How do I disable date/time stamp on D3100

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jstimagine

Senior Member
I confess that I'm a bit embarrassed to be bringing this question to the forum but I'm burdened with the challenge of not only being a newbie to photography period, but am also hopelessly technologically "challenged" and frustrated enough to swallow my pride.
It takes me HOURS to try to "paint" the darn thing out of those photos that I can't crop to remove it. I've gone into the menu, turned the feature "off", and even in the "off" mode, the date stamp is still there. In all my fiddling, now I'm stuck with not only the date, but also the time. Have googled for the solution and am advised to buy a program to erase unwanted objects etc. Is there no way to just disable this feature or is my camera haunted?
 
D

Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
To enable the Time Stamp…
1. Press the MENU button, then select the Retouch Menu tab (paint brush icon)
2. Highlight Shooting/display, then press the right arrow button on the multi selector
3. Highlight Print Date (d5), then press the right arrow button on the multi selector
4. Highlight Date or Date and time, then press the OK button
5. After enabling the time stamp feature, you should see a DATE icon in the upper portion of the LCD information display

NOTE: This is to ENABLE time stamp, but should be almost the same to disable.

If that fails to work try resetting the camera back to factory setting. I am pretty sure that "on" is not factory default.
 
J

jstimagine

Senior Member
Thank you Don but been there, done that, and it didn't work.:) I'm getting the impression that once the feature is enabled, it's there forever. :( However, I have NOT tried to reset to factory setting.. will attempt to do that. Thanks so much for the suggestion.
I did it!!!! Took some finaggling because apparently the D300 and D3100 have a bit of a different process than some of the others, but I muddled my way through and the date stamp is GONE!! I'm half afraid it will be back when I next turn on the camera.... but will hope for the best. LOL Thanks again, I can't tell you how relieved I am.
 
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WayneF

Senior Member
There appears to be two time stamp options in the D3100 menu.

D3100 manual page 119 and 122 is only about when printing the picture from the camera. This menu might be confusing you?

D3100 manual page 147 (Setup menu - Date Imprint) appears to put a time stamp into the image. Isn't it what you seek to remove?
 
J

jstimagine

Senior Member
EVERYTHING confuses me WayneF! :) Yes, you're right , I followed manual instructions to enable the date stamp when I bought the camera, then found it to be a nuisance and was unable to remove it. I did succeed just now though, thanks to support from this list, so am indulging in a little "victory dance". :)
 
D

Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
The only really good reason for the date/time stamp in my opinion is when you have a baby and are shooting photos of it while they are growing up. Helps to have the date on the photo so that you can remember how old it was in the photos. I managed/owned photo labs and we printed the date on the back of the photos and I have to look at those dates now to see when they were shot.
My "baby" turned 30 this week so those photos were shot before digital and EXIF data
 
J

jstimagine

Senior Member
My "baby" turned 30 this week so those photos were shot before digital and EXIF data[/QUOTE]

"before digital" isn't ALWAYS a bad thing. :chuncky:
 
T

traceyjj

Senior Member
aroy said:
The best method is to shoot RAW, then there is no date stamp!
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I dont neccessarily agree with this. If someone is a new user of a camera AND of editing software, it may be too much to learn in one step, maybe putting them off photography for months or years. When I first starting shooting a DSLR many years back, someone told me i NEEDED to shoot RAW, I was disappointed with my photos. I knew nothing about editing images. I was overwelmed, trying to learn how to use a camera AND how to edit images successfully almost made me give up... Some kind soul told me to learn my camera first, shooting jpg, and then once I could see what my camera was capable of with me behind the viewfinder, then learn the processing side... it was the best thing I could have done.
 
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aroy

Senior Member
Actually if you use only View NX, then all your camera settings are implemented when you export from RAW to jpeg. So from that point of view you can get what you set your camera to. This may not be applicable to other RAW processors.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
aroy said:
Actually if you use only View NX, then all your camera settings are implemented when you export from RAW to jpeg. So from that point of view you can get what you set your camera to. This may not be applicable to other RAW processors.
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I think the point @traceyjj is trying to make is someone totally unfamiliar with using a DSLR is going to encounter a steep learning curve with learning how to operate the camera all by itself. Adding the additional learning curve of exporting to RAW to JPG and doing any degree of post processing, regardless of what software you use and/how that software handles the RAW to JPG conversion, could be overwhelming to someone brand new to the hobby. Better to shoot JPG while they gain an understanding of the fundamentals of photography before diving into shooting RAW and having to learn how to post-process.

It can be easy to forget, I think, just how much there is to learn about shooting with a DSLR when you have absolutely no experience with one, and shooting JPG can ease the transition during the learning phase. And, truth be told, there's nothing wrong with shooting JPG; you give up a lot of control but not everyone needs, or even wants, to exercise that degree of control.

....
 
