Little DSLR experience, need tips for job tomorrow?
Tomorrow is my school's Homecoming pep rally and I'm in charge of taking photographs. I recently purchased my first DSLR camera, a Nikon D3200. Our gym is like a typical gym, bright fluorescent lightning & many people will be moving around. What is a good setting (like what ISO) for taking photos of moving & stationary people at the pep rally?
On short notice, I'd set the camera on sports mode and let it figure our what settings. If you have some experience and/or training, set the camera on Shutter priority, set the shutter speed to at least 1/250 and try a trial shot. If it blurs, try a faster speed, like 1/500.
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/1000
Aperture f/16
For fast moving things try iso 100, shutter 1/125 and aperture f/8 or f/11 - if things are too dark try same with iso 200, if still too dark go upto iso 400 with all other settings same. Even after doing that, if things are too dark, try lowering aperture to f/5.6 but don't go below that at the background might blue too much. 1/250 will able to capture faster movements. 1/500 is too fast for indoor situation, no matter how bright your gym is. Hope you have a good lens, this is where your lens comes into play.
If you are in charge of taking photographs, shouldn't you have some clue as to what you are doing? Buying a camera does not make you a photographer. Shooting in a gym is difficult for most amateurs, let alone flat out beginners.
Put the camera on green box auto and pray… You may get a few decent shots if you take enough.
Auto mode, ISO400 with flash on.
You are in trouble. You got a camera that is the worst for low light high ISO shots and to make matters worse, you probably have a slow kit lens.
The Nikon D3200 uses a Sony Exmor sensor. And while Sony makes the best, this one is a dog in low light. It also is used in the new Nikon d5200 and Sony A65 and A77. When you cram 24 mega pixels into an image sensor that is still the same size, something has to give. Those pixels need to get smaller to fit. Smaller means less light, less light means more noise.
Indoors with only artificial light and no sunlight coming in, you can shoot at lower ISOs for still subjects, but to freeze motion, you might have to crank it to anywhere between 800-1600 for basic movement, and up to 3200-6400 for sports type movement.
If you shoot jpeg, the images will be very smeared as the camera tries to hide noise. If you shoot RAW you can clean up better in lightroom 4. If you don't understand what a custom white balance is, your color is going to be horrid. You can fix with RAW, you can't color correct jpegs.a better camera for low light. Sony A57, A580, Sony NEX F3, NEX 5R, Nikon D3100, D5100, Pentax K 30. No Canons, their image sensors score lower than anybody else. There are others, but those are in your price range.
And there are no good settings, they change depending on conditions.
ISO 100-200
Use Pop up Flash
Use Auto focus function of the lens.
Set in Shutter Speed Priority mode (S)
First take some test shots starting S 1/500 & go upward if needed. I think 1/500 will be enough for you.
If you still mess up, direct go to Auto Mode:/