How do i ......tricky dark shot?

doublemint76

doublemint76

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Dan
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My daughter loves laying in her bed, lights off playing her DSi before going to sleep. Tonight i tried to capture a few candid shots, but they all came out too bright, basically not as my eye saw the picture.
Picture the scene - pitch black room and my daughter laying on her back playing the DSi. The only light in the room is coming from the screen and the TV in the corner, nice dramatic lighting....but i cannot seem to capture it how it appears.

I want to capture my daughters face and the glow from the screen,the rest of the picture pretty much fading to black (how it is to the eye) almost low key i suppose. Capturing the glow is the key i think....
I tried off camera flash turning it down to low power, and various other settings but tiredness and frustration got the better of me and gave up.
Will try again when i've given it some more thought but any advice/pointers greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
GDHphotography said:
High Iso, slow shutter speed, just use the ambient in the room.
Click to expand...

Of course, a bit like gig photography i suppose.

Thank you, its been a long day. The kids have worn me out!
 
I would set the camera to manual. Set to single focus point with this on the subjects face. Adjust aperture and shutter to get required exposure ....don't forget the iso aswell if u needed the shutter speed increased.....then compose shot....this is just my guess im not a pro by any means
 
Seems to me the main thing to think about is the metering - You need to get in close to meter just the face as the large amount of dark in the room will fool the meter. Once you have done that you ought to be somewhere close to getting the results you want !
High ISO may give you some noise but that may add to the atmosphere in the picture.
 
Spot meter for the area you want highlighted, ie the face, and depending on how exposed you want the rest of the image adjust your shutter speed, iso and aperture accordingly but i would say spot metering would be your best bet
 
My take on this is the overall scene is dark and your camera is set to meter to a midtone grey. Since the camera struggles to find a midtone grey it decides to britghten the scene to fit its programmed ideal. You could try exposure compensation. Spot meyering willonly make whatever you spot to a mid tone grey.
 
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