Why does my nikon d 70 digital camera give me dark photos inside?
What should I do to take better photos inside I have the camera set on manual and when I take photos inside I get really dark photos. And when I put them in a photo editor to lighten them up they are still not nice pictures they are grainy at high res…
Sounds like you don't know how to use manual mode properly.
Take a photography class.
What you should do is learn about photography.a, picture is dark what can you do to improve?
a.lower the shutter speed
b.open the aperture further
c.increase light sensitivity by raising the iso value
d.use your flash
e.turn on the lights in the room
f. All of the above are possible options.
And the answer is.
.
.
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.
.
.
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.F!
I would agree with Hondo. It's obvious you know little if anything about the camera you're using.
Go to school and learn something about photography and how to properly operate an excellent camera.
You have to remember that photography is a recording of light. The less light you have to work on, the longer it would take to get a sufficient amount to record. Use a longer shutter speed (smaller number if fractions of a second) and a larger aperture size (smaller f/number).To avoid getting grainy pictures, don't set ISO too high. Around 400-800 should be enough. You and your subject should stay as still as you can. Any slight movement will be recorded as blur.
Photography is loosely defined as "… Painting or drawing with light… " - the operative word here being "light". Although a room may look bright to us, your camera doesn't "see" it the same way.
At this site you can see the relationship of ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture (aka f-stop) - the Exposure Triangle.http://www.calculator.org/exposure.aspx Choose the Scene 'Domestic interiors at night or subject lit by campfire or bonfire' and choose ISO 800. Now look at the results:
ISO 800
f1.4 @ 1/125 sec.
f2.0 @ 1/60 sec.
f2.8 @ 1/30 sec.
f3.5 @ ~ 1/20 sec. If you have the 18-70mm f3.5-4.5 zoom lens this is the maximum aperture at the 18mm end of your zoom.
f4.0 @ 1/15 sec.
f4.5 @ ~ 1/10 sec. If you have the 18-70mm f3.5-4.5 zoom lens this is the maximum aperture at the 55mm end of your zoom.
f5.6 @ 1/8 sec.
So the room that your eyes and brain combined to see as well-lit doesn't appear that way to your camera. If you are letting the camera do all the "thinking" then its choosing a high ISO and the maximum aperture to get a hand-holdable shutter speed even though your picture may come out dark. The camera is doing the best it can but since all cameras are really just dumb boxes its time for YOU to step up and take control.
From looking at the chart above it should be apparent that a 50mm f1.4 lens would be a wise investment if you plan on shooting a lot of available light photography. Since you complained of "grainy" (actually digital noise) image files you can use the in-camera Noise Reduction - if your camera has that feature - to reduce the digital noise found at high ISO settings. You can also learn more about how to deal with digital noise in post-processing by reading this article:
http://www.shutterbug.net/equipmentreviews/software_computers/0309noise/index.html
Articles like that are why I highly recommend a subscription to a magazine like SHUTTERBUG.
To show that the site referenced for low-light exposure is fairly accurate, I used the Scene 'Distant view of city skyline or floodlit buildings' and ISO 200 for these:
100mm lens @ f11, exposure for 30 seconds.
200mm lens @ f11, exposure for 30 seconds.
Yes, they were taken using a 35mm film camera but exposure is exposure so by using the 70mm end of your lens you could come close to duplicating the first example since at 70mm the actual field of view is very close (105mm) to 100mm. Of course you'll need a sturdy tripod. You can use your camera's self-timer to release the shutter since your minimum shutter speed is 30 seconds.
The simple answer is because you don't have enough light. Because you are on manual, the camera isn't setting the exposure for you, you are expected to do it to get the exposure you want.
If there's not enough light, you need to;
- open up the aperture (ie make the f number smaller)
- make the shutter speed longer (you may need a tripod)
- increase the ISO (but you're image quality will suffer with noise the higher you go)
- use flash
or a combination of the above.