Out of focus and Over exposure

wordlesstu

Senior Member
Hi,

I am a newbie to the DSLR world. My friend recently lent me a DSLR, and I started to play with it. However, I came across couple questions when I used the camera. I appreciate if there is someone who can advise me.

1. I choose P mode to shot the photo for most of the time. However, sometimes the images are underexposure and sometimes are overexposure. (See photo1) Also, it sometimes show as P* instead of P, can someone help me to figure out what goes wrong?

DSC_1785.jpg

2. My subject is often out of focus. (I select single area, autofocus.See photo 2 ) Does anyone have tips?

DSC_1851.jpg

Can someone advise? Thank you.
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
What exposure metering is the camera set at? Area? Spot?

The settings on the first image are kind of crazy. f/25 and an ISO of 400 for what appears to be a bright day? What was the shutter speed?

Same for the second, shutter speed.
 

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
The * indicates the camera is in flexible program. I believe it appears when you change the shutter or aperture. Change either and the camera changes the other for you to have equivalent exposure.

I wonder if the camera is set on Auto ISO since that changed from one image to the next or did you change the ISO setting?

Would you mind posting one more that shows the subject out of focus?

Welcome to Nikonites.
 
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nickt

Senior Member
Read up on the exposure triangle. It will help a lot.
Here are some links:
https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-exposure.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8T94sdiNjc

Metering mode is very important. Spot mode can wildly change your exposure results depending where the spot falls. A wider metering area is a better choice for starting out.
P mode is very automatic with the ability to shift the program. That is what the * means, you turned the command wheel to shift the program. Exposure is a balance of shutter, aperture and iso. All three come together to 'cook' a perfect exposure based on the meter. Turning the wheel in P mode will shift things around, but still try to keep a balanced exposure. Exposure needs to be correct, but depending what you want, the 3 parameters can be juggled to get the same exposure. The * indicates that you have tweaked the program. You can tweak too much and get poor results. Find the spot where the *p goes out or turn the camera off and on to reset it. Check those links out and tweaking the program will make more sense.
Focus is another learning project. Stick with single point and make sure its on the face for now. Or on whatever is most important to focus on. Depth of field becomes important here, that is also talked about in the links above. At a low f stop and close distance, only a narrow strip of your subject may be in focus.
 

wordlesstu

Senior Member
Hi Moab,

Thank you for your response. I set on Spot metering. For the first image, is it better to set ISO on 100 or Auto?I don't remember the shutter speed I use. Do you know where I can pull out the information?

For the second photo, I also don't remember what shutter speed I used. I want to create a depth of field that only focuses on the dog's face, but it didn't work out, and it was out of focus.

Thank you.
 

wordlesstu

Senior Member
Hi,
Thank you so much for your response.

1.Yes, the * shows up when I change the shutter and aperture.I set on Auto ISO to shoot. However, when I notice one or two of my photos are underexposure or overexposure, I tried to change ISO. I am posting more photos that are out of focus using P mode.

DSC_1375.jpg

DSC_1384.jpg

DSC_1522.jpg

Thank you!
 

wordlesstu

Senior Member
Hi, nickt,

Thank you so much for your handful tips. I have a follow-up question.There are three metering mode to choose from - 3D color/Center-weighted/Spot, would you suggest me set on center-weighted mode to take pictures to start out?

Thank you!
 

nickt

Senior Member
Hi, nickt,

Thank you so much for your handful tips. I have a follow-up question.There are three metering mode to choose from - 3D color/Center-weighted/Spot, would you suggest me set on center-weighted mode to take pictures to start out?

Thank you!
3d color is the most general purpose mode, so I would use that. Use the other modes for more specific situations. Center weighted gives more consideration to the center of the frame. Spot is a spot. So most scenes, 3d is good. It will consider various elements. Center might be good for people with sky behind them. Spot could meter their shirt or a smaller area. Usually not what you want. I like spot for certain wildlife. Spot metering could help you with say a black cat or a white cat. Either situation would be tricky for the other modes to get detail in the fur. You get good metering on the spot at the cost of over or underexposing the rest of the scene so spot is not a good general purpose mode.
 

wordlesstu

Senior Member
Hi nikt,

Thank you so much for your response. I have another follow-up question. Is there a rule of thumb for what to set on AF mode? I now set on Single-Area AF mode. Will you suggest me set on Dynamic-area AF with closest subject priority mode?

Thank you.
 

nickt

Senior Member
Hi nikt,

Thank you so much for your response. I have another follow-up question. Is there a rule of thumb for what to set on AF mode? I now set on Single-Area AF mode. Will you suggest me set on Dynamic-area AF with closest subject priority mode?

Thank you.
I like single area. It really depends what you are doing and it best to understand how the modes work so you can choose the best. Single area is good, but the point must fall on the subject. In other words, the part of the scene under the focus point is what will be in focus.
Two things to understand with focus. Focus mode and AF area mode.
Focus mode is how the motor behaves, how it servos. Pick S or C. S focuses one time and stops, good for still subjects. C keeps focusing, good for moving subjects. Either of these modes can be set to to either release the shutter when you press the button or can be set to focus priority to insure focus is made before the shutter will be allowed to fire.
AF Area is part two. This is how the camera finds the focus point. Best to download the user manual to see how these modes work to chose a focus point. Single Area of course is simple. The others not so simple. Once the focus point is found, that is when the Focus Mode S or C comes into play. The camera will either stop trying in S mode or it will keep tracking in C.
S mode will let you focus, hold the shutter button half way and recompose the frame. Then fully push the shutter to take the picture. If using single area mode you could instead move the focus point of center if needed.
For starters, I recommend Focus mode S, set to focus priority (A2 menu). Single area mode to start, but certainly try the more dynamic modes after you look at the user manual.
There is no best focus setting, just understand what they do so you can pick the best. Probably good to stay with single area until you get comfortable. You will always be in control of the focus point that way. While in single area mode, try both S and C servo modes to see how they either focus once or track with the single point.
 

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
(I had something about focus priority, but I see nickt addressed that. :)

When you are pushing the shutter half-way, are you getting an inication that the image in focus before you shoot the image? Sounds kind of silly, but make sure your lens is on AF not manual.

I can't help with the other issues you are having because it is beyond my experinece level. I am sure somebody will come along and help you get your focus issues and ISO in order.
 
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aroy

Senior Member
I find that not using auto or P mode is the best method of controlling the situation. I normally shoot with the following settings
. Aperture priority. Set to F8 when I want a large depth of field and down to f1.8 when I want extremely shallow DOF.
. Fixed ISO. 100 in sun, 400 in overcast and 800 else where.
. Single point Focus. I find that this ensures that the focus is where I want it. In case of your dog image, I would set focus on the nose or eye. In Other modes, especially auto the camera can focus where it thinks you want, say the tree behind.
. Spot metering. This ensures that the metering is where the focus is. With modern DSLR the Dynamic range is large enough to recover shadows or highlights if you shoot RAW. Only when using a fill flash I use Matrix metering.
 

wordlesstu

Senior Member
Hello everyone,

I came across a question when I was using D200 again. Is there a live view function built-in in D200? I tried to find it on Manual but I can't find it. I also can't use Live view when I use D200. Can anyone advise? Thank you.:beguiled:
 
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