help with S3 IS indoor shots

[ErinForLunch]

I've been looking around, and I haven't been able to find any help on this.

I have recently (about a month ago) gotten and S3 IS, and mem. card, and everything is great.
As long as I'm in sunlight.
If I'm inside, everything is really grainy. I've tried high ISO, I've tried using flash and zooming in, I've tried bright lights... nothing works.
My friend has the same exact problem with the same exact camera.

This is an amazing camera, but I can't get any decent indoor shots!
What am I doing wrong?


Oh, and I don't exactly have a high income, seeing as I'm still in school, and I can't really afford anything expensive. Haha, and don't suggest I save money, that doesn't work :x


Any help would be EXTREMELY appreciated!
-Erin

[Elisha82]

have you tried increasing the intensity of the flash when taking indoor shots?
most cameras have the flash intensity set to medium and you can go higher. also try shooting in Aperture Priority mode instead as well.

[ErinForLunch]

hmm, neither really helped.
and I don't really like to use flash very much (if at all) indoors.
it distorts the picture, to me at least.
also I do a lot of macro :o

[reppans]

If I'm inside, everything is really grainy. I've tried high ISO, I've tried using flash and zooming in, I've tried bright lights... nothing works.


High ISO produces grain/noise... zooming in decreases aperture which cuts light which will also raises ISO (in Auto). If you are taking pics of people/moving subjects, and don't want to use flash, you're going to have to trade off between grain/noise vs subject motion blur due to the slow shutter speed necessary for indoor.

If you're taking pix of still objects, without flash, then use the manual overrides:

-Set to low ISO like 100
-As Elisha said, use aperture priority (lowest number possible)
-Use a tripod/table, for long exposure, IS if you're steady
-2 second timer to elimate the trigger motion
-Use custom white balance to correct for indoor lighting temperature

[David Metsky]

If you don't like to use the flash indoors you are going to be disappointed. This camera is great at a lot of things, but in low light you need the flash. It doesn't have great high ISO capability.

I've taken some indoor shots with my S3 with flash and they came out as good as I'd suspect with this camera. It's not perfect, but perfectly acceptable. Can you post some shots you took (with EXIF data) that you didn't like? I usually shoot in P mode, with ISO set to 100 or 200 and full flash intensity.

-dave-

[danidabi]

high ISO is a start of the problems with the noise factor, as mentioned above use a lower ISO.

As for the flash. You'll need to use it for interior shots. You can adjust the flash intensity with this camera so play with it and I'm sure you'll find something that you agree with.

Post some pics so we can see whats going on with your interior shots.

[dagonpaul]

I know that money is tight, but you could also consider buying :eek: a slave flash.

You can find them pretty cheap on ebay. Youll need a regular hotshoe flash with a slave sensor. Then you can also buy a bracket to set it up to your camera... here is another post about slave flash http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27343&highlight=slave+flash

over all though this will give you much more control of your flash, and much better lighting quality. You can tilt the flash to reflect off of the cieling or other blank objects, you can use a diffuser to lessen the harshness of it, and the added light it will give you can even out some of those "missed" areas that make shots with the built in flash so ugly.

take a look around ebay. you can find used flashes and brackets in the 10-15 dollar range... they wont be great, but they will help alot!

[danidabi]

I am SO procrastinating on finishing my paper on health promotion and primary healthcare for school. Hense why I spent the time doing this:

I don't know if this helps but heres my examples of some indoor shots using different ISO settings:

ISO 80
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/151/373578165_3a48503eb1.jpg

ISO 400
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/178/373578171_cc3e14f77d.jpg

ISO 800
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/127/373578167_03ddfa3eff.jpg

See how playing with the ISO can reduce noise and make the lighting better. I personally find the ISO 400 looks the best. I did not take these as fabulous pictures, they are PS'd, took them just to show the ISO difference. I don't know if that helped but I found it useful.

[ErinForLunch]

Youll need a regular hotshoe flash with a slave sensor. Then you can also buy a bracket to set it up to your camera

do you have any examples of these?
I don't want to buy the wrong thing :x



also, after playing around for a while,
the lower ISO thing really helped, thank you SO much!
so did shooting in AV mode :]

thank you so much to all of you!

ps. I'll try out some things and show you the results if I can't get it right

[dagonpaul]

http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27343&highlight=slave+flash

there are some good examples of slave flash set ups on this thread.

[FLiPMaRC]

I'm still having trouble with my indoor shots too. I attended a Christening last Sunday and was shooting in Manual mode. The shots I took without the flash were decent.

All these were shot with ISO200 ...

(1/4s f/4.0)
http://www.pbase.com/flipmarc/image/73725635.jpg

(1/4s f/3.2)
http://www.pbase.com/flipmarc/image/73725636.jpg

(1/6s f/2.7)
http://www.pbase.com/flipmarc/image/73725637.jpg


Since, I was shooting in Manual, I kept it in Manual when I used the flash. Bad idea :( All the shots came out overexposed and with an orange tint :mad: Before I learn how to shoot in Manual with a flash, I will need to stick with Auto mode when I want to use flash indoors.