Recommend me settings for indoor photos please

290373m

New member
Hello,

i am new here and first of all a big hello to everyone.

Usually i shoot all my photos on full automatic mode. However, the problem i mainly have is that only a little part of the image is sharp and the rest is blurry. This Saturday i am supposed to take photos during a christening in a church. My problem now is that i know the D750 will do most of the job good but i would like to set it manually up that everything infront of the lens is sharp, not just the area it zooms on to. I did do some readings and i figured out that it has to do with the "f" settings. That it needs to be pretty high which makes the photos a bit darker. I have no clue where to start and hope someone can help me to set up my camera for this day.

The gear i am using is a Nikon D750 with a Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 DI VC USD and a YONGNUO SPEED LIGHT FLASH YN-568 EX TTL FP HSS. I also have a Nikon 105mm micro lens and a Nikond 50mm 1.8D available.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 

480sparky

Senior Member
Well, you're basically going to have to shoot everything at f/22, ISO in the range of 10,000+ and make sure your shutter speed never drops below 1/500 sec. Manual focus using hyperfocal distances.
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
If you use your lens without zooming in too much you might get a better result than zooming in and staying far from your subject. If you stick to between 28 and 45mm you should get a deeper depth of field. You could probably use A (aperture mode) and set your aperture to f8 and get your iso to auto from 3200 and below.

And try to read up a bit about flash and exposure before then. You still have time to make test shots to get closer to what you want.
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Howdy and welcome to Nikonites!

If you would post an image showing your problem, we can provide more meaningful feedback since otherwise we have to recreate what we think the scenario is and advise from there.

My guess ... if you are used to running fully auto and are putting a speed light on top of the camera in TTL mode, the camera is still going to try and get as much physical exposure from the lens before factoring in the speed light. That would end up with you shooting at f/2.8 and having shallow depth of field. As Sparky and Marcel pointed out, you'll want to manually close down the aperture a bit for more depth of field (and a wider lens helps here as well), and consequently you'll need to up your ISO in order to keep your shutter speed somewhere reasonable.

If I'm running flash on TTL, I'll tend to set my aperture for the background and shutter speed to something like 1/160, then adjust ISO based on what the flash is putting out. I would highly recommend trying to get into the facility at roughly the same time of day and same lighting conditions that you'll have for the ceremony, so you can test your settings before the big day.
 

Bob Blaylock

Senior Member
Hello,

i am new here and first of all a big hello to everyone.

Usually i shoot all my photos on full automatic mode. However, the problem i mainly have is that only a little part of the image is sharp and the rest is blurry. This Saturday i am supposed to take photos during a christening in a church. My problem now is that i know the D750 will do most of the job good but i would like to set it manually up that everything infront of the lens is sharp, not just the area it zooms on to. I did do some readings and i figured out that it has to do with the "f" settings. That it needs to be pretty high which makes the photos a bit darker. I have no clue where to start and hope someone can help me to set up my camera for this day.

The gear i am using is a Nikon D750 with a Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 DI VC USD and a YONGNUO SPEED LIGHT FLASH YN-568 EX TTL FP HSS. I also have a Nikon 105mm micro lens and a Nikond 50mm 1.8D available.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Taking good pictures in difficult lighting with a sophisticated DSLR is not something that any of us can tell you how to do, in the form of a simple recommendation. It's a skill that you have to learn. We cannot even tell you a fixed set of settings that will work in the situation that you describe, without being there to measure the light and judge the conditions in person.

If you do not yet have the skills to take good pictures in a particular situation, then you really ought not be putting someone else in the position of counting on you to take good pictures in that situation.

There is much you need to learn about the various aspects of photography, exposure, focus, depth-of-field, and all that—more than we can teach you in this one thread.

It sounds like you're up against a depth-of-field issue. You want everything in a shot to be in focus, but you can only get that part in focus that is at the distance to which the lens is actually focusing. A smaller aperture (indicated by a greater ƒ/ number) gets you greater depth of field, meaning a greater margin by which something can be closer or farther than the point at which the lens if focused, and still be sharp; but it comes at the cost of letting less light in. To compensate, you have to either go to a slower shutter speed (meaning you'll get more motion blur if anything is moving in the shot, or even in the whole picture, if you're not holding the camera steady enough); or increase the sensor ISO (which will give you grainier, “noisier” images).

Oddly, even though I've been heavily into photography since my youth, in the 1970s, I only in the last few years ever heard the term “exposure triangle”; though I've long understood the concepts associated with this term. They are the three parameters that must be balanced, in accordance to how much light there is, to get a properly-exposed picture—Shutter speed, aperture size, and sensor ISO setting (or, back in the stone-aged days, film speed).

