Should I use an external flash or continuous light for indoor photos of kids?
Asked 3/4/2011
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I want to take sharper indoor photos of my kids at home, but my living room doesn’t get much good natural light, especially in winter. I’m considering buying an external flash for my DSLR, but I’m wondering if a continuous “daylight” lamp or another artificial light source would be a better option. What works best for freezing movement and getting natural-looking light indoors?
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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You want to use a hotshoe flash, a continuous lightsource would not be bright enough (unless you borrow some lights from a movie set) to give you a fast shutter speed / small aperture required for sharp photos of moving subjects.
Also, flashguns are usually colour balanced for daylight. Angling the flash upwards to bounce off a white ceiling will give a very nice quality of light and get you as close as possible to natural window light.
Originally by user1375. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1375
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
For indoor photos of kids, an external hotshoe flash is the better choice. Continuous “daylight” lamps usually aren’t bright enough to give you the fast shutter speeds needed to freeze movement and keep images sharp unless you’re using extremely powerful studio/movie lighting.
A flashgun is typically balanced close to daylight, so it can produce natural-looking color. For softer, more flattering light, try bouncing the flash off a white ceiling rather than aiming it directly at your subject. This spreads the light and can mimic the look of window light much better than direct flash.
If you’re new to flash, learning some basic off-camera and bounce-light techniques will help a lot. A good starting point is beginner flash-lighting guides such as Strobist’s Lighting 101.
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