problem with nikon d3100?

[piccer]

yea, My point ...
the way of expressing it matters more . im listening and learning

Whn some one says..
Can you please tell me what time it is, i donot have a watch on me..
one way to reply: why dont you buy a watch and have it on you if you are so worried about time.. its 9:15

Better way: its 9:15 Am

im not offending anyone, but when someone shouts at me ill be ..................

thanks Artisan (your reply is of the second kind and makes me want to listen )

 

[KmH]

To Orions

Yes you are :thumbdown:

Be sure, right off the bat with post #5, you get added to as many helpful forum member's User CP, Ignore List as possible. :lmao:

 

[OrionsByte]

Hi Orion
so kind of you posing as giving advice to the new fellas like me
Criticism is a good thing when its constructive, but what makes you laugh keep it to yourself

the txt in you message you highlighted in bold, yes i pointed at the light and tried to take some pics yes to see if the cam is working at all
and yes im a newbie and i thought this thread is for guys like me, if you see my other lines which you missed to see
i know nothing of DSLRs and this is my first one

so is this a problem or is there any setting i should try

try to help if you want to, dont just pose (cheese). Its just a start, Dont worry Orion ill be there soon enough.

I honestly wasn't laughing at you, I was telling Tyler that he'll laugh at himself once he learns a little more. I'm not laughing at him either.

I'm not on this forum to make enemies, and I answered your question by telling you to read your manual and do some research on exposure. Why would I say that instead of just answering your question myself? Because as MissCream indicated in her first reply, that's a long answer that involves understanding how exposure works, and people have written books to explain how exposure works.

In short though, there are three things that influence exposure (exposure = how much light is captured for a single photograph): ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed. All three of these settings need to be "correct" in order to get a "correct" exposure.

ISO: Higher numbers means more exposure (brighter photos). It will also increase noise, or graininess.
Aperture: Higher numbers means LESS exposure (darker photos). It will also increase your depth-of-field.
Shutter Speed: Higher numbers mean LESS exposure (darker photos). It will also freeze fast action.

So if you're in manual mode and your photos are dark, choose higher numbers for your ISO, lower numbers for your aperture, lower numbers for your shutter speed, or some combination of the three.

Now the problem with giving that advice is it doesn't tell you anything about when to change which setting, or about what's really going on when you change them. That information is available in a thousand places online, even on YouTube, and I really recommend you check out some of those sources first, and if you have questions about them, I'll be happy to answer them.

 

[Light Artisan]

I understand, I've been there - we all have. I'm new enough here to where some of the common questions probably don't annoy me yet.

Although I believe in RTFM, I also believe it's not the best resource 100% of the time. Don't sweat it, have some fun and make lots of mistakes, but learn why you made them as you are now. I can be an @ss sometimes too, but I do try and remember how overwhelming it all can be, as well as rewarding.

Enjoy and have fun!

PS
The D3100 is an awesome camera, enjoy!

 

[OrionsByte]

I wasn't trying to be an @ss. I was surprised at the advice he got and concerned that in the long run it would make things harder for him to learn.

I offer my sincere apologies.

But seriously, read the manual and check out the links that others have already provided.

 

[Light Artisan]

Good on you man... you did help, and I didn't see @sshole in your post at all.

 

[piccer]

Hi Orions

well i see the difference in the posts now

thanks for the advice and yea none of us are here to make enemies and we wont :greenpbl:. im sorry if i hurted your feelings but i was just asking Ppl to be lil nicer and i got it now so we are all good
you are one of my first teachers though :hug::

Hi Orion
so kind of you posing as giving advice to the new fellas like me
Criticism is a good thing when its constructive, but what makes you laugh keep it to yourself

the txt in you message you highlighted in bold, yes i pointed at the light and tried to take some pics yes to see if the cam is working at all
and yes im a newbie and i thought this thread is for guys like me, if you see my other lines which you missed to see
i know nothing of DSLRs and this is my first one

so is this a problem or is there any setting i should try

try to help if you want to, dont just pose (cheese). Its just a start, Dont worry Orion ill be there soon enough.

I honestly wasn't laughing at you, I was telling Tyler that he'll laugh at himself once he learns a little more. I'm not laughing at him either.

I'm not on this forum to make enemies, and I answered your question by telling you to read your manual and do some research on exposure. Why would I say that instead of just answering your question myself? Because as MissCream indicated in her first reply, that's a long answer that involves understanding how exposure works, and people have written books to explain how exposure works.

In short though, there are three things that influence exposure (exposure = how much light is captured for a single photograph): ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed. All three of these settings need to be "correct" in order to get a "correct" exposure.

ISO: Higher numbers means more exposure (brighter photos). It will also increase noise, or graininess.
Aperture: Higher numbers means LESS exposure (darker photos). It will also increase your depth-of-field.
Shutter Speed: Higher numbers mean LESS exposure (darker photos). It will also freeze fast action.

So if you're in manual mode and your photos are dark, choose higher numbers for your ISO, lower numbers for your aperture, lower numbers for your shutter speed, or some combination of the three.

