Nikon D5000 and A mode HELP!

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alphasha

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sharon
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Having fallen in love with my Nikon I decided to do amy A level at my local college.

I have no experience whatsoever and I hoped that this would help; we are now 5 weeks into the course and are currently skillbuilding.

Our homework this week is Depth of field and our lecturer just said turn the camera to the A mode and practise and bobs your uncle! I took a few pics that weren't too bad on the night but when I have tried this weekend I was really upset with the results. I had thought that I had got some really decent shots but when I have looked on LV and on the PC there are really rubbish.

They are either out of focus completely or really dark. I know it is something I am not doing and it is probably really stupid beginner stuff. Here are 2 that typifiy what I mean.

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data

[img]http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data

[img]http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data
 
alphasha said:
Having fallen in love with my Nikon I decided to do amy A level at my local college.

I have no experience whatsoever and I hoped that this would help; we are now 5 weeks into the course and are currently skillbuilding.

Our homework this week is Depth of field and our lecturer just said turn the camera to the A mode and practise and bobs your uncle! I took a few pics that weren't too bad on the night but when I have tried this weekend I was really upset with the results. I had thought that I had got some really decent shots but when I have looked on LV and on the PC there are really rubbish.

They are either out of focus completely or really dark. I know it is something I am not doing and it is probably really stupid beginner stuff. Here are 2 that typifiy what I mean.

data


data


data
Click to expand...

Can't see the images? tried to correct the original but just getting the red X?
 
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I had a quick look at the first one in your gallery.They're all underexposed. You're using f/32 which I guess means that your camera can't get a low enough shutter speed to get a correct exposure, especially at iso 250. Try opening up the aperture to the most your lens can handle (about f/5.6) and then seeing what happens. When shooting at f/32 you'll need to up the ISO of add some flash. I bet the shutter speed read 'low' or something similar
 
You might be best using a tripod (or rest the camera on something if you don't have one) for the purposes of this exercise. Stick an object half between the camera and the background (a brick wall would be perfect). Focus the camera on the object. Start with a small aperture, F4 maybe. Take a photo and then without altering anything else, change the aperture to F5.6, F8, F11, F16 and F22. I wouldn't bother going any higher than that.

You should find that the exposure is fairly consistent and the depth of field grows each time.
 
boyfalldown said:
I had a quick look at the first one in your gallery.They're all underexposed. You're using f/32 which I guess means that your camera can't get a low enough shutter speed to get a correct exposure, especially at iso 250. Try opening up the aperture to the most your lens can handle (about f/5.6) and then seeing what happens. When shooting at f/32 you'll need to up the ISO of add some flash. I bet the shutter speed read 'low' or something similar
Click to expand...

The lecturer said that if I had the ISO on auto then it should pretty much do the ISO and shutter speeds itself (or have I misunderstood him?)

So do I need to keep changing the ISO and shutter speed myself.

I am sorry for sounding thick but I have no idea what I am doing :bonk:
 
F2.8 nice large opening lets in plenty of light gives a nice shallow depth of field, blurring the background and making the subject stand out.

F32 really small opening lets in a small amount of light just about everything would be in focus.

In reality you need to try with f2.8 to f4 for shallow depth of field, and f8 or f12 for getting lots of stuff in focus.

I would not bother going past f12 on a crop sensor.

Leave auto ISO on, but stick to apertures between f2.8 and f12 ... it would need to be a really bright day to be shooting f32, I don't think I ever have :D
 
Martyn... said:
F2.8 nice large opening lets in plenty of light gives a nice shallow depth of field, blurring the background and making the subject stand out.

F32 really small opening lets in a small amount of light just about everything would be in focus.

In reality you need to try with f2.8 to f4 for shallow depth of field, and f8 or f12 for getting lots of stuff in focus.

I would not bother going past f12 on a crop sensor.

