Composing a Shot Indoors

Lighting is critical to a properly exposed photo, but you can also use light to set a mood or emphasize important aspects of a scene.

Shooting Indoors with Flash
Although window light will serve well as your major light source, it likely will not be entirely sufficient. Flash photography indoors is an alternative to lighting your subject, provided that your subject is close enough to the camera. Your camera’s flash spreads light only a few feet in front of you; this depth varies depending on your flash.  Unfortunately, in addition to causing red-eye, a built-in flash is too focused to produce soft, even lighting.

Taking Indoor Pictures without Flash
When shooting indoors, the lighting available may not always be optimal, but you can still get some decent shots using only what light is available.

ISO settings
At higher ISO settings such as 400 ISO and under the right circumstances, you don’t need a flash. You just have to position yourself and your subject to make the best of indoor lighting. However, shooting at ISO settings above 400 can produce noise which is generally most evident in areas of shadow and solid colour.

EV Compensation
You may be able to do without flash and get a good exposure by boosting your camera’s EV (exposure value) compensation control. Using a positive EV setting produces a brighter exposure. You may discover, however, that raising the EV setting enough to expose the darkest areas of the face properly overexposes the lighter areas.

Adding Reflected Light
If a flash creates harsh shadows or red-eye, and boosting EV compensation blows out highlights, just use a reflector to bounce window light back onto the shaded side of the face.

You don’t need a commercially made reflector to create bounced light. A piece of white cardboard will work just fine.