Help with Low Light ! D40

[bumthology]

Hi
Today i purchased a D40, i know many lenses wont work on it, but i dont plan on buying a lot (as they are hell expensive) and i dont want this hobby digging into my pockets too much.

Anyways i've been researching and viewing a lot of sample photos taken by D40's and D50's especially low light ones.

Today i took some photos with an incandescent houselight, no flash and it turned out quite blurry (because of movement), also i've set the ISO to 1600 etc..

In many example shots i've seen, i've seen them take photos with houselighting at shutterspeeds of 1/100 ! and they turn out great!, however when i use something really high it is very dark!

does anyone know which critical settings i would have to change .. ie , iso, shutterspeed, aperture, if was say.. wanting to take a photo of friends at a restuarant?

your help would be appreciated! i would experiment more, but right now the battery is charging.

[losfp]

but i dont plan on buying a lot (as they are hell expensive) and i dont want this hobby digging into my pockets too much.

Welcome to possibly the most expensive hobby in the known universe (right up there with cars, hi-fi and 100-dollar-bill burning).

To successfully get shots in available light, you'll want to bump up your ISO as much as possible, have a low-ish shutterspeed and open up your aperture - bearing in mind of course that you'll have grainy, soft photos because of that.... Good technique will help you to get good results with a slower SS

Also, you might still have to bump it up in PP - I daresay the sample shots you've seen would have had a fair bit of work done to them.

Helps if you can get a fast lens - but none of the 1.8 or 1.4 lenses will work with the D40 - or one with VR.

Good luck. It's not impossible, but you'll have to work for it

[Oz_Beachside]

hi, and welcome to a great place to learn.

not sure if you are familiar with the way a camera works, but the aperture (the f-number) controls the size of the "hole" in the lens. The lower the number, the larger the hole, thus the more light comes in. So if you have a lens with a 3.5-16 range, the 3.5 will let the most light in.

After that, the shutter speed, controls how long the door is open to let the light in. So the slower the speed, the more light comes in, however, if more than say 1/60th, the shot will be blurry due to shakey hands. If people are moving, you might want more like 1/100th sec. However, this is driven my the meter in your viewfinder (you have to line up the bars to the zero (or close to).

If you cant get the above to work, you may need to increase the ISO (start from say 100, or 200) and increase until the shutter speed meters at the right exposure for the f-stop.

So, for your example, the restaurant may be dark, so without a flash, you may need to set the f-stop to wide open, the ISO high enough so you can hand hold (and stop motion blur), say ISO 1600.

The above three parameters are all constrained by what gear you have, and the meter.

hope that makes some sense.

Of course, if your friends are not far away, you could pop up the flash, and that would help a lot.

is that were you are at? appologies if I am off target... have fun.

[bumthology]

cheers for the quick replies guys
I like no-flash photography which is why i got the DSLR

Also there are options on the wheel

A
S
P

Apparently when i use a i can only control the aperture opening,
S only the shutter speed

The thing is when i control the shutter, it automatically selects my aperture , and likewise with controling aperture, it automatically selects my shutterspeed.

how can i manually change each
i'd like to set it to 1/100 with f3.5 f its possible as i think thats the best the kit lens will do.

do lenses play LARGE parts in low light photography?

[Oz_Beachside]

The thing is when i control the shutter, it automatically selects my aperture , and likewise with controling aperture, it automatically selects my shutterspeed.

Yep, thats call priorities. In SHutter Priority mode (S), YOU choose the shutter speed, and the meter will determine the aperture auto for you. Opposite in aperture priority.

how can i manually change each
i'd like to set it to 1/100 with f3.5 f its possible as i think thats the best the kit lens will do.

for this, you need manual mode. M. cant recall if the D40 has this, or how, but I'm sure it does. Actually, just checking my review pics, and you can see the M mode here;

do lenses play LARGE parts in low light photography?

Yes, or more precisely, the aperture limits of the lens (and the focal length, but lets leave that for later). losfp referred to the 50mm lens, as its a cheap and very practical lens. The "basic" one opens up to 1.8 aperture, which allows lots of light in, more than the kit lens you may have, at 3.5. 1.4 lets in even MORE light.

One thing thought, the larger aperture, reduces the depth of field, so the background can be blurry (and foreground) so you need to focus carefully on your subject.

have fun
Oz

[Oz_Beachside]

oh yeah, the D40 has a little more onscreen help, such as this;

[bumthology]

thanks for the help.
I bought this camera hoping i woudlnt have to buy any lenses, anyways this 50mm lens you talk about, would it work with a d40? i'm hoping this lens is way under the $500 because i did not plan to buy any lenses for a long long time

Anyone know how this guy managed to take this shot in 1/1600 of a second as this is an awesome shutterspeed for that much light !

http://www.pbase.com/image/65311094

edit: I've just noticed that in M or A mode, i can only go as far as 5.6 for the aperture, but my lens is capable of 3.5, On some of the other modes(auto aperture) it has recorded 3.5 in the exif. Howcome i cant manually adjust to 3.5?

edit : Before even considering another lens, is there a huge difference between f1.4 and the kitlens?

sorry for all the noob questions, but night shots are the reason i bought this camera

[micka]

thanks for the help.
edit: I've just noticed that in M or A mode, i can only go as far as 5.6 for the aperture, but my lens is capable of 3.5, On some of the other modes(auto aperture) it has recorded 3.5 in the exif. Howcome i cant manually adjust to 3.5?

