Indoor/lowlight photos - what am I looking for?

[Fantasmic303]

As I've posted before, I'm in the market for a new digital camera after the untimely demise of my Kodak Easyshare CX6330. I loved everything about the old camera (size, batteries, daylight photos) EXCEPT pictures taken in low light settings (indoors and at night). I'm by no means a "serious" photographer, but I like to take pictures, so paying a little more for a camera that will do what I want is worth it to me.

Can anyone tell me what I should be looking for? I've tried to read as much as I could here on the board, and, while the tips are great, I know very little about changing to special settings (ISO? f...something or other?). I guess what I'm looking for is a camera that basically does the work itself. I have no problem switching to the "fireworks" or "portrait" settings for those special shots, but when it starts requiring me to make the call and figure out the ISO (which I don't even know what that means), it could get ugly.

Please talk to me as if I'm a 12 year old. I'm not necessarily hoping to capture the magic shot during Wishes (there's no way I can lug a tripod around all day), but I'd really like to be able to get some photos inside restaurants, rides, etc. that aren't totally black outside of the flashed-out subject's face. I also take a lot of pictures at concerts and indoor events. Thanks in advance!!

PS - I'd like advice on what "feature" I should be looking at to compare cameras, although I'll welcome specific names of cameras as well. What I mean is, for example, I know that a 3x optical zoom is not as good for me as a 5x, so I look at that when I consult the reviews. What should I look for in terms of lowlight capabilities?

Thank you!!!

 

[ldibo]

Well, I took these with my Canon S2IS http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ldibo2002/album?.dir=/62c4&.src=ph&.tok=phU5bdEBkvJoeFwF They have a newer version coming out the S3IS that you should look at. http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06022111canons3is.asp

The shots I took of Tarzan were from the upper tier on the Indoor setting. And the night setting I used for Fantasmic and the Fireworks. HTH

Lynn

 

[jamal]

Oooh, me too! Me too! I want the answers to Kylene's questions too.
I took photography in high school (seems like 100 years ago) but now need to know how to take decent Dis pics next week with my *new* Sony DSC-H1. No, I haven't read the manual yet, but I just got it today. I will. Promise.

 

[johnnyh14]

advancing yourself along in photography need not be scary. if you like shooting pictures in the automatic modes your camera offers thats fine. one problem with some of the shots you posted is exposure. if you like shooting indoors and in low light you should invest in a camera that can utilize a portable strobe/flash and not only the built in flash packaged in some point and shoots. they don't provide enough light except close up. spend some time with a friend, relative or honest camera salesman and pick out something fitting your needs. also most adult education centers offer several photog courses. it's hard to simplify exposure.

 

[ndelaware]

ISO = film speed, or the digital equivalent of film speed. Film speed is the measure of a photographic film's sensitivity to light. Film with lower sensitivity (smaller ISO number) requires a longer exposure, while film with higher sensitivity (higher ISO number) can shoot the same scene with a shorter exposure. On a digital camera the ISO determines the sensors (a digital cameras "film") sensitivity to light. In bright daylight a low ISO is desired to get a crisp clean image without any grainyness. In situations where there isn't much light a higher ISO is desired to make the sensor more sensitive to light so your images do not come out too dark. The problem with a higher ISO is that the image will begin to show alot of what we call noise, sort of like looking at a TV that is getting bad reception. The image will have alot of grainyness or specs on it. The better the sensor in the camera the less noise the images will have on them when shooting at higher ISO numbers. Unfortunately for many, who don't want a big expensive camera, the best sensors are in the digital SLR cameras (the ones with the interchangeable lenses) which require a basic understanding of photography to operate compentently. Most of the sensors in the point and shoot type of camera do not have the ability to take reasonably clear, high ISO images. So if you want a simple point and shoot camera you are already compromising in regard to low light photos. It's the nature of the beast. Your CX6330 only has the capability to take images in either ISO 100 or ISO 200, which is great for bright days outdoors but really bad for dark conditions. To compare, most DSLRs have sensors that can take images at film speeds of ISO 1600 or more. So if you want good low light pictures you have to find a camera with high ISO number capabilities.

That "f" thingy you mentioned is the "f/stop" or the aperature setting. It has to do with how big the opening is in the lens itself when a picture is taken. Here is an example:

The lower the "f/" number of a lens the wider the opening is when the shutter is pressed. A low f/ stop is good for low light conditions because the lens opening gets so big when opened. A higher f/ number causes the opening to be smaller. So a good low light lens would have an f/ stop of f/1.4, or lower, to around f/2.8.