Leave auto ISO on, but stick to apertures between f2.8 and f12 ... it would need to be a really bright day to be shooting f32, I don't think I ever have :D
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I didn't realise I had put it on that at the time but back to the manual I suppose.
But thank you guys for the help.
 
alphasha said:
The lecturer said that if I had the ISO on auto then it should pretty much do the ISO and shutter speeds itself (or have I misunderstood him?)

So do I need to keep changing the ISO and shutter speed myself.

I am sorry for sounding thick but I have no idea what I am doing :bonk:
Click to expand...

the shutter speed in 'A' mode will be set by the camera. Within that though you need to consider the limits of the cameras and your capability. If you need to slow a shutter speed either the camera can't do it or you can't hold it. I can't tell if you had auto iso set, but doing so should help.

Martyn... said:
F2.8 nice large opening lets in plenty of light gives a nice shallow depth of field, blurring the background and making the subject stand out.

F32 really small opening lets in a small amount of light just about everything would be in focus.

In reality you need to try with f2.8 to f4 for shallow depth of field, and f8 or f12 for getting lots of stuff in focus.

I would not bother going past f12 on a crop sensor.

Leave auto ISO on, but stick to apertures between f2.8 and f12 ... it would need to be a really bright day to be shooting f32, I don't think I ever have :D
Click to expand...

From the exif the lens for these has a max variable aperture from f/4.5- 5.6.

I'm not sure I've ever owned a lens capable of shooting at f/32 :D
 
boyfalldown said:
the shutter speed in 'A' mode will be set by the camera. Within that though you need to consider the limits of the cameras and your capability. If you need to slow a shutter speed either the camera can't do it or you can't hold it. I can't tell if you had auto iso set, but doing so should help.



From the exif the lens for these has a max variable aperture from f/4.5- 5.6.

I'm not sure I've ever owned a lens capable of shooting at f/32 :D
Click to expand...

boyfalldown said:
the shutter speed in 'A' mode will be set by the camera. Within that though you need to consider the limits of the cameras and your capability. If you need to slow a shutter speed either the camera can't do it or you can't hold it. I can't tell if you had auto iso set, but doing so should help.



From the exif the lens for these has a max variable aperture from f/4.5- 5.6.

I'm not sure I've ever owned a lens capable of shooting at f/32 :D
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My macro lens goes to F/32. I don't think it's actually that unusual.

Pointless for this exercise though. Maybe F/16 tops I would say.

As I said earlier though a tripod removes all the variables other than the aperture. I wouldn't use auto iso, I'd keep the iso constant as changing it will effect your images. Allowing the camera to adjust its shutter for as long as it needs, will not affect the image as long as your subject and camera don't move. I assume the point of the exercise is to see how changing the aperture affects the image after all.

So just to reiterate, camera on a tripod or secure surface. Static subject halfway between the camera and a wall. Focus the camera on your subject then change to manual focus so it can't change. Keep ISO on manual at 100 or 200 if light is good. Take a shot at various apertures in A mode and let the camera adjust the shutter speed to suit. F4, F5.6, F8, F11 and F16.
 
gad-westy said:
My macro lens goes to F/32. I don't think it's actually that unusual.

Pointless for this exercise though. Maybe F/16 tops I would say.

As I said earlier though a tripod removes all the variables other than the aperture. I wouldn't use auto iso, I'd keep the iso constant as changing it will effect your images. Allowing the camera to adjust its shutter for as long as it needs, will not affect the image as long as your subject and camera don't move. I assume the point of the exercise is to see how changing the aperture affects the image after all.

So just to reiterate, camera on a tripod or secure surface. Static subject halfway between the camera and a wall. Focus the camera on your subject then change to manual focus so it can't change. Keep ISO on manual at 100 or 200 if light is good. Take a shot at various apertures in A mode and let the camera adjust the shutter speed to suit. F4, F5.6, F8, F11 and F16.
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the trouble is though its fairly obvious from these images that the camera can't set the shutter speed slow enough for these images hence the underexposure. If it could, without a tripod you'd have a lot of shake.

