Picture taking help!

[menacekustoms]

So, I like to take pictures of my truck and other cars, blah, blah, blah. We got a new camera, a Nikon D40, and it's super cool. I decided to try night shots last night and I was very dissapointed. They did not come out as clear as I wanted them to. What I want, is for it to look like it is in the viewfinder. These two pics are the best two out of twenty or so that I took. So far just on a few auto settings. Can any of you photo geniuses help?

[Graham_C]

Hey, menace, nice truck. I see it in the 05+ Tacoma thread alot.

These two pics look OK, actually. What are your bad ones like? Blurry? Out of focus? Dark? Bad color?

Your D40 is a smart little machine. You have all sorts of options to play with.

You will want to use a tri-pod or similar instrument and the camera's self-timer. Using both will pretty much eliminate blur. It looks like you're doing this already.

It looks like in these photos that your flash fired. Maybe you used the "Night Portrait" mode on the dial. That setting is good enough in most cases, but it can create some bright spots in the image like you see here on your grill and your side marker reflector.

Basically, what I've found that works is to set the Mode Dial to "P". This is the Program Mode and you have the option to adjust some settings to help your night pictures out.

Once you are in "P" mode:
- Make sure your camera is shooting at the highest resolution (6.0 MP I think for you) and at the highest image quality. Your settings are probably like "High Quality" or "Fine". Just don't use "Normal" or "Economy".

- For the most part, you should turn the flash off so that your camera calculates shutter speed and aperature based on the available light coming through the lens, rather than what it's going to see when the flash goes off.

- Change your ISO setting to 400 or higher. This makes your photoprocessor in the camera more sensitive to light. You might get some grainy-ness at the higher settings; adjust it down until you like what you're capturing.

- Set the White balance to meet your light conditions. It has pre-sets for flourescent, tungsten, daylight, etc. Just set it to what your light conditions are, or experiment for different color effects.

The camera should do the rest.

If you want to dive deeper into the camera's settings, switch the Dial Mode to "S". From there, you will be able to tell the camera how long you want the shutter open for and it'll do the rest. Remember, the darker it is, the longer amount of time you want the shutter open.

Good luck.

[menacekustoms]

Originally Posted by Graham_C

Hey, menace, nice truck. I see it in the 05+ Tacoma thread alot.

These two pics look OK, actually. What are your bad ones like? Blurry? Out of focus? Dark? Bad color?

Your D40 is a smart little machine. You have all sorts of options to play with.

You will want to use a tri-pod or similar instrument and the camera's self-timer. Using both will pretty much eliminate blur. It looks like you're doing this already.

It looks like in these photos that your flash fired. Maybe you used the "Night Portrait" mode on the dial. That setting is good enough in most cases, but it can create some bright spots in the image like you see here on your grill and your side marker reflector.

Basically, what I've found that works is to set the Mode Dial to "P". This is the Program Mode and you have the option to adjust some settings to help your night pictures out.

Once you are in "P" mode:
- Make sure your camera is shooting at the highest resolution (6.0 MP I think for you) and at the highest image quality. Your settings are probably like "High Quality" or "Fine". Just don't use "Normal" or "Economy".

- For the most part, you should turn the flash off so that your camera calculates shutter speed and aperature based on the available light coming through the lens, rather than what it's going to see when the flash goes off.

- Change your ISO setting to 400 or higher. This makes your photoprocessor in the camera more sensitive to light. You might get some grainy-ness at the higher settings; adjust it down until you like what you're capturing.

- Set the White balance to meet your light conditions. It has pre-sets for flourescent, tungsten, daylight, etc. Just set it to what your light conditions are, or experiment for different color effects.

The camera should do the rest.

If you want to dive deeper into the camera's settings, switch the Dial Mode to "S". From there, you will be able to tell the camera how long you want the shutter open for and it'll do the rest. Remember, the darker it is, the longer amount of time you want the shutter open.

Good luck.

Yeah, it was on a tripod, but I didn't use the self timer. Blurriness wasn't really an issue. The color looked crappy, or it was too dark. I always use the highest MP and quality, but haven't ventured into any adjustments yet. I will try some tonight in the same light. I'm excited to take some more pictures. Thanks for all of your info, I really appreciate it.

[-SCWEET1-]

I love your taco!!!

[menacekustoms]

That is some cool shit! And that means a lot coming from you, because I love the stuff you do to you Camrys. You are the sole reason I am keeping my eye out for one as a project car. You don't happen to have that in any higher res do you?

[touringcamry]

Good advice from Graham C but I would prefer that the ISO is kept at 200 or below to prevent it from getting grainy. Although I guess a longer exposure sometimes can make it grainy too.

Best way to learn photography is through experimentation! Since digital cameras record EXIF, no need to take notes about the settings for when you go back and find what works and what doesn't!

[88 LE]

1. Get out of auto and use P, S, A, or M. Since your taking shots at night I'd use M (manual).

2. Forget using flash.

3. Crank the iso all the way down as low as it'll go. I believe iso 200 is the lowest on the D40.

There is absolutely no reason to shoot at high iso at night, unless your shooting handheld.

4. Matrix metering is fine for most things.


Pick an aperture, say f/5.6. Looking at the exposure meter, dial in a shutter speed till the exposure meter says 0 (right in the middle).

Since your shooting at night, you might try overexposing alittle bit (0.3EV to 1EV). Just adjust the shutter speed, so that the exposure meter reads to the left of 0. Every mark is 1/2EV or 1/3EV depending on how the camera is setup.

In manual (M), you can dial in any combination of aperture and shutter speed. If its right or wrong, is another matter.

[menacekustoms]

Cool, thanks everybody, I have a lot of stuff to experiment with. I couldn't take any last night because it was raining, but hopefully tonight I'll mess around some.

[-SCWEET1-]

Originally Posted by menacekustoms

That is some cool shit! And that means a lot coming from you, because I love the stuff you do to you Camrys. You are the sole reason I am keeping my eye out for one as a project car. You don't happen to have that in any higher res do you?

Thanks!! I only have the pic as you hosted it, the only high res is what you took.