As for "fireworks" settings on a camera, what works great for fireworks does not work great for low light pictures in a room where you want more than your subjects faces to be visable. Fireworks usually require a low ISO (ISO 100/200) and a high aperature or f/ stop (f/8 to f/12 or higher) and a fairly long shutter speed. Shutter speed is how long the shutter is opened when you press down on the button. Most great fireworks pictures have 4 or 5 second shutter speeds which means the shutter is literally open for 4 seconds or more. Hence the need for a tripod, since the subtle movement of your hands will cause all your pictures to be blurry. This is commonly called camera shake. For good flash pictures where more than just what is right in front of you is well exposed, you want a camera that has a "night potrait" mode. This setting fires your flash to illuminate your subject but uses a slower shutter speed so the backround can become illuminated. But hopefully not so slow that you get camera shake or motion blur, which is caused by your subject moving while the shutter is still opened while using a slower shutter speed. However, some situations are just not going to allow you take pictures as well as your eyes can see no matter how much money you spend or how good you are with your camera.

Zoom numbers really won't have any direct bearing on getting good low light pictures. But getting a lens with good low f/ numbers and a very large zoom range is really difficult and also expensive. Most cameras will have two f/ stops listed on the lens. One for when your are zoomed all the way out and another for when you are zoomed in. The lens on your CX6330 has an aperature range of f/2.7-5.2 at the wide angle to f/4.6-8.7 at the zoom limit. This means the lowest f/ number you can get with your current camera is F/2.7 and only when you are zoomed all the way out. As soon as you start to zoom in the f/ number starts to climb. So the more you zoom in the worse the camera is going to be for low lght pictures. When you zoom all the way in the lowest f/ number your camera can do is f/4.6. Which is not good for low light shots.

So my advice would be to try to find a camera with a higher ISO capability and a fairly low minimun aperature settings. Image Stabilzation or "IS" is a feature that will help alot with low light shots. IS cameras help eliminate blurriness from camera shake so you can utilize slower shutter speeds which will brighten your pictures considerably.

The Canon S2 IS is very popular, as are the Sony and Panasonic equivalents. However they all generally only go to ISO 400 and thier lenses are all in the f/2.7 or f/2.8 range. The Panasonic DMC-FZ7 does have an ISO800 and ISO1600 setting in a "High Sensitivity" mode and the soon to be released Canon S3IS has an ISO800 rating which will help greatly with low light conditions. The Panasonic is said to be plagued with high noise at all ISO numbers over ISO200. Hopefully the Canon will be better. If you seriously want good low light images you should make the move to a digital SLR camera. All have an "Auto" mode and also a semi-auto mode (usually called Program mode) where you can change the ISO to where you want it, not where the camera thinks it should be, and the camera will do the rest automatically.

 

[susan1]

hi
i have a fuji finepix f10. this has an inbuilt battery which recharges like a cell phone. it takes up to 500 pics on one charge. it has an auto iso range of 50-1800 iso. it is especially reccomended for low lighting photos. sometimes i just turn the flash off and shoot. others i put it to manual low light availability, not really much difference but they do come out well. for fireworks i leave it on auto flash turned off and set it for "burst" which takes 40 photos in one go, i did this three times. out of 120 photos i got 30 really good ones and just deleted the rest. my son was so impressed that he bought one himself

 

[jamal]

ISO = film speed, or the digital equivalent of film speed. Film speed is the measure of a photographic film's sensitivity to light. Film with lower sensitivity (smaller ISO number) requires a longer exposure, while film with higher sensitivity (higher ISO number) can shoot the same scene with a shorter exposure. On a digital camera the ISO determines the sensors (a digital cameras "film") sensitivity to light. In bright daylight a low ISO is desired to get a crisp clean image without any grainyness. In situations where there isn't much light a higher ISO is desired to make the sensor more sensitive to light so your images do not come out too dark. The problem with a higher ISO is that the image will begin to show alot of what we call noise, sort of like looking at a TV that is getting bad reception. The image will have alot of grainyness or specs on it. The better the sensor in the camera the less noise the images will have on them when shooting at higher ISO numbers. Unfortunately for many, who don't want a big expensive camera, the best sensors are in the digital SLR cameras (the ones with the interchangeable lenses) which require a basic understanding of photography to operate compentently. Most of the sensors in the point and shoot type of camera do not have the ability to take reasonably clear, high ISO images. So if you want a simple point and shoot camera you are already compromising in regard to low light photos. It's the nature of the beast. Your CX6330 only has the capability to take images in either ISO 100 or ISO 200, which is great for bright days outdoors but really bad for dark conditions. To compare, most DSLRs have sensors that can take images at film speeds of ISO 1600 or more. So if you want good low light pictures you have to find a camera with high ISO number capabilities.

