Window light in a dark room

[Lintu]

Hi all! I'm a newbie messing around with my new camera. I took this photo of my daughter in her bedroom before a nap. We have blackout shades in there, but with it being daytime, plenty of light comes in if she moves the shade.



Camera Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Exposure 0.067 sec (1/15)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 55 mm
ISO Speed 1600
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

Any general thoughts are welcome, but I'd particularly like ideas on the light (overexposed?). I noticed that her hands are blurry---I wasn't using a tripod, and I suspect I would need one to shoot properly in this light situation.

Thanks in advance!

[jentenna]

Let me preface my reply by saying: I'm very much a newbie to photography, so take this with a dash of salt. Anyway....

I really like this photo. Your daughter is an adorable subject, and I like the framing, the contrast, the black-and-white conversion, and the "story." To answer your questions:

1. I do think it's over-exposed... I'd give up a some detail in the shadows to reduce the hot spots on her face and her shirt. That said, high-contrast lighting like this can be very hard to photograph... and often your light meter/auto-modes are going to tend to over-expose it like this, because it's trying to get enough light in the dark regions.

If you shot in RAW, you might have some success with highlight recovery (not sure what software you're using, if any)... but I suspect that'll be a limited sucess here.

2. 1/15s is a fairly long shutter speed, especially when photographing kiddos. Her hands might be a little blurry (although it's not a distraction here, IMO), but it's probably because she's moving, not you. (In fact, the sharpness here is quite good for a hand-held shot at this shutter speed.) A tripod is great for stationary subjects, but it won't help much here.

For better photos in low-light, you'll need a lens with a larger aperture (lower f-number). If you can open the aperture more, you can reduce the shutter speed and lower your ISO.

[Mso]

I really like this shot.

I am only an amateur photographer too. But having said that I think sometimes we get too hung up on the imperfections of a photograph and not look at the whole. Put together I think this is a lovely photograph with a mood and feeling.

I look at photography books from great photographers and some of their best work is not perfect. Has blown out bits too etc. But it doesn't make it less of a great photograph..

Retreats now...........

[commongrackle]

Honestly? I like it. Even though I agree with point #1 made by jentenna, I still think it's a keeper!

[kristenh]

i agree- its a great photo with a nice story. and she's a cutie- love to see curious kids.

re the blurry hands- yup, b/c your shutter speed is very slow. if she was one of my kids (fast moving types!) her entire self would be a blur. there's a rule for lens length/ shutter speed- don't go any slower than 1/lens length or you will get camera shake.

re lighting - as a pp said, you set yourself quite a challenge- there's a huge difference in lighting across the shot- very very bright at the window and quite dark in the room. the camera was thinking that its mostly dark, esp if she hadn't opened the shade yet- so the iso is high (unless you set that yourself, of course) - and with the big flood of light, the face got overexposed.

what to do about it? you could try the same shot with the room lighter- if there is a nother window, open the shade on that one. with that iso but more light, your shutter speed can be faster. or put the lights on in the room- but shoot that one in raw b/c the white balance will be a challenge- bluish from the outside light and yellowish from the inside light- or do it when it is a bit darker outside.

others might have thoughts about using artificial lighting, but for me i'd want to figure out a way to light this with available light, b/c the light is such an important part of the feel of the pic.