need help with Nikon D3100

[piperknitsRN]

So... I've been playing around with my Nikon D3100... using mostly "guide" mode and auto (I'm a total newbie to photography).

A few things I've noticed that make me wonder what I'm doing wrong... I take a lot of indoor photos of my bunnies when I get home at night, under less-than-ideal lighting conditions (incandescent light, for example). At any rate, I've noticed that sometimes when I press the shutter, nothing happens. Usually the bunny is moving (aren't bunnies always in motion ?) and I'm assuming (though I don't know for sure) that the auto-focus is trying to find something to focus on, and since the bunny is chewing/hopping/whatever, it can't, so the shutter doesn't deploy. But I've also noticed that when I'm in "sports" mode, under bad light, that I can usually use "continuous" shutter mode and capture a lot of movement that way but I get bad lighting (exposure?) in those pictures. Even when I'm in sports mode, however, the shutter sometimes doesn't deploy, and I'm getting very annoyed with myself, because I've missed some good, cute shots because I (obviously) don't have the right settings.

I realize this is agonizingly vague and non-technical for those of you camera gurus out there,:hiding: and I apologize for my lack of knowledge, but if someone could point me in the right direction in terms of settings I should be using to get better pictures, I'd appreciate it. Thank you!

 

[Watermelons]

I think a great started step would be to read the entire manual, then go through it again, and practice each thing in it with the camera. It might help you understand why stuff like this is happening.

As per pictures not happening fast enough like in sports. You wont get continuous shots because there isn't enough light, If the camera were to go snap snap snap your photos would all be black. Its waiting for more light. This is the one of the many downsides to using Auto mode. Cameras need lighting. Using your flash may help but honestly read the manual inside out and you will learn ALOT!

Now you just need a Nikon person to help you out past that. I only play with Canon.

 

[OneTwoThree]

I agree, read your manual.

And did I not tell you that getting a fancy camera wouldn't fix your problems?

When your light is too low, your focus is going to have issues focusing. Try to focus with the flash and then turn off, or focus manually. You'll be able to take better images with a faster shutter speed and high ISOthan you would with your point and shoot, but its not going to do you any good if you don't learn what your camera can do.

Try this, turn your dial to shutter speed priority, move the shutter speed to about 125 minimum, your aperture will auto set to 3.5 if the lens is at its widest (or shortest, zoomed all the way out), and then you need to move your ISO to about 1600 probably. Shoot an image at that, then move your ISO up or down accordingly.

 

[piperknitsRN]

OneTwoThree wrote:

I agree, read your manual.

And did I not tell you that getting a fancy camera wouldn't fix your problems?

When your light is too low, your focus is going to have issues focusing. Try to focus with the flash and then turn off, or focus manually. You'll be able to take better images with a faster shutter speed and high ISOthan you would with your point and shoot, but its not going to do you any good if you don't learn what your camera can do.

Try this, turn your dial to shutter speed priority, move the shutter speed to about 125 minimum, your aperture will auto set to 3.5 if the lens is at its widest (or shortest, zoomed all the way out), and then you need to move your ISO to about 1600 probably. Shoot an image at that, then move your ISO up or down accordingly.

Well, I wanted to learn how to take pictures properly, and I have to say, as much as I don't know about photography, I really am enjoying the camera and the experience of "learning" about photography.

Any hoo, I had to get a new camera--my old one just really wasn't cutting the mustard. And even for a photography dummy like myself, this camera does take lovely pictures just on "auto". Totally worth the learning curve and the money. I tend to use things until they die or break, but this camera was a special gift to myself.

The problem is, I have been reading the manual, it's just a lot to digest and make sense of, and I am not great about reading manuals--I tend to skip around a lot and end up making the whole project even harder. But some stuff, you just have to learn if you're going to use the camera properly. I've been reading websites on basic photography, too--I think it's just going to take awhile for the info to sink in. I think being in the middle of the last week of doctoral level grad school classes (with a new shiny camera to distract me) isn't helping with my comprehension :biggrin:, either. But seriously, it would help to have a photography class.

Thanks for the suggestions--I'll try it out when my batteries charged up again. I've basically just been playing around with the camera settings and getting used to the settings (and how to set them!) and I ran out of battery "juice."

 

[OneTwoThree]

The sensors are much nicer on dslrs than point and shoots for sure

I only read my manual when I cant figure out something on my own, but I've also been working with cameras for about 10 years.

