Need Help with my Cyber shot DSC P100 background too dark or image blurry

[martinek2b]

Hi, I hope that someone can help me with the issue I'm having with my Cyber-shot DSC P100. I have spent hours reading the manual and experimenting but still no luck. My problem is that when I take a picture of my kids indoors I can never get a clear focused picture with a well lit background. Its either the face is focused and the background looks dark (my living room is very bright during the day) or the background is lit up and the face is blurry. I am so frustrated with this and I hope that someone can point me in the right direction. I'm not sure if I can buy lenses for this camera but I would be willing to do that. I am even looking into buying a new camera so that I can take great picutres of my kids...who hardly ever sit still. I'm trying to get natural pictures that look the way they really are not like they are taken in a pitch black room.

[Photo-John]

Martine-
Sounds like an exposure issue to me. Is there any chance you can upload a photo here so I can see the problem for myself? There's a photo upload attached to the forum. You'll have to resize the photo so that it's no larger than 640x640, though.

When the background is too dark did the flash go off? That would be my guess. And in the photo where the kids are blurred, I'm guessing there wasn't much light. Does that sound right? Have you tried changing to higher ISO settings? That will make your shutter speed faster and help freeze the action.

Please post a sample if you can and tell us some more. I think I understand the problem but I'd like to make sure. Regardless, I know we can help

[Canuck935]

Face-lit up and background dark: Sounds like the flash went off to expose for the the child but background was not given enough exposure. Try increasing the ISO since slowing down shutter speeds will cause blur. Or you can try night portrait mode if the camera has it so that way it uses a slow enough shutter speed to expose the background then fires the flash at the end to freeze your subjects. They'll still have to sit relatively still to prevent a lot of ghosting though.

Background lit, face blurry: Here it sounds like the subject did not take up enough of the frame so the camera correctly metere'd for the background exposure which caused a slower shutter speed and did not require flash. You'll probably want to turn on the flash to expose and freeze the action of your subject(s) and turn up the ISO to allow faster shutter speeds and still expose well enough for the background.

So I guess try increasing the ISO and use flash for fill.

[martinek2b]

thank you so much for the replies I tried increaing the ISO like suggested and i was able to get a lot really good pictures today...although it wasn' t in the same room that I initially had the problem in...lighting was different and she was on the floor not sitting up with the room behind her. I was never sure exactly what to increase or decrease....focus...aperture...shutter speed...sharpness...white balance...EV...it was very confusing. I kept adjusting different settings but couldn't figure it out. I think increasing the ISO helped. I really appreciate the advice! Thanks again.

[Photo-John]

Martine-
I'm happy you found a way to improve your photos. I love it when we can help people take better pictures. And I'm going to suggest that you read the exposure guide in our Learn section. It sounds like you need to understand what's really happening when you take a picture. The exposure guide explains the basic controls that make your photos lighter and darker.

Basic Photography Exposure >>

I also want to give you a another flash tip. Increasing the ISO isn't the only way to lighten the background. Most cameras have multiple flash settings. The default is usually auto-flash. And from your description, it sounds like that's what your camera was set to. There should be another setting that either forces the flash on or is a "slow-sync" setting. Those will make your camera expose for the background as well as flash the subject you're shooting. I never use the auto-flash setting because it almost always makes photos like you described. Using the forced flash setting might blur the background a bit from camera shake, but your subject should still be sharp from the flash. This kind of picture can actually be fun. I often move the camera on purpose in order to increase the blur.