Totally new to photography...

dmbfoto · Feb 27, 2009

Hi! I just got my camera yesterday (Nikon D40) with the 18-55mm lens. I have absolutely NO IDEA about anything regarding photography haha. But I love pictures, and need a new hobby, so I figured hey why not? I was playing around with the camera and I noticed when I take a picture and have the setting on the P,S,A or M mode the picture shows up as black on the lcd screen. When I go to review the picture, it also shows up as completely black. Is there a setting I need to change? It seemed to work fine for the other pictures.

I hope you guys don't get sick of me as I'm sure I'll be asking many questions in the future about all this! Thanks for the help and I hope every one has a great weekend!

Flash Harry · Feb 27, 2009

read the manual, buy a couple of books, read more. If your shooting indoor use flash, there's not enough light for a good exposure, hence black. H

dmbfoto · Feb 27, 2009

I tried finding the issue in the manual and wasn't able to. And the other pictures came out ok when I was shooting indoors (i used the flash for all the pictures).

netriaus · Feb 27, 2009

Did you change your shutter speed or aperture when you switched into those modes? I bet you didn't and your photos are just coming out way, way underexposed. You need to read through your manual thoroughly to learn how to change those settings and how to use the light meter in your camera's viewfinder. Slow the shutter down and/or widen the aperture to let the light in and try again.

dmbfoto · Feb 27, 2009

Ok, thank you. Like I said, I'm totally new to all of this and didn't know to look under the aperture or shutter sections. Thanks for the help!

EhJsNe · Feb 27, 2009

is the lens cap off? lol

It might be a shutter speed is to fast or aperture is too small. Read the manual and find things out.

dmbfoto · Feb 27, 2009

EhJsNe said:
is the lens cap off? lol

It might be a shutter speed is to fast or aperture is too small. Read the manual and find things out.

LOL the lens cap wasn't on...at least I figured out that much

hankejp · Feb 27, 2009

Do a lot of searches on the forum here. Very useful information. And read the manual, and check out some books from the library, if you don't want to buy them.

netriaus · Feb 27, 2009

dmbfoto said:
Ok, thank you. Like I said, I'm totally new to all of this and didn't know to look under the aperture or shutter sections. Thanks for the help!

You should take some time and just read through the whole manual instead of just skimming through.

Samanax · Feb 27, 2009

dmbfoto said:
I was playing around with the camera and I noticed when I take a picture and have the setting on the P,S,A or M mode the picture shows up as black on the lcd screen. When I go to review the picture, it also shows up as completely black.

Is the A mode the green box AUTO option on the dial? If it is and your pictures are still coming out really underexposed then you may have a problem with the camera.