Its OK to say you wouldn't use auto iso for this sort of thing, but its fairly apparent that photograph is outside of the camera's range of capabilities, and as the exercise is to see the affect of changing appeture then surely its OK to let the camera handle everything else?

I've never owned a macro lens either, :nuts: but those photos weren't shot with one
 
boyfalldown said:
the trouble is though its fairly obvious from these images that the camera can't set the shutter speed slow enough for these images hence the underexposure. If it could, without a tripod you'd have a lot of shake.

Its OK to say you wouldn't use auto iso for this sort of thing, but its fairly apparent that photograph is outside of the camera's range of capabilities, and as the exercise is to see the affect of changing appeture then surely its OK to let the camera handle everything else?

I've never owned a macro lens either, :nuts: but those photos weren't shot with one
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I'm saying that they should use a tripod for this very reason though or just a flat surface for that matter. There is no problem with the D5000 and longer shutter speeds. Like most SLR's it can take 30s exposures or beyond in bulb mode. It's almost certainly the auto iso mode that is restricting the shutter speed in the first place and causing the under exposure. Either that or there is a huge amount of -ve exposure compensation dialled in. Using a tripod and constant iso takes the iso out of the equation rather than just confusing issues.

Just as an example. In good light the camera might be metering a shot at iso 200, F4 and 1/500. By the time you get down to F16, you'll still have 1/30 exposure. Nothing to worry about on a steady surface or a tripod. Even if light is poor it doesn't really matter if the camera is taking 1s + exposures as you won't need to worry about camera shake. Just seems a much more scientific approach to me as only the aperture and shutter speed are changing (though the shutter speed changing will have no affect at all if the camera and subject are static) so you know that that the differences in the final images are down to your aperture adjustments, rather than potentially 3 variables and noisy images and wondering what caused that.
 
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gad-westy said:
I'm saying that they should use a tripod for this very reason though or just a flat surface for that matter. There is no problem with the D5000 and longer shutter speeds. Like most SLR's it can take 30s exposures or beyond in bulb mode. It's almost certainly the auto iso mode that is restricting the shutter speed in the first place and causing the under exposure. Either that or there is a huge amount of -ve exposure compensation dialled in. Using a tripod and constant iso takes the iso out of the equation rather than just confusing issues.
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From the exif the use rdoes have 2 1/3rd stop -ve exposure comp dialled in which would be the issue.
a properly set auto iso won't confuse issues though & why would it restrict shutter speed downwards?. I know its an aside, but auto iso also wasn't set this time, and bulb mode is normally only available in full manual mode
 
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boyfalldown said:
From the exif the use rdoes have 2 1/3rd stop -ve exposure comp dialled in which would be the issue.
a properly set auto iso won't confuse issues though & why would it restrict shutter speed downwards?. I know its an aside, but auto iso also wasn't set this time, and bulb mode is normally only available in full manual mode
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I realised after I'd posted I was being daft. Auto iso will restrict shutter speed (mine is restricted 1/60) until it runs out of 'iso' and then will allow slower shutter so you're right, this wouldn't have been an issue. -2 1/3 exposure compensation certainly would be though. OP, in A mode holding down the +/- button whilst turning the dial will adjust exposure compensation. You may well have changed it by accident but that is almost certainly why your images are so dark.
 
alphasha said:
The lecturer said that if I had the ISO on auto then it should pretty much do the ISO and shutter speeds itself (or have I misunderstood him?)

So do I need to keep changing the ISO and shutter speed myself.

I am sorry for sounding thick but I have no idea what I am doing :bonk:
Click to expand...

Hi, I use a D5000 myself. You can set auto iso in the menu and have just started using auto iso myself in street photography, prior to that I was setting it myself each time it wanted it changed. I can whole heatedly recommend you this book it explains everything on the D5000 and what each setting does. I found it so much easier to understand than the Nikon manual that came with the camera.
 
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before you go out, press the 2 green 'reset' buttons

this puts the camera back to the default settings in case you've been playing and forgot what you'd changed

then read ''this''
Nikon D5000 User's Guide
© 2009 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.


good luck.....:D
 
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