Balancing Natural Light with flash in indoor photography

[pschlute]

It could have been taken care of, if I would have used tripod!!

Sanjib

You have had many good responses to your questions on here. If there is one thing that is important to learn it is the statement mentioned a few times above that in ambient light photography , most of the time your exposure settings are a trade-off, a compromise.

"If I want more depth of field, I need a smaller aperture....Oh but that gives me a slower shutter speed so I need a higher ISO...oh but that gives me more noise".....and etc....

Using a tripod gives you a lot more freedom in landscape photography, not just in dealing with available light but in using it creatively... shutter speed induced blur in water for example.

But for your pictures of cute kittens I suggest forgot the tripod. You will frame a shot and they will move out of frame. Or their movement in general is just too fast for even 1/60. A sharp image with the right amount of DOF with a little extra noise is usually much better than a noiseless unsharp picture

[xpatUSA]

My understanding is the same as yours. A telephoto lens by itself will not decrease DOF for the same framing. It is the "same framing" qualifier that causes debate on this subject however. I like this article of the subject https://luminous-landscape.com/dof2/

I third that!

Before I knew everything, I once advised a cat-shooter who wanted more DOF (a whisker or two was OOF) to step back and use a longer lens ... duh, I soon got put straight on that one!

As to the no doubt excellent article, LL asks for a subscription to read it.

[pschlute]

Before I knew everything

I hope to graduate myself soon

As to the no doubt excellent article, LL asks for a subscription to read it.

Odd, the first time I used the link today it showed the article, now it won't unless I subscribe.

edit... If you clear out all your cookies/cache and try again it should work. It does for me.

[xpatUSA]

I hope to graduate myself soon

Odd, the first time I used the link today it showed the article, now it won't unless I subscribe.

edit... If you clear out all your cookies/cache and try again it should work. It does for me.

Thanks for the tip, Peter.

[William W]

Sanjib,

Acknowledging that you asked specifically for my response a few pages ago, I have been working and have just got to this conversation - which (I add) is a very useful conversation:

There is not for me much to add regarding the "Kitten Photos" - I shall reiterate points that are important:

Subject Motion Blur can be made by TWO conditions:
> The Camera moving
> The Subject moving

Both are alleviated by using a FAST enough Shutter Speed for the conditions.
"conditions" include: Focal Length of Lens; Distance to Subject; Speed of Subject; Subject Movement in relation to Camera Position.

(A quick example – An Airplane traveling at 300KPH high in the sky may not show any Subject Movement or Camera Movement if it is photographed by a camera on the ground with a 50mm Lens and 1/60th Shutter is used: yet a kitten at 12ft distance photographed with a 300mm lens may show Subject Movement AND / OR Camera Movement if 1/60th Shutter is used.)

Key Point Being: NEITHER VR nor a TRIPOD address Subject Movement Blur(*1)

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Be careful and mindful of what the camera controls when you choose to use TWO varying exposure settings – i.e. Aperture Priority AND Auto ISO

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My simplest way of thinking about DoF is relating it to FRAMING

Provided that the Camera FORMAT and the APERTURE remain the same, then for all general photos the DoF will remain the same for THE SAME FRAMING. This is true for typical Subject Distances that most Photographers use where DoF will be a major consideration – it is not true for Close Up and Macro.

This is one of my Cheat Sheets for 135 Format (aka “Full Frame”) it employs the FRAMING of a typical Adult Person, simply because most of my work has been Portraiture:



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ALL Digital Images require Post Production: Post Production to ENHANCE the image is a skill which needs learning; Post Production to RESCUE an image is a skill worthy to have – but not a technique to rely upon for day to day use.

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Allan’s question (Post 70) and his response (Post 72) – nailed many of the b issues you've been having.

WW

(*1) Footnote: to address potential technical responses to the above statement - it is acknowledged that there are few conditions where VR (IS, OR etc) WILL assist alleviating Subject Movement Blur, for the sake of simplicity I have chosen to ignore those few isolated examples in this response.