I just ordered my first DSLR camera!

I've been keeping my Nikon in Auto. Tonight I tried to take a picture of the moon and it didn't come out at all. It wanted to flash and it just came out blurry with no moon. Without flash it wouldn't take a picture. I'm used to my P&S where I can just go out and take a picture. Any tips on what to do?

Are you spot metering? What lens are you using?

I've been keeping my Nikon in Auto. Tonight I tried to take a picture of the moon and it didn't come out at all. It wanted to flash and it just came out blurry with no moon. Without flash it wouldn't take a picture. I'm used to my P&S where I can just go out and take a picture. Any tips on what to do?

On auto with a Nikon DSLR, the flash will automatically pop open and deploy when the camera detects low light. This is obviously ineffective to photograph the moon.

Try this. Instead of using auto, put the mode dial on P (program mode.) The Nikon will set exposure (shutter speed and aperture) and will chose these settings as it deems best. In P mode, the flash will not automatically deploy. (You can activate it by pushing the flash button adjacent to the flash which will cause it to pop up and deploy. You will not want to do this for shooting photos of the moon.)

If on a tripod, keep the ISO low (e.g. 100.) The shutter speed will be very long.

If trying to shoot handheld, increase the ISO greatly, so that the shutter speed isn't so long. You might want to try ISO 1600. Or, go into the menu and find the setting for auto ISO. Using this, the camera will automatically increase the ISO to the appropriate level, keeping the shutter speed reasonably short.

But, really, you should be on a tripod for this type of shooting.

Hope this helps.

 

If on a tripod, keep the ISO low (e.g. 100.) The shutter speed will be very long.

 

The shutter speed should not be long at all. at ISO 100, f/5.6 at 1/125s would be a good place to start. Remember, the moon is in full daylight.

Dave

How to Photograph the Moon:

I've been keeping my Nikon in Auto. Tonight I tried to take a picture of the moon and it didn't come out at all. It wanted to flash and it just came out blurry with no moon. Without flash it wouldn't take a picture. I'm used to my P&S where I can just go out and take a picture. Any tips on what to do?

On automatic, the camera wants every picture to average out to an 18% neutral grey - with the moon as a spot of brightness on a dark background that results in an overexposed moon.

One solution is to use a long lens [600mm and up] so the moon fills more of the frame, so there is less dark in the frame.

The other solution is manual override - the basic setting is aperture f/11 and a shutter speed of 1/iso

[Historical note - the ASA/ISO 'film speed' is the shutter speed that yields an 18% grey image of a standard grey card in noontime daylight, with a f/16 aperture.

The moon is in full daylight, but is darker than a standard grey card, so f/11 lets in 'one stop' more light. Visit a museum like Smithsonian Air & Space where moon rocks are on display to see how dark the moon actually is.]

Enjoy your camera! I bought one of these from Costco a few years back and could not of been more happier.

My first suggest is to buy a filter for each of your lens. A UV or Skylight filter will work. It is not so much what the filter does for your photos as much as I does for preventing your lens from being scratched. If you get the lens scratched you will have to live with the mark on all your photos. Buying a $20.00 filter and getting a scratch on the filter is just a mater of you replacing the filter.

You will find the battery will last a long time and can be charged easily within 4 hours.

I have a camera bag that is a small back pack that can carry all my equipment light weight and is no problem carrying on my back.

Purchase a lens cleaning kit. It just some good quality cleaning solution and some paper tissues.

I like the idea of having small data memory cards. I also make sure that all my photos are downloaded from the memory card before traveling on an airplanes. I don’t like the idea of the scanners destroying the data on my memory cards. They say it won’t be effected but why take a chance.

Last but no last enjoy it. It takes a few times to get the hang of it.

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I don’t like the idea of the scanners destroying the data on my memory cards. They say it won’t be effected but why take a chance.

 

SD cards are remarkably resilient. The card's controller uses an electrical charge to change the state of each memory cell to record data and that cell will remain in the recorded state without needing power until the controller resets it with another charge. The only way a magnetic field could alter an SD card is if the it was strong enough to induce an electrical charge in the circuitry of the card itself. SanDisk has tested their products extensively and they easily survive a 5000 Gauss magnetic field without data corruption. For reference, the walk-through metal detector at the airport uses a 3-6 Gauss field. The 300-400 Gauss produced by the magnetic cover and speakers on your iPad is a far greater risk but still nothing to worry about. My advice is to to avoid taking your camera and cards with you if you need an MRI but the airport offers no magnetic risk. :)

As for x-rays, the same is true. Unlike film, there are no photo-sensitive chemicals in memory cards. Again, the only way corruption could occur with x-rays is if the x-ray stream was powerful enough to induce a current in the card circuitry or cause degradation in the actual card material. SanDisk SD cards have been tested to a dosage of 1 Gy. This level of x-ray radiation is about 100,000 times the level used in the cabinet baggage scanners.