Think of your camera lens like your eye, your pupil. When its dark, your pupils are big, when its bright, your pupils are small, right? So in order for your camera to "see" in the dark, you have to either open up your lens (smaller the number, the more open it is) or keep your eyes open so they can adjust (long shutter speed= no blinking). So the more open your lens, the shorter shutter speed you'll need.

If there is low light, you'll still likely need a slower shutter speed than you want for bunnies, which is where your ISO comes in. Your "natural" for your camera is probably around 200, but in order to keep your shutter speed up high enough, you'll have to have to raise your ISO, which technically adds grain, but Nikons technology is good enough that you wont start to see it until it gets really high, about 3200. If you have natural light and some lights on you likely wont need that high, but play with it and see.

 

[piperknitsRN]

OneTwoThree wrote:

The sensors are much nicer on dslrs than point and shoots for sure

I only read my manual when I cant figure out something on my own, but I've also been working with cameras for about 10 years.

Think of your camera lens like your eye, your pupil. When its dark, your pupils are big, when its bright, your pupils are small, right? So in order for your camera to "see" in the dark, you have to either open up your lens (smaller the number, the more open it is) or keep your eyes open so they can adjust (long shutter speed= no blinking). So the more open your lens, the shorter shutter speed you'll need.

If there is low light, you'll still likely need a slower shutter speed than you want for bunnies, which is where your ISO comes in. Your "natural" for your camera is probably around 200, but in order to keep your shutter speed up high enough, you'll have to have to raise your ISO, which technically adds grain, but Nikons technology is good enough that you wont start to see it until it gets really high, about 3200. If you have natural light and some lights on you likely wont need that high, but play with it and see.

Thank you very much for the tips and the analogy!

 

[MikeScone]

A few points.

First, not to put too fine a point on it, the Nikon manual is pretty poor. By all means, read it, but a lot won't make a lot of sense unless you've got the background to understand the nuances of what is, and isn't, being said. Even with that background, a lot of the explanation of the various modes doesn't help much - one assumes that "sports" mode is for sports, but what actually happens?

Ken Rockwell's User Guide for the D3100 will give you some useful tips on how to set up the camera. You might also find some of the longer explanations in his User Guide for the D3000 to be helpful, as the two cameras are similar and he goes into greater detail for the older camera.

What's causing the camera not to shoot in low-light conditions is most likely that it can't find a good focus point. If the camera is set to shoot only when something's in focus - which is the default for single-shot mode - then it will wait until something is in focus before it will let you shoot. The default for continuous shooting mode - which may be used in "sports", I'm not sure - is not to wait for focus, so that's why you can shoot away without the camera locking. Of course, that means you're getting fuzzy pictures. The idea is that in continuous shooting, sooner or later the camera will settle into focus and in the meanwhile you're getting something - which may or may not match your style of shooting. Personally, I've set both modes to not fire unless something's in focus (there are two menu settings for that, one each for single and continuous focus). There are other autofocus settings - see Ken's manual for how to set them.

The D3100 has an autofocus assist light, which you can turn on in a menu setting if you do a lot of shooting under poor light. That will briefly shine a light on the subject to help the autofocus do its thing. It's annoying to the subject, but it will help the camera.

You can avoid the autofocus problem by manually focusing, of course.

I rarely use continuous shooting mode - I think it's a bit of a cop-out, a way of avoiding developing the skill to shoot at just the right time. The only times I use continuous is for very rapidly changing subjects where human reflexes just aren't fast enough - for example, for getting pictures of Blue Angels heading directly at each other, or for an athlete spinning rapidly in a hammer toss:

If you're consistently shooting in bad light and can't get well-exposed pictures, you can set the ISO (sensor sensitivity) to 6400 or ISO12,800 (which the camera calls H0.5 and H1.0). You can manually set the ISO to these levels, or set the Auto ISO to go that high if it needs to - by default it won't go higher than 3200, but on the Auto ISO menu setting you can move that up to H1.0. Bear in mind that pictures at H1.0/12,800 will be a bit noisy, but if you can't get the picture any other way it's worth it. The higher ISO will allow the camera to choose a higher shutter speed to freeze motion, at least a bit.

 

[piperknitsRN]

MikeScone wrote:

A few points.

First, not to put too fine a point on it, the Nikon manual is pretty poor. By all means, read it, but a lot won't make a lot of sense unless you've got the background to understand the nuances of what is, and isn't, being said. Even with that background, a lot of the explanation of the various modes doesn't help much - one assumes that "sports" mode is for sports, but what actually happens?

