Issues when shooting in Live View

[Matt Glick]

Nikon D610 with nikon 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5g
2 question.
(Forgive me if my verbage on everything is not exactly correct)

My first question is this: When I have my light meter perfectly centered when shooting with the view finder and I switch to live view, the meter is completely off and showing wayyy exposed. Why is this?

I then stay in Live view and adjust my shutter speed and aperture and whatever else needed and take a shot. The shot is then completely out of focus.
My 1st example was shot at 25 sec, 35mm, ISO 400 f/14 with a wireless remote on a tripod of course. I then switch back to my view finder, have to readjust all my settings and come out with a perfect shot, which is posted as well.

So to reiterate, why do I have to change all my settings when I switch to live view and why is the shot coming out out of focus when shooting in live view but not with the view finder? Thanks for any help.

 

[runnah]

Nikon live view does not simulate exposure. It just acts as a digital view finder, brightening the scene enough to see what is going on.

 

[Matt Glick]

Nikon live view does not simulate exposure. It just acts as a digital view finder, brightening the scene enough to see what is going on.

Ahh I just read that online as well. "you're seeing what the camera's lens is seeing, but you're seeing it on the camera's LCD. Live View enables you to view and compose the shot without looking through the finder".

 

[TCampbell]

Imagine if you put the camera into full auto mode to take the shot. Auto-mode tends to over-expose images taken in the dark because it thinks the image should average out to that middle-gray exposure and, of course, a dark scene doesn't really do that. So the camera will boost exposure by possibly several stops more than should be used.

When you use Nikon's Live-view mode, it tends to do the same thing. Even though YOU know how to adjust the exposure to compensate, the live-view screen does not. In good lighting conditions it'll look great, but in dark situations you'll get over-exposure and pixel bloat.

Nikon just introduced exposure simulation for liveview in their newly announced D810a (but that's an astrophotography camera that you wouldn't want to use in a situation like this.) It's a feature that one would hope will start to show up in more models because it's extremely useful for exactly the type of situation you're dealing with now.

 

[Matt Glick]

Imagine if you put the camera into full auto mode to take the shot. Auto-mode tends to over-expose images taken in the dark because it thinks the image should average out to that middle-gray exposure and, of course, a dark scene doesn't really do that. So the camera will boost exposure by possibly several stops more than should be used.

When you use Nikon's Live-view mode, it tends to do the same thing. Even though YOU know how to adjust the exposure to compensate, the live-view screen does not. In good lighting conditions it'll look great, but in dark situations you'll get over-exposure and pixel bloat.

Nikon just introduced exposure simulation for liveview in their newly announced D810a (but that's an astrophotography camera that you wouldn't want to use in a situation like this.) It's a feature that one would hope will start to show up in more models because it's extremely useful for exactly the type of situation you're dealing with now.

Thats's great to know. Thank you. What is the reason that the picture is coming out out of focus when shot in live view though, but perfectly focused when taken with the view finder?

 

[Dave442]

Live View goes to contrast-detect autofocus and with the dark scene it may have had a problem with focusing, it can take longer than the phase-detect that is used through the viewfinder. Check where you have the focus set on the screen. May have to zoom in.

 

[Dave442]

Also, in Live View the camera can take the picture even if the focus has not locked on to the subject. That could be different from how you have your view-finder focusing set up.

 

[qleak]

At least on the Nikon D7100, there is a modest exposure simulation mode hidden in the video mode. You can take pictures in video mode too, it's just a pain in the ass to adjust your settings because they are independent from the video settings and hence the exposure simulation.