D80 ideal indoor non-flash low light shot settings?

[DAT64X]

hi,

my D80 is my first SLR and i've been having a lot of fun experimenting with the various settings. right now i'm trying to figure out the best way to do shots (either portraits or just of objects) where the environment is night-time, indoors, and dimly lit with maybe a living room lamp. i also want to do this with no flash and no tripod. auto-mode with auto-iso has pretty much given me blurry results so far.

i'm still in the midst of experimenting myself (basically tweaking shutter speed, aperature, and ISOs) and it's a lot of fun but i thought i'd also ask the pros at this board what they think might be some standard settings for this scenario. so far i've had some super blurry shots, and also some decent but still-a-bit-blurry shots. what are some tips or settings to get some really crispy sharp shots?

thanks!

 

[Thomas Comerford]

Shooting in low light is difficult. As you've probably discovered, camera movement is a problem, and subject movement too. Lenses with larger apertures are a great way to shoot in poor light. They let in more light which lets you use higher shutter speeds. They also allow you to get smaller depth-of-field which can help you isolate your subject, but sometimes the DOF won't be big enough to get everything in focus. Focusing gets tricky too, when the DOF is shallow.

As far as settings go, my opinion is that a noisy image is better than a blurry one, so don't be afraid to use high-ISOs when you need to. They might look bad when you zoom in on-screen but they look surprisingly good when printed.

For lenses, I'd recommend the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 (very cheap, but a bit long for indoor use) or the f/1.4 version, the Nikon 35mm f/2, or the Sigma 30mm f/1.4. I have the 50mm f/1.8, but rarely use it indoors since I got the Sigma. Here's the kind of thing I use it for:

hi,

my D80 is my first SLR and i've been having a lot of fun
experimenting with the various settings. right now i'm trying to
figure out the best way to do shots (either portraits or just of
objects) where the environment is night-time, indoors, and dimly
lit with maybe a living room lamp. i also want to do this with no
flash and no tripod. auto-mode with auto-iso has pretty much given
me blurry results so far.

i'm still in the midst of experimenting myself (basically tweaking
shutter speed, aperature, and ISOs) and it's a lot of fun but i
thought i'd also ask the pros at this board what they think might
be some standard settings for this scenario. so far i've had some
super blurry shots, and also some decent but still-a-bit-blurry
shots. what are some tips or settings to get some really crispy
sharp shots?

thanks!

 

[DAT64X]

thomas, those are some very nice shots! exactly the kind i hope to be able to take. i'm actually using a 18-200mm VR, which is f/3.5-5.6. so unfortunately the aperature doesn't get quite as high as the lens you listed, but it does have VR. i was hoping the VR by itself would fix a lot of blurring problems in these low-light indoor conditions, but there is still the blur unfortunately.

what ISOs did you use to take the pictures above, btw? when you talk about "high ISOs" for these shots, are we talking like 400? 800? 1600?

also, what do you think is the slowest shutter speed somebody can safely do while handheld, assuming "average" hand-shakiness?

 

[larsbc]

DAT64X wrote:
[snip]

experimenting with the various settings. right now i'm trying to
figure out the best way to do shots (either portraits or just of
objects) where the environment is night-time, indoors, and dimly
lit with maybe a living room lamp. i also want to do this with no
flash and no tripod. auto-mode with auto-iso has pretty much given
me blurry results so far.

i'm still in the midst of experimenting myself (basically tweaking
shutter speed, aperature, and ISOs) and it's a lot of fun but i
thought i'd also ask the pros at this board what they think might
be some standard settings for this scenario. so far i've had some
super blurry shots, and also some decent but still-a-bit-blurry
shots. what are some tips or settings to get some really crispy
sharp shots?

With low light, your first priority needs to be the shutter speed. It needs to be fast enough to eliminate blur from camera shake, and fast enough to eliminate blur from subject movement. If you have neither (eg: camera on tripod, subject is inanimate), then shutter speed can be as slow as you want, generally speaking.

Eliminating blur from a moving subject is dependent on how much the subject is moving. And blur will be worse at the subject's extremities (eg: waving hands, walking feet). For camera shake, the rule of thumb for 35mm film cameras is to shoot no slower than 1/focal length. So if you're shooting with a 50mm lens, you should shoot no slower than 1/50 sec. But on your Nikon DSLR, that 50mm provides an effective 75mm field of view on a 135 format camera, so on a DSLR, you should shoot no slower than 1/75 sec.

Having said that, I've taken sharp photos with my 50mm at 1/30 sec. So your own maximum shutter speed will depend on your ability to hold the camera steady.

After that, you set the aperture to whatever you need that meets your requirements and doesn't force you to use a shutter speed that is too slow.

If you can't get an aperture/shutter combo that you need, then try a faster or slower ISO.

larsbc

 

[Thomas Comerford]

thomas, those are some very nice shots! exactly the kind i hope to
be able to take. i'm actually using a 18-200mm VR, which is
f/3.5-5.6. so unfortunately the aperature doesn't get quite as
high as the lens you listed, but it does have VR. i was hoping the
VR by itself would fix a lot of blurring problems in these
low-light indoor conditions, but there is still the blur
unfortunately.

Yep, the VR will potentially remove camera shake but your subject will need to hold still.

what ISOs did you use to take the pictures above, btw? when you
talk about "high ISOs" for these shots, are we talking like 400?
800? 1600?

Mostly about ISO 1600. I rarely get to go below ISO 800 in those conditions, and occasionally I need to push it up over ISO 1600.

also, what do you think is the slowest shutter speed somebody can
safely do while handheld, assuming "average" hand-shakiness?

It really depends on the person, and how fussy you are about sharpness. Some lens/camera combinations balance better than others too. The lowest I can manage at 30mm is about 1/30 or maybe 1/20, but I get a lot more keepers if I can keep the shutter up around 1/60.