Natural Light Overcast Day

[Hsquared]

The other day a girlfriend of mine brought her 8 week old over so I could take some photos. I had us set up in a north facing room on an overcast day. I set him up with the window to the side and set my camera to aperture priority mode. The first few shots came out blurry, so I ended up just switching to Portrait mode. I apparently needed flash. How can I shoot without flash if there's no sun coming in?

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by Hsquared

The other day a girlfriend of mine brought her 8 week old over so I could take some photos. I had us set up in a north facing room on an overcast day. I set him up with the window to the side and set my camera to aperture priority mode. The first few shots came out blurry, so I ended up just switching to Portrait mode. I apparently needed flash. How can I shoot without flash if there's no sun coming in?

Buy a fast lens. The Nikon 50mm, F/1.8 is quite good at what you want to do, and it's very affordable (but not sure if it'll autofocus on your camera??)

Vinnie

[autofocus]

...on a side note, you'd probably want to use a custom white balance or shoot in RAW to correct later. Overcast daylight tends to be quite cool, and it may make the baby's skin tones look a little off color.

[Hsquared]

Thank you! I will add that lens to (the top of) my wishlist!!

[BigFuzzy]

yeah, definitely sounds like a shutter speed issue. Always try to get at least 1/60th of a second, though you may need more if you're kind of new to it all. A cheapo 50mm 1.8 is great option for these shots. Just make sure, in these conditions, to open up the aperture (small f/stop number) as much as possible to get a good shutter speed. Flash isn't automatically needed, just know what you need to achieve in-camera to get what you're looking for.
Good luck

[TheEagleSpirit]

The 50mm lens F1.8 definitely
Boost the ISO to allow for faster Shutter Speed
Use at least f2.8 for aperature
Doing this in manual mode setting the aperature and shutter speed watching the exposure meter for perfect exposure and bracket for exposure -1 and +1 then compare the shots.

[Hsquared]

I looked at the EXIF data for the first few pictures and my aperture was f/5 which is the smallest f stop number for that focal length with my lens. My ISO was 800. His face is nice and clear in the pictures, but if he wiggled his arms and legs (like babies love to do) they're blurry. In a way I'm glad the pictures didn't turn out since it's a learning experience!!

[Xposurepro]

Be very careful using a fast 50 in low light on babies. You'll be shooting close and combined with a low light aperture you're going to have an extremely shallow depth of field .. not a big deal for snapshots but when you get to where you're selling prints it becomes an issue. Not that it can't be done. We do it all the time. Just get to know the lens at those speeds beforehand or you'll still end up with blurry pictures.

[Crabs]

You may also be able to boost the amount of light on your subject by using a reflector. They dont have to be pro ones either, you can use a peice of white card or a square of card with foil over it. You can also try and dull down your flash. One way I have done is a peice of greece proof paper over your pop up flash (assume thats what you have) can give you a nicer diffused light source.

They are just two things I have done to try and help. Some times they help, some times they don't.

If you dont want to shoot in RAW, try "cloud" setting on your white balance, it will bring out richer colors (I do shoot in raw, but also take almost all of my shots in Cloud WB setting).