Don't worry about your memory cards. They are tougher than we are. If you spent the day photographing the inside of the Fukashima power plant then fell off a 1,000 ft. cliff into the water, the cards would be fine. They are in far greater danger from mishandling and accidental removal while a write operation is happening than from any environmental exposure.

Dave

<snip> My first suggest is to buy a filter for each of your lens. A UV or Skylight filter will work. It is not so much what the filter does for your photos as much as I does for preventing your lens from being scratched. If you get the lens scratched you will have to live with the mark on all your photos. Buying a $20.00 filter and getting a scratch on the filter is just a mater of you replacing the filter.</snip>

Here's an interesting video about filters and the protection they really provide:

Thanks for all the moon picture taking tips. I've been using my 70-300mm lens. I have yet to learn how to change ISO, shutter, etc.

Filters came with the kit but I have no idea how to use them or when.

Here's an interesting video about filters and the protection they really provide:

Thanks for all the moon picture taking tips. I've been using my 70-300mm lens. I have yet to learn how to change ISO, shutter, etc.

Filters came with the kit but I have no idea how to use them or when.

The problem I have with that video is... when in the world would you have a spike coming at your lens?

He barely touched on the main reason I know people use filters for "protection". That is scratches, dust, fingerprints, sand, salt water spray, etc. That's what I'm worried about. For example, I was in some rocky caverns. Lens swung around and just glanced a rock sticking out. Filter protected the lens underneath. Just a tiny nick on the filter. But better the $75 filter (or however much it cost) than my lens (the YouTube guy said $350 to fix so by my math, $75 is cheaper than $350).

I buy one high quality filter, and just leave it on. Doesn't seem to affect my pictures any noticeable degree. Lens hood also provides protection. I had a polarizer on an old lens, but I never used it.

<snip> have yet to learn how to change ISO, shutter, etc.</snip>

I went to YouTube and searched for "how to get out of auto and into manual photography." Here's the list of videos that came up: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+get+out+of+auto+and+into+manual+photography

I personally can't recommend any of the videos but viewing a few may help you get started. Keep in mind the videos may not be specific to your camera, so read along in your camera manual. If you do not have a copy of the manual, you may be able to download yours at Nikon's Download Center: http://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/index.html

I have yet to learn how to change ISO, shutter, etc.

Try these to get started on some basic settings on your Nikon. Take the camera off auto and put it in P (program) mode. (Use the mode dial on the top of the camera and dial in P.) In P mode, the camera will choose a combination of aperture and shutter speed to give you a proper exposure most of time. As you advance, you can try using A (aperture priority - you set aperture, camera choses proper shutter speed) or S (shutter priority - you choose shutter speed, camera choses proper aperture.) I use A most of the time, except when shooting sports or action.

With regard to ISO, generally you want it as low as possible considering the amount of light. Also, you can go into the menu on the Nikon and select Auto ISO. Here the camera will automatically raise the ISO to what it deems to be the correct ISO considering the dimness of the light. I use Auto ISO all the time, except when on a tripod.

Thanks again for all the tips. I have a lots to look at and read. I have Nikon D3400 for Dummies and Digital Photography for Dummies (hopefully they will help me).

I tried using P mode tonight on the moon. All I got was a large white ball. I tried switching to M with a 1/160 f8. I tried to put it on ISO 100 but it seemed like it kept switching back to ISO-A 25600 [3.4]k and all I got again was a large white ball (no details of the moon). So I can't tell if something is wrong with the camera or since I have no idea how to do this if it is me who's messing up. I assume it's me but I don't understand what is going wrong.

I tried using P mode tonight on the moon. All I got was a large white ball. I tried switching to M with a 1/160 f8. I tried to put it on ISO 100 but it seemed like it kept switching back to ISO-A 25600 [3.4]k and all I got again was a large white ball (no details of the moon). So I can't tell if something is wrong with the camera or since I have no idea how to do this if it is me who's messing up. I assume it's me but I don't understand what is going wrong.

