DSLRUsers.com

Hi there,
I am new to photography and have just ran into my first problem. I am using a D50 with kit lens. I was taking pics of a young child. I had my camera on the programed auto mode. But in the dim light it said the aperture was low so I turn the flash on. But with the flash the image does not turn out as good. When I have the flash off the shutter speed is to low and the image is blured. What settings should I use in this situation. This may sound like a silly question but I am new to this so any help would be great. Thanks guys.

When using flash indoors, I normally set it on manual, 1/125 and F/4.5ish. (or A priority, set at between 4 and The TTL system does the rest of the work for me. You will find that aperture makes a BIG difference to the exposure, shutter speed has SOME effect, especially for background exposure.

I'm not really sure what you mean by "the image does not turn out as good". Might help us help you if you were able to post a couple of sample pics, along with the settings used.

really hard to say with any certainty without knowing the exact lightign situation

but i guess ofr indoors available light

you could try setting the camer ato manual open the aperture(lets more light in)tothe lowest number e.g f3.5. Use a shutterspeed that relates to your focal length
e.g if you shoot at 70mm use a shutter of 1/70 or more this will avoid your camera shake

take the pic see the result

if it's too dark increase ISO don't be afraid to go up to ISO800

if it's too bright increase the shutterspeed till you get an exposure your happy with

then commit the settings to memory

my 2 cents

I assume that "they did not turn out good" means that the face is washed with a flash highlight and the background is too dark/subject too bright...

In this case, its hard to decide on which method to be using. Since you have the onboard flash, there is little you can do about diffusing and soft lightings (easiest way is to cut a piece of white milk jar and put it in front, but not touching, of the flash)

I second all the advices given above as well.

Try a more stable platform, from a chair or table, lean yourself against something, slower shutter speed is a go on that way.

Yi-p that is exactly what I mean when I say the image did not turn out as good with the flash.
When using a low shutter speed I think it may be that the subject (5 month old child) is always moving around that is causing bluring rather than camera shake.

deaw, you might have to experiment with some manual settings. I dislike the auto modes on digicams because they never know when you want to have the shutter speed fast to freeze action, or deliberately have it slow to capture the motion.

Try sticking the camera on 1/60 first, then experimenting with a range of apertures. You should be able to see the differences pretty clearly. Then change the shutter speed to suit. If you need to freeze action, then you're going to need a faster shutter speed, which unfortunately means you're going to end up with a darker background.

thanks for the help guys I experimented with some manual settings and got the results i was after. thanks again.

deaw, one of the great things about this forum is that you can post some images and ask for critique (in the Image Reviews and Critique section). People can be more helpful if you post what you got rather than saying the image doesn't turn out as good. The feedback you will get will undoubtably be very useful.

Cheers
John

Hi deaw.

Another option you might like to try is using the child mode.

This was taken using the child mode in my early experiments with the new toy. It was shot as a jpg but I have since seen the light and only shoot raw these days.



Cheers, John

ps. I see you've had success. Well done.