New to list - problems taking indoor photos

[Grey Girl]

Hi everyone,

Am just new to list and wonder if anyone would have some pointers for me. I have a Fuji FinePix S5600 and find I am having trouble with any indoor photos being blurry all the time. The camera takes great outdoor photos but as soon as I take indoor shots - I am really disappointed with them. Not only of people - even sitting still, but also inanimate things like furniture or still life. One shot will be good - the next blurry. I just can't work out what I am doing wrong. Can anyone help please?

[lputman]

Welcome to dPS. Could you post a sample along with the exif for the photo?

[dcclark]

I am going to bet that your problem is low light. Indoors, you often have very little light -- less than you think, at least, and much less than outdoors. If you're holding your camera (not on a tripod), then you probably are seeing blur resulting from your camera shaking.

Solutions are various... I don't know what settings your camera has, but the general solution you want is a faster shutter speed (long shutter speeds mean that there's more time for your hand shake to blur the photo). If you can choose your aperture or ISO, try making the aperture larger (smaller f/number), or turn the ISO up.

If that's not an option, then other solutions include: create more light (lamps, windows, overhead lights, whatever you have). Also, use a tripod to avoid shake. Those are general ideas -- specifics upon request.

[Grey Girl]

Thank you for your hints.

I can adjust some of the things you mentioned - I have the aperture set at 3.2 (the lowest it can go) and the ISO at 400. I will try and attach photos for you to see. They seem to look out of focus and 'grainy'. I tried doing a beginners digital photography course at evening college but was the only one there without an SLR so couldn't do a lot of the things they were asking for and the teacher didn't have any suggestions for me. All my photos of people indoors also look grainy and blurred. Should I just keep it on 'auto' all the time and not try and adjust the settings?

[dcclark]

That example looks like it suffers from two problems.

First, noise from a high ISO. On your point and shoot, ISO 400 is probably very high, so you'll get lots of noise from the ISO.

Second, bad focus. It looks like you weren't actually focused on the subject at all. Your autofocus system may have been tricked by poor light. Usually in this case, you can hear your lens going in and out, trying to find focus. Do you have some kind of focus confirmation light, or does the camera somehow tell you where it's focused? That might help as well.

[Grey Girl]

I had the ISO on 400 as that is what the evening college teacher recommended for indoor shots - so what do you recommend it should it be?

The camera has a flashing light for focusing but it takes forever ...... so I take the photo as you can't always wait a long time before taking the shot, especially of people. Am getting very frustrated and disappointed with it - the camera is a couple of years old now and I don't remember it being like this when I first got it - so maybe it's a combination of it's and my age!!!!!!

[dcclark]

Point and shoot cameras have much worse high-ISO performance than DSLRs -- your instructor may have been working from knowledge of DSLRs (where ISO 400 is perfectly normal).

Focusing can be difficult for any camera in low-light situations. Your camera usually can autofocus most easily on objects with clear edges, or lots of lines or changing colors. If you try focusing on those sorts of objects, it may help. You should also check your settings to see what sort of settings you can change related to focusing.

[OhioAndy58]

Hey grey girl your not alone, I have the Olympus E510 and I can't take indoor shots to save my life. I was told I need a faster lens the 12-60 2.8 lens but it costs around $900.00 I tried taking picures with higher !SO in the aperature mode but still dark & blurry.

Can anybody help me as well as grey.


Andy

[dcclark]

Originally Posted by OhioAndy58

Hey grey girl your not alone, I have the Olympus E510 and I can't take indoor shots to save my life. I was told I need a faster lens the 12-60 2.8 lens but it costs around $900.00 I tried taking picures with higher !SO in the aperature mode but still dark & blurry.

Can anybody help me as well as grey.

Yep -- you don't need an ultra-expensive f/2.8 zoom. What you need is a relatively cheap prime lens. Prime lenses (which have only one fixed focal length, no zooming!) are usually MUCH faster (have better light-gathering abilities) than zooms. For example, Nikon is selling a fast 35mm f/1.8 lens for about $200 (that's more than double the light gathering ability of an f/2.8 lens). If you pay a little more, you can get an f/1.4 prime, which is 4x as much light gathering ability as f/2.8.

Primes also tend to be a bit sharper, better constructed, and all around awesome lenses.

[OhioAndy58]

Originally Posted by dcclark

Yep -- you don't need an ultra-expensive f/2.8 zoom. What you need is a relatively cheap prime lens. Prime lenses (which have only one fixed focal length, no zooming!) are usually MUCH faster (have better light-gathering abilities) than zooms. For example, Nikon is selling a fast 35mm f/1.8 lens for about $200 (that's more than double the light gathering ability of an f/2.8 lens). If you pay a little more, you can get an f/1.4 prime, which is 4x as much light gathering ability as f/2.8.

Primes also tend to be a bit sharper, better constructed, and all around awesome lenses.

Will this Prime work on my Olympus E510


Andy