Mamarazzi DIY: Room Pics
One of the questions that seems to fall in to the inbox more often than others are how to get good indoor shots in a nursery or bedroom. The resounding solution is light, more light and then even more light. This week, I hope everyone will try and nap a few pics of their jam faces hanging out in their rooms during the day, just to see.
Aperture Priority Mode | f/2.8 @ 1/160 Shutter Speed w/ +2 Exposure 400 ISO
This is Isla newly awake in her crib. I worked the room and camera hard to get this shot so it would look like this straight out of the camera. I threw the curtains wide open, leaving only a thin sheer curtain to diffuse the direct sunlight, and turned on both her overhead light and table top lamp. Also, pay attention to where the sun is falling on your home. These shots would have looked completely different if taken in the afternoon.
Aperture Priority Mode | f/2.8 @ 1/125 Shutter Speed w/ +2 Exposure 400 ISO
If only we all woke up so cheery, eh?! On the camera, I hung out in Aperture Priority mode to minimize fiddling with settings as she woke up and to ensure lots of bokeh/blur. As you’ll see, all of the settings are pretty similar. If I had been in manual, I likely would have opted for a higher shutter speed and wider aperture, but after two shots I saw this was working (almost) so I kept at it. I say “almost” because I ended up increasing the exposure bracket to +2.
For point and shoot cameras, refer to your manual as you should be able to set the ISO to a 400, 640 or 800 and increase the exposure bracket without relying on the flash coming on.
Aperture Priority Mode | f/2.8 @ 1/125 Shutter Speed w/ +2 Exposure 400 ISO
When you play with the exposure bracket, make sure you’re aware of how it exposes everything, not just the subject. I measured for her face and skin, but you can tell the pink in her bedding looks washed out. I’m okay with that — I was going for a light, airy nursery photo — but it is something to watch nonetheless.
Aperture Priority Mode | f/2.8 @ 1/160 Shutter Speed w/ +2 Exposure 400 ISO
Aperture Priority Mode | f/2.8 @ 1/160 Shutter Speed w/ +2 Exposure 400 ISO
Aperture Priority Mode | f/2.8 @ 1/160 Shutter Speed w/ +2 Exposure 400 ISO
Mirrors are another useful decor item to have in a room. They naturally bounce light and can be your best tool if used correctly. Here the light bounced off the mirror, illuminating her face just in time to see her monkey face. Kids… But note, it almost bounced too much, making her face a bit grey, taking on the tones of her room.
Aperture Priority Mode | f/2.8 @ 1/60 Shutter Speed w/ +2 Exposure 400 ISO
And finally, for this one I pulled her lamp off the desk and popped the shade off just long yet fast enough to illuminate her face from this angle. Since the sunlight is streaming in from behind her, you can see the toys on the dresser are blown out. This could have been prevented by bringing down the exposure bracket, but I would definitely have needed a more powerful light in front of her than just her lamp. As you can see, the shutter speed dropped to 1/60 and, as a result, gave a touch of blur. So we went ‘momgyver’ style and ended up with this!
(Next time, we’ll cover low light and night time nursery/room pics.)
Ask Mamarazzi a question! Submit your pics to be featured on Mamarazzi + Co here!
Search
