My indoor photographs are too dark - help!

<p>Hey everyone...I have recently brought a Nikon D5000. I do a lot of indoor photography, shots of different rooms & damage to properties. Because I am by no means a pro, I do use the AUTO settings quite a bit, but I find the photos come out very dark, often completely black. At first I thought is may be the light, but I have been in many different light conditions where with a normal digital camera, the photograph is not affected at all.I'm sure that it is a specific setting, but cannot find it. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do? I also often find that in very low light conditions, the flash does not automatically switch on? can you somehow force the flash?<br>

I look forward to your suggestions...<br>

Much Appreciated :)</p>

<p>Chene', a couple of things:</p>

<p>Take the camera out of AUTO and put in in Apeture priority. Then open up the lens. This should help things. Also, check your ISO settings. If you're shooting in doors and using ambient light, dial up your ISO a bit.<br>

And yes, you can set your flash for fill-in so it will fire when in a different shooting mode. But try these other things first.</p>

<p>Post some jpgs, it will make it easier to diagnose the problem.</p>

<p>chene,are you saying you are taking photos indoors with flash and they still come out dark?<br>

also, if the flash doesnt automatically pop up in Auto mode, hit the top button next to the flash on the left side to make it pop up.</p>

 

<p>Awesome! - thanks Mark, will try this tomorrow..</p>

<p>Hi Eric, no the flash does not go off...the light is not necessarity low & in my option the flash is not needed, but the photograph just comes out very dark.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Hi Eric, no the flash does not go off...the light is not necessarity low & in my option the flash is not needed, but the photograph just comes out very dark.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>My D90 seems to do the same thing, especially when there is large area of light color object in the frame (someone wearing a white T-shirt, for example). I think this is b/c the meter tries to underexpose to protect highlights. If you shoot RAW, you can change the exposure later. Alternatively you can use spot metering or dial in +1 to compensate. Turning off auto-D-lighting also helps, BTW.</p>

<p>My guess is you are taking photos inside that include a window in them. The camera will adjust exposure for the bright window, which makes everything in the interior very dark. Engage the flash.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

<p>Engaging the flash manually will help.</p>

<p>Also, an external flash, such as an SB600, would be very helpful.</p>

<p>I could guess 10 possible problems but if you post an example and include the EXIF data we can all make much more helpful suggestions.</p>

<p>Indeed; posting an example is best. However, the suggestion that a very light window, or some other bright object throws the metering off seems to me to be the best suggestion. You can easily check if this is the case the next time a photograph is too dark by just taking it again with exactly the same composition, etc. and only the metering changed.</p>

<p>I don't know the D5000, so I don't know if it has a dedicated button for that, or if you need to go in the menu.<br>

Nikons (or indeed, most brands) usually have 3 sorts of metering;</p>

<ol>

<li>matrixmetering, whereby the camera looks at the whole picture. If there's big differences in lighting in the picture (e.g. a (semi-)dark room with a bright window) the camera might guess that you want to shoot the bright scene (e.g. the plants outside the window). In that case you must 'tell' the camera to correctly shoot the dark parts by 'overexposing'. There's usually a button for that, which you have to depress while turning the wheel. You'll the see + or - symbols for over- or underexposure. </li>

<li>centermetering, whereby the camera will look at the whole picture, but make the center much more important when deciding what shoot be correctly shot.</li>

<li>spotmetering, whereby the camera looks at the point where you are focussing. So, if you're in said 'dark-room-with-bright-window' and you focus on the window, the room will be very dark in the picture, but the window will be ok. If you focus at a point in the room, then the room should be correctly exposed, and the window will be overly bright. This works best if you choose your focuspoints yourself. </li>

</ol>

<p>Hope this helps you.</p>

<p>I'm a big fan of spotmetering, but a friend of mine is always using matrixmetering together with the over-/underexposure button, and getting good results as well. Choose what works best for you.</p>

<p>Shooting indoor without flash is not recommended unless you are using a f/2.8 - f/1.8 lens. Perhaps you should use the pop up flash and if so, remember that is not that powerful so the distance between you and the subject will play a great rol in the picture outcome. Using the SB-600, SB-800 or the new SB-900 will definitely void this problem but if you want to shoot indoor without a flash, then use a tripod, large aperture, increase the ISO and when shooting against a window, increase the compensation to at least +1 ( and spot metering if necessary ). Personally, I prefer to use my SB-800 for indoor or my 50 mm f/1.8 in case a flash is not allowed. Also, try not to use P but M ( S or A ) so you can control whatever you want your camera does, otherwise, it will control you.</p>