How can I take more natural-looking photos in a dark room with a Nikon D90?
Asked 6/9/2011
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I’m new to photography and using a Nikon D90. In dark rooms, photos with the built-in pop-up flash look harsh and unnatural, but if I turn the flash off the images come out too dark. I’d like to capture scenes so they look more natural and “alive,” not like a flat flash snapshot. What settings or gear changes can help in low light, and should I use flash or avoid it?
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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When you take pictures with the flash, it looks unreal because your room is not normally lit by a flash or by only a light source attached to your forehead.
Now, assuming your room is dark but not pitch black, what you need to do it take a photo without the flash. To get better results you will have to:
- Increase your ISO as high as it is acceptable to you. You can go to 1600 or 3200 if you do not intend to make a large print with the image.
- Open your aperture as wide as possible. You do this in A mode and turn the dial until you get a bright aperture (smaller numbers). You will see the shutter-speed increase at the same time if you are doing it right.
- Buy yourself a brighter lens. Something with a wide maximum aperture. A number of not so expensive ones have F/1.8 or F/1.4 (even better). This lets it get 2-4X times more light than the kit lens, depending of the focal-length.
Note that there is always a limit. At one point, it becomes too dark for any camera and lens. If you have people in your room, then the shutter-speed should at least be 1/60 if they are still and probably 1/250 if they are moving. Otherwise they will appear blurry.
Once it becomes too low you can add artificial lighting but you are looking at a heavy and expensive setup to make it look close to natural.
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. The built-in pop-up flash often looks unnatural because it’s a small, harsh light source coming from straight above the lens. In a dark room, a more natural look usually comes from using more of the room’s existing light.
Try this:
- Raise ISO as high as you find acceptable.
- Open the aperture as wide as possible (small f-number).
- Use Aperture Priority and choose the widest aperture so the camera can use a faster shutter speed.
- A faster lens (for example one with f/1.8 or f/1.4) can help a lot in low light.
If you do use flash, the pop-up flash is best as fill light, not as the main light source in a dark room. For better flash results:
- Use an external speedlight/flash gun if possible.
- Bounce or diffuse the flash to soften the light and make it look less harsh.
In short: for natural low-light images, prefer ambient light with higher ISO and a wide aperture; for flash, use softer, off-camera or bounced light rather than direct pop-up flash.
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