I’m not very good at this, but I think you’re overexposed. Night photography is difficult, it would probably be easier to start on day photography. I bet that there was also some camera shake? That also leads me to get no details as well.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I tried using P mode tonight on the moon. All I got was a large white ball. I tried switching to M with a 1/160 f8. I tried to put it on ISO 100 but it seemed like it kept switching back to ISO-A 25600 [3.4]k and all I got again was a large white ball (no details of the moon). So I can't tell if something is wrong with the camera or since I have no idea how to do this if it is me who's messing up. I assume it's me but I don't understand what is going wrong.

You somehow still had it in auto ISO. You need to switch the ISO to 100 and turn off auto ISO.

I tried using P mode tonight on the moon. All I got was a large white ball. I tried switching to M with a 1/160 f8. I tried to put it on ISO 100 but it seemed like it kept switching back to ISO-A 25600 [3.4]k and all I got again was a large white ball (no details of the moon). So I can't tell if something is wrong with the camera or since I have no idea how to do this if it is me who's messing up. I assume it's me but I don't understand what is going wrong.

Your problem was that you were not metering the moon - you were metering the night sky. The camera cranked up the ISO to try to brighten that pure black night sky, which renders the moon as a big blown out white blob. What you need to do is meter directly off the moon, and ONLY the moon. You want to set your metering mode to 'spot' if available...you can even do this in P mode. It tells the camera to only base the exposure on what's directly under that spot point - which you point at the moon.

The strange thing to adapt to in your mind with the moon is that even though it's nighttime where you are, on the moon you're shooting, it's bright daylight. So to expose the moon, you need essentially the same types of settings you would use to expose a bright sunny day. You tried to set ISO to 100, but sounds like you weren't setting a manual ISO - maybe you were setting a minimum ISO range in Auto? But even if you had Auto ISO set, if you changed the metering mode to spot and pointed at the moon in P mode, you should get the moon properly exposed and the ISO will choose something low and the aperture should close down too. Of course, if you're not using enough focal length - ie: your lens doesn't have much reach - then it may be difficult to spot meter the moon because it will be too small in the frame. In that case, you might have to resort to manually setting the aperture, ISO, and shutter...something like ISO100, F8, and 1/250 shutter. Just make sure you're actually setting the ISO manually to 100, and not setting the auto ISO range setting which sounds like what may have happened.

I saw a youtube video today on how to change ISO so that is right now. My pictures of the moon today were much better (I had details). Of course there was some hand shaking, so I'll try with a tripod. I have heard of metering but don't know what that is yet...more reading to be done!

I have heard of metering but don't know what that is yet...more reading to be done!

Metering refers to the camera measuring the amount of light that is in the scene you are photographing. The camera has a built-in light meter for this purpose. This seems pretty straight forward, except that the light may vary widely in different parts of the scene. As such, the light meter can be fooled.

On a Nikon, the camera allows you to switch between various types of metering. For most photography, the best setting is an average reading for the entire scene. Nikon calls this matrix metering. Depending on the camera, there is either a dedicated button for this, or you may have to go into the menus to select this, but it is probably set for matrix metering by default. This may not alway work best. For example, when the primary subject is brightly lit against a very dark background (e.g. shooting the moon against a very dark sky), matrix metering will try to average out the light. In such conditions, it is probably better to choose spot metering. Here, you choose a particular point in the scene and the camera will try to properly expose for that spot instead of averaging the light over the entire frame.

I saw a youtube video today on how to change ISO so that is right now. My pictures of the moon today were much better (I had details). Of course there was some hand shaking, so I'll try with a tripod. I have heard of metering but don't know what that is yet...more reading to be done!

The reason I am posting these two images is because people are trying to offer exposure advice without having gone out and photographed the moon. Like cruises42, I have a Nikon crop sensor camera. Although my camera is not the same model, it is the same brand and a crop camera. I'd bet if cruises42 could duplicate the camera settings for image 2, his results would be similar.

These two images were take with a Nikon D500 camera thru a Nikon DX 18-300mm Lens at 300mm. Both images are jpg straight out of camera, no edits done. The only manipulation was to resize them for easier comparison.

