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Your main problem is that there was not enough light in the scene. The settings were the same for both images but one is darker than the other. I suspect there was more lighting in the first shot because of the bright highlights visible in the eyes.

f/5.0 was wide open at 35mm or 37mm focal length so you could not open up the aperture. Your choice of 1/500 for a shutter speed means you had to use ISO 12,800 which causes the "noisy" images you see.

You could have slowed the shutter speed 2 stops to 1/125 and that would allow you to decrease the ISO 2 stops to ISO 3200. ISO 3200 would produce a much "cleaner" image but it is still not ideal.

The next step is to add more more ambient lighting or use a flash.

Your main problem is that there was not enough light in the scene. The settings were the same for both images but one is darker than the other. I suspect there was more lighting in the first shot because of the bright highlights visible in the eyes.

f/5.0 was wide open at 35mm or 37mm focal length so you could not open up the aperture. Your choice of 1/500 for a shutter speed means you had to use ISO 12,800 which causes the "noisy" images you see.

You could have slowed the shutter speed 2 stops to 1/125 and that would allow you to decrease the ISO 2 stops to ISO 3200. ISO 3200 would produce a much "cleaner" image but it is still not ideal.

The next step is to add more more ambient lighting or use a flash.

Your main problem is that there was not enough light in the scene. The settings were the same for both images but one is darker than the other. I suspect there was more lighting in the first shot because of the bright highlights visible in the eyes.

f/5.0 was wide open at 35mm or 37mm focal length so you could not open up the aperture. Your choice of 1/500 for a shutter speed means you had to use ISO 12,800 which causes the "noisy" images you see.

You could have slowed the shutter speed 2 stops to 1/125 and that would allow you to decrease the ISO 2 stops to ISO 3200. ISO 3200 would produce a much "cleaner" image but it is still not ideal.

The next step is to add more more ambient lighting or use a flash.

Your main problem is that there was not enough light in the scene. The settings were the same for both images but one is darker than the other. I suspect there was more lighting in the first shot because of the bright highlights visible in the eyes.

f/5.0 was wide open at 35mm or 37mm focal length so you could not open up the aperture. Your choice of 1/500 for a shutter speed means you had to use ISO 12,800 which causes the "noisy" images you see.

You could have slowed the shutter speed 2 stops to 1/125 and that would allow you to decrease the ISO 2 stops to ISO 3200. ISO 3200 would produce a much "cleaner" image but it is still not ideal.

The next step is to add more more ambient lighting or use a flash.

Your main problem is that there was not enough light in the scene. The settings were the same for both images but one is darker than the other. I suspect there was more lighting in the first shot because of the bright highlights visible in the eyes.

f/5.0 was wide open at 35mm or 37mm focal length so you could not open up the aperture. Your choice of 1/500 for a shutter speed means you had to use ISO 12,800 which causes the "noisy" images you see.

You could have slowed the shutter speed 2 stops to 1/125 and that would allow you to decrease the ISO 2 stops to ISO 3200. ISO 3200 would produce a much "cleaner" image but it is still not ideal.

The next step is to add more more ambient lighting or use a flash.

Here are your photos showing the settings you used.

Your main problem is that there was not enough light in the scene. The settings were the same for both images but one is darker than the other. I suspect there was more lighting in the first shot because of the bright highlights visible in the eyes.

f/5.0 was wide open at 35mm or 37mm focal length so you could not open up the aperture. Your choice of 1/500 for a shutter speed means you had to use ISO 12,800 which causes the "noisy" images you see.

You could have slowed the shutter speed 2 stops to 1/125 and that would allow you to decrease the ISO 2 stops to ISO 3200. ISO 3200 would produce a much "cleaner" image but it is still not ideal.

The next step is to add more more ambient lighting or use a flash.