Ken Rockwell's User Guide for the D3100 will give you some useful tips on how to set up the camera. You might also find some of the longer explanations in his User Guide for the D3000 to be helpful, as the two cameras are similar and he goes into greater detail for the older camera.

What's causing the camera not to shoot in low-light conditions is most likely that it can't find a good focus point. If the camera is set to shoot only when something's in focus - which is the default for single-shot mode - then it will wait until something is in focus before it will let you shoot. The default for continuous shooting mode - which may be used in "sports", I'm not sure - is not to wait for focus, so that's why you can shoot away without the camera locking. Of course, that means you're getting fuzzy pictures. The idea is that in continuous shooting, sooner or later the camera will settle into focus and in the meanwhile you're getting something - which may or may not match your style of shooting. Personally, I've set both modes to not fire unless something's in focus (there are two menu settings for that, one each for single and continuous focus). There are other autofocus settings - see Ken's manual for how to set them.

The D3100 has an autofocus assist light, which you can turn on in a menu setting if you do a lot of shooting under poor light. That will briefly shine a light on the subject to help the autofocus do its thing. It's annoying to the subject, but it will help the camera.

You can avoid the autofocus problem by manually focusing, of course.

I rarely use continuous shooting mode - I think it's a bit of a cop-out, a way of avoiding developing the skill to shoot at just the right time. The only times I use continuous is for very rapidly changing subjects where human reflexes just aren't fast enough - for example, for getting pictures of Blue Angels heading directly at each other, or for an athlete spinning rapidly in a hammer toss:

If you're consistently shooting in bad light and can't get well-exposed pictures, you can set the ISO (sensor sensitivity) to 6400 or ISO12,800 (which the camera calls H0.5 and H1.0). You can manually set the ISO to these levels, or set the Auto ISO to go that high if it needs to - by default it won't go higher than 3200, but on the Auto ISO menu setting you can move that up to H1.0. Bear in mind that pictures at H1.0/12,800 will be a bit noisy, but if you can't get the picture any other way it's worth it. The higher ISO will allow the camera to choose a higher shutter speed to freeze motion, at least a bit.

Mike, you're always such a helpful person when it comes to cameras and photography taking. Thank you for your insights

I have been religiously reading the manual, and some other helpful tips and manuals on line (I've looked at Ken Rockwell's settings and will check out his info on the D3000 as well).

I did figure out by reading the manual that "continuous" shutter speed supposedly won't work with in-camera flash... which is probably part of the reason I've been getting such sub par pictures from using it, especially in poor lighting (and honestly, I can pretty much expect the light to be poor around here--the Pacific Northwest--for another few months at least, so in the meantime I have to work out a strategy for taking pictures indoors.)

I would also like to figure how to "catch" moving bunnies. Often times they are doing something very cute, but by the time I get ready to take the picture (or the camera is done focusing, etc), they're on to something else. I suppose this just takes camera-know how (i.e. how to set it up properly) and some luck catching them doing cute things.

Would an external flash help with the lighting issue? I confess, I splurged some more and bought an SB-400 and I also bought anew lens.

The new lens is a Nikon 50mm f/1.8G AF-S Nikkor lens which I thought would be helpful based on the reviews. If it's the wrong one or doesn't work out properly, I can always send it back as I bought it from amazon.

 

[OneTwoThree]

An external flash will help, the 50 1.8 will help as well. With the flash you'll need to learn to bounce it, basically aim the flash at the ceiling or above the subject rather than at it. The 50mm is a great lens, I use a 35 because I don't usually have the space to shoot the 50mm in my own home, but the 1.8 lets a lot more light in than your 3.5 will. You'll have to work on focusing, because the depth of field is also pretty narrow, you'll end up with some oof pics.

 

[piperknitsRN]

Confession time: I bought the 35 AND the 50. :biggrin2:

OneTwoThree wrote:

An external flash will help, the 50 1.8 will help as well. With the flash you'll need to learn to bounce it, basically aim the flash at the ceiling or above the subject rather than at it. The 50mm is a great lens, I use a 35 because I don't usually have the space to shoot the 50mm in my own home, but the 1.8 lets a lot more light in than your 3.5 will. You'll have to work on focusing, because the depth of field is also pretty narrow, you'll end up with some oof pics.

 

[OneTwoThree]

Haha. Might be overkill, but definitely shoot with both and see what you like. You can also just set your kit lens (the one that came with your camera) at 35 and 50 so you can see the focal length we're talking about

 

[piperknitsRN]

Will do. I mainly got the lenses because a) I'm just dorky that way and b) the f stop (i think thats what its called; im on the bus and sont have my manual handy) would allow me to get better quality pictures in lower light settings... At least, I hope so.

