Indoor photo HELP

[shhbabymine]

Its raining and will continue to rain all day tomorrow - so I now have to take indoor pictures of my dd tomorrow before her Cinderella Ball Father/Daughter Dance. We are going to get her hair and nails done and then come home to get dressed - I had planned to just be outside to get some nice shots of her -but I have bad lighting already in the house without sunlight and I dont want to miss these shots - she is turning 7 Sunday and this is her first Father.Daughter dance - since I wont be there - this may be my only chance to get pictures....
I have a 28-105 and the 18-55 that came with my rebel xt...
I am off to find some online tutorials or something for better pictures - any ideas to help me out - I hate that her pics may have the wall or door behind her... ugh - dont like the rain much tonight!

[hguenthe]

Sorry, have no help for indoor photos... I am horrible at taking them.

Do you have a door that opens to a background that she would look nice against? Could you have her stand just outside the door under the eaves of the house where she wouldn't get wet to get some nature behind her? Or a garage that she could stand in with the door open & move any vehicles out of the way to take the photos? Create the illusion of being outside even if she isn't really. Crop in as close as you can without missing the details you want captured but cutting out the bits like sides of doors.

Whatever you come up with, I am sure you can work your magic with having the photos even if they weren't your ideal and create some beautiful pages for the memory.

[audrey77]

If you end up using the flash, diffuse or bounce it.

Do you have the built in flash? Then put a clear tupper wear bowl over it :-)

[KerryMac]

If you have a flash you can bounce, that's a great idea.
Also, look for the brightest window light you can find. Then, find/buy a big piece of stiff poster board or foam core. Position your subjects in between the window and the board, which will act as a bounce/reflector for the window light. Then you have light coming from both sides. KWIM?
Or, if you have a garage, you might find some great light in there if you open the door and have them stand just inside. You could even make your own background out of a sheet.
Using a shallow DOF will hopefully blur any backgrounds for you.
And....just one more thought....umbrellas! If it's not pouring outside, umbrella shots can be really wonderful. Perhaps a neighbor or friend could hold one over you so the camera doesn't get wet or you could put the camera in a plastic bag with a hole cut for the lens.
Good luck!

[Angel_Baby]

I take alot of my photos inside. I'm no professional, but I do use light from a window or door. I also used a white bed sheet for a background until I bought one. Black also looks nice for formal shots. As for a neat way to diffuse the flash on the camera, I just slip a tiny baby sock over it. Hope this helps a little.

[katrinak]

Sarah, Laura just posted an EXCELLENT explanation of using flash inside over at our flickr group. You can adjust your exposure composition with just your onboard flash.

Kerry has given you some great tips. Just avoid turning on your house lights or lamps for more light since it will give you a funky color cast. Wander around tonight at the same time you will take her photos tomorrow and look for the places with the best even light. You might be surprised what you find!

Keep us posted

[donitab]

make sure you check your white balance - you might try several photos using auto white balance, flourescent, or tungsten light to see which will give you a better color cast. Also place her as far away from a background as you can - that will give it a better chance of blurring. Also you might want to invest in an inexpensive 50 mm 1.8 lens (around 80 or 90 bucks) for any future times you need to take indoor pictures. It is great with lower light.

The lower your f-stop the better for low light conditions & for blurring your background - good luck!

Maybe you can take her picture outside in the next few days wearing her outfit - no one will know (or care) in a few years that it wasn't taken EXACTLY on that day.

[katrinak]

Originally Posted by donitab

make sure you check your white balance - you might try several photos using auto white balance, flourescent, or tungsten light to see which will give you a better color cast.

And if you don't want to worry about it, shoot in RAW

[dugarner]

Yay RAW!

I took a photo class at my local camera store last week (free for buying my camera there but now they're closing!), it was just me and a lady with an XSi (?). Fancy-pants camera. The guy teaching the class told her not to bother ever shooting in RAW because the processing is too difficult for an amateur to mess with. (??) [raised eyebrows, shuffling feet] I gently interjected that RAW is better for the amateur hobbyist simply because we don't have to worry as much about the settings in-camera. You can be "less skilled" at dialing in settings, reading light, etc. and still save some good shots. I can shoot, and know if my WB is off, or there's going to be noise from a high ISO, or there's a color cast or whatever, I can correct it later. I still strive to improve composition in-camera and avoid major PP, and I know this has been debated before, but my oh my, RAW has saved my hide with countless pictures since I bought my dSLR. I've taken 10,000 frames since January 1 and I bet 9,980 of them would have been tossed at the front end if they were JPEG SOOC. Maybe more! Of course, out of those, I've only kept 300. But still, I wouldn't have that many keep-worthy photos if I had shot in JPEG.

[katrinak]

Woohooo Sarah That makes me soo happy!

[Myra]

Go Sarah! I love that! I'm shooting in all RAW now too, since Katrina and I discussed this in January. I am better about deleting the junk because I'm conscious of the space, but I also have more options to manipulate exposure. I think it was getting LR that really made the difference.

[donitab]

I'm waiting to get my Scott Kelby book on CS4 (should be in this week) before I really shoot raw. I tried it one week & it took me so long to process everything (coz I didn't know what I was doing & that's why I'm buying the book!) So yeah, that is the better way to go if you know how to do that.

Show us what you came up with!

[ScrappinSass]

A great place to find out how to shot certain photos is in the camera forums, like Nikon or Canon - I'm sure they'd even have specific advice on your particular camera or someone there willing to help .. BTW.. those sun protectors peoples use in the cars across the dashboard make great reflectors.. to dull down the shine, spray with hair spray. I found this on DD's flickr page - a short piece on indoor flash with a link to more good info -
.. "Two major sources of info for me were the Planet Neil blog (http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/) and a series of articles at P.O.T.N., a Canon forum (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php?t=138907). Neil is a professional photographer who does beautiful work and uses flash, including on camera flash, a lot. He also has a Flickr group where you can ask questions; I think the link must be on his blog. Oh, and he shoots both Nikon and Canon, which is helpful. I cannot say how much of the info on the Canon forum is truly Canon specific--my guess would be that a lot will apply to Nikon and other brands as well--but you're on your own there!"