I don't understand

[dukeboy1977]

Here’s the drill.

Set your ISO to the lowest value (80-100, or whatever it is on your camera). Reason: this is your camera’s “native” sensitivity and the one giving the lowest amount of noise.

Usually, shoot in Aperture-priority, unless you are shooting action-oriented shots needing a fast shutter speed.

Decide if you want the subject AND the background in focus, or ONLY the subject in focus. If the former, choose a high f/stop value like F/11, F/16, or F/22. If the latter, choose a low f/stop value such as 2.0, 2.8, or 4.0. Say you’re following Pierre’s advice and you set your F/stop on your 55-200mm lens on 4.0 (which happens to be the lowest f/stop of your lens).

Zoom in or out until you got the framing you want. Let’s assume for the purpose of this exercise that you were at 100mm.

Take a meter reading of your intended scene using the normal pattern. Do not do any exposure compensation (yet). The camera will give you a suggested shutter speed. Since it was bright, but not sunny enough to throw shadows, you’d probably have a speed of 1/500. With a focal length of 100mm on a crop body, you can probably handhold without visible camera shake down to 1/125 sec. so this speed is above that, and you don’t need to use a tripod.

Now do you need exposure compensation? Your scene is overall “average”, so probably not. If the scene was mostly bright or white, then your camera would underexpose (because it is programmed to see everything as 18% grey), and to compensate you would need to dial in an exposure compensation of maybe 1 stop more. If the scene was mostly dark, then the camera would overexpose and to compensate you would need to dial in an exposure compensation of (say) – 1 stop.

In your case, you told your camera to underexpose by 1 stop (which is why the images were dark), and you used a very high ISO rating (which is why you got camera noise). The lens hood had nothing to do with the darkness of the image.

Using a tripod would be appropriate IF the shutter speed you were getting was below the limit for hand-held shots. This is usually the reciprocal of the focal length you are using, multiplied by the crop factor. So, if you had your lens set to 100mm, on a 1.5x crop body, your lowest shutter speed for hand-held shots would be 1/150 sec. If you had the lens extended to 200mm, the minimum speed would be 1/300 sec.

Now, say you couldn’t use a tripod, and at ISO 100 and F/4.0 you were getting a reading of 1/30 sec. and you wanted to shoot at 200mm. This means you need a minimum shutter speed of 1/300 sec. Your only option here becomes boosting the ISO by 3 ½ stops to ISO 1200. Or use a flash is the subject is close enough.

Piece o cake! (just kidding. It take a while before all of this sinks in and becomes almost automatic. For really good photographers, it does become instinctive).

Thanks guys for your help without knocking me. I'm not a strong learner by reading instructions, I'm a hands-on learner. I'm tired of relying on "preset" modes and wanted to venture out into more advanced modes which is why I got this D40 in the 1st place. I'm not able to use my camera much due to 2 kids, so learning is taking me forever! I'll post more asap and try getting better very very soon! I'm going to hafta bear down and READ my books and try learning this camera's more advanced features...

 

[dukeboy1977]

Why the tripod?

What mode were you shooting in? Auto?

I see you had a shutter of 1/160, f/16. That is a very high f/ stop, and not needed if you are doing portraits. Portraits are nicer with a blurry background (DOF / bokeh), which is achieved partially with a low f/, such as 2.8, 4.0.

What was your ISO?

I see that you also had an EV of -1. So why are you telling your camera to under expose by 1 stop?

I was shooting in shutter mode, trying different things with my camera since I used to use only pre-programmed settings. Should I have used Aperture mode instead? I'll try that next time I get to use my camera. I didn't attempt to use a high f/stop or underexpose anything. I got more to learn I guess

I would highly HIGHLY suggest the book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. Easy read, great info. Its all the basics. The book taught me the same thing as most of my first camera class

Is this book better than Nikon D40 for dummies? OR Digital SLR Cameras & Photography for dummies? I have those, just haven't really read them! lol I looked for this book you speak of and found it reasonable...but maybe a used copy cheap would suit me better. You got one you wanna sell me? lol

 

[pgriz]

Consider joining a local photo club. Some clubs have mentoring programs, and courses. If you're a hands-on type of learner, these would probably give you the fastest results. I know with two kids it isn't easy, but consider the time an investment in memories. My three kids (all in their 20's now), routinely pull out the photo books of their pictures while kids every time they come visiting. Good luck!

 

[Josh66]

Set your ISO to the lowest value (80-100, or whatever it is on your camera). Reason: this is your camera’s “native” sensitivity and the one giving the lowest amount of noise.

The 'native' setting is usually NOT the lowest one...

On Canon cameras, it's 100 - on Nikon cameras it's 200.

The newer bodies from both can often go as low as 50, but that is not the native ISO setting...

(But yes - use the native setting for the least amount of noise, ISO 200 on your camera.)

 

[owlxxx]

those dummies books are kinda like your manual as in they tell ya what the buttons do and how to navigate the menus but they dont teach you about exposure or anything that gives you a great photograph. I actually bought the NIKON D5000 for dummies book off of ebay and I feel like a Dummie for buying that instead of the book "understanding exposure" which actually taught me ALOT.
just my opinion...

 

[Vinny]

I am reading understaning exposure now and yes its better than a dedicated book for your specific camera. The good thing about reading a book or having someone guide you is you can try what they are saying to see the results.