The more light there is, the easier it is to get everything in the shot sharp and clear. As you get to lower light levels, you have to make sacrifices. A larger aperture lets in more light, but you lose depth of field. A slower shutter speed lets in more light, but you're more vulnerable to motion blur. Faster film, or a more sensitive sensor setting, requires less light, but you get a grainier or noisier image.

If there is any motion at all in the pictures you intend to take on this occasion, then your apparent desire to have everything in the shot in sharp focus is probably just not realistically achievable. If there's no motion at all, then you can put the camera on a tripod, use the smallest aperture setting available on whatever lens you use, use the lowest ISO setting,and take as long an exposure as it takes, probably on the order of several seconds.


Let me suggest that as a matter of artistic value, it is not always good to have everything sharp. Usually, there's one subject in the picture; you want that subject to be sharp, and you want everything in the background to not distract from the subject. Often, it is good for the background, foreground, and anything else that is not the subject, to be out of focus. Start thinking in those terms, and I think you'll be much closer, in this case, to being able to get pictures that you'll be pleased with.

This post turned out to be much more than I intended to write,and I've barely scratched the surface.
 

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
Welcome to the forum. It is tough to just get started and be given an assignment like shooting inside. You have been given some good advice so far. It is going to take some experimenting on your part using what you have been given so far. Good luck
 

Bob Blaylock

Senior Member
And try to read up a bit about flash and exposure before then. You still have time to make test shots to get closer to what you want.

I think it's worth pointing out that flash introduces a whole new problem—a sort of a “depth-of-field” effect on exposure rather than focus. Perhaps the use of a flash will throw enough light on the scene to get the depth-of-field that @290373m thinks he wants, with everything in sharp focus, but don't forget that light diminishes by distance squared. So now, even if everything in the background is in sharp focus, now it'll be underexposed, while everything in the foreground is overexposed.
 

jay_dean

Senior Member
Hello,

i am new here and first of all a big hello to everyone.

Usually i shoot all my photos on full automatic mode. However, the problem i mainly have is that only a little part of the image is sharp and the rest is blurry. This Saturday i am supposed to take photos during a christening in a church. My problem now is that i know the D750 will do most of the job good but i would like to set it manually up that everything infront of the lens is sharp, not just the area it zooms on to. I did do some readings and i figured out that it has to do with the "f" settings. That it needs to be pretty high which makes the photos a bit darker. I have no clue where to start and hope someone can help me to set up my camera for this day.

The gear i am using is a Nikon D750 with a Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 DI VC USD and a YONGNUO SPEED LIGHT FLASH YN-568 EX TTL FP HSS. I also have a Nikon 105mm micro lens and a Nikond 50mm 1.8D available.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

You'll have to get out of Auto, cos your question relates to the Exposure Triangle. With a camera as good as the D750 is, you're only using a fraction of its capability in Auto anyway. There are variables to factor as to which settings to use. How much light there is, distance to the subject, the number of people in shot, how much dof you want etc. My guess from what you're saying is that you're shooting at f2.8, which is usable to shoot people in certain situations but close up will give very shallow dof. Using small focal lengths can help out with extra dof, but a lot of what you're asking is down to assessing the situation whilst you're there, on the fly so to speak. Not been much help really. Anyway, welcome along..
 

290373m

New member
Thank you so much for the replies and recommendations. I will keep this response short but will answer a bit longer later on. I will go and read up on the few ideas mentioned and i will also go tomorrow to the church at the time the christening is Saturday. Will do a few test shots and report my success or fail. Again, much appreciate the effort you guys have put in to help me.
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
Welcome to Nikonites

I have read the recommendations here and while all make sense they would confuse the hell out of me if I was starting out like you.

So I may as well add to the confusion ...
Definitely set your camera to manual mode.
Set ISO to 100
Aperture to f5.6
Shutter speed to 1/200
Set your flash to half power

If your photos are blurry on these settings it is one of two things:Your technique
or your subject is super duper fast and you are stuffed (basically beacuse of the sync speed and you may have to go to high speed sync. For his you need to refer to your manual and your flash manual)

If photos too bright close the aperture or turn the power of the flash down.
If depth of field is too shallow close the aperture and increase the power of the flash to compensate or move the flash closer to the subject.

If the photos are underexposed either increase (open) the aperture - at the risk of reducing depth of field
or Up the flash power or moe the flash closer.

Hey nobody said it was easy but we all agree it does get easier. :)
 

carguy

Senior Member
#1 Be sure you are allowed to shoot with a flash during the ceremony. As the church office before it begins.


The 24-70 f2.8 / 50mm f1.8D and D750 should handle this without issue in most churches.


I'd shoot in A (Aperture Priority), set it to f2.8 and ISO 400. Take a few shots and adjust your ISO from there until you get a good exposure.
Don't forget to adjust your metering appropriately. I prefer Center weighted in those conditions personally., maybe Sport depending on your specific lighting.
 
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