Naturally, not every photo you take is going to be a portrait photo. Some are going to be snapshots of things going on around the house. Some are going to be events you attend, and some are going to be birthday parties in the poorly lit dining room.

However, there will be times when you want to take a good picture of your kids (without using the flash). This is why you need to know where the good light is in your house.

I have two places that provide good portrait light. In my living room in front of my French doors and in my bedroom are my studio locations.

If I open the doors, sit the child inside and step outside on the porch, the lighting is perfect.

Taken with my f/stop down to 1.8 on A setting, the background blurs into darkness and her face is in focus and illuminated.

This also works for taking self-portraits as demonstrated by Beth and Marsha.

Try this for yourself. Place your child just inside the door and you step out and have some fun. Find out where the best lit spots are in your house and you’ll never have to wonder where to get that good picture again.

I’ve linked all the Using Your Camera series posts on my sidebar. Just click on the button.

Last week I put the stop settings on my pictures just in case I had some readers out there ready for that information. But I hadn’t really talked about it yet. So, let’s talk about it today. It’s really very simple.

It makes the background blur. That’s called Bokeh.

I like it so much I bought a lens that would allow me to create even more bokeh in my pictures.
Though, you don’t have to buy a new lens to get this in your pictures. When I was using my Powershot S2IS, I put it on the Av setting then zoomed in to the subject. This also created a nice blurry background.

On my Canon DSLR camera, you just turn the dial on the top of the camera to change the f/stop. Changing it higher or lower changes the amount of light coming through the lens. When you look inside your viewfinder or on your lcd screen you should see the number changing.

The pictures themselves do a better job of explaining than I could. You can see that using an f/stop of 8 allows you to see much more of the background than an f/stop of 4.5.

And in certain situations, like portraits and bugs, blurry backgrounds make the subject stand out.

Try it. I think you’ll have fun.

Welcome to a very random selection of recent photos that were on my camera. We are in the middle of Vacation Bible School at our church every night this week and while it seems that would only take up the night portion of my day, it somehow makes my days crazy too. So, I did not take pictures specifically for this post.

When I started thinking about how I would talk about ISO, I began to wonder, as I sometimes do, how do I have anything better to say about this subject than people far more experienced and more knowledgeable than I am? The Pioneer Woman for example. That’s where I learn a lot about photography. Certainly you could read all about ISO over there.

The truth is I don’t know anymore than you do. I just read my manual and I’m not afraid to try things and keep trying until I figure something out. I think a lot of you are like that too (maybe minus reading the manual part).

Often it helps me to think of it as if I were explaining to my aunt something about her camera. So, if this explanation is too simplistic, then you are ready to look elsewhere for your camera information.

My knowledge is limited.

Today I want to introduce you to ISO and challenge you to play around with those settings on your camera.

So why bother even changing your ISO?

ISO is your film speed. And if you click on the link, you’ll find that it appears very complicated. Which is why I’m not going to attempt to explain it.

You just need to know these 3 things.

1. A higher ISO allows you to shoot in situations with less light without using the flash.
2. A higher ISO can compensate for movement.
3. A higher ISO allows you to shoot with a faster shutter speed in dark conditions.

Based on those 3 things you might think a higher ISO is the way to go. The higher the better right? My camera goes up to 1600, but I know many digital cameras that go even higher than that. Should you keep it on the highest setting?

No.

Because a higher ISO increases noise. Noise in camera talk refers to grainy specks on the picture. Those are not good.

When taking outdoor, still shots in bright light use a lower ISO setting. This will ensure a crisp, clean shot. Anywhere between 100 and 400 should be fine.

When taking pictures indoors without the flash (and maybe without natural light), you may have to experiment on how low you can go before the noise starts to appear. I searched through my pictures (briefly) and couldn’t find one I’d taken with a setting higher than 800 even in dark conditions.

Which leads me to another question I frequently hear: why not just always use the flash indoors?

I think that comes down to individual, artistic preference. And here are a few examples of why I try to avoid the flash.

In this shot of Milo reading on the bed, you can see the light from his lamp, his back in shadow and it sets the mood of quiet reading before bedtime. A flash would have lit the entire picture, perhaps even bounced off the page of the book and overexposed it so you couldn’t see the pictures.

I love the way pictures can create a mood.

In another example (also 800 ISO though I forgot to type it on the pic), Clementine was snapping these photos of me in the bed with Tess and Milo. Again, the quiet, soft mood of evening is expressed with the gentle light. Also, a flash popping in our eyes at this moment would have distracted Tess and maybe produced red-eye.

So it comes down to preference, mood and experimentation for me, and increasing the ISO in those situations allows me to get some shots like that. Also, the AV setting, which you’ll note I used in every one of these photos, allows me to adjust the aperture to let more light in.

In order to change your ISO, you’ll need to be in the creative zone (P, Av, Tv or M).

Shooting without the flash is something I’d like to hear from you on. Do you do it? Why? Are you interested in doing it? Or do you always use your flash, even outdoors just to be safe?