Indoor portrait settings..

[kennmail]

Hi, I am using a prosumer to take indoor portraits in e hotel room for my friend's wedding day.
I tot of not using flash to preserve the room's ambience. Like to ask for advice..

1) More suitable to use aperture or manual mode and what settings to use? I will be using tripod too.

2) If I take continuous(burst) shots, must I change my settings?

Thanks to all bros who adviced me before and hope you can help :sweatsm:

 

[zac08]

Do try some test shoots in similar environment first. And trust me, setting up a tripod is one of the last thing you'd want to do... it's pretty fluid and you may not have enough time.

In such senarios, you may find that you may need as high as ISO 800, 1/30 at f1.8 setting. This of course depends on the amount of light available in the room and if there is any additional light source you can use.

And with such low shutter speeds, shooting burst may not be a good idea.

 

[ortega]

if you can, use an external flash and bounce the light

 

[Deadpoet]

Just go and take a few snap shots. If you are committing yourself to deliver X usable pictures, good luck, you will need a lot of luck.

A prosmer, jsut cannot react fast enough to capture a moment. If you are not planning to use flash, the noise level will render the pictures usless other than snapshots. But if you are asking he questions you were asking, I doubt you will know what to do even if you lay your hands on one or 2 off camera strobes, so, back to my original suggestions, jsut snap a few shots, do not commit yourself to deliver anything, and enjoy the party.

 

[dennisc]

Tripod @ indoor hotel room? you'd get ghosts, missed priceless moments. What makes u think a tripod will help? Burst cannot give you decent exposures. Of course it would help if you indicate what type of prosumer you're actually using, we'll tell u if the aperture is enough etc

 

[kennmail]

ok, after I gathered all e advice here.. I decided to use ISO 200, flash at min intensity, F/2.8(best tt my prosumer can go), 1/30 shutter..
no burst nor tripod


hopefully things dun turn out too bad, appreciate all e advice given

 

[vuser]

Base on this, I will use the Av, f1.8, if shutter is ok, will fix at iso at 400, 800 will have noise,, if can't help, have to turn on flash..

 

[Martin Ywain]

Eh, wedding leh, once in a lifetime. If budget no problem, at least go loan a DSLR to do the job la. Then ISO not too much of a problem
http://rentcamera.blogspot.com/2008/02/singapores-largest-photographiccanonnik.html
Disclaimer: I not affiliated to them.

 

[adiknaim]

don't stick strictly to the settings u've mentioned... till u go there, u never know the lighting conditions... make sure u adjust accordingly.. the only prob i foresee is ISO noise if it happens to be too dark..

 

[unmtdrv]

ok, after I gathered all e advice here.. I decided to use ISO 200, flash at min intensity, F/2.8(best tt my prosumer can go), 1/30 shutter..
no burst nor tripod


hopefully things dun turn out too bad, appreciate all e advice given

Go try out/shoot a few, at location before u step in on actual day, that will minimize dependency on luck factors that you need on the day.

Remember to share with us your results later.

 

[GaoZi]

if you dun use flash, then sometimes the ambient light might be a failing factor too. i have so far seen most hotel rooms use incandescent lighting. if you expose long, then your ambient will become bright orange! if you set to correct WB, then the ambient is already quite similar to that of using flash with ambient.

also, ambient has to do more with leaving the shutter open longer. so everyone here has suggested a slower shutter speed of about 1/30. but ambient won't brighten your subjects' faces, or shadows. perhaps another reason to use flash. if combined well, actually flash, i think can boost the overall lighting situation without overriding the ambient.

that said, your flash cannot be direct. that WILL affect ambient. bounce flash is ideal. given on board camera flash, why not diffuse the light by adding tissue paper, or buying on-board flash difffuser like perhaps that made by lumi-quest? might help!

but another solution would be to use window light! hotel rooms tend to have big windows. pose your subject with window light then you have less problem during the day. BUT night time this suggestion fails.

 

[kormmandos]

Learn to improvise your lighting.

Draw the curtains wide open to let the light in.
Use the thin layer that lets light through to diffuse the natural light if it is too strong.
Revise your rifle firing fundamentals (steady stances, breathing, etc.)

Using a tripod is probably not a bad idea, you can use it to steady your camera slightly like the way a monopod is used.
But there are drawbacks: your angles will be limited; you will have to pose your subjects; you probably can't get candid shots (unless you can get them to pose, in a candid way)