 

[OneTwoThree]

They will, but they are essentially the same lens. Some photographers prefer on over the other based on how far you can be from your subject

 

[piperknitsRN]

Well, with bunnies, that's almost always the case ("how far away am I from my bunnies... who just ran... over there.... urgh!") Zoom can be helpful, but I find I have to wiggle into some strange contortions to get pictures of them when they're in their X pen, and zoom doesn't really help then, so fixed-length lens may not be such an issue. At least I'll have both the 35 and the 50 so I'll be able to gauge which I like better.

 

[MikeScone]

piperknitsRN wrote:

I did figure out by reading the manual that "continuous" shutter speed supposedly won't work with in-camera flash... which is probably part of the reason I've been getting such sub par pictures from using it, especially in poor lighting

The problem with continuous shooting and flash is that the flash has to recharge between shots.

Basically, the flash tube operates at a very high voltage, and the way the camera gets the high voltage from the low voltage in the battery is by charging up a capacitor. Energy can only be loaded into the capacitor at a given rate. When the cap is fully charged and you shoot, it discharges the capacitor all at once. You can't shoot again until it recharges. It's kind of like taking a shower by pumping water through a soda straw into a tin can over your head. You can only refill the can so fast each time you dump it.

The external flash might help on that front, and it might not. The amount of energy used in each flash depends on a number of factors - the camera actually stops the flash tube as soon as it senses that it's received enough light for the exposure. So, if you're shooting with the lens open and a close subject, you use less energy per flash than if you're shooting at a smaller aperture at a more distant subject so the flash has to operate at full blast.

The recycle spec on the SB400 is 3.6 seconds, which means that if you fully discharge the cap the fastest you can take pictures is one every 3.6 seconds or so. If you half drain it, you can shoot every 1.8 seconds more or less, and so on. I don't know how that compares with the internal flash.

Here's Ken Rockwell's review of the SB400 which explains its capabilities pretty well.

I would also like to figure how to "catch" moving bunnies. Often times they are doing something very cute, but by the time I get ready to take the picture (or the camera is done focusing, etc), they're on to something else. I suppose this just takes camera-know how (i.e. how to set it up properly) and some luck catching them doing cute things.

That's largely a matter of training yourself to watch for the signs of imminent cuteness and shooting at the right moment. OK, that's only half tongue-in-cheek. Mostly, keep the camera ready and shoot lots of pictures - then throw away the bad ones.

 

[piperknitsRN]

MikeScone wrote:

piperknitsRN wrote:

I did figure out by reading the manual that "continuous" shutter speed supposedly won't work with in-camera flash... which is probably part of the reason I've been getting such sub par pictures from using it, especially in poor lighting

The problem with continuous shooting and flash is that the flash has to recharge between shots.

Basically, the flash tube operates at a very high voltage, and the way the camera gets the high voltage from the low voltage in the battery is by charging up a capacitor. Energy can only be loaded into the capacitor at a given rate. When the cap is fully charged and you shoot, it discharges the capacitor all at once. You can't shoot again until it recharges. It's kind of like taking a shower by pumping water through a soda straw into a tin can over your head. You can only refill the can so fast each time you dump it.

The external flash might help on that front, and it might not. The amount of energy used in each flash depends on a number of factors - the camera actually stops the flash tube as soon as it senses that it's received enough light for the exposure. So, if you're shooting with the lens open and a close subject, you use less energy per flash than if you're shooting at a smaller aperture at a more distant subject so the flash has to operate at full blast.

The recycle spec on the SB400 is 3.6 seconds, which means that if you fully discharge the cap the fastest you can take pictures is one every 3.6 seconds or so. If you half drain it, you can shoot every 1.8 seconds more or less, and so on. I don't know how that compares with the internal flash.

Here's Ken Rockwell's review of the SB400 which explains its capabilities pretty well.

I would also like to figure how to "catch" moving bunnies. Often times they are doing something very cute, but by the time I get ready to take the picture (or the camera is done focusing, etc), they're on to something else. I suppose this just takes camera-know how (i.e. how to set it up properly) and some luck catching them doing cute things.

That's largely a matter of training yourself to watch for the signs of imminent cuteness and shooting at the right moment. OK, that's only half tongue-in-cheek. Mostly, keep the camera ready and shoot lots of pictures - then throw away the bad ones.

Thanks once again, Mike, for your eloquent and timely response to my questions and concerns! :biggrin2: