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I was in Sydney Two days ago and was in Darling harbour taking photos with my D300, I had set my ISO to about 200 cause it was about 1pm in the arvo and the light was as harsh as you can get, and photos turn out dark, I had to put it to about 3200 for some decent shots to show... I don't know why, camera is brand new and well i haven't played with much of the settings as yet. I was using a 18-200mm VR lens

Ben, what other settings did you have on the camera?

What Chris said.

I'm particularly curious to find out what mode the camera was in.

And what do your image histograms look like? Could you please post a couple of images?

Maybe he was in manual f32 @ 1/8000 sec....that sounds about right.

Matt. K wrote:Maybe he was in manual f32 @ 1/8000 sec....that sounds about right.

I'm thinking along those lines. As soon as he's in M territory .....

If we can see an image, along with the EXIF, then we'll be able to offer some answers.

Or it might have been the exposure compensation?

I was using P mode , I did switch it to manual and Automatic to check the settings even at Auto setting it was giving and ISO about 3200 or a bit less and it was it harsh day light, I'll get some pictures up and let you have a look, anything in particular I should be looking for in settings, Ive used it straight out of the box and did really change any settings at all.....

On a D300 "A" = Aperture Priority, not Automatic. This means you set the Aperture (f number). The Camera chooses the shutter speed based on that.

Did you take the Lens Cap off? At ISO3200 on a bright day you might not need to

Seriously, I was going to suggest you get someone to check it (and your use of it) over, but I note you are up in Darwin. Not sure if we have any members up there. Gary?

Catcha wrote:I was using P mode , I did switch it to manual and Automatic to check the settings even at Auto setting it was giving and ISO about 3200 or a bit less and it was it harsh day light, I'll get some pictures up and let you have a look, anything in particular I should be looking for in settings, Ive used it straight out of the box and did really change any settings at all.....

I just re-read this. Are you sure it was ISO=3200. The way you write this, I would expect you to be talking about Shutter Speed, and I would expect this on a bright day

It gets messy, but there are basically three things that affect an exposure:

Shutter Speed. This is how long the sensor is exposed to light. This is expressed as fractions of a second 2 = half a second 250 = 1/250th of a second, 3200 = 1/3200 second, a very short time, so not much light gets in

Aperture. This is how big the hole is in the lens. The bigger the number, the smaller the hole f2 = very wide. f8 = moderately wide f32 = very narrow. The larger the hole, the more light gets in.

ISO = The sensor's sensitivity to light. This is a number based on the way film responds to light. Numbers (on a D300) range from ISO100 (Not very sensitive, but good for very fine grain) up to ISO3200 (Very Very sensitive, but subject to fluctuations in sensitivity which shows up as a graininess (or noise) in the finished photo.

Generally, you control the first two depending on what you are trying to achieve. If you want everything in focus from near to far, you choose a small hole (e.g. f22). If you want your subject in focus, but the surroundings blurry, you choose a wide hole (e.g. f4). On the other hand, if you are taking a photo of a fast moving object, you might choose to control shutter speed and choose 1/3200 to stop the motion completely, or choose 1/60 to get some motion blur to give a sense of movement to the photo.

You would choose to change ISO only if you cannot get the effect you want at the settings you have available. Generally, you set the Camera on ISO100 or 200 to maximise quality unless you need to go off it to, for example shoot a candle lighting ceremony at night.

NB this is a very brief overview. There is a lot more to it than this.

Mr Darcy wrote:Seriously, I was going to suggest you get someone to check it (and your use of it) over, but I note you are up in Darwin. Not sure if we have any members up there. Gary?

Just the one, off the top of my head.

Given that you say you're in P mode, what +-EV settings were on the camera?

I'm accepting your statements as written, and so accepting that this happened across different shooting modes, that suggests to me that there's an EV compensation setting that's running amok amongst your images.

Ok I uploaded some shots on my Smug mug and the camera settings can been seen in info

http://byu88.smugmug.com/gallery/915432 ... 0701_oj89q


advice appreciated

I just had a look at those shots and noticed 2 things...fast shutter speeds and small apertures...I am not able to crunch the numbers but f/14 and f/16 with 1/800-1/1000 shutter speed may be playing a role in the need for the high ISO's.

Catcha wrote:I had set my ISO to about 200 cause it was about 1pm in the arvo and the light was as harsh as you can get, and photos turn out dark,

Ben,

I'm confused.

Looking at the fourth image presented, the one showing the Harbour Bridge, I see the following data: ISO 200, 1/400, f/11, exposure compensation 0EV, and it appears to be Program mode auto.

But the image, to me, does not appear to be dark; this appears to be a well exposed image. Is this one of the images that are you not satisfied with in terms of exposure?

Analysing the exposure data, the Sunny 16 rule tells us that at ISO 200, correct exposure of a subject made under bright sunlight should be f/16 at about 1/200, for which one equivalent is about 1/400 at f/11.

Which was the exposure in use.

As I said, the image appears to me to be correctly exposed, and given the data included in the image, I'm not seeing an issue. Hence, I'm confused.

Let's look at another image ... the third of these: the lady walking. This one looks to me to be a little over exposed. I'd say about 2 stops over, judging by the cars on the left of this image.

ISO 3200, 1/800, f/14. Same shooting conditions, so let's start again with Sunny 16: ISO 3200, about 1/3200, f/16. the aperture in use was, however, f/14, suggesting a shutter speed of 1/6400. The shutter speed of 1/800 at which this image was taken suggests 3 stops over. Given that Sunny 16 is just a guide, I'd say that the exposure error that I'm seeing is probably within the realm of my rough calculations, and thus the image and data is somewhat consistent with an image that might be two stops over, and, as with the first image, I'm not yet seeing anything untoward here. What does the histogram show you for this image?

Let's look at the next image, moving left: the ferris whell at Darling Harbour. This looks to me to be pretty well spot on, exposure wise.

Data says ISO 1250, 1/1000, f/16. That, for me, is near enough to Sunny 16 as say spot on. Still no issues ...

Left most image: Tumbalong Park. Looks a little hot, but not aided by the glare from the sun, which will reduce the contrast that we can see. About a half stop over, I'd suggest.

Data is the same as the prior image, and again, well within what Sunny 16 would suggest.

So, yes, I'm confused: can you please elaborate upon what you see as the problem here?

they all look well exposed to me. the settings the camera used do seem quite bizarre though. the quicker you get out of P mode the better.

As Gary suggested, the photos and corresponding data show the accuracy of the sunny 16 rule.

Ok well maybe its just me....they just looked underexposed for me and well the car park shot with my wife, hmm I think i need to run back to basics again

Remember that you cannot use just the rear lcd to assess exposure. What are the histograms like?

Ok well maybe its just me....they just looked underexposed for me

Look. If you're just not happy with the camera, I'll accept the pain and take it off your hands. I'll even throw in a tried and tested F3

Mr Darcy wrote: I'll even throw in a tried and tested F3

Aim it this way. I appreciate the pain you must be going through having that F3 taking up space!

gstark wrote:Remember that you cannot use just the rear lcd to assess exposure. What are the histograms like?

I don't even check......I use to heehe to consumed by the sites, I will now going to take some motor sport pictures on the weekend it should be good