Finally cracked why my indoor shots come out so grainy

Last week I took about 30 photos at my niece's birthday party and every single one looked like static TV. I thought my phone camera was dying but it turned out the room had those dim LED bulbs that make the sensor go wild. I tried bumping the ISO up to 1600 and that just made things worse. Then I read that you should lower the ISO and use a slower shutter speed, but I was holding the phone with shaky hands. Has anyone else had this issue with party lighting and found a simple setting that works without needing a tripod?

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wendyk562mo ago

Tbh I have totally been there with my nephew's birthday party last winter, same grainy mess. The trick that saved me was setting the shutter speed to about 1/60 and keeping the ISO down around 800, then leaning my elbows on a table or the back of a chair. Honestly, you don't need a full tripod, just bracing yourself against something solid makes a huge difference. Also, switch your phone to burst mode and take three or four shots in a row, one of them is usually sharp enough. Those dim LED bulbs are the worst, they flicker at a weird frequency that confuses auto mode. Ngl, I also turned on the night mode if your phone has it, that stacks frames and cleans up the noise way better than any manual setting.

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