D3100 ISO numbers and F settings

DaveNewman

Senior Member
morning guys.

was playing about with my camera last night and managed to figure out how to change the F settings (f4.6, f5 etc etc etc)

can someone please help me out with what they mean and which one is best suited to which ISO number, SS and Fs for different shootings...

FOR EXAMPLE.

last night i ended up shooting many dog pictures on M and last night i had my SS at 1/1000 and F5.6 seemed to look pretty good

im still very much learning what the best settings to use, I also tried to do a real close up of a spider, with a 18-55 lens but it would not focus at all, am i doing something wrong?

the lens im using are the 18-55 and the 55-200

is it best for me to use the M option while shooting different things or is it best to click onto the right symbols and use the pre-set settings??

thanks
dave
 
Last edited:

SteveH

Senior Member
Hi Dave,
The aperture (F-stops) is how wide the hole in the lens is, and therefore how much light can get through. It is a bit like the iris in your eyes opening and closing according how light it is.

The ISO is how sensitive to light the sensor is, so how much information it will record in a given time (While the shutter is open)

Then you have the shutter speed, normally measured in fractions of a second - This is how long the light allowed through the aperture hits the sensor.


There is no "Right" setting for any single component, they work like a triangle makes a loop - One side can be longer or shorter than the others, as long as the ends meet - I hope that bit makes sense? lol Google the "Exposure triangle".


Each of the three parts has different characteristics that affect the resulting picture, for example the wider the aperture (LOWER F-stop number) the less depth-of-field you have... This results in the blurring (Bokeh) in front of, and behind the focus point. A wider aperture also allows more light in, so you need a lower ISO (Sensitivity) and / or faster shutter speed.

The shutter speed is the "Recording time" of your sensor, so a fast shutter freezes action and lets in less light, a slow speed lets in lots of light, but movement will blur the subject.

ISO is the sensor sensitivity, low ISO is less sensitive, but has less "Noise" or "Grain" in the resulting picture, high ISO gathers plenty of info from dark scenes, but is also "Noisy" or grainy.

A narrower aperture (High F-stop) lets much less light in, but brings more of the scene into focus - The less light means you need a slower shutter speed and / or higher ISO.

You use these settings to create the image you want - There are no hard and fast rules, use experience and trial and error.



For example, on a light day you want to photograph a flower in your garden. You want the main bloom to be the subject, so want the other foliage in the background to be out of focus. We know we need a low F-stop (Wide aperture) to do this given the info above, but consider that the wide aperture will let in too much light and over expose the picture... To overcome this, you would lower the ISO, and make the shutter speed faster.

You then want a second picture of the same flower, but it is early evening and a bit darker - The aperture could stay the same, for the out-of-focus effect in the background, but when you decrease the shutter speed for darker conditions, you find that the flower isn't sharp - Most likely a bit of breeze or your natural hand shake while the shutter was open. You can overcome this by increasing the ISO, to allow a faster shutter speed in lower light.

I hope the above gives you a bit to go on, it is a huge subject and there are others with WAY more knowledge and experience than me here who I'm sure will help to.

With lenses not focussing etc, be aware that lenses have a minimum focus distance... The 18-55mm will not focus on subjects closer than 8 or 12 inches if I remember rightly. The longer lens, 55-200mm will be more than 1 meter.
 
Last edited:

DaveNewman

Senior Member
thank you so much for the time in writing all that :) "big thumbs up"

i mainly shoot moving objects (animal, sports, birds) the sports and dogs being at close range, im just waiting on my photos to upload to check, as i changed my settings to 1/1000 f5.6 they looked good on camera, no blur when moving...

the spider on close up got me, just wouldnt have it, i tried to get very close but wouldnt focus at all :(
 

adityasoman

Senior Member
SteveH has explained it perfectly

I'll jus add some more..
Check out Cambridge in color keeping the Camera Manual handy

Youtube videos related to D3100..they help a lot in understanding camera specific details

