When I teach my intro to digital photography workshops, one of the primary issues people have is not being able to take good indoor photographs. Truth be told, indoor photography can be very, very challenging. Generally speaking, the quality of most indoor light is bad. It's a funky color (images look yellow, green, or even blue) and there's usually not enough of it to begin with. It's also flat looking. Don't fret though! You can improve the quality of your indoor photography and be less frustrated by following a few key tips...

1. You absolutely HAVE to take the time to know how to adjust your ISO. This is critical. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then you might consider taking my class and/or look up my previous blog post about ISO.

Your ISO controls how sensitive your camera is to light. Higher number ISO's (800, 1600, 3200 or 6400) make your sensor more sensitive to light allowing you to do more with what little light that you have available to you. Low numbers (100, 200) work in reverse. They desensitize the sensor allowing you to capture shots in very bright conditions. The image above was shot at ISO 1250, f-stop 3.5, 24-70mm lens at 42mm and a shutter speed of 1/125. I did not use a flash at all.

2. You need to turn off your flash. If your camera automatically pops up the flash when the light is low, you need to find the part in your manual about overriding the auto flash.

3. You need to shoot with a lens that has a wide aperture opening or f-stop. The wider you can get, the better. Wait, I do have one caveat, the difference between an F1.8 lens and an F1.4 lens is not such a big deal that a normal, non pro needs to spend the big bucks to get that one stop. However, the difference between most F3.5-5.6 kit lenses (the ones that ship with your camera) and an F1.8 lens is HUGE!

When you have a lens with a wider f-stop opening, you are able to let more light into your camera, which allows you to shoot with less light! You may also be interested in my post about f-stops here and here.

(Above shot: ISO 5000, 24-70 mm lens at 46 mm, F3.5, 1/125)

(Above shot: ISO 4000, 24-70 mm lens at 55mm, F3.5, 1/60)

While raising your ISO lets you shoot in lower light, it does have some drawbacks. The downside is that your images might be noisy or have grain. For those of you that don't know what I mean by noise, it looks like this. This is a photo from my iphone taken in super low light.

Each camera handles noise differently. Cameras have gotten much better at handling noise but you will have to find out how far you can push your camera and still get use-able images from it. Do some ISO experiments by taking images at very high ISO's and see how your camera handles it. Mentally note where things start to really fall apart so you know what your gear is capable of. I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark II and it does a pretty good job at high ISO's.

One last thing about noise...A little noise isn't such a terrible thing. If I was planning to blow something up to 30x40 then noise would be an issue. If I am printing off 4x6's and such for scrapbooks and relatives then a little noise is often not even visible.

4. You need to watch your camera's shutter speed! If you go below 1/60 of a second, you will likely get a blurry shot. This is one of the most common mistakes new shooters make. The bottom line is that your camera needs light to make an image. It is going to try and get it any way it can and, in the auto modes, it usually slows down the shutter speed and you end up with a blurry picture. You can try shooting at speeds like 1/30 or 1/40 but you will need to be very still. That means stand like a tripod, take a breath before you click, lean you or your camera against a wall or ledge, etc.

(Above shot: ISO 1250, 24-70 mm lens at 70 mm, F2.8, 1/160)

The other thing about learning how to turn off your flash and adjust your ISO is that it allows you to take pictures and see the natural light. Flash blows out the pretty light, darkens the background, kills skin tone and flattens everything. There are a lot of situations where you will want the natural, existing light even if it is minimal. If you used a flash in the shot below, you would see the flash's reflection the glass.

(Above shot: ISO 3200, 24-70mm lens, F5, 1/80)

When I travel and chase my kids around the park or wherever, I want to carry minimal gear. I've never liked a point and shoot camera so I do haul my big DSLR everywhere but I usually take one lens (as you can see in all of these images) and NO FLASH. Yep, I rarely ever use one. That does mean that sometimes I just can't get my shot but most of the time I can. If you practice these tips, you will be able to as well!

You may want to check out these blog posts too:

Modifying your flash
Lenses- here or here or here

Happy Monday friends!