Low Light Portrait Photography Settings for the Nikon D3200

Moose

If you are interested in portrait photography, then check out my latest tutorial: Low Light Portrait Settings, Tips & Tricks for the Nikon D3200



In the tutorial, I give you a behind the scenes look at my process for shooting portraits in low light with the Nikon D3200. I highlight the settings I used, along with some secret tips and tricks that can help improve your portrait photography when shooting indoors.

All the best and happy shooting! :)

Taq

Hi Moose. Have you done any cheat sheets for the 18-105mm Nikon lens? Please advise if you do.

Moose

Hey @Taq - I haven't created any yet for the 18-105mm. If I get enough requests, I'd be happy to do a set. All the best!

Paul77

Hi all, I just purchased the 18-55mm cheat cards for the D3200 and I'm looking forward to seeing the results. I have only looked at the low light portraits and I already have a burning question.

Testing the process out 16:00 so have the living room lights on (looking at them now they are not of normal brightness) and I'm using my SB-700 in TTL connected to the hot shoe. I followed the cheat sheet and took a picture. Well even I cannot hand hold a camera for 1/2 a second (ISO 400, f/5) and get a good exposure!

Panning my camera around the room I'm just getting stupidly low shutter times. Being on ISO auto should that not be changing the ISO, or do I need to be adjusting that as well?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Paul77

Hi all, Happy New Year. I have been reading up on the forum and
I think I can pretty much answer my own question now. It's case of the "tinted glasses" I believe! I have bumped up the ISO to 3200 and I'm shooting at 18mm, and now the camera is a lot happier.

Needless to say, I have already been looking at the 35mm prime. Keep up the good work on the forum/site, I'm so glad I found it. I would still appreciate any tips any tips you can provide.

Moose

Hey @Paul77 - I got a bit busy over the holidays and just saw your question. My guess is that Auto ISO wasn't enabled. If it was enabled, the Maximum ISO was probably set to 400, which resulted in very slow shutter speeds. Be sure Auto ISO is enabled and that the max sensitivity is set to 3200. You may even have to bump it up to 6400, if your living room is quite dark.

I'm in the process of refining the 'Portrait' cheat cards for the D3200 and 18-55mm combo. I found a more consistent combination of settings to produce better low light shots. The updated cards should be out in the next week or so. You'll get this for free of course, once they're ready to be downloaded.

Feel free to email me (support "at" cameratips.com) any images taken using the settings mentioned in the cheat cards. I can take a look at the exif info and make sure you had everything inputted correctly.

All the best!