Most people resort to using a flash when shooting pictures indoors because there isn’t enough light to expose the image properly.  Using the built-in flash will severely decrease the quality of your image. It will cast harsh direct light, which will throw dark shadows on and behind your subject and potentially cause problems such as the dreaded red-eye.

This is why studio photographers have expensive lighting equipment to diffuse the light around your subject and make it more natural; however, this doesn’t work for candid portraits.

Fortunately, there’s an easy solution. You need a lens with a large aperture.  The smaller the f stop number, the larger the aperture or hole that the light goes through in your lens.  Think of it as a fraction.  f/22 is like 1/22, which is smaller than f/1.8 or 1/1.8.

For around $100, you can buy a 50mm prime lens with a maximum aperture size of 1.8.  This will let in 2-4 times the light that most lenses can. It also has the added benefit of a shallow depth of field, which is usually desirable in portraits as the subject is in focus and the background is blurry.  However, keep in mind that a prime lens does not zoom in, so to frame your subject, you’ll need to physically move closer or farther away from it.

Here are some reviews for these lenses:

Canon 50mm  1.8f - $89.95
Nikon 50mm 1.8f - $109.95

Also, try increasing your ISO to the maximum that your camera will allow such as 1600 or 3200.  This simulates a faster film, in other words, it needs less light to expose properly. The downside is that the higher the ISO, the more grainy the picture can become, but it’s far better than using your built in flash.  In addition, play with your metering options. You might find that spot metering works better to expose in low and odd light such as at a concert, while matrix or center weighted metering works better elsewhere.

In the rare case where the light is too low even for the 1.8 aperture, you can buy a speedlight external flash. Some people use a cover around these types of flash units to diffuse the light which helps make the shadows softer.  Speedlights are going to cost a few hundred dollars.

Here are some reviews of 2 speedlights:

Nikon SB 800 Speedlight  - $315
Canon 430EX Speedlight - $250

The bottom line is that if you shoot with a DSLR or film SLR camera, you can avoid using the built in flash in most situations for around $100.

Tags: canon, flash photography, indoor photography, lens, nikon, prime lens, speedlight

This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.