Camera Setting for Low Lighting

[duchess]

I took pics at a graduation party this weekend and also the weekend before I did a birthday party. I have a Nikon D80. In both settings the lighting was low, some pics I had to take outside and it was dark.
Any suggestions on lighting settings for these situations?

And just wonder what the best thing to do to lighten things up after the fact in Photoshop CS3?

My flash light is a Quantaray QDC 900WA, I don't think it helps at all.

Thanks,
dutchandduchess.smugmug.com

[Nattyb52]

Did you bounce the flash off the ceiling? Also a good diffuser on the flash helps.

Or go to strobist.com and he has tons of good low cost lighting tips.

[ziggy53]

I took pics at a graduation party this weekend and also the weekend before I did a birthday party. I have a Nikon D80. In both settings the lighting was low, some pics I had to take outside and it was dark.
Any suggestions on lighting settings for these situations?

And just wonder what the best thing to do to lighten things up after the fact in Photoshop CS3?

My flash light is a Quantaray QDC 900WA, I don't think it helps at all.

Thanks,
dutchandduchess.smugmug.com

I'm afraid the only flashes I would recommend for Nikon based cameras are the Nikon SB-600 and SB-800 and the Sigma EF 500 (or EF 530) DG Super flashes.

It would help to see the images before making post-processing recommendations.

If you shot in RAW (hopefully) then do basic exposure first in ACR to lift the image to basicly acceptable levels (do as much as you can in ACR first). In PS, I would start with Levels and then Curves and finally Shadow and Highlight adjustments.

[ElginetPhotos]

I'm afraid the only flashes I would recommend for Nikon based cameras are the Nikon SB-600 and SB-800 and the Sigma EF 500 (or EF 530) DG Super flashes.

It would help to see the images before making post-processing recommendations.

If you shot in RAW (hopefully) then do basic exposure first in ACR to lift the image to basicly acceptable levels (do as much as you can in ACR first). In PS, I would start with Levels and then Curves and finally Shadow and Highlight adjustments.

Ditto as far as the external flash goes. The D80 is a great camera but the internal flash leaves a lot to be desired in any distance beyond 5 ft.

Pick up a used SB600 on eBay. If you don't like it, you can usually sell em for what you paid for em. ;-)

Then get a Stofen diffuser (http://www.stofen.com/)for it (about $20 bucks). Then....shoot RAW and experiment. ISO 200 with the flash on TTL and a 45° tilt-up will give you excellent results in a situation like that.

Don't shoot anything with a shutter speed of under 180 either if you're indoors using that flash if the subjects are moving at all.

Shooting at ISO 400 even with the internal flash with anything at a distance of more than 6 feet will be terribly grainy as well.

Good luck!

[duchess]

I just purchased the SB800 flash. I have been using it and I can see a difference. Please elaborate on shooting RAW images. Thanks to some other bloggers I know have a few good links about using the flash to read up on.

I have attached an example of one of the pictures I took. I have to lighten the picture a little using photoshop, It just doesn't seem to be bright enough to me and I used the flash.