Rookie problems

[Michael Cardenas]

Hi everyone . I just purchased a new camera and I'm having what feels like some "rookie difficulties" . When I try to transfer photos from my memory card on to my computer the pictures are pitch black. I went through the settings on my camera before I started shooting. Any reason this might be happening? Thanks for your input.

 

[JonA_CT]

Hi everyone . I just purchased a new camera and I'm having what feels like some "rookie difficulties" . When I try to transfer photos from my memory card on to my computer the pictures are pitch black. I went through the settings on my camera before I started shooting. Any reason this might be happening? Thanks for your input.

When you view the photos on your camera, do they look normal?

 

[SquarePeg]

Are the photos visible when you view them in playback mode on the camera? Are these raw or jpeg files? What program are you using on your pc?

 

[Tropicalmemories]

Are the photos visible when you view them in playback mode on the camera? Are these raw or jpeg files? What program are you using on your pc?

Ah yes, my bet is they were shot in RAW and the computer does not have a program able to process RAW.

Just need to download a program that can handle RAW - some free ones out there. And switch to jpeg file format and try that with some new shots.

Or - left the lens cap on

 

[TCampbell]

Hey Michael ... not sure which camera model you bought. Usually you get some software with it.

The manufacturer's software knows how to open their own files.

Other software on the computer (or the file browser on the computer) usually won't know how to open anything shot and stored in RAW format (Nikon .nef or Canon .cr2) unless you have the latest "RAW" updates installed. On a Mac that happens automatically if you keep the OS & OS patch levels up-to-date. On Windows it's a little more manual. Also 3rd party apps such as Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom, provide updates if you are on the latest version of the software, but usually not for older versions of the software.

If you happen to own a very new camera model (e.g. a model only released a few months ago) often nobody has Camera RAW support for it *except* the manufacturer's own software. (the RAW support usually lags behind by about 3-6 months).

JPEGs should be fine. That's an ancient standard and everybody supports it. But it's only an 8-bit format so it doesn't have the adjustment latitude, dynamic range, etc. which is possible when using RAW format.

 

[Designer]

I just purchased a new camera ..

What camera is it?

 

[Michael Cardenas]

It's a Nikon D3400. I tried "playing around" with the ISO setting before I captured a photo buuuut something still seems a little off...

 

[Designer]

It's a Nikon D3400. I tried "playing around" with the ISO setting before I captured a photo buuuut something still seems a little off...

O.K., then when you take a photo, it is displayed on the LCD for a few seconds. You can also play back any or all of your shots in turn.

What do you see on the LCD?

Next: Never mind the ISO setting. Just set it to "auto" and forget it, at least for now.

And: if you've made a lot of changes and forgot what all you changed, just go back to the factory default settings and start over. This is a simple two-button action.

Finally: Check what file type you are capturing on the SD cards. If it is Raw only, then the answer appears to be that your computer cannot read the data. Just change that setting to "JPEG", and you'll be fine.

 

[ayapx]

See if you see anything through the viewfinder. If not check the file format it's outputting in, could be shooting raw and you don't even know it because my raws don't come out usable at first either and I need to convert them to see/edit them normally.