taking indoor pictures of baby -need advice

[ndroo]

my bb is 3 months old that is why i dun think i want to use any flash. when i use f1.8, i focus on the eyes. the pictures turn out to be sharp on the eyes and nose but the hair area is blurr. pictures look nice but i feel it could be better with the hair and chin area sharper as well.

i am using canon 50mm f1.8

If all else fail and you have to use flash, just don't direct the flash direct at baby's eyes. Bounce it off the ceiling or wall.

 

[neech7]

TS has hit the acceptable ISO limit. He is also using a fast lens already, plus he seems to desire a deeper DOF. He also rather not use flash for fear of harming the development of his baby's eyes. At this point, the cheap solution is to provide more ambient light, and the expensive one is to get a better body capable of higher acceptable ISO setting.

 

[kiwitan]

the solution of your problem is very simper. Take pictures of the baby when is sleeping when its eyes is shut and its body is still.

If you are taking using a high iso, use neatimage to smoothen out the grainy of the pictures.

i tried to take indoor pictures of my baby.

when i set my cam aperture prioity to 5.6, the shutter speed is slow and the picture turns blurry when my baby moves. i then set the iso higher to 400 or 800 but seems its not enough. 1600 and 3200 iso is too grainy.

if i use low aperture like 1.8, 2.0, only the eyes are sharp but the rest of my baby's face is blurr.

5.6 i think is nice but seems i cant have a faster shutter speed.

whats a solution to this prob? my baby's room is moderately bright.

use flash? i do not want to hurt bb's eyes with flash but will a flash diffuser helps?

thanks. pls advice.

 

[neech7]

the solution of your problem is very simper. Take pictures of the baby when is sleeping when its eyes is shut and its body is still.

If you are taking using a high iso, use neatimage to smoothen out the grainy of the pictures.

The first time I tried to take a picture of my first born sleeping, the flash actually startled her (jerking and throwing up her arms) though I don't think it woke her up completely. If the subject is still, like asleep, a tripod would solve the problem.

Last night I was messing around with my camera. I tried taking a picture of a bottle in a room with one 40W ceiling light. I set ISO to 100, aperture to f/11. The exposure took 10 seconds but it came out crystal clear, all because I was using a tripod.

 

[ortega]

what the TS needs is more light

find the highest ISO that you are comfortable with
get the right aperture for the DOF that you need

then look at the shutter speed, if too slow, then add more light
1. bring the light to the subject
2. bring the subject to a place with more light

 

[Rashkae]

If you adjust the EV, it'll indirectly change the aperture/speed/ISO of the camera (i.e. in manual)

How else can the camera allow more light onto the sensor.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yup, that's exactly what I said.

 

[pinholecam]

my bb is 3 months old that is why i dun think i want to use any flash. when i use f1.8, i focus on the eyes. the pictures turn out to be sharp on the eyes and nose but the hair area is blurr. pictures look nice but i feel it could be better with the hair and chin area sharper as well.

i am using canon 50mm f1.8

Don't worry about the flash. Very much an urban legend imo. I've used flash (diffused or bounced) on my baby, friends babies and nephews. No one is blind so far AFAIK.
I don't even want to bring up soo...oo cute baby photographers like Annie Geddes (so far still in business and not being sued over using flash on babies)
Well, strong direct flash into the eyes isn't comfortable for anyone of course (me and you included); so we will not want to use that for now, since baby does not know how to look away.


Window light is a very good alternative. To lighten the non-sun facing side, use a white piece of something (Eg. Styrofoam) to bounce some of the window light over the shadowed areas.


Someone here once gave a good example of the perceived harm of strong window light vs flash. Just place yourself directly under the strong window light for the few minutes you would need to setup baby for a shoot. So.. how..? Don't the images burn into your eyes for a while because the exposure duration is long? Now try direct flash for that instantaneous burst. Which is worse?

 

[skysunsandsea]

What I find works for me as follows:

- aperture : ideally around f4 should get you sufficient dof
- ISO : just put as high as you can with acceptable noise level (your personal preference)
- shutter speed : can't be too slow as babies can be quite active and always moving/fidgeting, so try to keep to at least 1/60 or preferably faster

if the highest ISO + f4 doesn't allow you a quick enough shutter speed then you might want to consider the flash

- flash : 430EXII would be good as it helps even out the lighting and typically allows you a faster shutter speed (see point on shutter speed). If you are indoors, most likely can just bounce off the ceiling/walls and not need a diffuser. I find I prefer bounce effect to my Stofen

hey thanks,

means i surely have to have a speedlite then. i was comtemplating whether to get it now or not as i have just purchased this cam.

my bb moves a lot 1/60 quite good but iso is high. i limit my iso to 8oo most.

am i right to say that in order to take good indoor pic, a external flash is a MUST?

ya can anyone tell me the use of the fill flash diffuser?

