Newbie Questions

Hi All,

I'm glad I found this website, really really useful just reading up. I am a newbie when it comes to photography at least I only started about 10 months ago, and is the type that likes good pictures. I do have a Canon 500D with kit lens and also a f1.8 50mm.

Now I have finished off a few books, but it just feels as though when I handle the camera on a big ocassion, i.e family birthday its just the start of a disaster, suddenly all the things that I have read up, doesnt start to make sense and things just generally start to go wrong. I must also admit the kind of photos I take are quite challanging, mainly indoors with tungsten lighting, not much day light, living room with not a lot of space, and everyone wants to fit into the picture etc. I will start with one of my most common problems, for some reason I always seem to think flash is the solution to every not very bright situation. I also have a 430ex external flash. After seeing a lot of my pictures suffer from the dreaded shadow problem, I decided to invest in one.


Couple of days ago, I had a big photo to do of a relatives bday party, it was at a restaurant and they had the light dimmed a little bit, so I decided to set my ISO higher, I think I used 400. When the subjects wanted to take pictures, they were behind a wall and I tilted the flash all the way upm more like 90 deg, such that the light should face the ceiling and bounce off, but the ceiling was quite high. So I didnt know what to do. Also, I still had shadows. Any solution to such problems ?

Many thanks.

I know I have some thoughts as to what the photos probably look like, but you should really post examples so we can really see what you are, and be able to give appropriate advice.

platforminc,

Congrats on jumping in to photography. Such a divers art form that can bring many challenges (it's what keeps me hooked).

From your description is sounds like you are shooting in environments that are pretty challenging for any photographer. Obtaining the 430EX was your first good step toward better images. Don't get me wrong, a top end pro is going to get good shots with just about any gear. They know how to push any gear to its limits to get the best they can with what they have.

You have the right idea in bouncing the flash. But don't think of it as trying to eliminate shadows. Shadows are very important in an image. But the softness and placement of the shadows is important. With a single flash on camera bouncing the flash off a ceiling or wall like you tried is the right thing to do. What this does is effectively makes the light source hitting the subjects large and therefore softer. It also raises the light source up (if bouncing off the ceiling) which is generally a good thing to do. However, in your situation with high ceilings the next best thing would be to get some sort of attachment to your flash to bounce the light off.

Ambient light is very important in the shots you are trying to do so try and learn how to use it as part of the exposure. Any time you have one flash, and especially if it is on camera (on axis) you will benefit greatly if you bring in the ambient light as an additional light source for your shot. In indoor low light environments like you describe this means cranking the ISO up (1600 and 3200 are not unheard of and probably where you will need to be depending on the conditions). Also try to open the aperture as wide as you can to let more light in. Of course if you are shooting a large group a large aperture may not keep everyone in focus, so watch the depth of field. Also, by bringing more ambient light into the exposure it will minimize the contrast of the shadows, making them lees harsh.

On camera flash when used as the main and nearly only light source is about as unflattering light you can deliver. It does not look natural and is the look that most people do not like about flash photography. Straight on light at the subject from the viewer's view-point practically eliminates shadows on the subject. This makes the image of the subject very flat, which is generally not good. By bouncing the flash or getting the flash off camera you create some shadows on the subject relative to the angle of the light to subject to camera. These shadows it creates give our brains clues as to the shape of the subject. Of course you usually want soft shadows and they can even be very subtle shadows, but they are important.

This should lead you down the path of why the pros use off camera lights and modifiers like umbrellas, etc. It's also why they use very expensive lenses with large apertures (for shooting on low light situations).

You can get decent images with the gear you have and learning how to use that gear by pushing it to the limits and learning those limits will make you a better photographer. However, I see a lot of beginners start out with minimal low end gear and get frustrated when they can't get over the top pro results in challenging environments like the ones you describe. Yes, you can almost always do better, but there is, and will be, gear limited situations where you can only make it so good with what you got and better gear used properly can bump up the quality. But for now, your gear is going to be great in most situations. Just realize that for some environments your gear may limit what you can do.