That "f" thingy you mentioned is the "f/stop" or the aperature setting. It has to do with how big the opening is in the lens itself when a picture is taken. Here is an example:

The lower the "f/" number of a lens the wider the opening is when the shutter is pressed. A low f/ stop is good for low light conditions because the lens opening gets so big when opened. A higher f/ number causes the opening to be smaller. So a good low light lens would have an f/ stop of f/1.4, or lower, to around f/2.8.

As for "fireworks" settings on a camera, what works great for fireworks does not work great for low light pictures in a room where you want more than your subjects faces to be visable. Fireworks usually require a low ISO (ISO 100/200) and a high aperature or f/ stop (f/8 to f/12 or higher) and a fairly long shutter speed. Shutter speed is how long the shutter is opened when you press down on the button. Most great fireworks pictures have 4 or 5 second shutter speeds which means the shutter is literally open for 4 seconds or more. Hence the need for a tripod, since the subtle movement of your hands will cause all your pictures to be blurry. This is commonly called camera shake. For good flash pictures where more than just what is right in front of you is well exposed, you want a camera that has a "night potrait" mode. This setting fires your flash to illuminate your subject but uses a slower shutter speed so the backround can become illuminated. But hopefully not so slow that you get camera shake or motion blur, which is caused by your subject moving while the shutter is still opened while using a slower shutter speed. However, some situations are just not going to allow you take pictures as well as your eyes can see no matter how much money you spend or how good you are with your camera.

Zoom numbers really won't have any direct bearing on getting good low light pictures. But getting a lens with good low f/ numbers and a very large zoom range is really difficult and also expensive. Most cameras will have two f/ stops listed on the lens. One for when your are zoomed all the way out and another for when you are zoomed in. The lens on your CX6330 has an aperature range of f/2.7-5.2 at the wide angle to f/4.6-8.7 at the zoom limit. This means the lowest f/ number you can get with your current camera is F/2.7 and only when you are zoomed all the way out. As soon as you start to zoom in the f/ number starts to climb. So the more you zoom in the worse the camera is going to be for low lght pictures. When you zoom all the way in the lowest f/ number your camera can do is f/4.6. Which is not good for low light shots.

So my advice would be to try to find a camera with a higher ISO capability and a fairly low minimun aperature settings. Image Stabilzation or "IS" is a feature that will help alot with low light shots. IS cameras help eliminate blurriness from camera shake so you can utilize slower shutter speeds which will brighten your pictures considerably.

The Canon S2 IS is very popular, as are the Sony and Panasonic equivalents. However they all generally only go to ISO 400 and thier lenses are all in the f/2.7 or f/2.8 range. The Panasonic DMC-FZ7 does have an ISO800 and ISO1600 setting in a "High Sensitivity" mode and the soon to be released Canon S3IS has an ISO800 rating which will help greatly with low light conditions. The Panasonic is said to be plagued with high noise at all ISO numbers over ISO200. Hopefully the Canon will be better. If you seriously want good low light images you should make the move to a digital SLR camera. All have an "Auto" mode and also a semi-auto mode (usually called Program mode) where you can change the ISO to where you want it, not where the camera thinks it should be, and the camera will do the rest automatically.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. This is exactly what I needed

 

[Kelly Grannell]

thanks for answering the questions ndelaware. I've been crazy busy with photoshoots these past several days I didn't (and still don't) really have time to answer in such great details and eloquence

Kaylene... that is such a cute name!

(PS: I just got my 30D)

 

[goofy4tink]

NDelaware...thanks so much! I think I just learned more in 60 seconds than I did reading through my camera's manual!!! I just got a Canon A610 and like it but there is a bunch of stuff I didn't understand. Now I can go back to the manual and try it again. Thanks again.

 

[Fantasmic303]

Thank you to all who replied!!

This truly WAS exactly the advice I needed. Thank you also for your suggestions on cameras, as it'll make my research that much easier to have some "tried and true" models to compare to.

I'm now looking forward to choosing my new camera and experimenting - and I'll definitely be printing out this thread to guide me as I do it!!

Thanks again!!

 

[blackjackdelta]

Kelly: Where did you get your 30D from, I am still waiting in a que(sp).

Jack

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Got it from Amazing Photo in Scarborough (Steeles and Warden). They sold 9 bodies in one day!