 

[pgriz]

Set your ISO to the lowest value (80-100, or whatever it is on your camera). Reason: this is your camera’s “native” sensitivity and the one giving the lowest amount of noise.

The 'native' setting is usually NOT the lowest one...

On Canon cameras, it's 100 - on Nikon cameras it's 200.

The newer bodies from both can often go as low as 50, but that is not the native ISO setting...

(But yes - use the native setting for the least amount of noise, ISO 200 on your camera.)

Thanks, Josh - learned something new. I made the assumption that since it was true for my camera, others work the same way... gotta be more careful with those generalities.

 

[dukeboy1977]

Anybody have this book I keep getting told about for sale? A used one would suit me just fine as long as its in good shape. After hearing about it, maybe I need to read it to learn what I want? Thanks in advance, Jeff

 

[sobolik]

I am going to lay out a rule to live by. (me, you and everyone else)

Never post process photos intended for stock sale (totally different ball game) ALWAYS POST PROCESS SOUVENIR PHOTOS.

Your photos lack POP!
(I use Photoshop elements 5.0 - cheap on ebay)
To give them pop the first thing to do is to get rid of any color cast. Doing so does wonders for the pop factor. White will become white and all other colors just magically fall into line.
Then I always adjust colors for skin tone. And maybe color cast one more time.
Then I examine the lighting for flaws. Yours appears to be very flat. Therefore play with the brightness adjustment until you see the pop factor appear.
Then do an unsharp mask
I suggest those few adjustments will gain a certain degree of the pop factor.

My D-90 may very well could have produced the same results as did your D-40. Post processing is where the final touch pop emerges.

 

[bigtwinky]

Anybody have this book I keep getting told about for sale? A used one would suit me just fine as long as its in good shape. After hearing about it, maybe I need to read it to learn what I want? Thanks in advance, Jeff

There is a reason its always out of stock. There are a few here locally. I have a copy, but I think its in the hands of someone right now...and there are 3 others lined up for it after they are done.

Its better than the For Dummies books. I find these can be good, but they get too technical and long to read. The Understanding Exposure stuff is easy to read. Youtube Bryan Peterson Photography and check out his tutorials...and dont mind his hair

 

[Derrel]

Kodak's book "The Joy of Photography" is like a complete lesson in photography. It's a very broad overview covering hundreds of photographic techniques,methods, and strategies. The poor results from this simple family photography situation were caused by two,simple,fundamental mistakes. The fundamentals are the kinds of things it's easy to overlook...you did well on composing,and focusing, and timing--but your fundamentals killed the shots...you did GREAT on the driving test....but you did it all in LOW GEAR!!!!!!

 

[Vinny]

Is that book still in print? I had the 70's version and loved it! Unfortunately a few yeasrs ago I was cleaning out my garage and got rid of it thinking I will never get a DSLR and will only be using P&Ss. Today I wish I still had it! Great book.

Kodak's book "The Joy of Photography" is like a complete lesson in photography. It's a very broad overview covering hundreds of photographic techniques,methods, and strategies. The poor results from this simple family photography situation were caused by two,simple,fundamental mistakes. The fundamentals are the kinds of things it's easy to overlook...you did well on composing,and focusing, and timing--but your fundamentals killed the shots...you did GREAT on the driving test....but you did it all in LOW GEAR!!!!!!

 

[Vinny]

I lied it was published in 1981 but it was still a good book!

Is that book still in print? I had the 70's version and loved it! Unfortunately a few yeasrs ago I was cleaning out my garage and got rid of it thinking I will never get a DSLR and will only be using P&Ss. Today I wish I still had it! Great book.

Kodak's book "The Joy of Photography" is like a complete lesson in photography. It's a very broad overview covering hundreds of photographic techniques,methods, and strategies. The poor results from this simple family photography situation were caused by two,simple,fundamental mistakes. The fundamentals are the kinds of things it's easy to overlook...you did well on composing,and focusing, and timing--but your fundamentals killed the shots...you did GREAT on the driving test....but you did it all in LOW GEAR!!!!!!

 

[KmH]

Anybody have this book I keep getting told about for sale? A used one would suit me just fine as long as its in good shape. After hearing about it, maybe I need to read it to learn what I want? Thanks in advance, Jeff

Dude, turn down the volume on your siggy!

Your local library may have a copy, plus many other books about photography and image editing.

Not all Nikon dSLR's use ISO 200 as their 'native' ISO.

 

[Josh66]

I lied it was published in 1981 but it was still a good book!

Is that book still in print? I had the 70's version and loved it! Unfortunately a few yeasrs ago I was cleaning out my garage and got rid of it thinking I will never get a DSLR and will only be using P&Ss. Today I wish I still had it! Great book.

Kodak's book "The Joy of Photography" is like a complete lesson in photography. It's a very broad overview covering hundreds of photographic techniques,methods, and strategies. The poor results from this simple family photography situation were caused by two,simple,fundamental mistakes. The fundamentals are the kinds of things it's easy to overlook...you did well on composing,and focusing, and timing--but your fundamentals killed the shots...you did GREAT on the driving test....but you did it all in LOW GEAR!!!!!!

The fundamentals of photography didn't change when everything went digital...

A film era book might actually be better, because it will teach you not to rely on the LCD so much.