Now the problem with giving that advice is it doesn't tell you anything about when to change which setting, or about what's really going on when you change them. That information is available in a thousand places online, even on YouTube, and I really recommend you check out some of those sources first, and if you have questions about them, I'll be happy to answer them.

 

[Trever1t]

I'd recommend using one of the camera's auto exposure settings and look carefully at the Aperture and Speed the program chooses to get an understanding of what works before venturing into manual mode.

I prefer to lock in my ISO and try to find a aperture/speed to work with my subject

 

[bperez]

Ok please DO NOT BE BRUTAL, like in the last posts to the other newbie. I too just got a D3100 for Christmas that so far I love. It's main purpose was for me to take my own action photos of my daughters at their cheer competitions instead of having to keep purchasing them. ANYWAY, my problem is now when I take a picture they are all coming out completely black. not just dark, i mean black. I took out the sd card and uploaded the pictures i took to see and none of them took. however, it didnt say the sd card was blank, it just uploaded black photos. Can anyone tell me why this is occuring? I've been trying to figure it out all night and so far no luck.

 

[o hey tyler]

Ok please DO NOT BE BRUTAL, like in the last posts to the other newbie. I too just got a D3100 for Christmas that so far I love. It's main purpose was for me to take my own action photos of my daughters at their cheer competitions instead of having to keep purchasing them. ANYWAY, my problem is now when I take a picture they are all coming out completely black. not just dark, i mean black. I took out the sd card and uploaded the pictures i took to see and none of them took. however, it didnt say the sd card was blank, it just uploaded black photos. Can anyone tell me why this is occuring? I've been trying to figure it out all night and so far no luck.

Did you remove the lens cap? And if so, did you change the mode dial to "auto" and still get black images?

 

[Snakeguy101]

We all make mistakes with new cameras- especially when we make the SLR jump. I remember when I got mine, I kept thinking the shutter speed was ISO and I didn't understand why the image was so dark when it was reading an "ISO" of 3000. Then I realized that it was actually a shutter speed of 1/3000 of a second. That is why it was so dark....

Anyways, my point is that mistakes are made when you don't quite grasp the settings. Here is the quick and dirty of what you need to know.

ISO- the lower the number the better, it will reduce the amount of noise but will also reduce the amount of light getting to your image. I try and keep mine at 100 but occasionally have to bump it up in low light situations.

F/stops- this is the measurement for the aperture size (the size of the hole in the lens that acts as the cameras iris). It affects the depth of field (the lower the number, the smaller the area is that is in focus) and again the amount of light hitting the sensor (for higher numbers, less light hits the sensor giving you darker images). I adjust this frequently between about f/2 and f/11 sometimes venturing outside of this for specific purposes but since you are just learning, that is the range you should be in too.

Shutter speed- this affects the amount of time that the camera records light. Long exposures can make for great lighting and depth of field (since you can raise the f/stop and lower the ISO) but also cause motion blur. This is the setting I adjust most based on what I am photographing and the lighting conditions.

Say for example I am shooting a monkey that is moving fast through the shaded canopy. I will want a fast shutter speed that will prevent the fast monkey from blurring and then adjust the ISO to say 800 so that the image is brighter with a still mid range f/stop of say f/8 so that my depth of field is not too wacky.
Now if I am shooting a statue on at night, I might want a long exposure to capture the right amount of natural light and I can lower the ISO because I do not need to worry movement since I have a still subject. I can also adjust the f/stop to where I want it to manipulate the depth of field and I may then have to readjust the shutter speed to compensate for whatever I did to my f/stop.

 

[Jeatley]

I think Snake may have confused some people with that!

 

[RockstarPhotography]

Take a photography class. It will teach you how to properly use your camera.

 

[hawk232]

a VERY brief google search of "exposure" or "how to use a dslr camera" will result far more detailed results than what has been offered up here. mainly because everyone replying knows that there are hundreds of books, and thousands if not more of blogs and webpages DEDICATED to exposure. I am very new too (had my camera about a month) but I knew enough to know that manual meant that I had to change EVERY setting myself, so i was not upset with my first pics in manual came out black. I just started fooling with settings and seeing what change they made. If you are interested pm me and I will send you a link to a site that was the single best site i have found for information on what each setting does.

 

[narfzz]

So I just got my d3100 and realize that my camera doesn't properly switch to timer mode. It sees it as continuous modes instead and shoots like it's in continuous mode. So essentially I have TWO continuous modes on this camera instead of the basic four single, continuous, timer, and quiet shutter release.

I read the manual thinking maybe I'm doing something wrong but realize it's really THAT simple--- switch to timer mode on the release-mode selector then shoot. Have anyone else heard of this problem? I figure I ask here before calling Nikon. Am I just a newb doing it wrong? I've googled with no luck.

Also, should I start a new thread instead of adding onto this thread to get more responses?

ETA: I realize Nikon just released a firmware update for this cam. I was hoping maybe this will solve the problem but before I do anything I figure I'd ask around first.