 

[Reportage]

hey thanks,

means i surely have to have a speedlite then. i was comtemplating whether to get it now or not as i have just purchased this cam.

my bb moves a lot 1/60 quite good but iso is high. i limit my iso to 8oo most.

am i right to say that in order to take good indoor pic, a external flash is a MUST?

ya can anyone tell me the use of the fill flash diffuser?

its something of a necessity if you are a housing agent need to take photo of the house interior so the principal is the same. If cannot adjust equipment, need to increase ambient light or baby dont move so much.

another option is this method which i think is the most simple other then waiting for baby to stay still.

 

[skysunsandsea]

its something of a necessity if you are a housing agent need to take photo of the house interior so the principal is the same. If cannot adjust equipment, need to increase ambient light or baby dont move so much.

another option is this method which i think is the most simple other then waiting for baby to stay still.

lol nice shades! but not going to use it on my bb haha. i will look for a speedlite then. i will be taking pics when my baby moves, not only when bb sleeps.

thanks for all the replies. really appreciate it.

 

[g75yu]

hey thanks,

means i surely have to have a speedlite then. i was comtemplating whether to get it now or not as i have just purchased this cam.

my bb moves a lot 1/60 quite good but iso is high. i limit my iso to 8oo most.

am i right to say that in order to take good indoor pic, a external flash is a MUST?

ya can anyone tell me the use of the fill flash diffuser?

I wouldn't say its a MUST, but from my experience it will definitely be very useful and in certain situations will be essential. You will probably find you get a lot more keeper shots with an external flash.

 

[maqius]

i tried to take indoor pictures of my baby.

when i set my cam aperture prioity to 5.6, the shutter speed is slow and the picture turns blurry when my baby moves. i then set the iso higher to 400 or 800 but seems its not enough. 1600 and 3200 iso is too grainy.

if i use low aperture like 1.8, 2.0, only the eyes are sharp but the rest of my baby's face is blurr.

5.6 i think is nice but seems i cant have a faster shutter speed.

whats a solution to this prob? my baby's room is moderately bright.

use flash? i do not want to hurt bb's eyes with flash but will a flash diffuser helps?

thanks. pls advice.

This is call motion blur, up your shuttle speed. You'll need a bigger aperture and/or higher ISO for correct exposure.

 

[skysunsandsea]

yeah keeper shots. quality ones are those i look for.

can anyone tell me about fill flash diffuser? cant seem to find any info on them here.

 

[hoppie]

what camera?

if it has manual settings, what you can do is set F5.6, 1/60, ISO 1600 and EV +1.

This setting works pretty good for non flash situations even with standard glass. From there work backwards till you get the exposure you like. If using bounced/diffused flash, adjust the iso accordingly.

manual can +EV meh? i thought that's more for Aperture and Speed priority mode? sorry my A330 cannot +EV in manual leh

 

[hoppie]

i take photo for my 5months old nephew too, just ON all the lights you can find in the room, do a custom white balance in case the photos abit yellowish when you take. use a white piece of paper, go to custom white balance and shoot the white paper.

Use F value of 2.5 would be ok as least for me, if you using Aperture priority, make sure ur shutter speed is 1/100 or faster, 1/60 sometimes still blur use ISO 800 depends on the shutter speed. (Normally i use meter to set manual setting and just shoot from there), btw do AF on the eye (use point AF is better, if not the AF point will be based on AI, may not be wat u wanna focus)

It should be ok now, that's for me. not sure how is your lighting condition.

 

[mem0riess]

my bb is 3 months old that is why i dun think i want to use any flash. when i use f1.8, i focus on the eyes. the pictures turn out to be sharp on the eyes and nose but the hair area is blurr. pictures look nice but i feel it could be better with the hair and chin area sharper as well.

i am using canon 50mm f1.8

Are you using Single Focus?

 

[skysunsandsea]

Are you using Single Focus?

single focus? the point of my focus u mean? i usually use one point focus rather than evaluative. is that what u mean? sorry not sure many of the terms yet.

 

[skysunsandsea]

i take photo for my 5months old nephew too, just ON all the lights you can find in the room, do a custom white balance in case the photos abit yellowish when you take. use a white piece of paper, go to custom white balance and shoot the white paper.

Use F value of 2.5 would be ok as least for me, if you using Aperture priority, make sure ur shutter speed is 1/100 or faster, 1/60 sometimes still blur use ISO 800 depends on the shutter speed. (Normally i use meter to set manual setting and just shoot from there), btw do AF on the eye (use point AF is better, if not the AF point will be based on AI, may not be wat u wanna focus)

It should be ok now, that's for me. not sure how is your lighting condition.

hey thanks for the extra info. prob is if i use 1/100 and iso 800, f2.5 is not even enough. switching on the lights is a good idea before i buy my 430ex II.