Newbie Help

[Marcr1]

Hi

I'm new here and a complete newbie to DSLR photography. I had a Nikon D3100 for Xmas. I've wanted to get in to photography for a while and thought I'd start off with an entry level camera, so I ended up with my D3100.

So far I'm loving it!

I've been taking a few pics around the house etc to get a feel for the camera and get my bearings.

Tonight I braved the cold to take some proper photos around Cardiff.

I know night photos are a bit harder than daytime due to the lack of light.

I've had a few problems with black at the bottom of the photos, I noticed this at home and when taking the camera out.

This may well be a shadow but could someone advise me please?

I am also using a lens hood.

This is what I mean:

Turning the flash off stops the black, here's some of my favourite pics:

 

[Marcr1]

 

[Marcr1]

Thanks for any help

 

[Dale_tem]

The black is the shadow of the lens from the flash,


My advice is get a tripod, use ISO 100 and longer shutter speeds, will result in sharper images

Good start. My night photos are all done using a tripod, up to 30 seconds shutter speed.

 

[Marcr1]

Thanks, some of the one's taken above were on a tripod, must be the shutter speed. I was a bit gung ho in my preparation tonight, being a newbie I was just fiddling until the pics were half decent

 

[Dale_tem]

Thanks, some of the one's taken above were on a tripod, must be the shutter speed. I was a bit gung ho in my preparation tonight, being a newbie I was just fiddling until the pics were half decent

Patience is key.

Turn noise reduction off (kills battery with long exposures), ISO 100, f8 or higher and see what shutter speed it suggests

What tripod is it? I had a cheap velbon and it was rather poor, full on plastic and not very solid, so pictures were far from sharp.

 

[happygolucky]

Invest in a remote shutter release and turn off VR if you have it on a tripod.

 

[Dale_tem]

Invest in a remote shutter release and turn off VR if you have it on a tripod.

Good point. If you don't have remote shutter, use the shutter delay so your finger is not wobbling the camera

 

[Suvv]

The shadow is from the lens hood not the actual lens! You probably do not need it at night.

 

[whitehead789]

Using the lens hood at night is still fine if you want to block out some of the excess street lighting etc but try not to combine the lens hood and the on camera flash. One or the other really.

If I was you I wouldn't bother with the flash at night it should make for much more interesting pictures without it for long exposures.

Hope that helps

 

[Scarecrow]

On camera flash in those circumstances is pretty useless anyway, as it has a very limited range, and will certainly not be strong enough to illuminate those buildings at the distance you were shooting.

It's surprising how much light there actually is in night scenes, and a good tripod with longer shutter speeds should get you some good results without needing to use a flash.

 

[tnpn]

Yeah it's definitely the lens hood causing the shadow. Ive got a d3000 with the circular lens hood which rotates with the lens as it focuses.

I have an sb400 flash now which gets around the problem but if i recall if you zoom in a little you wont get the shadow.

My crimbo pressie was an f1.8 50mm prime lens which came with a lens hood. As it's physically shorter it doesn't have the shadow when using the on camera flash.

 

[Marcr1]

Thanks for all the great replies, I've had much more time to play with the camera now and getting a good feel for it now