What am I doing wrong?

[MtnGoatJoe]

Ok, besides belonging to a family on nut jobs, what am I doing wrong here?

Some things I can see for myself:

• The folks in white shouldn't have sat in front (or worn white).
• The lamp on the right should be off.
• The first and second rows should have moved back as far as they could.

What else should I have done? I feel like more light would have helped the folks in the back, but I'm not sure how to get it. I had the flash turned all the way up.

Well, at least it's better than last year's lousy photo (taken with my old Cybershot).

Thanks for the help!

 

[D Cox]

You would have better results with bounce flash.

This can be done with the little NEX flash by using a piece of silver card under the flash.

See this thread:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1042&thread=39836677&page=1

As for the existing photo, if you have Photoshop Elements, the Highlights-and-Shadows setting will probably improve it.

 

[MtnGoatJoe]

You would have better results with bounce flash.

This can be done with the little NEX flash by using a piece of silver card under the flash.

The problem is that this house is an A-frame and everyone is standing 30 feet below the celling (which is wood with dark beams).

Would an off-camera flash mounted really high be helpful here?

Thanks!

 

[cxsparc]

You might have increased ambient lighting at the sides.

Used an external flash triggered optically by the onboard flash (powered down to -2),
positioned it to the side or bounced to the ceiling.

 

[weavster]

I never use flash for just this reason with its brutal washed out over-exposed areas. Pretend it doesn't have one. Wap up the ISO and enjoy a result more as your eye sees it. Also try HHT mode - which can achieve amazing low light results. If you have to go up to ISO 6400, try with high contrast black and white mode which swallows up any resultant noise.
A real strength of the nex is its low light performance - ditch the flash!!

 

[Les Hall]

As I see it the little camera did a pretty good job considering the tiny flash. In an A frame house with wood ceilings you wouldn't do that much better bouncing the flash.

I think all in all your NEX did ok. If you were going to do this again I would have them all a bit more close together and maybe move back a bit so that the people on the edges don;t get so distorted by the 18mm setting or whatever it was.

A professional would need at least two lights and umbrellas to light this decently.

Les

--

“I go to the theatre to be entertained. I don’t want to see plays about ****, sodomy
and drug addiction...I can get all that at home.” Peter Cook

http://www.leshall.com

 

[flint-hill]

1. Set a custom white balance using the instructions on p. 89 of the manual on your CD.
2. Shoot in handheld twilight mode (as weavster suggested)

If it looks lousy, fiddle with the room lighting and repeat.

...

nex-5n gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/flint-hill/sets/72157628112096830/

 

[Saint Yves]

You may try to move back and use a longer lens. The lighting variation between front row and back row is more important the closer you are to the group.
There is an optional flash unit I believe , if you need more power.

The Nex5 ,with no hot shoe, is not the best camera for strobist photography and i think off camera flash is difficult due to preflash.
If the ceiling prevents bouncing, maybe use a large reflector?

--
Yves

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37414915@N04/

 

[MtnGoatJoe]

Thanks for the suggestions!

As a recap:

• You might have increased ambient lighting at the sides.

I turned on all the lights that I could. If it had been 3 hours earlier, we would have had sunlight shining through big bay windows.

• I never use flash for just this reason with its brutal washed out over-exposed areas. Pretend it doesn't have one.

I took some shots at 3200 iso, but this one was better.

• Also try HHT mode - which can achieve amazing low light results.

I hadn't thought of using HHT with the camera on a tripod. I'll give it a shot next time.

• If you have to go up to ISO 6400, try with high contrast black and white mode which swallows up any resultant noise.

I have no idea what high contrasat black and white mode is, but I'll do some research.

• I think all in all your NEX did ok. If you were going to do this again I would have them all a bit more close together and maybe move back a bit so that the people on the edges don;t get so distorted.

Yeah, this is way better than what my old P&S could do. I was back as far as I could get, but yeah, I should have made people look like they like each other a little more.

• Set a custom white balance using the instructions on p. 89 of the manual on your CD.

I've never set the white ballance before. I'll definately give it a shot.

Do you guys think that the 50mm sony lens would work here if I squished everyone together more?

 

[weavster]

Hi

Hand held twilight mode doesn't need a tripod. You can find black and white in the picture option. I would just have a play taking pics in low light anyway just to get used to the various settings. I always prefer ambient lighting to flash if possible as the results look more natural even if less detailed. Flash slave/ reflectors sound like too much faffing around to me. One of the nex's big strong points is its low light performance. This pic of my daughter showing a poorly lamb to her grandad, is the other extreme - taken at dusk with very little light.
good luck and happy new year

 

[h00ligan]

Try not to cut people in half or their legs off etc too...get wider or get people in closer. Looks like a good attempt.

 

[tesilab]

Thanks for the suggestions!

• If you have to go up to ISO 6400, try with high contrast black and white mode which swallows up any resultant noise.

I have no idea what high contrasat black and white mode is, but I'll do some research.

I would disagree with that advice, provided you have an inclination to use software to do stuff like B&W after the image has been captured in color. Out-of-camera black and white is convenient, but a bit of a gimmick.

• Set a custom white balance using the instructions on p. 89 of the manual on your CD.

I've never set the white ballance before. I'll definately give it a shot.

Once again, white balance is also correctable after the fact. Particular using a raw editor. Please disregard this advice if you only want to produce jpegs from the camera for convenience. But if you are trying to get constructive criticism for what is a really nice photo, if you care about that kind of thing, look into capturing raw and focusing less stuff like white balance or black and white modes at the time of capture. (Lighting is different, and so is exposure).

Do you guys think that the 50mm sony lens would work here if I squished everyone together more?

50mm is probably way too long to get in that many people to a photograph. At least in a typical indoor space.

One more thing about raw, with more bits per pixel there to work with (information that gets thrown away when producing a jpeg) you can recover a bit of highlight detail if you over exposed, but you can also afford to underexpose a bit more instead of setting the ISO higher. The image previews may appear dark, till you adjust them, but you will have more latitude to deal with overexposed highlights.

 

[SQLGuy]

I don't know about other post processing packages, but DxO optics has a volume anamorphis correction feature that can help with the big head syndrome seen to the left of your shot. (Apologies if his head really is that big.)
--

Nex-7 with kit lenses, Contax G 35, and a number of legacy lenses (mostly Canon FD)

 

[MtnGoatJoe]

I don't know about other post processing packages, but DxO optics has a volume anamorphis correction feature that can help with the big head syndrome seen to the left of your shot. (Apologies if his head really is that big.)

My wife says I have a big head. I always thought she was speaking figuratively. I may need to reevaluate some conversations we've had

 

[D Cox]

Thinking about your problem, my suggestion now would be to use the bounce flash modification as before, but also get somebody to hold a sheet of white card or board up above the camera for the light to bounce off. It should be angled toward the subject.

An ideal thing to use would be one of the white or silver umbrellas that are used for reflecting studio type flashes.

Meantime, with the photo you have, if you Google "Red Eye Removal" you will find lots of software to remove those red eyes. Always work on a copy of the photo, of course - leave a original untouched in case you make a mess of the processing.

Hope this helps.