A New member

I just got my EOS Digital Rebel XT for my birthday last weekend and I have been attempting to take some indoors shots of my three year old son. I like to put the camera on manual but have not managed to get the hang of taking photos indoors. I turned up the ISO to 800 and things got a bit better. I think that I need to lower the F value a bit more to get things better. What can I do to get better in doors photos? The portrait mode works quite well but I like to set the camera on manual.

Hello JB and welcome to the forum . I think it's a pretty terrific place with a lot of great folks who assisted my migration to digital barely 3 years ago. Without them there would have been a lot of painful and expensive mistakes.

You are on the right track by shooting digital, and I think your selection of an 800 ISO is a good start. With the camera set to manual, try 1/40 or 1/50 sec with the aperture manually set to somewhere between 5.6 and 8. By "dragging" shutting at that lower speed you will capture the nice ambient light to some extent, and the appropriate aperture will help control the the flash light that is reflected back from the scene.

I do a lot of wedding and event work and much of the lighting is similar, so the solutions are pretty close. Even though I have an off camera flash, that doesn't change the basic concept. I guarantee that if you experiment with these settings you will get very pleasing results.

Post some shots here and we will be glad to constructively critique them. - Stu Pearl

Btw the JB, where are you from? At some point in the future if you are so inclined, post some bio info; we are always quite interested in new members .

Welcome! For your situation, I'd recommend getting into some flash work. This way, you get to bump up your shutter speeds whilst lowering your ISO. Learn techniques like fill-flashing and 'dragging the shutter' which will all give you the potential to make flash photography look more natural. Aim for an external flash unit such as the 430EX or 580EX II, and you'll really be kicking along.

As for what you're doing now, notching up the ISO is a good start. To aid the situation, turn that f/ number down as far as it will go, if you still don't have enough light. Be aware that that the f/ number (which controls aperture size) is a creative tool, which also affects the depth of field of focus. So the lower the number, the higher the 'background blur'. This is one way to isolate your subject (such as your son) from the background. Learn about the 1/focal length rule for shutter speed (which gives you a rough indication of how fast the shutter speed has to be to guarantee a shot reasonably free of image blur caused by hand shake).

jbcohen,
Welcome to the forum

Using a larger aperture will let more light in.
Using a flash (even the built in one) will give more light to capture.
There are numerous ways....

Posting a photo with Exif (shooting info) helps us understand what you are seeing/experiencing.
Here is a link that explains how to upload a photo to the forum Tutorial: How to attach photos to a post <-- click to see

I suggest to give a good look around the forum and read the faq's as many questions have been asked and answered. ex. -=FAQ=- EOS FAQ -=READ FIRST=- <-- click to see

Can't add to the good tips you've already received, just want to say "Welcome to POTN" - make yourself at home, there's a load of good info and good people here.

Welcome to the forum JB, I can't recommend enough the book, recommended on this forum hundreds of times, Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. Easy reading and puts everything into perspective.

Pete

Welcome to the site and contgrats on the XT

Welcome to the POTN forums jbcohen. This is a great place to visit; there is a lot of good information and there are a lot of helpful people.

Seems to be an interesting place. I had a canon sometime ago, a PowerShot A70, unfortunately is no longer around (it broke down some time ago). The Rebel XT appears to be quite similar to the A70 that I had I took one look that the mode dial and I recognized it right off. My other camera is a HP Photosmart M547 which is good for quick shots, but tends to get the aperture very wrong. I guess I will carry both when taking photos. Also have a Aiptek DV5100M digital camcorder for movies. I love the DV5100M takes great movies.

Since kids never stop moving around so that I can get the XT set right I guess I will need the M547 for the quick shots. I guess I will look like a real site when I go taking photos with the M547 and DV5100M on my belt with the cell phone and the XT around my neck.

JB - are you doing any of your own post processing work with Photoshop, Elements or some other graphics program?

JB welcome to the fold. I would suggest that you take baby steps instead of jumping to manual right away. Manual takes total understanding of how your camera works--- start with the TV or AV and understand what you are doing and how it works then move to manual. Have fun!

Welcome to POTN!

While I do love Manual for its consistency in a lot of situations, I will back Scott on his recommendation here. Once you are more confident in your understanding of exposure you can branch out .

stathunter wrote in post #5745568
JB welcome to the fold. I would suggest that you take baby steps instead of jumping to manual right away. Manual takes total understanding of how your camera works--- start with the TV or AV and understand what you are doing and how it works then move to manual. Have fun!

I am doing most of it with Picasa. Although since I got my DSLR I probably should look for a more sophisticated software package.

How do you carry around your camera gear?