Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
str: P&S or dSLR- How to shoot images in low lighting?
We have a 5-yo Canon Powershot which I love, but I feel as though a) our camera needs an upgrade, and b) it is not good at low-light pictures.
We are heading out to 2 vacations in the next 1.5 years and I want to be able to take good low/dim light pictures (especially food pictures in a potentially dimly lit restaurant) as well as pictures at night outdoors. My current P&S takes grainy pictures and blurred images, and the flash makes the picture look unnatural and overexposed.
I know there was a post on here about which P&S cameras (thanks- will be looking at Canon S95 and S100) are good recommendations.
Aside from these good recommendations, can someone "guide" me as to how I can take better pictures in these situations?
(fwiw, I also have a Nikon D60...)
Re: str: P&S or dSLR- How to shoot images in low lighting?
Which lens for the Nikon D60?
I plan on getting Canon S95 or S100...
I shoot with a Nikon D7000 (and previously with a Nikon D40), so I will restrict my comments to the DSLR front. Assuming that you want to be able to handhold your camera in low light (as opposed to using a tripod, where you could accommodate a long shutter speed), you will need to increase the ISO and use a wide aperture.
The maximum ISO setting you can use will be dictated by your camera body. And, the downside to using a higher ISO is that your pictures will be grainy. Now, you can reduce the graininess via noise-reducing software, although that does require you to do post-processing work on your image. Back when I was shooting with my Nikon D40 and taking images straight out of the camera with no processing, I found that I could live with the noisiness generated by ISO 1600, but anything over that front was too much.
Given that you mentioned that your low light pictures were turning out grainy, it sounds like your camera has already been using the highest ISO it supports. So, your best bet for improving your low light pictures is going to be by using a wide aperture. The lens you use controls the aperture (which is the size of the hole in the lens through which light passes... the wider the hole, the more light that can pass through). Aperture is indicated by f-stops, with the lower f-stops indicating wider apertures. Most of the kit and zoom lenses only support f-stops down to f3.5 through f5.6... for low light though, you want a lens that goes down to the range of f1.8 to f2.8. Since you shoot Nikon, I would recommend the Nikon 35mm f1.8 lens, which can be found for around $200. It is not too expensive, and will auto-focus with your Nikon D60.
Now, let's assume that you purchase a good low-light lens (such as the Nikon 35mm f1.8). To ensure that your camera uses the widest aperture that your lens supports, you will need to shoot in something other than automatic mode. For simplicity, I would recommend shooting in Aperture Priority mode. So, when you get to a low light situation, switch your camera to Aperture Priority mode and then set your aperture to the lowest f-stop available (in the case of the Nikon 35mm f1.8 lens, it would be f1.8). That will force your camera to use f1.8 for the image, which is what you want.
Sorry for the long novel! Hopefully, you will find some of this information helpful. And, even though I did not address P&S cameras, the principles I talked about apply to those as well. The P&S cameras that work best in low light will likely have a lens with a maximum aperture in the f1.8 to f2.8 range... and, you will likely need to use Aperture Priority mode to force the P&S camera to use the widest aperture.
Best of luck!
Other people covered more details but I wanted to say that if you want to really learn photography then get a new lens, if you don't want to put in the time to truly learn the camera (which means getting it out of auto) then buy a better P&S.
The point-and-shoots that you are considering will be good for dim food photography. They both have a max aperture of f/2.0. The bigger your aperture, the more light is let in. Your f-stop is a fraction, so 2 means 1/2. A lower number means a bigger aperture (or larger fraction).
I take all of my food photos with my 35mm f/1.8.
Take a photography class. This camera will do just fine in most low-light situations. Yes, you could upgrade, but I don't see why you would right now when you're not using what you already own to its potential.