Nikon D40 vertical picture help

[chicagoshannon]

My pictures come out fine when I take them horizontally but when I turn the camera to take them vertically this is what happens.

this is normal horizontal

I've been shooting in P with ISO of 800 and auto white balance but did switch it to the bright sun icon for this one:

Help!

 

[tinkandme]

I'm no professional, but I have done this to myself once or twice before when learning...
When you are tilting the camera and the flash is to the side, my hand or something has covered the flash, hence the picture came out dark as if there were no flash at all...
Good Luck and she is a very cute little girl!
~Kim

 

[chicagoshannon]

Thanks. The flash wasn't on (bright day) and I'm relatively certain that for at least a couple of them I only had one hand on the camera to push the button.

Should I have the flash on outside when it's sunny?

 

[tinkandme]

you could, that is called a "Fill" flash I believe. Just meter your shot, make sure the exposure is not "over" exposed.

 

[MICKEY88]

did your metering mode change at all

 

[chicagoshannon]

Ok I think I figured out what the problem is. I think my actual lens is in the way of the sensor when I turn the camera. When I turn the camera the oposite direction (toward the right) the picture is fine. Now I just have to get used to turning the camera to the right instead of to the left.

I'm embarassed to ask this but what is the metering mode?

 

[chicagoshannon]

ok I just checked my metering is set at matrix. I'm not sure what the other metering settings do. Should I change it from Matrix to something else?

 

[MICKEY88]

that should be fine, I thought maybe it accidentally got switched to spot metering... I'm curious,,why 800 iso...

 

[chicagoshannon]

that should be fine, I thought maybe it accidentally got switched to spot metering... I'm curious,,why 800 iso...

I'm not sure why it's on 800. I think I put it there cause I didn't want 1200. Is there a better ISO I should be using?

I could use some tips on night time photo's too. I probably won't attempt the fire works this trip as I'm not bringing a tripod. Well maybe I'll attempt them but I'm sure they won't get posted.

 

[MICKEY88]

what time of day were these taken...

 

[blackjackdelta]

I'm not sure why it's on 800. I think I put it there cause I didn't want 1200. Is there a better ISO I should be using?

I could use some tips on night time photo's too. I probably won't attempt the fire works this trip as I'm not bringing a tripod. Well maybe I'll attempt them but I'm sure they won't get posted.

If I were you I would get the book on "Exposure" by Peterson and read through it. I has a wealth of information that will help you improve your skills.

Jack

 

[annnewjerz]

Typically, most people like to shoot on the lowest ISO possible to get the results they are looking for with the least amount of noise. On a bright, sunny day---you should be able to shoot at the lowest ISO (I would think, 200 or so) and have no problem getting a nice clear shot of your daughter. If you find that there is motion blur in the shots, you can boost it up but I wouldn't go straight to ISO 800, I'd work your way up until you get your desired results.

Here is an example, taken at f/5.6, 1/400 and ISO 200. This was on a bright afternoon starting to get a little dusky and I was still able to freeze the action with little to no motion blur only using ISO 200.

 

[annnewjerz]

what time of day were these taken...

Looking at the EXIF, it looks like 3:45ish.

 

[chicagoshannon]

what time of day were these taken...

This was about 4:30pm

If I were you I would get the book on "Exposure" by Peterson and read through it. I has a wealth of information that will help you improve your skills.

Jack

Thanks I'll check that out.

Typically, most people like to shoot on the lowest ISO possible to get the results they are looking for with the least amount of noise. On a bright, sunny day---you should be able to shoot at the lowest ISO (I would think, 200 or so) and have no problem getting a nice clear shot of your daughter. If you find that there is motion blur in the shots, you can boost it up but I wouldn't go straight to ISO 800, I'd work your way up until you get your desired results.

Here is an example, taken at f/5.6, 1/400 and ISO 200. This was on a bright afternoon starting to get a little dusky and I was still able to freeze the action with little to no motion blur only using ISO 200.

so I'd want to use the higher ISO when it's darker then?

 

[annnewjerz]

so I'd want to use the higher ISO when it's darker then?

I'd also recommend Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson---it's a great read, very informative and most importantly...lots of pretty pictures!!

(Basically) yes, the darker it is, the higher the ISO you will want to use if you are hand-holding the camera. If you are mounting it on a tripod, you will want to use the lowest ISO possible in most cases. The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the sensor on your camera is to light...allowing it to absorb more and get a faster shutter speed, allowing you to eliminate motion blur from pictures or just brighten them up if they are underexposed.

That's my summary in a nutshell...not the most technical, but it's how I remembered it when I first started.

 

[chicagoshannon]

I'd also recommend Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson---it's a great read, very informative and most importantly...lots of pretty pictures!!

