As we've discussed in several articles, using flash in your photos can lead to overly lit and unnatural looking images. The alternative, however, is often blurred and under-exposed images. Fortunately, here are some easy tips to help you shoot great images without having to resort to using flash.
- Turn Up the Lights. This might sound like an obvious solution, but we often forget that lights can be turned on! If you're in a situation where external light sources are available, don't forget to use them.
- Use the Central Focus Point. Switch your AF point to the central focus point. This is the most sensitive of the AF points, and it will help your camera to focus in low light.
- Use the Largest Aperture Possible. Set your aperture to the largest setting available. On a standard kit zoom lens, this is likely to be around f3.5 to f4.5. This will allow the maximum amount of light possible to enter the lens' iris, and it will help you to achieve good shots in lower light. Bear in mind, though, that it will leave you with a small depth of field.
- Raise Your ISO. By pushing your ISO upward, you'll make your camera more sensitive to light and allow for sharp and well exposed photos in lower light. The flip side of this is that the higher your ISO, the more noise your image will have. However, most modern DSLRs can cope well with higher ISOs and, as long as you're not planning to produce large prints, you should be able to produce useable images.