And its all about practise and trial and error ;)

You can also refer the GUIDE mode on camera

Sent from my GT-I9070 using Tapatalk 2
 

traceyjj

Senior Member
Fantastic explaination by SteveH.
What I told my daughter was to keep "messing" with the aperture and the shutter around the house/garden etc... doesnt matter how many photos you take as long as you are learning from what you are doing. You learn as much, if not more, from you failed shots when starting out.
Good luck and more importantly, have fun :)
 

DaveNewman

Senior Member
415 photos taken last night and pretty much 90% are awful pictures, blurry, fuzzy, just plain awful and i have no idea what to do to sort it. Ive been at it for months
 

SteveH

Senior Member
Try with the other modes... These are great for learning about exposure. Manual is great, but at first it can be frustrating and put you off.

Next time you are looking at something to photograph, put the camera in the Auto no flash mode... Look through the viewfinder, and look at the settings the camera is suggesting and just run through in your head what each of those settings will mean.

Another good mode to play with is "P". Program mode will set the settings for you, but while you are looking through the viewfinder, turn the control wheel... The camera will adjust the 3 settings, while maintaining correct exposure. So it can open the aperture, and increase shutter speed to keep the exposure correct.

Take a set of photos on P mode of the same subject, turning the wheel a few times between each photograph, then examine the pictures on your PC and you will see how the shutter, ISO and aperture changes had effects while keeping the exposure the same.
 

DaveNewman

Senior Member
image quality on my camera was RAW, which came out as NEF on my pc which messed everything up, so gone back to JPEG and FINE. Ive now reset everything on my camera back to factory and starting again.

image below is the closest and best i could get with the spider using my 18-55 lens.

DSC_0008.jpgDSC_0032.jpg
 

J-see

Senior Member
There are a lot of advantages to going RAW instead of Jpg. The .NEF can look worse at first but that's because you're looking at the complete somewhat neutral data. It's only when you adjust in Post what you otherwise do Pre (adjusting all the settings) that the true power of RAW comes out.
 

traceyjj

Senior Member
Once off the Auto and P settings, my daughter started playing with the Aperture priority settings, seeing what the difference was between 3.5 and 22 (same subject matter), how that affected the image and the shutter speed etc. It is a big learning curve, but you will get there. My daughter still occasionally flicks it back to Auto if theres a shot she really doesnt want to miss!
 

J-see

Senior Member
It can indeed be a bit much in the beginning. I mainly switch between A and S for macro but occasionally still use P when time is an issue.

But it's really important to go to RAW unless the photos don't matter.

When you're shooting, your shutter, aperture and ISO are all that matters. Evidently your focus, composition and such too. Those are finalized once you take the shot and thus the only important ones.

All those other fine-tuning options only make us lose time and miss shots. I've been doing jpg too long and been fumbling with WB, exposure compensation, the picture controls and all that.

Then you realize it is not needed at all. At least not before or during shooting. What they do is finalize a certain "look" and translating that into Jpg format. In RAW you can afterwards do exactly the same, comfortably behind your monitor and only finalize the photo when you consider it exactly right.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
A really good site to help a beginner get a grip on the basics is the Cambridge in Color tutorials section. There are five sub-sections in the Tutorials Tab where you can find a ton of well presented information that will crush the learning curve.

....
 

DaveNewman

Senior Member
for my photos i only require obviously the right setting for what i shoot. upload to a PC, crop here and there and that is all.

i have taken many many 1000s of photos in JPEG only. People, buildings, animals, sports etc etc. But over the past 3/4 months something has gone very wrong and my pictures are turning out awful or im struggling to get the right picture. I only have 2 lens... 18-55 and the 55-200

those 1000s of pictures taken ive never played with the ISO, SS or Fs. Ive just clicked on what i require, e.g. sports mode for sports or moving objects. Ive even used that for static pictures, like people, or a smart car ive come across and the pictures have turned put superb but my liking and what i need them for.

ive even used a tri-pod for self takes of my fishing and the photos are fantastic, ive framed 15+ of them.

so at the moment im totally baffled of whats gone wrong.
 

