Problem in M & B setting- D5100

sunnyskyez

New member
Hello to all, Newbie on the block.

Im hoping someone here can help me with my Nikon D5100 problem. Its been months and much reading on the internet with no help. Im trying to take star trail pics. Used to do it years ago with my film camera but I never tried it with the dig cam.

I put the cam on M followed by B, set Tamaron 18-270 lens to f3.5, put shutter release cord on and left the shutter open for 30 secs. I heard the shutter click open and it stayed open until I released the shutter upon which I heard it close. I looked at the picture and its all white. No, I didn’t have the lens cap on. LOL. Every picture I tried was pure white. Im apparently missing some other setting. Ive been researching for months have not found what I might be doing wrong. Im hoping someone here can help.

Thank you in advance for any help.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
What is your ISO set to? Obviously, 30 seconds at f3.5 is too much exposure... try closing the aperture down to F8, and setting the time (using the camera, skip Bulb) to 15 seconds... and then start increasing the time in 15 second increments...
 

nickt

Senior Member
What Fred said. And make sure auto iso is turned off so it does not rise by itself. Read up on the principles of exposure. A white shot is badly over exposed.

Camera Exposure: Aperture, ISO & Shutter Speed

Shoot some twilight scenes manually to get a feel for what you need to do to get a night scene to look like a night scene. You want to limit exposure over that long shutter time so that means keeping iso low and stopping down your lens to a higher aperture. Low iso lowers your camera's sensitivity to light and stopping down the lens limits the light entering the camera.
 

Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.
We look forward to seeing more posts and samples of your work.

I agree with the above posters. Sounds like an overexposed image.
 
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