I’m using a bridge camera Fujifilm s7000. I’ve found it difficult to take photos indoors in low light conditions. The exposure looks right but blurred. I’m trying to take photos of our baby, as you can imagine a moving subject.Aperture priority mode f2.8 and no chance to use a flash.Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
-
1\$\begingroup\$ Have you got any example images? Since it's of a child I imagine you rather not share those but maybe try and re-create the issues for us. Also from just the question itself, I'd recommend a tripod and ensuring that you're being stable with your photos or if you don't have one make sure you're using a high shutter speed. If you're having issues with low lighting then crank your Appature up as well as boost the ISO. \$\endgroup\$– MatthewJan 15, 2018 at 9:49
-
\$\begingroup\$ Have you tried upping the ISO so that you can get a faster shutter speed? Otherwise you may need better lighting! \$\endgroup\$– MiguelHJan 15, 2018 at 9:49
-
1\$\begingroup\$ Possible duplicate of What is the "exposure triangle"? \$\endgroup\$– Crazy DinoJan 15, 2018 at 10:17
-
2\$\begingroup\$ Possible duplicate of Tactics to avoid motion blur in low light conditions \$\endgroup\$– mattdmJan 15, 2018 at 13:43
-
1\$\begingroup\$ Related: Is camera flash actually harmful to infants or newborns? \$\endgroup\$– CalebJan 15, 2018 at 15:32
5 Answers
- Use more light. Open windows, turn on more room lights, bring in extra portable lights.
- Use a flash. You say there is "no chance" to use a flash, but since you gave no justification for that it remains valid advice. Added: I just looked at the manual you linked to, and right on the front page it clearly shows a popup flash. A spot light from almost where the lens is doesn't make the best pictures, but they will still be better than blurred.
- Take pictures in a brighter area.
- Use a higher ISO setting.
- Use a camera that is more sensitive, so that you can use a higher ISO setting without excessive noise.
All the above seek to change the exposure tradeoff so that you can use a faster shutter speed. That results in less motion blur for the same motion of the subject.
-
\$\begingroup\$ In particular, when it comes to flash, most modern compact cameras now meter the flash so you can bodge a reflector to bounce it towards the ceiling (thick white paper and sticky tape) and eliminate the direct harsh flash which you probably want to keep out of your baby's eyes \$\endgroup\$– Chris HJan 15, 2018 at 14:24
-
\$\begingroup\$ Thank you, I can fit an external flash to this camera. Would any shoe flash fit? e.g Miranda 630CD Shoe Mount Flash. Noting much mentioned in the manual, unfortunately. \$\endgroup\$– nish1013Jan 15, 2018 at 15:55
-
\$\begingroup\$ @nish1013, any hotshoe flash should work just fine - though with some you may miss out on having the camera auto set the right amount of flash. You'll need to practice to get familiar with what settings to use and what power of flash level. Read up on "Guide Number". Also play around with bouncing the flash off the ceiling. I did just that for the photos of the cats at coreyharding.com - it's much more pleasing than directing the flash straight at the subject. Good luck! \$\endgroup\$– OnBreak.Jan 15, 2018 at 16:06
-
\$\begingroup\$ @nish: Why not start with the built-in popup flash? \$\endgroup\$ Jan 15, 2018 at 16:22
-
1\$\begingroup\$ @nish1013, if you have someone else to help you, you could ask them turn on their mobile phone's flash (as though they wanted to use their phone as a flash light). Then you can position them where you want the light to come from. This gives you "static lighting", which I find makes it easier to compose the shot in dark environments - and it allows you to prevent direct reflections and control the fall of highlights and shadows. Mobile phones are not perfect studio lights - but they are better than nothing :) \$\endgroup\$ Jan 16, 2018 at 7:16
From the information provided in your comments, it sounds very much like the shutter speed was too low, possibly because your ISO was too low and the subject was moving faster then the shutter, hence the blur.
I'd suggest increasing ISO and shutter speed.
Point of note. The light may seem OK to a human eye, but an eye is considerably more sensitive then a camera.
I’m using a bridge camera Fujifilm s7000.
This is the root of your problem. The S7000 was announced in 2003, and discontinued in 2005. And while the camera might work just as well as it ever did, digital cameras have evolved significantly over the last 15 years, and that has changed our expectations of what we should be able to do with them.
The other answers here are right: adding ambient light or flash and turning up the camera's ISO setting to make it more sensitive are about all you can do in order to get a reasonable exposure at a shutter speed that'll reduce the motion blur you're currently seeing. At the S7000's highest setting of ISO 800, you're probably going to get some very noisy images.
Using a newer camera will go a long way toward solving the problem. Even a relatively cheap point and shoot camera will significantly outperform your S7000 in every way, possibly for less money than the cost of an external flash. For example, the Sony DSC-W800 gives you a 20 megapixel sensor that shoots up to ISO 3200, and includes image stabilization for under $90. I'm not necessarily recommending that camera -- a different choice might make more sense for you, and it's a little dated itself -- but it illustrates the point, which is that cameras have advanced so much since the S7000 that replacing your camera is probably the best and cheapest option.
No camera will take a good photo if you don't give it enough light; conversely, if you give have enough light, you can probably get a good shot even with a pretty old camera. But over the last 15 years, our expectations of how much light is enough have changed because cameras have improved so much.