You can see that in image 1 (P Mode) the camera is still trying to average out to an 18% grey even in spot metering. In Manual mode, I used the built in meter to select the settings. I also took into account that the meter would also try and expose for the 18% grey so I selected a stop faster shutter speed. I chose a faster f stop so I could select a faster shutter and hand hold the camera.

Image 1

Program Mode

1/200 sec

f/7.1

ISO 100

Spot metering

Hand held

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/<a href=http://oviedophotoclub.zenfolio.com/p631199341/ea4d1784e rel=nofollow target=_blank>

Image 2

Manual Mode

1/320 sec

f/5.6

ISO 100

Spot metering

Hand held

As a side note, I did shoot in RAW+jpg but selected the jpg images to show here, because in my experience, most beginners shoot jpg because they don't understand RAW yet. It's the same with shooting in Auto or Program. Most beginners don't understand the exposure triangle yet, and for most situations, Auto or Program work very well. I'm not critizing shooting in jpge or Auto mode. That is exactly how I started. Over time, I decided to try manual and eventually, I discovered the advantages of RAW.

Metering refers to the camera measuring the amount of light that is in the scene you are photographing. The camera has a built-in light meter for this purpose. This seems pretty straight forward, except that the light may vary widely in different parts of the scene. As such, the light meter can be fooled.

 

On a Nikon, the camera allows you to switch between various types of metering. For most photography, the best setting is an average reading for the entire scene. Nikon calls this matrix metering. Depending on the camera, there is either a dedicated button for this, or you may have to go into the menus to select this, but it is probably set for matrix metering by default. This may not alway work best. For example, when the primary subject is brightly lit against a very dark background (e.g. shooting the moon against a very dark sky), matrix metering will try to average out the light. In such conditions, it is probably better to choose spot metering. Here, you choose a particular point in the scene and the camera will try to properly expose for that spot instead of averaging the light over the entire frame.

I'll try changing it next time the moon is "out" (it's cloudy tonight). Is ISO something you need to change often or is there a good setting to keep it at most of the time?

The reason I am posting these two images is because people are trying to offer exposure advice without having gone out and photographed the moon. Like cruises42, I have a Nikon crop sensor camera. Although my camera is not the same model, it is the same brand and a crop camera. I'd bet if cruises42 could duplicate the camera settings for image 2, his results would be similar.

 

These two images were take with a Nikon D500 camera thru a Nikon DX 18-300mm Lens at 300mm. Both images are jpg straight out of camera, no edits done. The only manipulation was to resize them for easier comparison.

 

You can see that in image 1 (P Mode) the camera is still trying to average out to an 18% grey even in spot metering. In Manual mode, I used the built in meter to select the settings. I also took into account that the meter would also try and expose for the 18% grey so I selected a stop faster shutter speed. I chose a faster f stop so I could select a faster shutter and hand hold the camera.

 

Image 1

Program Mode

1/200 sec

f/7.1

ISO 100

Spot metering

Hand held

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/<a href=http://oviedophotoclub.zenfolio.com/p631199341/ea4d1784e rel=nofollow target=_blank>

 

Image 2

Manual Mode

1/320 sec

f/5.6

ISO 100

Spot metering

Hand held

 

As a side note, I did shoot in RAW+jpg but selected the jpg images to show here, because in my experience, most beginners shoot jpg because they don't understand RAW yet. It's the same with shooting in Auto or Program. Most beginners don't understand the exposure triangle yet, and for most situations, Auto or Program work very well. I'm not critizing shooting in jpge or Auto mode. That is exactly how I started. Over time, I decided to try manual and eventually, I discovered the advantages of RAW.

Thanks, I'll try those settings. You're right, I don't understand much yet.

Don't worry about it. You're trying. Fastest way to learn. Photography is very much a try it to learn it skill.

Things I would be looking at a new camera....

• camera case if it did not come with one.
  
• NC or UV filter for lens protection
  
• flash.... love the SB-5000 for power to bounce light or brighten up dark shadows.
  
• tripod for low light and sharper images.
  

I'm not familiar with the 16-300mm Tamron.... but my 28-300mm had autofocus issues when fully extended. I sold that lens when Nikon came out with it's version. As a result, I recommend the 18-200 or 18-300. Warning... while I love super zooms for travel.... you do get distorted images.

Best Filter is a Circular Polarizer Best used at 90 degree angles to sun. Don't go too cheap if possible. Get Bluer skies and water it takes out the reflection and Glare. UV also helps. Shower caps from hotels are good to keep around for your camera..