Natural Light Indoor Photo Help

TNJules

I am a new mom and have been trying to figure out how to best take pictures of my daughter.

One problem that is alway consistent is she is wiggly .

The second problem is that most of the photos are taken indoors.
I hate using the built in flash on my camera because I like the more natural look. Example picture with flash
However when I don't use the flash, I think my automatic camera sets the shutter speed too slow and I get this. Example picture without flash. As you can see the picture is very blurry.

I was using a Sony CyberShot DSC-W90 and I just recently received a Canon SX 200 IS. It is supposed to be a great camera for natural light, but I don't know exactly what settings I need to change and how to determine the appropriate levels for each setting.

I'm willing to read and learn on my own, but I would appreciate some pointers and/or resources from anyone willing to help.

I get a decent amount of natural light in through the windows during the day so I feel like I should be able to achieve some great pics.

Thanks in advance.

ivar

Hi TNJules, welcome to Dgrin

I moved this over to technique since it's not about a specific shot but about the techniques how to get them

As far as your question goes, I'm not familiar with that specific camera so I can't help you with the settings. However, I can tell you, there is usually less light indoors than you think there is for some reason. Wiggly little people require a relatively fast shutterspeed to not make the photos too blurry.

A larger aperture and a higher ISO could help in that. The aperture is not directly settable on all Point and Shoot cameras, I'm not sure about your camera. It depends on what settings and how good the high ISO is on that camera how far you want to take it up.

Maybe there is someone else here who has that camera?

jdorseydesign

First off, there is ALWAYS less light than you think there is

Your on-camera flash pictures look harsh because they light is coming from the same direction as the lens. With a point-and-shoot it's hard to get the flash off camera. My suggestion is, to move closer to the light. Perhaps set up a play area near a window and take photos of the kid that way. Remember, softer light is more flattering. Try hanging a white sheet over the window to make a giant softbox Another thing I've seen people do is to make a flash diffuser for your point and shoot's flash, like a white plastic tupperware bowl or something. Clever use of a mirror and a card to bounce the flash up and off a white ceiling might work as well. Basically anything you can do to get the light coming from somewhere besides straight from the camera.

If you have the means you might look at getting a point at shoot with a hotshoe or a starter model DSLR (Nikon D3000 or a Canon Rebel), and then you have more options for getting flash off the camera.

rainbow

Try the following:

Set ISO to 800. Set camera to AV mode: now choose the lowest number to give you the widest aperture (eg 2.8, not 16) -- this will allow camera to choose the fastest shutter speed that the light will allow.

Also, shoot with the lens wider (zoomed out more -- like around 40 mm instead of 180 mm) and get closer. This will minimize effect of camera movement.

You can try same at ISO 1600. Shutter speed will now be twice as fast if all else is equal, BUT picture quality may suffer ("noise").

Hope this helps as a quick and dirty starting point. I like shooting indoors without flash more than with flash (but with DSLR and fast prime lenses). Good luck.

Qarik

TNjules,

Welcome. You need a LOT of natural light to get good shots with a point and shoot. More then you might think.

Do you know what? I think there are a lot of moms out there and on this board that wanted better pictures of their kids and realize a point and shoot was not gonna cut it. So they bought a DSLR..I am just sayin...

Loose360

Qarik wrote:

TNjules,

I think there are a lot of moms out there and on this board that wanted better pictures of their kids and realize a point and shoot was not gonna cut it. So they bought a DSLR..I am just sayin...

AGREED....and you will never regret it. Nikon D90