How to approach dimly lit rooms?

[subnet_rx]

Newbie here trying to learn about photography with my new Canon SX10 IS. Spent the last couple of days reading through a lot of beginner material, but know I have a lot more to learn just in the beginner category. I was at a wedding reception tonight which was in a dimly-lit ballroom. Taking shots on auto with the flash produced brightly-lit subjects with no background. I tried going to manual setting to a much slower shutter speed and a higher ISO so I wouldn't have to use the flash, but the camera would just report that it was too shaky no matter how I tried to brace my arms. I find myself in these situations all the time in a dimly-lit room where a flash is going to overexposed the subject and drown the background. How should I have approached that situation, what do I need to learn?

[greenlight]

If you're not going to use the flash, you can take multiple pics without bothering anyone. Try setting your camera on a tripod or a table and have it take multiple pics. If you can get your subjects to stop moving so much you might get at least one good shot.

[watt100]

without the flash and using longer exposures at a low ISO you definitely need to set the camera on something and maybe use the 2 sec. timer. You can capture motion in a room (without flash) but you need higher shutter speeds and higher ISO's but don't afraid of that, some pics can look underexposed and/or "noisy" but can be cleaned up nicely in photoshop.

[hnikesch]

I start with about 1stop under and then shot 3 or 4 shots in continuous the middle shot has less shake than the first of last

[CRE@TE]

The report is just telling you it thinks the shutter speed is too low, below 1/20th second or something. You can still get blur free shots if you are steady and the subjects are not moving. Try ISO 400 and up to 1 stop underexpose. Even ISO 800 is semi usable (better than no picture or blurred)

[Jon]

Use a tripod or other solid support, and look at the Flash Exposure Compensation settings in combination with Program or Aperture Priority settings to give the subject a bit more light (and stop motion) while letting the background get enough light to show some detail. Higher ISO does also help, and if you're not making big prints the noise won't be a problem.

[PhotoFranz]

Did you consider "Night Snapshot" or "Night Scene" modes? Look at page 96 of your manual.

[subnet_rx]

Did you consider "Night Snapshot" or "Night Scene" modes? Look at page 96 of your manual.

I did try one shot like this and later forgot about it when I was trying all the different settings. Night snapshot did light the background of the subjects a bit better. Last night I took many practice shots inside my house experimenting with different scene mods, white balance settings, and using higher ISO levels.

Would setting the flash power higher or using the 1st and 2nd curtain settings been better? I've read several articles and gotten a couple of books and I think I realize now that part of my problem was my framing. I should have put everyone in front of a wall so that the background wasn't so far behind them. And I think I should get a small tripod to put on a table to take quick pictures of everyone.

[CmdrBond]

I'd definitely recommend getting one of those small tabletop tripods to assist you. They're very cheap and when used correctly and creatively, can produce some stunning low light images.

[Jon]

Using more flash power will only help the background if it's fairly close to your subject, and your subject isn't too close to the camera. Light falls off as the inverse of the square of the distance from the source, so something 2 ft. away gets 1/4 ((1^2)/(2^2) the light an object 1 ft. away would. Something 5 ft. away gets about 60% the light of something 4 ft. away (16/25, or 4^2/5^2, just over 3/5). Of course turning up the power of the flash will let you stand further away, so the separation won't be affected as much.

First and second curtain settings don't change how much light you get from flash or ambient light - only when the flash does its thing. Second curtain, in particular, is used if you want a photo of, say, tail light streaks behind a car. You capture the tail lights as the car approaches and the flash fires at the end of the exposure, so the streaks lead up to the car. With first curtain sync, you'd have the car, then the streaks coming forward from it.

Putting people close to a wall may help some, but you'll also get their shadows cast on the wall; more background separation helps get the shadows out of the picture. Still, there's a limit to how much you can do with one of these little guys.

[cdifoto]

Newbie here trying to learn about photography with my new Canon SX10 IS. Spent the last couple of days reading through a lot of beginner material, but know I have a lot more to learn just in the beginner category. I was at a wedding reception tonight which was in a dimly-lit ballroom. Taking shots on auto with the flash produced brightly-lit subjects with no background. I tried going to manual setting to a much slower shutter speed and a higher ISO so I wouldn't have to use the flash, but the camera would just report that it was too shaky no matter how I tried to brace my arms. I find myself in these situations all the time in a dimly-lit room where a flash is going to overexposed the subject and drown the background. How should I have approached that situation, what do I need to learn?
Ignore it. It's an idiot light. Use flash AND slow shutter speed AND wide aperture AND high ISO.

[PhotoFranz]

I have a Sigma EF 500 DG ST electronic flash that I use on my SX10 IS. I have not had the opportunity to use it much yet and not at all in large rooms. However, it is the same one that I used with the XTi that I sold and it worked REALLY well on that.

I use a Stoffen diffuser with it and try to use it as a bounce flash as much as I can, as this seems to light the background and entire scene more.

The SX10 has the ability to us an external flash, use it!

[subnet_rx]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to look into an external flash, but I think some of the other problems mentioned (settings, background distance, tripod) are my major problems right now that I need to fix.

[Big Hands]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to look into an external flash, but I think some of the other problems mentioned (settings, background distance, tripod) are my major problems right now that I need to fix.

The Canon HF-DC1 has been a nice addition to my SX100 and will reach out to about 30 feet away and works nicely for fill flash outdoors. It's kind of simple with three different output settings and it operates as a slave flash triggered by your P&S built in flash, but it's small and has worked nicely in indoor situations. You can also hand hold it to use as a bounce flash or set it down a little ways away as a remote. Not perfect or infallable, but I like it.

[supernaut982]

Hi!i just bought a SD1100 IS/80 IS and still learning how to use it. i have a band and want to use this cam during our performances often in a bar which usually is a dimly lit room with maybe some fancy lights. some digicams when used in this kind of places produces brightly lit subjects as the threadstarter observed. Can you suggest a setting for this situations? Thanks.

[danpass]

Slow-Synchro on the SD870 allows for exposure of the background