So many times lately, at graduations and presentations and assemblies, I've seen photographers snapping shots with their flashes from great distances in low light. And when they look at their LCDscreen, there is only black. So they try again. Black again.
Allow me to veer from my usual look at life and love, people and places, to give a little suggestion.
Low lighting indoors is hard to get right. But you're more likely to get it right if you do something counter-intuitive: turn off the flash.
In the first picture above, I turned off the flash, in the second one, I used the flash and what was close is too lit up, what is far is too dark.
Of course there are issues with no flash. The shutter speed will be slower, so you're more likely to get movement (fuzziness, out of focusness) if you don't hold your camera steady or if the subjects in your photo are moving. And getting the light right is tricky, though in these pictures, the room really was low lit and yellowish, so we can't blame my camera for that, only those in charge of event lighting.
There are ways to improve your odds. If you want to get really tricky, and even point and shoots can do this -- up your ISO -- your camera's sensitivity to light. Point and shoots can do it in various ways, most easily by the "scene" controls. The higher the ISO number is, the better the camera will do in low light. If you have total control, as with SLRs, push your shutter speed as fast as you dare (even faster than the camera might think prudent) and that will help avoid too much movement.
That said, I don't want any ruined moments. Perish the thought. So hedge your bets. Take one with and one without your flash (or multiples of both at various settings). It won't cost any more, the non-flash shots will not distract those performing or in the audience, and you're more likely to come out with something that captures the moment and tells the story and can be seen from front to back.
Go get 'em.
