Pictures came out to dark..

[crissyanon]

So I tried using the Aperture-priorty auto mode on my Nikon D3100 last night to take pics of my son's play, however, the pics came out way to dark. I was using the 55-200 mm lens with vr on and there was flourcent lighting. So I am not sure why they came out so dark. There are so many setting on the camera I get confused and not sure how to set them up for different situation. I can take decent pics of the birds in the day time but that is about it. When I set the camera to Auto the pics didn't come out to bad. Only thing was the colors were not as crisp as I would of like them to be. I also tried using the Child setting. Another problem I was having is they were out of focus and a lot of red eye. Hmm need help on what I am doing wrong.

 

[ababysean]

Amazon.com: Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition) (9780817463007): Bryan Peterson: Books

get this book. buy it, borrow it from the library, read it.

 

[Boomn4x4]

Press the up button on your 4 way button on the back of the camera. This will show you the camera settings that were used for those pictures.... compare those numbers to the numbers that display for the photos that were taken in auto. The differences will tell you why the photos are dark.