Addendum:
The examples you posted don't show much blur from motion. The plant stem in the indoor image looks pretty sharp; it's only the leaf in the foreground and the doorway in the background that are blurry. That's just shallow depth of field, and it's expected when you use a wide aperture. If the goal is to get more of the foreground and background objects in focus, then a newer camera with better low-light performance would still help because higher ISO would let you use a smaller aperture.
It's hard to tell what was supposed to be in focus in the outdoor shot, and the fact that you took it though a windshield doesn't help. The streetlight in the middle of the shot looks like it might be in focus, but it's hard to tell because it's so small. The biggest defect, though, is that there's a lot of chromatic aberration: there's a sort of magenta glow on the right edges of the tree branches, and a green glow along the left edges. Part of that is just the quality of the lens, but you can often reduce CA by shooting with a smaller aperture. A cheap compact camera might not do any better here, but a DSLR with a good lens would.
-
\$\begingroup\$ Isn't the lense good on S7000 compared to compact cameras? \$\endgroup\$– nish1013Jan 15, 2018 at 20:21
-
2\$\begingroup\$ The lens has a much wider range than those on compact cameras. It doesn't have a significantly wider aperture. It is good for some things, but not really for indoor photos. \$\endgroup\$– Philip Kendall ♦Jan 15, 2018 at 22:48
-
2\$\begingroup\$ @nish1013 It doesn't matter how good the lens is if the sensor behind it can't record the image well. I'm not advocating buying a compact camera, just saying that cameras have improved so much that even a 5-year-old sub-$100 compact camera would be an improvement over a 15-year-old bridge camera, at least for the situation you described. \$\endgroup\$– CalebJan 16, 2018 at 2:29
-
\$\begingroup\$ Thank you , it makes sense now. Any link to a post on the forum to learn bit more about these elements of a camera? \$\endgroup\$– nish1013Jan 16, 2018 at 5:56
-
1\$\begingroup\$ You might start with What is the “exposure triangle”? and Is it practical to shoot portraits by only candlelight?, or just start reading in relevant tags like low-light. \$\endgroup\$– CalebJan 16, 2018 at 6:15
Images need a certain amount of light.
This is given by lens, shutter speed, aperture, sensitivity of film/sensor, and available light at all.
if your images are blurred you need a shorter shutter time, this you can compensate with the other parameters. if some paramters are fixed (available light) the remaining need to be altered.
Others have given the ISO, but you also can try to change aparture and maybe lenses. So changing the aparture change depth of focus you need to be more precise with positioning.
Or you get lenses with a wider diameter, they gather more light.
-
1\$\begingroup\$ The OP has a fixed lens camera, therefore they're unable to increase the aperture or change lens. \$\endgroup\$ Jan 15, 2018 at 13:55
-
\$\begingroup\$ so there is a fixed lens, additional lenses may be possible. My first digitalcamera was an Epson PhotoPC 3000Z, with build in lenses. But I also had an adapter for further lenses like filter and macro. \$\endgroup\$ Jan 16, 2018 at 15:04
-
\$\begingroup\$ How would that help in relation to your answer to this question, you would neither be able to widen the aperture or have access to a wider aperture? \$\endgroup\$ Jan 16, 2018 at 15:28
-
\$\begingroup\$ If I use a fixed/priorized aperture and complain about blurred fotos the priority should change to shutter time (either as a camera program or manual setting), which will result in a changed aperture. \$\endgroup\$ Jan 17, 2018 at 8:03
Since no one's directly answered the question about why the photos are blurred, let me explain it here since it sounds like you are new to photography.
The exposure of a photo is determined by the total amount of light that accumulates on the image sensor. If the exposure is wrong, the photo will be either too dark or too light. If the exposure is right, the photo will be the correct brightness.
There are three factors that affect exposure, and together they're called the "exposure triangle". These factors are:
- Aperture
amount of light let in by the lens
also affects depth of field (how blurred things in front of or behind the subject are) - Shutter speed
how long the light accumulates for, longer accumulation gives more total light and therefore a brighter exposure
also affects motion blur (longer shutter speed means that moving objects will be more blurred) - ISO
how sensitive the sensor is to the light, this doesn't change the actual amount of light but a higher ISO makes the sensor react more strongly to light, giving a brighter image
also creates noise in the image due to thermal and electrical characteristics of the sensor
You say that your exposure "looks right", which makes sense because the camera looks at the parameters that you've given (aperture) and chooses the other two (shutter speed and ISO) based on the amount of available lot. What went wrong is that the camera chose a shutter speed that was too long for the subject in question, so it appeared blurred. When photographing moving subjects, it's best to use the shortest (fastest) shutter speed possible.
With the camera in question there might be little that you can do. It sounds like you're already using the largest aperture, so the only two parameters that you can adjust are shutter speed and ISO. I don't know what ISO you're using, or if your camera lets you choose one manually, but your only real option if you can't use another camera (or increase the amount of available light) is to increase the ISO. Of course increasing the ISO will increase the amount of noise so look carefully at the resulting photos to check that you're happy with them.
Your best option is probably to just increase the amount of light. Move to a brighter location (possibly outside), turn more lights on, if you don't want to use a flash then get some additional lights (desk lamp, standing lamp, etc.). It's also possible that you're experiencing some camera shake (although this sounds unlikely) so it might be worth giving a tripod a try if you've got one, or putting the camera down on a flat surface if you haven't got a tripod.