some normal indoor house lights, and put either just plain white, or some tint of yellow paper over the flash, then try again. You should get some results.

5uspect

Are you using a tripod or some support?
As for light maybe use a lamp with a white piece of paper over it.

ryanoj

Sorry this dosen't help!! Ijust ordered a 6500fd and I was wondering how you found the camera, what are the quality of the pics like etc.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Ponster wrote:

Have you tried the "Picture Stabilization" Shooting mode which takes the ISO rating up to 3200 and take the shot with the flash turned off?

You also have a "party" scene mode which may do the job.

Yep, but still coming out with an orange child and dark blue grainy background. Haven't tried the party mode, but night mode does a good job (still not bright enough though. And the bloody manual doesn't tell you what the settings are for the different programs! :mad: :mad: :mad:

The flash is fixed into the camera, can't bounce it off anything bar the subject. I love the look of the child by candlelight, so am trying to stay away from artificial lights if possible. Thanks again all.

Zillah

Ikky Poo2 wrote:

The flash is fixed into the camera, can't bounce it off anything bar the subject.

You can always bounce it off the ceiling:

Get a piece of white card. Put it flat against the flash and then tilt it from the base so its face is kind of pointing up. Stick it there. The white card with reflect the flash upwards which will light the room softly. It'll still be a fairly cold coloured light but you can post process that.