indoor pics and low-light conditions

bismarck SG

i noticed i have serious problems taking pictures when in low-light conditions such as indoors and at night.
main problems include, problem with focusing, pics turn out super dark and if i use night-scene mode, the pics usually turn out very "noisy".

think i shld dump my camera.

another thing is that, for quite a number of pics, they turn out to be very noisy even though i set the ISO to 200.

then sometimes when i have a subject with a bright background, i dunno which to choose,
properly exposed subject with a damn bright background or a ok-exposed background with a slightly under-exposed subject?
something wrong with my camera?

jnifur SG

I think for tricky situations like this, nearly everyone will face.
What I heard is, you can use program mode to gauge the metering of light, say if u point ur camera at the darker side and it reads F4, and if u point ur camera at the brighter side and it reads F8, then, u can switch to Manual mode, take the in btw. Set to F6

This is just an example lah.

Normally to minimise camera shake, pple tend to push the ISO to quite high when taking pictures under low light condition. If u have something to lean on or u got a tripod with u, u can set the ISO to 50. That should solve the noise problem.
Other than that, it is not easy to over come things like that. It is not ur camera, situations like that happen all the time. It is a matter of how the photographer overcome it

jOhO SG

post the said pics... then i see wat i can comment. Wink

bismarck SG

i try lah. this stupid sch got limited net facility

jOhO SG

ok i'll wait.. or u can send them to me thru msn... hard to tell wat's actually wrong when i can't see the pics.

bismarck SG

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=3123741&uid=1629247&members=1
the pic at the top is the 1 i am refering to having loads of digital noise and blur

jOhO SG

yo man, i'll need some exif info...

focal length, aperture, shutter, iso...?

bismarck SG

Make : Panasonic
Model : DMC-FZ1
Orientation : 6 (right-top)
XResolution : 72
YResolution : 72
ResolutionUnit : 2
Software : Ver1.03
DateTime : 2003:11:13 07:13:32
YCbCrPositioning : 2
ExifOffset : 416
ExposureTime : 10/80
FNumber : 28/10
ExposureProgram : 2
ISOSpeedRatings : 400
ExifVersion : 02.20
DateTimeOriginal : 2003:11:13 07:13:32
DateTimeDigitized : 2003:11:13 07:13:32
CompressedBitsPerPixel : 39/10
ShutterSpeedValue : 3000/1000
ApertureValue : 30/10
ExposureBiasValue : 0/100
MaxApertureValue : 30/10
MeteringMode : 3 (spot)
LightSource : 0
Flash : 16
FocalLength : 46/10
FlashPixVersion : 01.00
ColorSpace : sRGB
ExifImageWidth : 1280
ExifImageLength : 960
InteroperabilityOffset : 1258
SensingMethod : 2

jOhO SG

wah... wierd exif man...

shutter 3000/1000? hmm ..

anyway i can't tell wat the hell it's talking about except for the iso, which is at 400 and that's probably where ur noise is coming from. not to mention that the main part of the photo is the wall in the background, esp the part in the dark, u'll see noise more evidently in flat areas of the same colour, especially when it's underexposed.

as for the blur, it depends on ur shutter vs ur focal length (of which i can't decipher on your exif). i saw also that u're using spot metering. is it wat u set it to, or the cam just does it that way? anyway ur focal point seems to be on the middle plant, but then the exif says right top? hmm..

bismarck SG

i used spot meter because it was having problems focusing though it's not that dark. other cams can easily capture the image.
for the focal point i also no idea. anyway i am not using the usual software to view the photos to extract the exif data. using another software for the moment.

for the iso, ok lah. maybe it's too high.
but i have encountered situations where even 200 has too much noise.

btw is LCD monitors suitable for viewing images ? because i noticed some photos i viewed using a LCD monitor was rather noisy but when viewed on a CRT, it didnt appear to be that noisy, and in some cases, very little.