Christmas - Indoor, low light, blur! Nikon D60

Trotter

Hi all,

Quick bit of help required. I've a living room full of people here and candles and Christmas lights are the main lighting.

Im using the new D60 and on Auto, the flash is coming on and the photos are all bright and pale. If I turn the flash off, its complete blur.

Has anyone any tips on catching this properly?

quilmore

use a tripod and/or bring the ISO up

Ricky91t

Also shoot in Raw and process the pics after in lightroom to get the skin tones pack to normal

TJM

If you're using a kit lens chances are the max. aperture is better at the wide end - if so then try to shoot at (e.g.) 18 rather than 50mm for a little more light.

bbbbb

If there's not alot of light, and the flash is off then the shutter is open longer hence the blur.
To keep the shutter open shorter, go with the max apperture (probably at 18mm as suggested earlier) and or/increase the iso (also suggested).
To minimise the blur keep the camera as steady as possible, either with a tripod, or by resting against something (wall/chair etc.) will also help if people aren't moving!

AnCatDubh

all of the above sounds good. if no tripod - find something steady to settle the camera on. side of a table / book shelf can work well. still your guests may move causing blur. use self timer to reduce shake from you pressing the shutter too.

enjoy the gathering!

pixbyjohn

Try using shutter priority, set at 125 with flash on, if still too bright change shutter speed to 200 or 250. try it and see.

CabanSail

There should be an Auto ISO function on the D60. Check that this function is turned on. It will increase the sensitivity of the sensor (ISO) if the light is low. For available light photo's try using Aperture Priority (A) & a shutter speed 1/60th (or maybe 1/30th) If there is not enough light for this then you will have to use the flash.

You have a very capable camera there. It is a waste to limit it to the Auto settings. If you come in here there are plenty of people who will assist you to venture beyond that & get more pleasing results.

Good luck & feel free to ask more questions.

Trotter

CabanSail wrote: »

There should be an Auto ISO function on the D60. Check that this function is turned on. It will increase the sensitivity of the sensor (ISO) if the light is low. For available light photo's try using Aperture Priority (A) & a shutter speed 1/60th (or maybe 1/30th) If there is not enough light for this then you will have to use the flash.

You have a very capable camera there. It is a waste to limit it to the Auto settings. If you come in here there are plenty of people who will assist you to venture beyond that & get more pleasing results.

Good luck & feel free to ask more questions.

Thanks a lot. I only have it a couple of weeks and Im learning from scratch. I've a few good books, but theres no substitute for asking the specifics to the experts Cheers for the offer. I'll be sure to take it up.

CabanSail

You will also learn from your mistakes .... I am still.

Enjoy!

Buzz Lightyear

Here's a tip I learned from another boardsie earlier in the year ......

If you are going to use flash, under expose the flash by about -0.7 to properly expose the people at the front but also allow the ambient light to give a nice glow in the photo.

On the Nikon, if you set your camera to A (aperature priority), pick the lowest F-stop you can on the kit kens, say 4.6, set the ISo to 200, pop up the flash using the button to the LHS of the flash at the front in front of your main dial. After your flash pops up, hold this button in, and using the command dial at the front RHS rotate the dial until your display shows -0.7

Happy snapping & happy christmas

Trotter

I got my 55-200 VR lens under the tree today and its amazing. I'm sure I'm wrecking everyone's head at home experimenting

It came with a lens hood. Just wondering should I use that all the time when theres plenty of light about?

pixbyjohn

Good luck with the new lens.

Trotter

I should rename this thread.. Trotter got a camera, cue the stupid questions.

Scenario..

Christmas tree 12 feet away, some sitting on the couch in front 6ft away.

I'm getting the hang of softening the background and sharpening the person up front, but.. out of curiosity, how would I focus both equally?

Trizo

Hi Trotter ,

I wouldnt know as much as a lot on here but my suggestion would be to use a smaller aperture (i.e a larger F number in aperture priority mode or in manual.) smaller apertures give a greater depth of focus so everything in the image is in focus.with a smaller aperture theres less light being allowed into the sensor so usually this means higher shutter speeds but if your using flash this shouldnt be a problem. that and focal length using the focus ring should give you the sharp focus in the fore middle and background

Trizo

CabanSail

The depth of field needs to be larger, so a smaller aperture is needed. In low light this will mean very high ISO settings (noise) and/or long shutter speeds (blur).

The use of flash can also be problematic as it will only tend illuminate things correctly at one distance. This can be improved by bouncing the flash off the ceiling or a wall.

Stephen

It may be worth getting your hands on a proper hotshoe flash. The problem with the onboard one is it will shoot directly in your subjects' faces, which you usually don't want. A hotshoe flash (even the lowest-end Nikon SB400, which I have) can be rotated to bounce the flash off a wall/ceiling. This gives much more natural looking light than a direct flash. Or to keep things cheap you could experiment with putting (for example) a piece of paper in front of the onboard flash to diffuse its light.

Trotter

I made big progress by using the slow flash option on the camera because it doesn't seem as strong and lets the background ambient light do its own thing.

I had to put the whole lot away then because the family got thick with me taking so many of the same photos

Seriously thanks for all the tips, I'm sure ye'll drag me up over this learning curve faster than any book.

Here's a bottle of wine for ya I was just messing with the depth of field settings, and this came out ok.

CabanSail

That's quite a nice composition. I like the soft Pine Cone in the background.

Well done