That's due to the focal length you're shhoting at... the lens won't open up as far when you're shooting at 55mm as it will at 18mm. This is what the "18-55 f3.5-5.6" marked on the lens is referring to. If you want something that allows for your zoom lens to be have the same potential apperture setting regardless of focal length then you'll need something like 17-55 f2.8 (fairly pricey though). This will allow you to maintain f2.8 throughout the entire focal range of the lens.

[losfp]

The 50/1.8 is Nikon's cheapest lens - you can get it for under $200. However, it will not autofocus with the D40 (though it will fit, and you can take shots with it). The 50/1.4 is even better, but over $300.

Your kit lens has a variable maximum aperture. At full wide, you can go to f/3.5, but at full tele, you can only get to f/5.6. However, this allows the manufacturer to produce a lens that is cheaper, smaller and lighter

f/1.4 is MUCH faster than f/5.6 - 4 stops worth. This means that you can use 1/500 @ f/1.4 instead of 1/30 @ f/5.6 for the same exposure.

1/1600 isn't that impressive for that photo. The lanterns would provide a LOT of light, and the person was shooting at f/1.8, and probably ISO1600

[radar]

Anyone know how this guy managed to take this shot in 1/1600 of a second as this is an awesome shutterspeed for that much light !

http://www.pbase.com/image/65311094

Note that he is using the 50mm/1.8, fully open so that's why he/she was able to get the 1/1600s shutter. The ISO is not shown in the full exif, so he may have bumped it up as well.

Best thing is to try it out for yourself. Pick a scene and systematically take pictures by varying just one element, eg aperture then do the same with varying only the shutter. That will give you a quick idea of what you are able to do in what light.

Note that on the D40, the 50mm lenses will NOT autofocus, you will need to manual focus. For the D40, you need AFS lenses for it to autofocus.

Before you go and invest in more lenses, get to know the ones you have, their good points/bad points. From my readings, the D40 kit lens 18-55 is actually meant to be pretty good. The D40 is also meant to be pretty good in low light if you bump the ISO, so test that out as well and see if you are happy with the results.

Welcome to the forums, btw,

André

[shutterbug]

but night shots are the reason i bought this camera

Get yourself a good TRIPOD for night photography.

I would play with your current setup first before spending anymore $$$.

Get a photography book or do some googling.

vl

[Reschsmooth]

Hi and welcome

Without wishing to appear rude, did you read the manual that came with the camera? That should help you understand the camera's features.

As has been explained previously, shutter speed and aperture are two of the most important elements in determing the "brightness" or otherwise of your photos (sensor sensitivity or ISO also impacts on it).

Think of a bathroom tap, and the aperture is like how much you turn the tap on and the shutter speed is how long you keep the tap turned on. Obviously, the more you open the tap up, the more water runs. Similarly, the longer you leave the tap on, the more water runs. So, you can imagine that turning the tap on full for a short period of time can get you the same amount of water as leaving the tap, barely turned on, for a longer period of time (sorry it that sounded too basic).

Anyway, as I said, I would suggest you read the manual for both the camera and the lens. You may also want to invest in an inexpensive tripod to help you capture low light photos with longer shutter speeds that don't come out blurry.

Cheers

P

[Yi-P]

As most being said above, photography learning is not much about reading here and there, but you need to actually experiment with what you have there. The more you experiment, the more understand you will build up eventually.

I strongly suggest you to download the "Photography in a Nutshell" and "Shutter speed assignment" documents from this forum's front page (to the lower left portion of the front page's layout).

Read both articles, do you experiments, take somewhere around 100 shots, take account into what you've changed and whats being kept constant (your variable and control of experiment). Then come back here and show us your results, what you've learned/understood, and we will give you further feedback according to your results.

Now go ahead and shoot some more pictures, reading the forum here wont grant you any extra experience with your gear.

Welcome to the forum, and one of the most expensive hobbies in the world. Be sure to take the lens lust prevention pills if you can afford them (just kidding) :p

[bumthology]

Thanks for the replies guys,
I fully understand now, after looking at the aperture diagram in wikipedia of the difference. 1.4 is like 3 times a bigger opening than 3.5 i'd say.

shutterbug : there are many photos i've seen of lowlight shots with people, thus i know they used a fast shutterspeed (people move).

I've decided on the SIGMA 30mm f1.4 HSM ! I know this will be the lens i'm after for my D40, so i will save up for that. That seems to be the only f1.4 lens that will focus on the D40 that i know of and its around the 500 dollar mark, not out of reach. Although i wish it was a bit wider.

All my problems are solved for now
Theres so much u can learn from forums and research, i felt like i've learned everything about SLR's in within just 3 days.

[Aussie Dave]

Some light reading...

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/

enjoy