indoor, no flash, and child

I bought D70 for my wife so that she can take photos of our 11 months son.
My wife expected me to teach her how to use the camera, but I am totally
a newbie myself. Here is my problem:

1. Indoor, means not so good lighting
2. No flash, my wife thinks it is no good for baby's eyes
3. Child, needs some shutter speed to capture my son in action

I have the kit lens. I tried the A and P model. If I fix the ISO at 200, I don't
have enough shutter speed. If I choose ISO AUTO, the camera will choose
ISO1600, and the picture is noisy.

Can you veterans give me some advice, so that I can get what I want
from the kit lens? Or maybe I should buy a 50mm/1.8 for what I want?

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

ZG

the 50mm lens is so cheap you can't afford not to own one.
1.8 - 3.5 what is that? 1 & 2/3 stops?

Also, remember wide angles do better in low light and have great "hyperfocal" capability.

If you stop down a lens that is wide, you have a good chance of getting a decently focused pic even if the little rugrat is flying past you at mach 3

my $0.02

zgjj said:

I bought D70 for my wife so that she can take photos of our 11
months son.
My wife expected me to teach her how to use the camera, but I am
totally
a newbie myself. Here is my problem:

1. Indoor, means not so good lighting
2. No flash, my wife thinks it is no good for baby's eyes
3. Child, needs some shutter speed to capture my son in action

I have the kit lens. I tried the A and P model. If I fix the ISO at
200, I don't
have enough shutter speed. If I choose ISO AUTO, the camera will
choose
ISO1600, and the picture is noisy.

Can you veterans give me some advice, so that I can get what I want
from the kit lens? Or maybe I should buy a 50mm/1.8 for what I want?

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

ZG

Click to expand...

there are always compromises

1. 1... limited flash "experience" will NOT hurt a baby's eyes...

oh, by the way... i'm a pediatrician

1. 2... your 11 month old will look FAR BETTER WITHOUT flash...

much more of a 3-D effect... and avoiding the "flattening" look of the flashed pictures

1. 3... the 50mm 1.8 might not do the trick.... yes... it has that ability to utilize less light... but shallow depth of field might render most photos DISpleasing to the eye
2. 4... that leaves INCREASING THE ISO to 800 or more... funny thing is that many pics of infants with increased grain actually look nice (though i have none on hand to show you now)

overall.....

blurring the line between science and art is very difficult at times, but tell you wife that she must compromise as well

perhaps....
moving the crib into the outdoors for the shoot !!!!!

good luck and please post your results

greg

zgjj said:

I bought D70 for my wife so that she can take photos of our 11
months son.
My wife expected me to teach her how to use the camera, but I am
totally
a newbie myself. Here is my problem:

1. Indoor, means not so good lighting
2. No flash, my wife thinks it is no good for baby's eyes
3. Child, needs some shutter speed to capture my son in action

I have the kit lens. I tried the A and P model. If I fix the ISO at
200, I don't
have enough shutter speed. If I choose ISO AUTO, the camera will
choose
ISO1600, and the picture is noisy.

Can you veterans give me some advice, so that I can get what I want
from the kit lens? Or maybe I should buy a 50mm/1.8 for what I want?

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

ZG

Click to expand...

--
CBAS member #2 since 2004
http://www.pbase.com/robkaz/water

You need a faster lens. The 50 f1.8 is a no brainer in that respect. I got specifically for indoor available-light photography (would love to learn good flash photography techniques but that would make me buy an SB-600 or SB-800; there are some tricky issues with balancing available light, correct WB, so it is a steep learning curve and more $$$ than the nifty 50/1.8).

It is truly remarkable how much more light the lens captures compared to the kit lens. You do need to watch out for shallow DoF. Some find it soft wide open, but I am quite happy with it.

So, get it and just practice, practice, practice.

I second that, 50 1.8 is fast in low light, fixed focal length, all you have to do is crop out what you dont want. : P

Thomas

--
http://www.280dgamingclan.com/ThomasAdams/gallery/

cre108 said:

Also, remember wide angles do better in low light and have great
"hyperfocal" capability.

