Indoor photos in near darkness

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jim_thomsen

New member
Last year I took a lot of photos of people living in remote villages in Vanuatu. The villages have no electricity, so evenings inside often have only a very small fire to light the room. I did take a number of pictures using the pop up flash on my D7000, but as expected they look terrible (I have attached one of them.)

I am returning this year and have purchased a SB700. If you were shooting in near darkness in a small house how would you do it? I have experimented with the flash hand held, the camera open to 3.5 and 1/250 using iTTL and it looks OK. Is there a better way?

Thanks!!

Jim
 

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  • Joanne in the kitchen.jpg
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miknoypinoy

Senior Member
use a tripod. set your flash to rear sync and lower the output power. (you might have to take a few shots and adjust. ). with rear sync you should be able to capture the ambient light of the fire and the flash should fill minimally and freeze your subject. practice at home before you go. good luck. your shot was pretty good by the way. flash tends to make the photo harsh looking as you found out. hope this helps.


I'm not afraid . . . YOU WILL BE. . . YOU WILL BE. . .
 
W

Will V|Photography

Senior Member
Hey Jim, another tip would be to bounce your speedlight off of a ceiling or wall. This may be a little tricky with your white balance as the flash will reflect the color of whatever you're bouncing off of.

These shots were taken in my (almost) completely dark house with the hotshoe-mounted speedlight bounced off a wall...


Self Portrait by FLWill, on Flickr


Oscar Dog by FLWill, on Flickr

You can also use CLS (or a wireless trigger) to move the flash away from your camera and still bounce it. The bounce is what softens the light and helps to eliminate harsh shadows. You can also buy small flash-mounted diffusers and softboxes to soften the light. This shot was taken with the flash fired with a trigger, about 5 feet to camera right, and bounced off a wall...


Twins Shoot (1) by FLWill, on Flickr

Just get in some experimenting time to learn your flash and what works best for you before you get out there.
 
J

jim_thomsen

New member
Thanks for the help. I have been playing with rear sync and low flash power and that looks good (I need a lot more practice!).

Bouncing off my walls and ceiling seems to work well, but it will be interesting to see how it works with walls and ceiling that are dark brown (not easy to find a place like that to practice.)

Thanks, I appreciate the help!
Jim
 
Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
jim_thomsen said:
Thanks for the help. I have been playing with rear sync and low flash power and that looks good (I need a lot more practice!).

Bouncing off my walls and ceiling seems to work well, but it will be interesting to see how it works with walls and ceiling that are dark brown (not easy to find a place like that to practice.)

Thanks, I appreciate the help!
Jim
Click to expand...

If you use the flash bounced, there is a little white card that you can take out of the flash and it does act as a light diffuser. This gives an interesting option too.
 
M

miknoypinoy

Senior Member
hey Jim . . . post some pics up of your recent attempts. . . we can all chime in and help a bit more.


I'm not afraid . . . YOU WILL BE. . . YOU WILL BE. . .
 
F

fotojack

Senior Member
Marcel said:
If you use the flash bounced, there is a little white card that you can take out of the flash and it does act as a light diffuser. This gives an interesting option too.
Click to expand...

Actually, Marcel, that little white card is a deflector, not a diffuser. :)
 
J

jim_thomsen

New member
miknoypinoy said:
hey Jim . . . post some pics up of your recent attempts. . . we can all chime in and help a bit more.


Thanks for the offer, that would be great! Except I am in a marina in northern New Zealand, using a mobile phone for internet and in the next day or 2 we will be sailing north to Vanuatu for a few months. Not only do they not have internet, but on the Islands we will visit there is no electricity.

When I return to civilization I will post pictures I took in dark homes and at least get comments about what I should have done.

Thank all of you for the suggestions....we will see if I learned anything!

Jim
tenayatravels.com
Click to expand...
 
W

westmill

Banned
I would use a diffuser like the StoFen. This is my prefered route in such circumstances. :) As you dont have any kind of reasonable surface for bouncing the light, it needs to be done from the source. IE... the flash head. This is what I use in churches, which give a simlar problem. The roof is obviously well out of range for bounce and its dark. :)
 
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