Week 6 is Shooting Indoors
::sigh:: I have so not mastered shooting indoors. Our house rarely gets direct light during the day. It is long and boxy, so only one edge of the living room has natural light at any given time. Our bedroom gets decent light, but I am terrified that my monkey of a child will roll right off the edge while I try to take pictures. The photos often have a funny colour cast and/or are grainy. So usually I just don't bother taking my camera out. My lightscoop helps some, but this week's lesson demands natural light. Well, I was at a friend's house and tried. Unfortunately they are not tack sharp.
The guidelines for this week's lesson:
- 1. Position your subject in direct light and then reposition your subject in
indirect, or filtered, light. - 2. Capture catchlights - have your subject face the window while you're sitting or standing with your back to the window.
- 3. Position your subject so that he/she/it is parallel to the window, while you are perpendicular to the window.
- 4. For those with SLRs or digiSLRs: If you can adjust the exposure meter on your camera, try metering on the background light vs. metering on your subject and setting the exposure for your subject. Also note that you could use a wall in the room or the floor to set your exposure meter.
I could not get her to look at me. I did get some light reflected in her eyes, but its an unflattering lower eye reflection.
| Exposure Time: | 1/500 |
| Aperture: | f/5.6 |
| ISO: | 800 |
| Focal Length: | 105mm (157mm in 35mm) |
This is SOOC. I should have brought down that ISO since the window was right behind me, but I often forget to change it on the fly. That would have allowed me to bring the ISO down a bit too. Since I was using the kit lens, that is as low as my aperture could go. I actually should have opened it up a stop at that length; that probably accounts for a bit of the blurriness.
Trial 2: Baby S
(sidebar - doesn't she have the most amazing big brown eyes? I have been killing myself trying to photograph them properly. brown eyes are so much harder then blue!)
| Exposure Time: | 1/80 |
| Aperture: | f/5 |
| ISO: | 800 |
| Focal Length: | 58mm (87mm in 35mm) |
Also SOOC. Ignore the terrible composition with a some random (albeit lovely) legs and high chair in the background. This is not directly in front of the window, but I think I got better catchlights with this one. Its actually catching part of a mirrored wall that leads to the open front door. All sorts of random light bouncing. But here my SS is too slow for the subject and focal length, so its still not tack sharp.
Well, at least I came out and tried right?
Next up: shooting outdoors. much better!
2 comments:
I am so with you on shooting indoors. It is my nemesis! Our house has tons of windows but only 3 of them face south, and there's a very narrow window of time when I actually get direct sunlight through them. Ugh.
Oh, and my babe has brown eyes. I am forever trying to get a good shot of them. They're so lovely, but I never seem to really be able to capture them. That won't stop me from trying, though!
I love that you tried...that's all that counts. I do shoot indoors but often I'm asked to shoot indoors (inlaws) at night in their dark cabin so I have to bring my speedlight out. When I'm at home, I don't really have a willing subject other than Kitty Paw and I can't very well position her. Maybe I'll replicate your experiment with a stuffed animal. :)
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