Please help me improve

[old skool]

Here are a few candids I just took casually. The indoor ones were under terrible lighting conditions. They were hand held using a D30 and Canon 1.4 50mm at 1.4. I was barely able to get them up to 60. There were a number of photos ruined by motion blur. I think the DOF makes them a little soft.

I know I need a flash or some other lighting setup. I never really was into portraiture until recently so I wasn't too worried about it.

Can you take a look at these photos and give me any advice about technique/settings/gear that can be changed to improve the result?

[Cixelsyd]

I have to ask what ISO was used? They look pretty low-noise, so you could always get a faster shutter by bumping that. (Sorry if that's too obvious. I'm new on this forum and don't know your experience!)

1/60th should be good for a subject who is "relatively" (ha! relative term!) still. Kids are in constant motion, so good luck with that! Also, shooting at 1.4 is going to make it tough to get a sharp shot throughout anyhow, and especially at a close shooting distance.

Best advice? I can only say that I don't use flash, so I bump the ISO and use good noise removal software. I, too, shoot with a 30D.

Hope this helps.

[old skool]

I did have it set at ISO 100 and that was certainly a concern for this lighting situation. However, I still did have more noise than I am used to with this lens in better lighting conditions...

What noise removal software do you use?

[YsaL]

What cute kids ! They have amazing eyes.
I know it's not easy with kids of this age because they move all the time.
For my experience with my kids, I never use the flash but the natural light, when I want nice pictures of them, I place them just front of my large windows , I usually shot at speed 125, av 3.2 or more , iso 200 and I select the focus on the eyes !
A little bit of lightroom or photoshop and looks great !

[old skool]

Originally Posted by YsaL

What cute kids ! They have amazing eyes.
I know it's not easy with kids of this age because they move all the time.
For my experience with my kids, I never use the flash but the natural light, when I want nice pictures of them, I place them just front of my large windows , I usually shot at speed 125, av 3.2 or more , iso 200 and I select the focus on the eyes !
A little bit of lightroom or photoshop and looks great !

Thanks for this advice.

[Cixelsyd]

Originally Posted by old skool

I did have it set at ISO 100 and that was certainly a concern for this lighting situation. However, I still did have more noise than I am used to with this lens in better lighting conditions...

What noise removal software do you use?

I was able to obtain a free download of Imagenomic Noiseware. I don't know if it's still available, but you can Google it and find out. It does all I need it to for saving ISO 1600 shots I take in crappy gymnasiums or window light only rooms. I also have Noise Ninja. Both work great.

[xbarksdale]

the best advice that i could give is be sure to focus on the subjects eyes, if one eye is closer to the frame than the other, focus on that one!

[jenirose3]

What were your settings for these pictures? That info is important to be able to help. Without that info I'm gonna guess you had a low SS. They look slightly underexposed but it looks like I'm seeing some motion blur which is most likely caused by low SS.

To adjust bump up your ISO. Don't worry about grain from using a higher ISO. Focus on perfect exposure and everything will fall into place.

It could be a DOF problem but I couldn't say without the settings.

ETA: I just re-read. You had them at f1.4. Even though that is pretty wide it's not doable. I'm still leaning more toward motion blur. Up the ISO and SS and see what you get.

[old skool]

I just bought a Canon 580EX II flash. I am thinking about a ring flash attachment.

What advice can you offer about candids of children using a single hotshoe flash? I am looking into a bounce card, diffuser as well as the ring flash.

I think that you are right, I need to up the aperture, up the iso and go from there.