Shooting in Manual- Indoors

Hi everyone! Welcome to the August Challenge: Photography! Now that we know each other, we are going jump right into the hardest part of the month: learning how to shoot in manual. The rest of the month will be downhill from here. :) If you have a point and shoot camera, then today will not really apply to you. Of course, feel free to read along! If you use an iPhone to take most of our photos, then maybe some of this will help when you can change some of your settings. (This is a total guess though since I don't have an iPhone! ha!) Personally I have a low end dslr- Canon Rebel T3. I don't know much about any other cameras so you will most likely need your camera manual to find the buttons we are using today or do a quick search online.

First, switch your camera to M for manual. On my camera is it the round dial at the top where you have all the choices for different shooting mode (Automatic, Av, Tv, etc). Hopefully this will be the last time you ever touch that dial and keep it on M forever!!! Also be sure to turn off the flash. If you are shooting during the day then you should be able to set your camera that you don't need the flash. I haven't used my flash since I turned the camera to Manual about 1.5 years ago.

Now that we are shooting in manual, we have three ways to control the lighting in the camera. I am just touching on the basics as I understand it. So there is probably more to it than we are going to discuss, but at least it is a good starting point!

Below is an example what your screen might look like on your camera. The top row here are the three things are looking at today: Shutter speed (ex 1/100), aperture (ex: F5.6) , and ISO (ex: 200).

1. Shutter Speed (SS): This is how quickly the camera takes the picture. You can hear your camera click as it takes a photo. The longer the click, the slower the shutter speed and vice versa. This is shown as a fraction on your camera (1/100, 1/300, etc). So an example of a slow shutter speed would be 1/50 and a fast shutter speed would be 1/2000.

• The faster the camera takes a picture, the less light will hit the camera. The slower the camera takes a picture, the more the light will hit the camera. Think of elevator doors closing. If they close slow, lots of people can get in. If they close super fast, very few people can get in. This is the same thing with shutter speed and light.
• The faster the camera takes a picture, the less blurry the photo. So if your child is moving quickly, you will need a higher SS to keep it from being blury.
• The more light you need, the lower you will need your SS so that way the camera has more time to capture the light.
• When inside photographing my kids who move a lot I try not to go below 1/125 otherwise the photos will tend to be blurry.
• Remember that YOU can make the camera move when taking the photo which means the picture can be blurry. So try to be as steady as possible when shooting with a lower shutter speed. If you are using a really low shutter speed, use a tripod or set the camera on something (like a counter) to keep it from moving.

Here is an example of where the dial is to change the shutter speed. Yours may be in a different spot so if you don't find it check online or use your owner's manual. Once you find it, practice changing the shutter speed and taking random pictures to see what it does. (We will get into more practice of how to know where to set it later down in the post).

2. ISO: kind of like an internal light to help in low light situations. You can up the ISO if the photo is coming out dark, however the higher the ISO, the more 'grainy' the photo will become. You will want to keep the ISO as low as possible but I have found there are just simply times when I have to put my ISO as high as it can go (and even then it isn't high enough!). The below camera example shows that the top arrow button is used to access and change the ISO. Again check your manual if you can't find your button. :) Practice changing your ISO and taking random pictures to see the affects of different ISOs.

3. Aperture (f-stop): The opening in the lens for the light to go through. This is shown on your camera like f/2, f/3, etc. or F2, F3 (like in the above example)

• The smaller the aperture (ex: f/2), the more light will come through. The larger the aperture (ex: f/11) the less light will come through.
• The f-stop also narrows in the focus and sharpness on the photo. So if you shoot with a low aperture, then there will be a smaller area in your photo that is in focus (more out of focus background/foreground). If you shoot with a higher aperture, then there will be a larger area of the photo in focus (not as much of a blurry background). This means you need to be careful that if you shoot with really low aperture, the whole body may not be all in focus. This is not necessarily a bad thing but just keep that in mind if you are wondering why only part of your kiddo is in focus or maybe just one of the two kids in the photo are in focus.

This may be harder to find on your camera because I think to access the aperture on some cameras you have to hold down a button and turn the dial at the same time. For example, on my camera I hold down the Av button (the top button where the trash can is on the above picture) and then turn the dial that I use to change my shutter speed).

Confused yet?! :) Don't worry!