SteveH

Senior Member
image quality on my camera was RAW, which came out as NEF on my pc which messed everything up, so gone back to JPEG and FINE. Ive now reset everything on my camera back to factory and starting again.

image below is the closest and best i could get with the spider using my 18-55 lens.

View attachment 112316View attachment 112317

Shooting in RAW (NEF) won't ruin a picture, it will however appear a bit "Flatter" and less vibrant. The JPG output is just a RAW file that the camera has processed for you as far as colour saturation etc is concerned - And in doing so, it make a lot of assumptions in what it thinks you want.

Looking at the examples here, I suspect this is more a focusing problem. In the first picture, the rear leg at the far side is in focus, while the near side isn't - Either the focus point was on the far side of the spider with a narrow depth of field (Low F-stop number) or you were too close - Looking at the exif data, you used F8, have you tried using a smaller aperture such as F11 or higher?

Take a look in the Macro section, and see what typical settings people use for the type of shot you want.
 

J-see

Senior Member
All you can do is first try to eliminate everything that isn't the problem. If your problem occurs with both lenses, it has to be the camera. But if something is wrong with the camera, usually every photo suffers the same problem. If some have it but others don't it becomes pretty hard to identify the cause.
 

SteveH

Senior Member
Just a quick thought - If you have taken lots of pictures that you are happy with, and then looking at the spider examples, part (Not all) of the spider is out of focus, have you accidentally changed the focus mode? When you half press the shutter button to focus, does one focus point show up, or many? If it is one, is it in the centre? Have a flick through your manual regarding focus modes, and make sure you are using a suitable mode for the type of shot you want.
 

DaveNewman

Senior Member
its not every picture thats the thing which really is annoying me. I must be doing something wrong, but i have no idea what...

reference using the F11 on the close up i have to manually set this on the M setting as i cant change it if i use the camera close icon and shoot from there, as thats set to F8.

my focus points are always on the centre spot looking through the camera.

reference moving objects, like flying birds, my dogs which play and run about etc i shoot continuous to try and take many pictures all at different angles as they move, out of, lets say 10 shots, 2 are any good, rest are blur or out of focus. How can i get all 10 shots perfect???
 

DaveNewman

Senior Member
Just a quick thought - If you have taken lots of pictures that you are happy with, and then looking at the spider examples, part (Not all) of the spider is out of focus, have you accidentally changed the focus mode? When you half press the shutter button to focus, does one focus point show up, or many? If it is one, is it in the centre? Have a flick through your manual regarding focus modes, and make sure you are using a suitable mode for the type of shot you want.

ive just checked this now, and close up, sports and only the top, centre and bottom light flashes (centre one a lot more........ landscape, depending on where i move, different lights flash (not all at the same time)

portrait 3 lights flash one side and then many 2 on the other side flash..

do those sound right or completely to cock?
 

SteveH

Senior Member
ive just checked this now, and close up, sports and only the top, centre and bottom light flashes (centre one a lot more........ landscape, depending on where i move, different lights flash (not all at the same time)

portrait 3 lights flash one side and then many 2 on the other side flash..

do those sound right or completely to cock?


Those lights that flash, are the active focus points that the camera is going to use for the shot - If they are not over the bit you want in focus, then your shot will be a bit blurred like the spider example - You can take control of the focus points that get used and select your own.

Manual focus points are useful especially in macro / close up work, so have a read in the manual and give it a go... Try the centre focus point, and set the aperture to around F11 and try a spider or similar again...
 

DaveNewman

Senior Member
can i actually shoot with ALL focal points lite up?? especially on moving objects, so if they move while im snapping away they are still in focus?? this would be exactly what id require to setup.?
 
Top