Camera Labs

Hi all,

I am using Nikon D5100 since 4,5 months and trying to explore the manual settings. My problem is, whenever I try to take photos in Shutter priority mode (with slow the shutter speed), I see the pictures only in Black and White or under exposed.

For example, I slowed down the shutter speed to take the photo of a water fountain in the night or a street in the night or sun set. When I take the same shot in Automatic (without flash) mode, the photos are clear and good. I know I am missing something while using Shutter Priority mode but I don't know what it is.

I faced the same problem when I slowed down the shutter speed and tried to take a photo of a water fall during day light.

I checked the Exposure compensation value and it is set to 0/0 in the camera.

https://plus.google.com/photos/107020679865617155854/albums/5766245391661943393?authkey=COiE4ZeC95Gg8QE

Can someone help me understand where am I wrong?

Thanks,
Hariprasad

Hi and welcome to the forum, it's always going to be difficult using manual mode without experience. What I would suggest is look at the setting the camera uses in auto mode and use that as a baseline when using manual. Also have a look at the full exif for both shots and see if there is any difference.

Perhaps more experienced night shooters can offer you more advice.


Cheers

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Nikon D7000, D40X, Nikkor 18- 200 VR II, f3.5-5.6, 70-300 AF non VR, Kit Lenses.

Only thing that comes to my mind is that you also have some other Effect enabled--selective color, monochrome, night vision, etc.--which is disabled when the camera is in full-auto.

HTH - Mark

thanks to both of you for the reply. I would try replicating the auto mode settings and the color settings as well.

The shutter speed is only one of the three settings that you need to adjust to obtain a properly exposed image - have you also set the proper aperture and iso to achieve the correct exposure?

In manual mode you need to set all three of these settings to ensure you get the desired exposure. Even though shutter priority mode is semi-automatic you can't assume that the camera will compensate for all your mistakes. In shutter priority mode most cameras will automatically adjust the aperture to try and achieve the correct exposure - but they won't change the iso unless you have the camera set to auto iso. This can be a problem if you are using a slow lens (one that does not have a large aperture) because the camera can not open the aperture wide enough to allow sufficient light for proper exposure. - instead the camera will most likely flash a warning in the VF but still allow yyou to take an under-exposed shot. Even with a fast (1.4, 2 or 2.8 max aperture) you still may not be able to achieve proper exposure and may need to manually adjust the iso or increase the shutter speed (or set the camera to auto iso).

Also, remember that bad digital photos don't use up valuable film, you can just delete them and try again. By far the best way to learn how your camera works is to set it to manual and just play with the shutter, aperture and iso controls. Make small changes to the shutter speed and see how that alters the image, change it again and again and see how each change alters the resulting images. Then do the same with aperture - see how changing this will alter the depth of field (amount of the image that is in focus) and the iso.

lastly you mentioned shooting at night. This video tutorial focuses on shooting at night http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoPvsukr ... playnext=2 You might find the other 1on1 tutorial videos to be helpful. I certainly have.

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Dan Marchant
I am learning photo graphee - see the results at www.danmarchant.com

While this is true in general, I don't think it's the problem here since the OP said, "I faced the same problem when I slowed down the shutter speed and tried to take a photo of a water fall during day light." A slower kit lens (and low/base ISO) would actually help in that scenario.

Mark