In the most ideal environment for an image there will not be much difference in a picture taken with the lowest end camera and the highest end camera. The reason high end cameras are high end is mainly for the ability to handle tough enironments.

Ron

Thanks for the response, very detailed and at least makes me feel that i'm not that dumb

Now, when i tried to use a bit of common sense, I had a difuser on the glash, so its softer. I then noticed that by the glass of the flash, there is like a little glass material that you can pull up, I'm guessing this is to kinda bounce the flash in front of the subject without going to the ceiling or other surfaces. In the situation I described, I pulled up the little class just by the flash, but dont remember if it made any difference. I also open aperture to the max, was shooting in aV mode, and used 3.5 opened the lens all the way out. Is that my lens sweet spot @ f3.5 on a kit lens ?

Also the second week when i got the camera, I didnt know what ISO was very well, and instead of just playing safe and going full auto, I kept changing settings (thinking i knew what i was doing) and bumped iso to 3200 in a well lit area, it was a disaster all pictures came out horrible. So since then, ISO always felt like a self destruction button, only now am i using it sensibly.

Also, when using full manual how do you know you have got the settings right, for me I just select my ISO and till today I still dont have a general guideline, what do you classify as low light and how low does the light have to be to select right ISO.

After making a guess at the iso, most pictures i take 85% I like to have the shallowest DOF as its often a potraint or a pic of a group of people, mostly the latter or in a en enclosed not very big area i.e living room, I then set the aperture to the lowest possible, i.e f3.5 on my kit lens or f1.8 if its strictly potrait, then I meter the scene and set the exposure till the meter reaches the middle.

Is this the correct thing to do ?

platforminc,

Wide open aperture will be different for different lenses and on some zooms it will be different at one end of the zoom vs the other. Wide open aperture will give you more light transmission, but this is not referred to as the sweet spot of a lens. Sweet spot aperture is usually a term used to describe the sharpest/best quality the lens can deliver. It's usually closed down a couple of stops from wide open.

One thing I forgot to mention is that in indoor low light condition I like to shoot in manual mode. In Av, Tv, or P mode the camera is going to try and set the exposure based solely on the ambient light (it does not care if the flash is on or not). In Av mode this may mean it sets the shutter to be way too slow to hand hold the camera, or for subjects that are moving (even slightly).

One nice thing about manual mode (do not fear it) is that your meter still works. A lot of newbies (and some not so new) never look at the meter in manual mode but it can tell you a lot. Here is what I might do in a low light ambient single flash environment taking a picture of someone... Set camera on manual. Open aperture all the way. Based on the situation I pick a shutter speed. There is a narrow range to pick from. At the high end a shutter of 1/200 because this is my max sync speed (can differ from camera model to camera model). At the low end (with a flash) I can pick something as slow as 1/30, which is pretty slow (called dragging the shutter) and relies on the short burst of the flash to freeze the subject movement but extra time purposely blurs the ambient. But usually I pick something that is reasonable to freeze all the motion, yet also helps let in more ambient light. Something like 1/60 - 1/125 range. Next half press shutter to see where the meter is (usually way too dark and meter is -2 or less). While watching the meter I start cranking the ISO. Eventually the pointer should start to move toward center. But, depending on the look I want, I usually do not bring it to the center. I often stop when it's around one stop under center. This helps make the subject 'pop' from the background since the flash will (attempt to) expose the subject properly but anything the flash does not reach (backgrounds too far) will be slightly underexposed. This creates tonal contrast and helps with subject to background separation.

Yes, high ISO will degrade quality of an image with digital noise. But it is a necessary evil when shooting in low light environments where you do not have the flash power to render the whole environment as you want. Think of it this way, given the choices in low light would you rather have a shot way under exposed, a shot blurry due to slow shutter, or a shot that is exposed decent, in focus, but a little digital noise? The least of all these evils is the digital noise route. By using the technique I described it will get you the best shot with the lowest ISO you can get away with. By slowly cranking the ISO and watching the meter you will arrive at the lowest ISO when everything else is as good as it can get. The only other thing to play with is slowing the shutter down, which is sometimes worth doing/trying. Just watch for too much motion blur.

Ron