So if you haven't already, I want you to play around for a minute with those three settings before we continue. Take a picture of anything (it can be the wall) with the highest ISO and then the lowest ISO. Note the differences. Do the same with the aperture and the SS. Just get used to changing those settings before we even move onto setting the camera for a particular situation. If you have a zoom lens, then changing the zoom may allow you to change the settings more.

Ok, so now that you know how to change each of those three settings, let's figure out how to set the camera to take photos! It is a nice balance of all three settings to get the picture just right. :) We will focus on indoors only today. I know that most photographers really LOVE the outdoors for pictures because of all the natural light, but I am a realist. I am inside a lot with the boys so I need to be able to take pictures of us inside doing our daily thing.

Taking photos INSIDE: I ask myself a couple questions. Is my subject moving? (which is almost always answered with a yes!) Do I have a lot of natural light? (ie am I near a window) Do I have one person in the photo or more than one person? Do I want the whole photo in focus or do I want a bit of a blurry background?

So here is my process as I take photos.

1.First and foremost I need to make sure I have enough light (which we will talk more about in a couple days). If possible, turn off the lights and pull up all your blinds/shades to get in natural light. Then take your photos near the windows or open doors if possible.

2. I always start my SS at 1/125 when inside since the boys are always moving (I need to minimize motion blur but let in lots of light). Once I have the rest of my settings punched in, then I can take a test shot to check  my SS based on how close I am to a window or open door. If the window is letting in a ton of light and the boys are really close the window then I may need to up the SS to keep the photo from being too bright. If we are further from the window then I mostly keep it at 1/125.

3. Then I set my aperture. If I just have one kid in the photo then I set it around f/2. However, this is because I  usually don't have a ton of light (I need a smaller aperture to let in more light). So this could change for you depending on how fancy your camera is and what kind of lens you are using. If I have more than one kid in the photo then I bump it up to f/3ish so they can both be in focus and increase the aperture if I have more people in the photo. (This may also be limited by your lens. Some lenses won't go that low with the aperture).

4. Lastly I set the ISO since I want that to be my last resort for adding in light. I start with 400 inside the house and bump up from there if needed. And since my camera doesn't handle low light well, I usually have to bump it up.

Here are some examples of photos I have taken around the house and the settings. Yours could be quite different based on what kind of camera you have and the lens you are using. But at least you can see some examples.

1. Boys in the bath: taken around 6:30 at night, only lit from window (no lights on in the bathroom)
ISO 800, f/3.5, 1/200
The bathtub helped reflect some light on their faces (not a ton though!), the SS was high enough to keep out most of the motion blur, and the aperture was high enough to keep everyone in focus and still let in enough light.

2. Matthew sleeping in John's doorway:
ISO 6400, f/2, SS 1/60
I had to turn on the bathroom light to get more light in here for this photo and still I had a really hard time getting the camera to focus. Matthew obviously isn't moving so I set the camera on the floor to keep it steady and lowered the shutter speed  and aperture to let in as much light as possible. Not the best possible quality photo but pretty good! Notice since it has a low aperture, the foreground (the carpet) and the background aren't in focus.

3. Matthew's hair cut- the whole wall of the shop to Matthew's left was windows and they had lights on.
ISO 800, f/3.5, SS 1/200
I needed the SS high enough to keep out motion blur and I wanted the aperture a smidge higher so that way the background wasn't blurred out.

 4. Thomas near the windows in the kitchen and I think I had the back door open to let in light in the front right of him.
ISO 1600, f/2.8, SS 1/125
Since he wasn't facing the windows I had to bump up the ISO. If I had him facing the windows I probably would have been able to lower the ISO a bit since there would be more light on him.

So, now it is time for you to practice, practice, practice! It takes a while to remember how all the settings change and how they affect each other. Take a bunch of pictures but try not to get frustrated. Plus remember that my examples are with lenses I bought and not the lens that came with my camera thus your numbers may not be exactly like mine. I will share pics on facebook with my kit lens so I can join in on the sharing fun! Also remember that once you get the feel for your own house then you probably will know what the settings are without a lot of guessing and checking. Notice my settings aren't drastically different in my house from location to location, especially the SS, so it just minor changes as we move about.

So once you get a photo that looks properly exposed (not too bright and not too dark) then share it on facebook. I don't care if it is a photo of a stuffed animal since it makes things less complicated that good ol' teddy isn't moving. I would love to see how you are doing!

For those pros out there, we would love to see a share with your settings too and any tips you might have for the newbies!

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