J

jstimagine

Senior Member
Tracey JJ and Horoscope Fish.. THANKyou, you hit the nail right on the head. I do understand that I SHOULD be learning raw etc., but truthfully I know NOTHING, except that I love my camera... it's the first I've owned that wasn't just a "point and shoot".. and even though I'm still using it as a "point and shoot" I'm so encouraged by how much better quality my photos are than what I was able to take before. i KNOW that it's not due to any skill on my part as it's the camera doing the work, but I'm hoping to learn as i go, with the help of those who DO understand the technilogical aspects of photography. For now, just learning proper terminology is a big step as at this point, much of what I'm reading is greek to me. ;0) It's true that I'm shooting photos without having any knowledge of composition, lighting, and all the gazilliion other things I need to know, BUT I'm having fun. I think that always HAS to be the first step and hope the rest will come a bit at at time. I have no aspirations to be a professional photographer, only to improve my skills, produce photos I can take some pride in and continue to enjoy the hobby. I think I've found a great group here and appreciate your patience and understanding.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
jstimagine said:
Tracey JJ and Horoscope Fish.. THANKyou, you hit the nail right on the head. I do understand that I SHOULD be learning raw etc., but truthfully I know NOTHING, except that I love my camera... it's the first I've owned that wasn't just a "point and shoot".. and even though I'm still using it as a "point and shoot" I'm so encouraged by how much better quality my photos are than what I was able to take before. i KNOW that it's not due to any skill on my part as it's the camera doing the work, but I'm hoping to learn as i go, with the help of those who DO understand the technilogical aspects of photography. For now, just learning proper terminology is a big step as at this point, much of what I'm reading is greek to me. ;0) It's true that I'm shooting photos without having any knowledge of composition, lighting, and all the gazilliion other things I need to know, BUT I'm having fun. I think that always HAS to be the first step and hope the rest will come a bit at at time. I have no aspirations to be a professional photographer, only to improve my skills, produce photos I can take some pride in and continue to enjoy the hobby. I think I've found a great group here and appreciate your patience and understanding.
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This stuff was Greek to all of us at one time and, like so many things in Life, learning photography is a process, not an event.

But... Since you're shooting JPG at the moment, lets do one small thing that will dramatically improve the image quality of your shots right now. Easy peasy!
.....
Press the Menu button and drop down highlight "Shooting Menu" (the camera icon).
Click right one time, highlight "Picture Control" and click right once again.
You should now be in the "Picture Controls" menu with "Standard" highlighted.
Click right again and highlight the setting for "Sharpening".
Move the slider from the strangely low setting of 2 to 7 and press the OK button.
Voila!, you're done.
​
.....
Making this one little adjustment to your camera's settings will have a big impact on how sharp your photos are.

....
 
J

jstimagine

Senior Member
Thank you for the suggestion, I'd love to improve sharpness. When I got into "Picture Control" though, I was advised that "this option is not available with current settings". What do I need to change re. settings?
 
D

Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
jstimagine said:
Thank you for the suggestion, I'd love to improve sharpness. When I got into "Picture Control" though, I was advised that "this option is not available with current settings". What do I need to change re. settings?
Click to expand...

Do you have it set on JPEG>Fine>LARGE?

Also make sure you are not shooting on AUTO. Set it on Program or other setting if you already have.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
jstimagine said:
Thank you for the suggestion, I'd love to improve sharpness. When I got into "Picture Control" though, I was advised that "this option is not available with current settings". What do I need to change re. settings?
Click to expand...
You must be shooting in full "A"utomatic, meaning the mode dial on your camera is set to use the green "A". One of the drawbacks to shooting in full-auto is that disables a lot of features; one of which is working with Picture Controls and I'd forgotten that. You'd have to be shoot in one of the semi-automatic modes like Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority to muck around in the Picture Controls and I'm not sure you're quite there yet. Still, you could set the Mode dial to, say, "P" make the changes and switch back to "A" if you want...

It wouldn't hurt anything. :)

....
 
J

jstimagine

Senior Member
Yes, I confess, I'm shooting in full automatic so know nothing about the controls. (blush) I've read the manual a couple of times, but without being able to put things into context, it's difficult to absorb what I'm reading.
However, armed with the information you've given me, I'm inspired to make the changes you suggest. I'm apprehensive about trying to changing settings etc. without fully understanding what I'm doing (don't want to give my camera an accidental lobotomy) but am happy to take things one step at a time. Thanks so much for your help.
 
D

Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
Try the Program mode. It is close to Full Automatic with the exception of auto setting the ISO. You can set it separately to 100 with a max of 3200 and then also in the same place set a minimum shutter speed. if you are using the 18-55 zoom then set the shutter speed to 1/100 just to be safe. This will keep you from getting motion blur. IF you are using the 55-200 then set it to 1/320 or so. The longer the zoom then the faster the shutter speed. Give us specifics and we can help you through. Program once you set a couple of things is as easy as Auto but with a little more control.
 
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