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Old 29th December 2014, 09:56 PM
gsingh gsingh is offline
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Default Lighting issues. 2nd batch improved.

As you know I was having problems trying to get good exposure in low indoor light. All my shots previously were used without any flash, shutter speed priority at 1/100 and the camera automatically set the aperture to f/1.7. The results came back with horrible light and what I described as grimy and faded colours.

After your advice I set the camera to aperture priority f/1.7 and I let the camera choose the shutter speed. Some of the shots the camera set were at 1/8 speed, some were 1/30 and a couple were 1/60. The reason I set the shutter speed with the first batch of images to 1/100 was to prevent motion blur so I did have many concerns about blur with the second batch of images knowing the speed was going to be much lower than 1/100. All my second batch of shots were without any flash as with the first batch.

The results have come back tonight after taking them to Asda. To my surprise only 3 or 4 shots were slightly blurry. I'm still getting used to holding the camera still. Sometimes I can feel my arms shaking but I'm improving so I'm not too fussed about the blur for now as it's a working progress. The real shock is in how well the images have come out. The best way I can describe it is just shock and amazement. The colours are very rich and the overall shot is well exposed. It really is very surprising considering I made no effect purposely to improve the light indoors. Even with the speed a lot slower most of the images came back razor sharp.

Now I feel like I have reached another milestone so I have to thank you all for the advice you gave me in the previous post. Even the most subtle changes had significant impacts on the exposure of the shot.

I do wonder though how low the shutter speed can go before slight movements can cause blur. There is information on this in the manual so I will check it out and experiment with it. My guess is it's probably 1/30 but I will check it out.

Also this is a topic for another day and something I am keen to explore but I have had a thought. It seems (to me anyway) different levels of light effect an object's colour so since there are infinite possibilities of lighting one object there must be infinite colour possibilities of the giving object. Just a thought but it's something I am going to look into.

Thank you all.
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Old 29th December 2014, 10:09 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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I am glad that things have got better. There is rough rule that you can hand-hold successfully at a speed which is the reciprocal of the focal length so 1/30th is OK with say a 28 mm lens, a 1/50th is OK with a 50mm lens etc. If you have steady hands or can lean against something then you might get away with a 1/20th or even 1/15th.

If you want to take indoor shots without flash I'd consider making two changes.

1. Use a 400 or even 800 film rather than a 200 for more speed. Kodak Portra is an excellent colour at 800

2. Consider using a wide angle lens such as a 28 or even 24. In the confined space of "the indoors" a wide angle may be a better lens to use anyway

Best of luck

Mike
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Old 30th December 2014, 12:47 AM
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Argentum Argentum is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray View Post

1. Use a 400 or even 800 film rather than a 200 for more speed. Kodak Portra is an excellent colour at 800

2. Consider using a wide angle lens such as a 28 or even 24. In the confined space of "the indoors" a wide angle may be a better lens to use anyway
Agreed, above is good advice

And the shorter focal length will give you more depth of field although still not a lot at f1.7

ALSO

Just be aware that the scan and process software that labs use may well correct lighting levels, do some sharpening and adjust colour balance. All of this can help if the exposure was fairly close to optimum in the first place. So you never quite know whether it was you that got it right or whether the software has corrected any errors.
But it doesn't really matter if the results you get back from lab are very good.

Last edited by Argentum; 30th December 2014 at 01:11 AM.
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Old 30th December 2014, 09:03 AM
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Also remember that whilst you are photographing static subjects holding the camera still at 1/30 or even 1/15 can work very well. But as soon as you start photographing people who WILL BE MOVING it doesn't matter how still you hold the camera at 1/30 because the movement of the subject comes into play. So an 800 speed film is a very good idea if you don't want to use flash as it gives you two extra stops of speed pushing that 1/30 down to 1/125 with same aperture and that should stop their movement too (if they are standing relatively still).
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