If you stop down a lens that is wide, you have a good chance of
getting a decently focused pic even if the little rugrat is flying
past you at mach 3

my $0.02

zgjj said:

I bought D70 for my wife so that she can take photos of our 11
months son.
My wife expected me to teach her how to use the camera, but I am
totally
a newbie myself. Here is my problem:

1. Indoor, means not so good lighting
2. No flash, my wife thinks it is no good for baby's eyes
3. Child, needs some shutter speed to capture my son in action

I have the kit lens. I tried the A and P model. If I fix the ISO at
200, I don't
have enough shutter speed. If I choose ISO AUTO, the camera will
choose
ISO1600, and the picture is noisy.

Can you veterans give me some advice, so that I can get what I want
from the kit lens? Or maybe I should buy a 50mm/1.8 for what I want?

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

ZG

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Thanks for all your kind inputs. I think I need more practice with
the D70 to get what I want. Also, a friend of mine offers to lend
his 50/1.8 to me for several days, so that I can play around with
it for a while before I order one.

ZG

It's a common misconception that a flash would be harmful for children's eyes. That's not true - speedlights are not dangeous, not even for newborn babies. Their eyes are no more sensitive than yours or mine. On the other hand you may not want to scare a newborn with a sudden flash and of course you should always excercise common sense with speedlights and not shoot into people's eyes without a warning.

I am not sure the 50mm should be the first hand choice for you. While it is certainly a very fast and extremely useful lens, when opened up to maximum, the depth of field becomes extremely narrow and you will only be able to catch a thin slice of the total image with sharpness.



My recommendation would be a decent flash (such as the SB600 or SB-800). These can also be tilted upwards and sideways and have the light bounced off the ceiling for a more natural lighting effect.

Regards
Thomas

zgjj said:

I bought D70 for my wife so that she can take photos of our 11
months son.
My wife expected me to teach her how to use the camera, but I am
totally
a newbie myself. Here is my problem:

1. Indoor, means not so good lighting
2. No flash, my wife thinks it is no good for baby's eyes
3. Child, needs some shutter speed to capture my son in action

I have the kit lens. I tried the A and P model. If I fix the ISO at
200, I don't
have enough shutter speed. If I choose ISO AUTO, the camera will
choose
ISO1600, and the picture is noisy.

Can you veterans give me some advice, so that I can get what I want
from the kit lens? Or maybe I should buy a 50mm/1.8 for what I want?

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

ZG

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, will also tell my wife about this.

I read about the capability of SB600/800, but right now
I am already too busy with the D70. Will consider them
after I get more familiar with the D70 itself.

ZG

Mimoid said:

I am not sure the 50mm should be the first hand choice for you.
While it is certainly a very fast and extremely useful lens, when
opened up to maximum, the depth of field becomes extremely narrow
and you will only be able to catch a thin slice of the total image
with sharpness.



My recommendation would be a decent flash (such as the SB600 or
SB-800). These can also be tilted upwards and sideways and have the
light bounced off the ceiling for a more natural lighting effect.

Regards
Thomas

zgjj said:

I bought D70 for my wife so that she can take photos of our 11
months son.
My wife expected me to teach her how to use the camera, but I am
totally
a newbie myself. Here is my problem:

1. Indoor, means not so good lighting
2. No flash, my wife thinks it is no good for baby's eyes
3. Child, needs some shutter speed to capture my son in action

I have the kit lens. I tried the A and P model. If I fix the ISO at
200, I don't
have enough shutter speed. If I choose ISO AUTO, the camera will
choose
ISO1600, and the picture is noisy.

Can you veterans give me some advice, so that I can get what I want
from the kit lens? Or maybe I should buy a 50mm/1.8 for what I want?

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

ZG

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Thank for the advice. I did get some good shots outside, at
least acceptable to my wife. With the old P&S, my wife
complained that our baby was more beautiful than the picture.
Now she is happy, and can't wait to print them out and send
them to the grandparents.

ZG

Spalding12 said:

perhaps....
moving the crib into the outdoors for the shoot !!!!!

Click to expand...

of course you can't do that with camera flash

men and women are different about everything
of course..... you already know that
but......
this extends to photography as well
keep snapping the pics
different places
different lighting
different "events"
that's the great thing about digital (one of them)
........
you can take 1000's of pictures
and keep the ones you like

greg

R Laing said:

of course you can't do that with camera flash

Click to expand...

Sure you can--I did it with my point & shoot using a small piece of white cardboard that I folded up and taped to the camera deflecting the flash to the ceiling--better than nothing!
--

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read...