Flash

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

I'll start by saying I'm a total novice. I have a dSLR and I shoot in "P mode" but that's about as good as I get. I also do some basic editing in Photoshop Elements.

So, my question: While I prefer natural light photography, we live in a wooded home and I also do like to take photos at night if DD is doing something cute. So, the flash on my camera is on a lot because I can't get a good crisp shot without it. I'm just using the stock flash (pops up from the camera) on my Nikon D400 but of course it washes her out and makes her eyes look crazy. I know that pro photographers sometimes have flashes that turn to "bounce light" off of things and I'm sure there are other solutions. Can anyone recommend any approaches or products that lessen these problems? (I know they won't go away completely, that's the nature of flash).

[ladymoreta]

I have similar problems and can't afford a better flash. I keep eyeing this flash diffuser and wondering if it would help or if I'd be wasting my $20. Thoughts from the pros?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00110...=I1ZIMJ04EN157

[GreyhoundsRUs]

You can buy a diffuser for your pop-up flash or create the bounce by rigging up an index card. Unfortunately, this doesn't work "in a pinch" because you'll have to put it on after your flash pops up. If you use a shoe-mount flash (one of the big guys), you may not want it on your camera at all times, so you would run into the same problem. I shoot Canon, so I don't know model numbers for you, but I have the 580 and really like it. The 480 is a lot smaller because it doesn't have the control panel. Both eat a lot of batteries, though. I would also try shooting in "shutter priority mode". This makes everything else automatic, but you can choose your shutter speed. This will allow you to shoot fast enough so D isn't a blur, but will automate everything else. Is your ISO set to auto as well? You may also want to look into a faster lens (one with a smaller f/stop number). This allows more light to come in when shooting "wide open" (with the smallest aperture number). Think of it like your eyes - pupils dilate when you're in the dark. If your pupils didn't dilate, you couldn't see as well in the dark - or if they were artificially dilated, everything would seem too bright

[ladymoreta]

Cross-posted with you, GRU! So, do you think that diffuser would be good, or do you have a better/cheaper one you'd recommend?

[GreyhoundsRUs]

I have similar problems and can't afford a better flash. I keep eyeing this flash diffuser and wondering if it would help or if I'd be wasting my $20. Thoughts from the pros?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00110...=I1ZIMJ04EN157

I have the Fong. My issue is that it doesn't work with my camera. Read carefully to see if it would work with your particular camera. The way the diffuser attaches to my camera mimics having a shoe-mounted flash, so my flash wouldn't fire with the diffuser in place

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

You can buy a diffuser for your pop-up flash or create the bounce by rigging up an index card. Unfortunately, this doesn't work "in a pinch" because you'll have to put it on after your flash pops up. If you use a shoe-mount flash (one of the big guys), you may not want it on your camera at all times, so you would run into the same problem. I shoot Canon, so I don't know model numbers for you, but I have the 580 and really like it. The 480 is a lot smaller because it doesn't have the control panel. Both eat a lot of batteries, though. I would also try shooting in "shutter priority mode". This makes everything else automatic, but you can choose your shutter speed. This will allow you to shoot fast enough so D isn't a blur, but will automate everything else. Is your ISO set to auto as well? You may also want to look into a faster lens (one with a smaller f/stop number). This allows more light to come in when shooting "wide open" (with the smallest aperture number). Think of it like your eyes - pupils dilate when you're in the dark. If your pupils didn't dilate, you couldn't see as well in the dark - or if they were artificially dilated, everything would seem too bright

I am in the market for a new lens. So buying a lens would help this issue?

[civilspouse]

I am also a novice and mainly use my camera for taking pictures of DS. For Christmas last year I got a Nikon 50mm f/1.8G lens and I love it for low light. It does much better than my kit lens did.

[scrub-jay]

So maybe I shouldn't count on the iPhone flash? (just kidding!!) Carry on guys, I'm learning tons from you!

[niener]

Direct flash is about the worst way to light a scene for all the reasons you mentioned (washed out skin tones, creepy eyes, harsh shadows, etc). Anything you can do to help soften that light will help. The idea is to make the light source as large as possible relative to your subject. So products like the Fong diffuser that LM linked to turns a small source of direct light (yucky) into a much larger source of diffused light (nicer). If you want to play around with this concept, grab a white business card or piece of cardstock (GRU referred to this setup in her response as well) and rig up something like this: http://www.diyphotography.net/the-pa...ck-in-business.

