Indoor low light

Russ

Hi, I am shooting a reception for a family member. The reception is indoor with low light, and lots of Christmas lights. What's the best setting to use without using a flash?

bruto

I would use the largest aperture you can get away with (small F number, that is). Depth of field will be somewhat difficult if you get very close to your subjects, so try to keep a little distance and keep the focal length fairly normal. If you're using the 18-55mm kit lens, don't go all the way to the wide end or you'll end up with unattractive faces in closeup, nor to the longest end if you need to cover much depth. You can use the wider settings with some distance, but if you get close to a face at wide angle it will emphasize nose size, among other things. Try to keep it somewhere centered around 35mm for a good combination of depth of field and good perspective. If you can do some experimenting beforehand, see what ISO you can tolerate before you are bothered by noise. Often under artificial light, shots of people can tolerate a bit more high ISO noise than some other subjects, and grainy shot gotten is better than a clean shot missed. Your best bet is probably to stick with auto ISO, but go to the menu and set an upper limit that blocks out the "High I" boost, which really is rather ugly, and check ISO 6400 and 3200 too beforehand, and block anything out that you find objectionably noisy (it's a menu option to set the highest ISO auto will go to). I think 3200 is pretty decent for this kind of work, but might skip 6400 if possible. Auto White balance usually works pretty well for this, especially if the lighting is changing color a lot from one shot to another.

Shutter speed is a question and depends a little on how much the people are moving and how steady you are. If you leave auto ISO on, and have your settings at the default, the camera will shift ISO up when the shutter speed goes below 1/30 second, which should work pretty well, especially if you have the usual VR lens. It won't stop motion for dancers and the like, nor for things like waving hands and other gestures, so try to catch people when they are at rest.

I'd stick with aperture priority, and try to set the lens as near wide open as possible, and let the camera set shutter speed and ISO with your starting ISO down around 400. If there are a lot of bright Christmas lights, you might find that the camera underexposes faces, because it's trying to avoid blowing out the lights. When framing pictures, try not to include too many lights or other elements that are brighter than the people's faces. If you cannot avoid the problem of dark faces, you can compensate exposure (go in the + direction to increase exposure), but be careful doing this if the lighting keeps changing on you.

For auto focus, this will depend a little on what you're shooting and how many people in the group. Auto Area AF will let the camera choose, and it will tend to look for the closest recognizable face. That may work but may not. If that does not work, I'd go to A mode, which lets the camera decide whether it detects movement, and Dynamic area, which, in case of movement, will track a subject. Make sure your focus point (the little red light) is placed where you want it, aim at that target, and it will focus there. If shooting multiple people, try to aim at someone a little closer to you that the midway point between nearest and furthest.

Remember that portrait and auto exposure modes will automatically actuate the flash, so stick to P, S, A and M.

If possible, save your files in Raw format, and using a program such as View NX2, you will have + or - two stops of exposure compensation available in post processing without problems, and also the ability to adjust white balance. You can convert them to JPG for distribution, downsizing, etc. after that.