(Basically) yes, the darker it is, the higher the ISO you will want to use if you are hand-holding the camera. If you are mounting it on a tripod, you will want to use the lowest ISO possible in most cases. The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the sensor on your camera is to light...allowing it to absorb more and get a faster shutter speed, allowing you to eliminate motion blur from pictures or just brighten them up if they are underexposed.

That's my summary in a nutshell...not the most technical, but it's how I remembered it when I first started.

that's fantastic and helps a lot. Thank you! I'll check out that book but don't have time before our trip.

 

[annnewjerz]

that's fantastic and helps a lot. Thank you! I'll check out that book but don't have time before our trip.

IMO, since you don't have much time to learn the basics since your trip is only days away, I would probably leave it in Auto for the trip. I used Auto for the first month or so after getting my camera and got a lot of great pics with it. One piece of advice would be to shoot in RAW while you are there (you can find the setting for RAW in your menu under "Image Quality"). This way, if you end up thinking some of your pics are over/underexposed, etc. you have a lot more flexibility to fix it in post processing with a program like Photoshop. You may not know how to do all of the editing right now, but eventually when you learn you'll be thanking yourself for shooting in RAW.

And---if you didn't know this yet, make sure you have LOTS of memory cards. They're cheap and since you shouldn't delete in camera, you want to make sure you have enough to last you your entire trip.

Good luck!

 

[GrillMouster]

Ok I think I figured out what the problem is. I think my actual lens is in the way of the sensor when I turn the camera. When I turn the camera the oposite direction (toward the right) the picture is fine. Now I just have to get used to turning the camera to the right instead of to the left.

I'm embarassed to ask this but what is the metering mode?

You should be able to turn the camera in any direction - left, right, upside down- without experiencing this problem. The camera meters through the lens, so I'm not sure what you mean when you say that the lens is blocking the sensor.

The images you sent are all too different to effectively judge why you're experiencing this problem. I looked at the first three images and found that the exposure compensation (-2/3) and the ISO (800) are the same, but everything else is different. The shutter speed, aperture, focal length, time of day, angle to the sun, etc. are all different. For instance in one of the dark pictures the sun is coming from behind the little girl directly toward the camera. In another picture the sun is coming from behind the camera toward the child.

Try taking a few pictures in vertical and horizontal orientation of the exact same scene at the same time of day. Pick a simple background, like a wall, that's uniform in color and that will fill the frame in either orientation. Place something in front of the wall and photograph it dead center in both orientations. Take your time and make sure that you're not accidentally flipping any switches, pushing other buttons or changing any settings between shots. Then post those images and we'll be able to help narrow down the problem.

By the way, I just noticed that in the EXIF date of the first two underexposed images the creation software is "Paint Shop Photo Album v5.21", but in the third photo (the one that looks okay) the creation software just says "Ver.1.10. So, it appears that you used different software on these images. Could that have something to do with the problem? Do the vertical images look darker than horizontal images on the camera's screen (before you download them to the computer)?

 

[chicagoshannon]

I think I have 3 memory cards with. Thank your for your advice. I actually have read a decent amount (clearly not enough) I'm comfortable for the most part using P mode. The pictures I've taken using that have come out so much better then on auto. I think I will use Auto on the night shots though.

 

[chicagoshannon]

You should be able to turn the camera in any direction - left, right, upside down- without experiencing this problem. The camera meters through the lens, so I'm not sure what you mean when you say that the lens is blocking the sensor.

The images you sent are all too different to effectively judge why you're experiencing this problem. I looked at the first three images and found that the exposure compensation (-2/3) and the ISO (800) are the same, but everything else is different. The shutter speed, aperture, focal length, time of day, angle to the sun, etc. are all different. For instance in one of the dark pictures the sun is coming from behind the little girl directly toward the camera. In another picture the sun is coming from behind the camera toward the child.

Try taking a few pictures in vertical and horizontal orientation of the exact same scene at the same time of day. Pick a simple background, like a wall, that's uniform in color and that will fill the frame in either orientation. Place something in front of the wall and photograph it dead center in both orientations. Take your time and make sure that you're not accidentally flipping any switches, pushing other buttons or changing any settings between shots. Focus on the item dead-center in the frame. Then post those images and we'll be able to help narrow down the problem.

By the way, I just noticed that in the EXIF date of the first two underexposed images the creation software is "Paint Shop Photo Album v5.21", but the third photo (the one that looks okay) the creation software just says "Ver.1.10. So, it appears that you used different software on these images. Could that have something to do with it? Do the vertical images look darker than horizontal images on the camera's screen (before you download them to the computer)?

I actually used the same software on all the pictures they were downloaded at the same time. The vertical images are definitely darker on the camera also.

I'll try those tips tomorrow maybe. Thank you.