Took some D3300 test shots with the 35mm prime at a daytime get together today. The shots were all of people / kids indoors under incandescent lighting with varying amounts of natural light. I was initially shooting in aperture priority mode (F2-F8) , but saw that a number of the pics were blurry. So I switched to Shutter priority with a speed of 1/500s, but the pics were still blurry and/or underexposed, so I dialed in some exposure compensation, which helped reduce the problem but didn't eliminate it. Short of using a tripod, what should I have been doing differently to prevent blurry, underexposed shots? Thanks in advance!
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For kids on the move you really need 1/500. The problem is that with insufficient light even at F1.8, you will rarely get 1/125. I have shot a lot of images at F1.8 indoors, even a dance a couple of days ago. But the light has to be decent or the subject still. Upping ISO does help a bit, but in my opinion that increase shadow noise a lot.
When you set the mode to "S", the camera will keep changing the aperture. As the light intensity reduces, the aperture will keep opening up. Till it hits the fastest; in your case F1.8; after that the speed keeps reducing. Here are the work arounds
. Shoot RAW. That gives you much leeway in correcting exposure in post. If you have never processed RAW, download the Nikon Capture NX-D from Nikon site, install it, read the manual and start using it.
. Set ISO to 100.
. Set Aperture Priority.
. Set Aperture to F1.8. Till you get decent light avoid using higher F numbers.
. If speeds are around 1/60, then dial in Exposure Compensation at -1EV
. If that still does not help, increase the ISO to 400. Though that will give correct exposure at the bright parts, shadows will be quite noisy.
. If nothing else helps, use the flash. That works for near enough objects.
. If you have an external flash, then use it with the head pointed up and exposure compensation on flash as +2.