Using 50mm f/1.8 without flash

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peterc2609

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Peter
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Hi,

Having swapped my 1000d for a 40d (Courtesy of AndyWest), I questioned why the flash never worked when on manual etc - Andy disabled it as he would rather use a faster lens.

Now I have always used my 50mm at around 1/100, and ISO100 when I've been at f/1.8, then changed things accordingly while adding the on board flash on.

I've been trying without flash and not getting good results, very dark/grey, or blurred because of movement.

These have been mainly of my little boy who never keeps still and indoor.

I tried on Av but it was setting the shutter speed too long.

Any tips to help me out?

Thanks.
 
1st step for me would be to up the ISO. I'm not familiar with the 40D, but I'm guessing you could push to ISO 400 easily without noticeable noise. This will mean your shutter speeds will be a bit faster.

Ian.
 
peterc2609 said:
I've always thought upping the ISO was the last resort!?!?
Click to expand...

But indoors is your only chance of getting the picture. I'm not afraid of ISO 1600 in my 500D and I guess the 40D must be similar.ISO 100 is for sunny days outdoors or for still subjects with the camera on a tripod.

Start at least with ISO 400 and try to get a shutter speed of at least 1/80. But then...that will only work if your child is relatively still . If your child is moving you are gonna have to use flash.At least that's my experience.
 
Cool, thanks for the tips.

The guy who 'taught' me was a pro fashion photographer, so I'm guessing those settings were for studio shoots.

Will test tomorrow!
 
Dont be scared of boosting your ISO over the 1000 mark. I would say 9 out of 10 of my indoor photos are with ISO 1600 and sometimes even 3200.
 
I have a 20D and regularly take the ISO up to 800 or even 1600, dependant on light, for indoor shots with no flash.
Manual.
ISO 800
f4.0
1/30 - 1/20

Try it, you've nothing to loose.
 
I too used to fear the ISO, always aiming to keep it at 100 and getting rubbish blurry pictures indoors. Now it is my friend, and I use 800 (sometimes 1600), which gives fine results on the 40D. I don't worry about noise any more, it's not really worth worrying about. In my opinion of course :)
 
Harlequin565 said:
1st step for me would be to up the ISO. I'm not familiar with the 40D, but I'm guessing you could push to ISO 400 easily without noticeable noise. This will mean your shutter speeds will be a bit faster.

Ian.
Click to expand...

As long as I can expose correctly, I can push my ISO to the maximum on my 450D with no real noise problems. I'd be very surprised if the 40D doesn't at least perform equally if not better.

Because it's not always easy to meter the scene (shutter speed can keep changing) I switch to Tv, set the ISO to 800 or 1600, wack my shutter speed to 1/50 or 1/60 (to ensure I get a steady hand) and let the aperture sort itself. If I find it's going above, say, f/2.8, I'd drop the ISO. If I need a higher shutter speed for a moving subject then obviously select a higher shutter speed in Tv mode. Using manual for situations like this can be quite difficult (for me at least).

I don't know about sample variation on the Canons, but in a quick test I did, I found my 1.4 to be vastly superior in quality wide open than the 1.8. I'd be a little wary of using the 1.8 wide open (whereas I'll do it happily all day long on the 1.4) so factor that into how you work the settings.
 
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