This is my first year with a DSLR, and I am painfully slow adjusting my shutter speed, aperture and ISO. I adjust, take a test shot, and adjust again, delete test shot, take another...until I get it right. Up until now, I've been shooting tons of sports pictures and I don't have abrupt changes in lighting.

Taking pictures from one room to the next at our Thanksgiving gathering was causing problems! I had a really dark room (with the football game going) and a room with a sliding glass back door and lots of light. Depending on where I focused in the well lit room, my settings would need to change. How do I do that and still get good candids? I feel like I need to study the paparazzi!

I have not been able to get good pictures using full auto with this camera. Undoubtedly it's me, but if I'm going to learn something new might as well be manual mode. I can then fix full auto later. If you have any tips, I would appreciate it.

Thanks,

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Marcy

Why don't you try out Aperture Priority mode to start with. It allows you to get used to setting the right aperture for a particular light setting - larger aperture (smaller number) in low light, smaller aperture (larger number) in more light. I often shoot in AP mode when I'm shooting my kids and don't want to mess with full manual. Then when you are comfortable with that, try out shutter priority mode.

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LaWanna Desjardin,
Owner, Desjardin Digital Designs, featuring regular articles and tutorials.
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Snag my blinkie!

A bit late now for Thxgiving.. but good info for anytime of the year so here we go..

You need to practice and practice and then review your settings.. if you are using a DSLR, then you should always shoot in RAW mode which allows a ton more latitude in post processing than jpg... that should always be your first thought.

Then, you will have an issue with the number of people in the shot.. if you set the aperture low, then you will get in a lot of light.. but your subjects will be subject to blur... depth of field is also controlled by your aperture so a low one with produce less DOF and therefore more chance to blur someone;s face in the group unless they all fall on the same plane.. (which will not happen typically in a group photo).

So, the key here is to set the aperture to something like F8 or F11 to ensure everyone will be sharp. However, this will lower the amount of light reaching the camera and will lower the shutter speed. So, you then need to bump the ISO up a bit. ISO 400 or even 800 for an indoor shot on most DLSR's will give you good results..

The final advice.. external flash.. they are invaluable for indoor photos and will allow you to get the best results when used properly. The onboard flash will just not give you enough power.. so think of getting a speedlight for the camera or an external flash.

Also, keep in mind.. that if you shoot RAW, you can regain at least 1 full stop of light in exposure and can also bring back darker areas in the image via curves... always better to underexpose than overexpose..

Hope this helps... try to avoid Auto mode... you won't be truly using the DSLR if you do - it basically becomes a heavy P&S.

thank all of you

Pesto thanks for the great info about depth of field. I had not seen it that way before. LaWanna, I think you have something with the aperture priority. I've been shooting full manual - AI servo, continuous, 1/350 or 1/500 at f/1.8 or 2 ISO 800 or 1600 depending on where I am in the gym for basketball pictures. I have got pretty quick at judging and changing the ISO and aperture in the gym. This really abrupt change from room to room (and I was in the middle in the hallway trying to be discreet and get good candids) made me insane! This side of the family seems to act weird when a camera comes out. They can't seem to go on being themselves. It seems they get irritated! Pesto, I did go to RAW and I like it a lot better! I'm using Biddle Lite and that is awesome. I don't think a speedlight will help me in this situation because I will be the enemy Big Time if I was to flash while the game is going. I am adding speedlight to my wish list, though!

Thanks again for the help!

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Marcy