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SLR/P&S owners- Have a question for you...

Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong?

I was taking pictures of friends and family last night, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong/how to improve.

We were in my friend's finished basement, and when I turned the flash on, faces were really bright (while background was dark), but when I had the flash off, the pictures taken were blurry.

In situations like these, what could I be doing to avoid these pictures? I feel like I can never take a good picture unless we're outdoors in natural sunlight. (I was taking with my Canon P&S.)

fwiw, I had a Canon P&S, but we also do own a Nikon D60. 

Re: SLR/P&S owners- Have a question for you...

  • Taking pictures in a basement at night will be tough because of the lack of natural light. It will be even more difficult with a P&S. When using your D60, are you using the camera's built-in flash? If so, I'd highly recommend getting a speedlite (I shoot with a Nikon D40 and have this speedlite). You can use it to bounce the flash rather than having it aimed right at your subjects' faces, which will soften the brightness. If you haven't checked out Ken Rockwell's site, especially this page about flash, give it a look. He shoots Nikon and his advice has been priceless to me!
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  • In  a dark basement without any natural light you would have to have an external flash (speedlite) to prevent that from happening. 
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  • Any speedlite you'd recommend for my Nikon D60? Are they worth it?

    I did see the Sb400 on Amazon- thanks for the rec! I'm assuming this would work for my D60 too?

    What is the main difference b/w SB 400 and SB 700? fwiw, I mostly do photography with friends/portraits and food...

    ETA: How can I get better pictures by using my Canon P&S? 

  • imageclevebride2006:

    ETA: How can I get better pictures by using my Canon P&S? 

    I have a Canon P&S and a Rebel.  The Rebel is MUCH better in low-light situations like you're describing, but I think you can make it work with the P&S if you back as far away as possible from the subjects when using the flash, so the faces won't be washed out w/ a black background.  You'll just have to zoom in more to compensate.

    I find using my P&S indoors w/o a flash always yields crappy pictures.

    "If I'm goin' down, I'm goin' down loud." -John Evans Tweet me
  • In a simple statement, using auto on a p&s is going to produce those type of shots. Unless you know how to manually change the settings for the situation, it's not going to look different. Any type of lowlight/basement shot is going to be really tough anyway and yes, unless you have a speedlight and can swivel the flash to bounce somewhere besides directly on their face (as an on board flash is going to do), you're going to get that "deer in the headlights" look. The camera has to compensate for the lack of light. If you're trying to shoot without a flash, you need to be really still, brace your arms against your body to prevent camera shake. There are a lot of great tutorials out there on how to go manual :)
    *Meg* Our little family imageBaby Birthday Ticker Ticker
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