For indoor baby photos with a Nikon D5000, should I buy a fast prime or an external flash first?
Asked 12/31/2010
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I have a Nikon D5000 with the 18-55mm kit lens and I’m trying to get better indoor photos of my fast-moving 9-month-old. Some shots are blurred, and photos with the built-in pop-up flash often don’t look natural. In the long run I think both a fast prime and a bounce-capable flash would help, but if I can only buy one first, which upgrade is likely to make the biggest improvement for indoor baby photos?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
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I agree that you'll probably eventually want both (no one said that this is a cheap hobby!), but I'd go with the flash first.
It's easier to use quickly, and works well when you have multiple subjects not necessarily side-by-side — or when your kid won't stay within the in-focus area for for than a millisecond. With indoor lighting, even a wide-open fast prime is sometimes not enough.
Nikon has a nice, simple, and affordable flash with bounce capability, the SB-400. They make a lot of great flashes, in fact, and you certainly wouldn't go wrong getting a higher-up model, but you'll also get a great improvement just from the very basic model. Plus, it's small, which means you can include it in a small camera bag without much sacrifice.
Ooh, one more thing: a flash lets you take fun pictures of babies knocking over towers of blocks, with the blocks frozen mid-air:

Now, admittedly, that's with a nice prime and a nice flash, but the prime is set to f/5, which you could easily do with a low-cost zoom.
This one was taken of my other daughter, using an Olympus "bridge" style camera with a small sensor and built-in zoom lens. Your DSLR is unquestionably much more capable even with the kit lens. I added Olympus's low-end hotshoe flash, which is roughly equivalent to the SB-400. There's a bounce card which gives the catchlights in the eyes, and the flash is otherwise pointed straight up. This doesn't give very exciting, dynamic-feeling lighting, but it looks pretty nice. I've got some examples of more dramatic lighting, but the point here really is that a flash can make meaningful improvements even used very simply.

Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1943
15y ago
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Both can help, but if you can only choose one, the stronger first upgrade is usually an external flash with bounce capability. Indoors, even a fast prime may still not give enough light to freeze a moving baby reliably, while a bounced flash can improve both sharpness and the look of the light compared with the built-in pop-up flash.
That said, a fast prime is also a very good option: it’s lighter, simpler to use, and can give pleasing natural-light shots indoors when the room is reasonably bright. The tradeoff is shallower depth of field, so focus becomes more critical.
The most balanced conclusion from the answers is: get both eventually if you can. If your biggest problem is motion blur and harsh pop-up-flash results, start with a bounce-capable external flash. If you strongly prefer available-light images and want the simplest setup, start with a fast prime and add flash later.
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