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Hi,
Hopefully one of you knowledgable people can help me. I have a Nikon D60 that I am trying to learn how to use in something other then auto mode. In manual mode I had the shutter speed at 1/2000 and the f-stop at 5.6(trying to shoot a hummingbird). Every photo I have tried to shoot has come out almost black. The ISO is at 100 and the white balance is set for cloudy day. Does anyone have any ideas why the pictures are so dark (and yes I had the lens cap off :D ) I am really new at this so I would really like to know what I am doing wrong. I am having the same problem in shutter priorty mode, but it seems ok in aperature priorty mode. Help!
Thanks,
Dawn
If it is a cloudy day the ISO should be larger than 400 that is one thing you can change. Are you using the metering at the bottom of the frame when you look through the lens? :wave:
Like stated above. Sounds like you need to bump the ISO up to at least 400. You should not have any problem with noise on that camera at higher ISO's.

You may have run out of lense. When shooting a high speed like 1/2000 you need to watch you lense aperature. If the lense is maxed out at 5.6 you may not be getting enough light. What size lense and what aperature range does it have?
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Try dropping your shutter speed. I usually use around 600 shutter speed for hummingbirds.
RonH wrote: Like stated above. Sounds like you need to bump the ISO up to at least 400. You should not have any problem with noise on that camera at higher ISO's.

You may have run out of lense. When shooting a high speed like 1/2000 you need to watch you lense aperature. If the lense is maxed out at 5.6 you may not be getting enough light. What size lense and what aperature range does it have?



The lens I am using is my 55-200mm. How do I know what aperature range it has?

I tried bumping up the ISO and dropping the shutter speed as suggested ny Suzi and Angela. They are still dark, but not nearly as bad.
Thanks for taking the time to help. I appreciate it!
I check some of my hummingbird pictures and the most common settings I used were iso 400, shutter speed 600 and an aperture of F8. They came out very bright but I was shooting into a well lit area. Check your white balance also. I was using my 70/300 lens.
Thanks Suzi, I'll give that a try.
suzib wrote: I check some of my hummingbird pictures and the most common settings I used were iso 400, shutter speed 600 and an aperture of F8. They came out very bright but I was shooting into a well lit area. Check your white balance also. I was using my 70/300 lens.


Suzi,
How do you see what settings a photo was shot at?
Dawn
I open the picture in photoshop, then file>file info>camera data 1. there is another way in windows but not sure how to do that.
I am having the same problem in shutter priorty mode, but it seems ok in aperature priorty mode. Help!


The problem is your underexposing. Either too fast of a shutter speed, which you need to lower in order to let in more light, too low of an ISO, or too small an aperture. Remember, the larger the aperture setting, the smaller the aperture. The numbers are backwards in relation to what is happening when setting your aperture. To know what apertures your lens is capable of, it should have some number similar to this: 55-200 mm, f/4.0-5.6 or something like that.

As for solving exposure problems, your camera's internal meter and how you are metering will be a big help. There is more than one way to get correct exposure. If you are just starting out and want to get an understanding of how shutter speed, aperture, and ISO work together, you might want to take a look at Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Exposure". He has a lot of examples and explanations on how they all work together and what settings are good in certain situations. He also has a book called "Understanding Shutter Speed" which is also quite helpful. But read "Understanding Exposure" first as it will give you a good background in this area.

Good exposure depends entirely on the tripod of Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO. Once you learn the relationships between the three, you are well on your way.

And the reason your shots are coming out in Aperture Priority mode is because once you set the Aperture, the camera is setting the Shutter Speed for you and the camera's internal metering is handling the setting.

And you are to be commended for learning more about the manual modes. Once you figure it out, it will open a whole new area of creativity for you, so don't give up!
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