One of the reasons shoe-mounted flashes (the big ones the pros use) are so great is because of the swivel head that allows you to point the flash in any direction. This is especially handy when you're indoors and there are ceilings and walls in every direction to bounce light off of. Ceilings are almost always white, so by default you have a giant diffuser right above your head. Just point that sucker straight up and the light that bounces back down will much, much softer. Similarly, if you have light, neutral colored walls you can point the flash to the side and have the light bounce back in at an angle which gives a more natural look. Just be aware that the light will pick up a color cast from your wall color, so if you bounce light off green walls your baby may look a bit sickly .

GRU brings up a good point about shutter priority mode. Learning to operate in that mode (which isn't hard, promise! try it out!) should help eliminate any blurriness from a fast-moving toddler by ensuring your camera clicks fast enough to catch the action. The camera will choose your aperture for you but as GRU said, make sure your ISO is set to select automatically as well otherwise you may end up with what's known as the "shooting in a cave" look, where there is little to no ambient light so everything behind your subject looks pitch black, like you're shooting her in a cave.

[niener]

I am in the market for a new lens. So buying a lens would help this issue?

It will, yes, if you get a lens with a wider aperture. An eyeball is a great analogy. Shutter speed is like how quickly you open and close your eyelids. The longer you leave them open, the more light is let in. Aperture is like your pupils. The more dilated they are, the more light is let in. If you have a lens with a wider aperture (lower numbers = wider aperture), you can let more light in without having to slow down your shutter speed (which increases blurriness) or increase your ISO (which increases graininess). The catch, though (because there's always a catch), is the wider your aperture is, the more shallow your depth of field is. So you have to make sure your focus point is pretty dang accurate because any movement forwards or backwards by either you or your subject will throw them out of focus. I love the look you get with a wide aperture so I shoot this way most of the time, but I do have to throw some away because they're not in focus. It's just all a big balancing act.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

http://www.diyphotography.net/the-pa...ck-in-business.

GRU brings up a good point about shutter priority mode. Learning to operate in that mode (which isn't hard, promise! try it out!) should help eliminate any blurriness from a fast-moving toddler by ensuring your camera clicks fast enough to catch the action. The camera will choose your aperture for you but as GRU said, make sure your ISO is set to select automatically as well otherwise you may end up with what's known as the "shooting in a cave" look, where there is little to no ambient light so everything behind your subject looks pitch black, like you're shooting her in a cave.

The link doesn't work. Can you repost?

So whenever I shoot it "S mode", my pictures come out really, really dark unless I open the aperture pretty wide and then things get blurry quickly again...

[niener]

Trying the link again: http://www.diyphotography.net/the-pa...ck-in-business

[niener]

So whenever I shoot it "S mode", my pictures come out really, really dark unless I open the aperture pretty wide and then things get blurry quickly again...

So this is sort of baffling to me. I'm not sure what camera you have so the settings on yours may be different from mine. When you're in S mode (which I'm assuming is shutter-priority mode? On mine it's labelled "Tv" instead of "S"), the only thing you should be able to control is the shutter speed. The aperture should be chosen for you, and depending on whether or not you have ISO set to select automatically that should also be chosen for you as well. If you're able to somehow override it so that you can change the aperture too then at that point you might as well be in manual mode since you're telling it both the shutter speed and the aperture. Also, aperture shouldn't really have an effect on blurriness, that's shutter speed's territory.

Still the fact that it's really dark in an semi-automatic mode is odd to me -- the camera should basically force a proper exposure, so even if you were to set your shutter speed too high it would force it back down before it fired off the shot. The problem may be in the metering mode. See if you can find what mode you're in -- I think "matrix" or "evaluative" mode is the default (and probably the one you want) but it may have somehow gotten set to spot or center. You may need to hunt down your manual if you've never adjusted your metering mode before.

[GreyhoundsRUs]

The only thing I can think of is that if it is really dark, and your lens is already wide open, dark may be the best the camera can do with the shutter speed you want. I would reset your camera to factory settings and take it from there

I'm on my phone, so I can't see the other posts, but whoever mentioned the 50mm f/1.8 - I have one and LOVE it. It is the lens that is on my camera 90% of the time.

[ladymoreta]

Yes! I use the 50 mm one for all my "quality" pictures. It takes much better pictures. I use my kit lens for everyday stuff, though, since I've found the 50 mm doesn't do as well on the fully automatic setting, and at things like birthday parties or just cute kid moments, I'm not fast enough, and often there's not enough space to "zoom with my feet".

I'd highly recommend Pioneer Woman's "What the heck is an aperture" series. It's a really good explanation of the manual settings. I've found that I take better pictures on full manual mode than on the partially manual ones. It takes some getting used to, but you have more tinkering power to get the best balance of depth and light.