How can I photograph children indoors in mixed, low light without blur or orange color casts?
Asked 9/27/2011
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2 answers
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I photographed a one-year-old’s birthday party indoors using a Nikon D5100 with the 18–55mm kit lens. The room had a mix of window light and warm household bulbs, and overall it was fairly dim. I used shutter priority to keep the shutter speed up and raised ISO to about 640, but some images were still blurry and others had a strong orange cast, especially under the bulbs. White balance was set to incandescent. What settings or approach would work better for this kind of situation? Would shooting RAW have helped?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
12
In a situation like this there is no substitute for a faster lens. Kids are a challenge to photograph at the best of times but with low light you only have two options flash which kids tend to hate or a faster larger aperture lens. Something like an f/1.8 or f/1.4 prime lens aren't too expensive and let in a lot more light than your kit lens which is f/3.5 at best. This allows you to lower the ISO and get faster shutter speeds which is essential for kids because they never keep still.
If you shoot in RAW this will give you the most options for post processing the images when you get them into your computer. With RAW white balance settings do not effect the RAW data at all so you can set the balance later individually on each image.
Originally by user6603. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user6603
14y ago
0
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You were fighting two problems at once: subject motion in low light, and mixed color temperatures.
For kids indoors, your kit lens is limiting. A faster lens (for example, a wide-aperture prime) lets in much more light, so you can use faster shutter speeds and/or lower ISO. That’s often the biggest improvement for sharpness.
Flash is the other main solution. A bounced TTL flash can freeze motion better and give cleaner color than relying on dim room light. If flash is your main light, set white balance to flash; many photographers use aperture priority or manual exposure with the flash handling output. Continuous autofocus (AF-C) also helps with moving children.
RAW would definitely help with white balance. In RAW, the WB setting is not baked in, so you can correct each image later—very useful when window light and tungsten bulbs are mixed. It won’t fix motion blur, though.
Also, shoot from the child’s eye level or lower for better-looking photos.
In short: use a faster lens and/or bounced flash, keep shutter speed high, use AF-C, and shoot RAW for easier color correction.
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