A Boy and His "GiGi"

[stacey_mntx]

My first indoor photo shoot was last week with my friend's son and his grandmother. This little guy moved FAST and I found many of my shots contained quite a bit of noise and were out of focus. I shot mainly in aperture priority mode and used two slave lights mounted with white umbrellas to the left and right of the subjects. I cropped the photo but have not processed it through Lightroom. This is one of my favorite photos from the session but would like to know the following:

-Is there too much noise?
-Is the focus too soft?
-To improve the light in the room would you add additional slave lights or sunlight?
-Would a prime lens improve the sharpness of photos taken indoor?


EXIF:
Nikon D5100
ISO 800 (Thinking this is too high and the cause for the noise)
Focal Length 34mm
Aperture: f/5
Shutter Speed: 1/60
Auto white balance
Metering mode, pattern
AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18 - 55mm f/3.5-5.6G

[homank76]

Originally Posted by stacey_mntx

This is one of my favorite photos from the session but would like to know the following:

-Is there too much noise?
-Is the focus too soft?
-To improve the light in the room would you add additional slave lights or sunlight?
-Would a prime lens improve the sharpness of photos taken indoor?

One thing about LR it has outstanding capibility to remove noise.

Did you shoot in single point or continous mode?

The light is fine from what I can tell.

Primes are always going to be better...only problem you end up changing lenes more than you like. I would try and invest into the 17-55mm F/2.8...that lens will change how you shoot.

[stacey_mntx]

Thanks for your quick reply. I was in single point mode. Would continuous mode help to sharpen the photo?

Oh, and since I'm a newbie... is a 17-55mm f/2.8 lens a standard for indoor portraits?

[homank76]

With shooting in continuous and dynamic range the camera will keep focus once you locked onto the subject. You may also want to try 3D if the 5100 has it.

[drobertsrn]

The 17-55mm f2.8 isn't a standard portrait lens, it just has better depth of field than the kit lens. I'd say a standard portrait lens would be a prime...say 50mm 1.8. Many people also utilize a 70-200mm 2.8 for portraits but for indoors but I'd say that is a pretty long lens and you would have to stand across the room to shoot. I also found that a 50mm tends to be a little "tight" (meaning you have to stand back a bit) but it might be a good focal length for what your trying to accomplish. On a crop sensor such as the Nikon 5100, the 50mm 1.8 has an equivalent focal length to almost an 85mm lens (another good portrait lens). I personally shoot my family at home with a 30mm 1.4 Sigma lens and occasionally with a 50mm 1.8 lens. Primes are generally the better portrait lens. There are good zoom portrait lens but they generally cost a small fortune (>600 dollars). You might not need the flash with a prime lens as it lets in a ton of light. However with the bigger apertures, your depth of field is smaller meaning your son will be in focus and GiGi is out of focus.

Your pic is a good shot. i'm no expert but I'd say the color is flat and could use some sprucing up in LR. Also, don't know if you shoot RAW but that allows for more control and more possibilities in LR (espeically with noise reduction). I don't see much noise in your photo. It's probably good unless you're blowing it up to put on the wall or zooming and cropping. Any how, sorry if this is long winded. Good luck.