Hi from Spain!

MrsRobs

Senior Member
HI, Im a new member from Marbella, Spain. We got the Nikon D300 from my mother in law about 7yrs ago. It was used a few times and then left in the top of a cupboard after a house move for years .. With lockdown, I really got into hiking and was always disapointed with the quality of pics on my phone, and I remembered the camera! It was all sad and unloved, the battery dead, the buttons locked up, so with a bit of TLC, I got it back working again like new. I was very proud of myself to get it working again.
I resolved a few issues using this forum. The locked up buttons issue saved me a few hundred euros as I thought the display screen was broken.
Im now learning about the camera. It was setup correctly for me when we first got it, but trying to make it work, I pushed lots of buttons, so it got all mixed up. Im happy with the pics Im getting now, only the exposure part is still a mystery to me. All my scenery shots are underlit. Im fiddling about with it for now, might start a thread if I really cant figure out whats gone wrong. If anyone knows of a thread or page showing the best settings instructions I can follow? Settings for an amature , taking scenery shots and pics of my kids, would be a great help! Thanks in advance!
 

Peter7100

Senior Member
Hello and welcome to the forum.
It might help if you were to post a picture or two on here so we could maybe see what the issue is with the exposure.
The basic default setting is usually to use the 'P' Program mode which will decide the aperture and speed for you. It is good however to learn to use some of the different features on your camera as you will get more out of it that way.

To set it to Program mode - P: Program
To use "P" for program auto exposure. In this mode the camera chooses the f/stop and shutter speed for you. Hold the 'Mode' button down and rotate the rear dial until 'P' appears on the top screen.
 

MrsRobs

Senior Member
Hi! Thank you for taking time to respond. I will change that setting, see if that already helps. I will upload pics to my profile here, they all a bit gloomy for now.
 

Peter7100

Senior Member
Just had a thought, if all your pictures are underexposed then maybe when you have been pushing buttons, you have accidentally changed the exposure compensation. There should be a small button on the top of the camera that has a plus and minus symbol on it. If hold this down and the display should come up with 0. If it comes up with a minus followed by a decimal figure then you will need to reset this back to zero. To do this hold down that button and rotate the rear dial and you should see the exposure compensation change on the top screen. Unless you want to over or under expose a shot then it should always be set to zero.
 

Marilynne

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Welcome!

Guidelines to adding a photo to your post.

1. Resize photo to 1000px on the long side.
2. Resolution set to 72ppi (Pixels Per Inch)

These guidelines will be good for viewing on a computer but will not be good for printing. This will help safeguard your copyright.
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
The advice from Peter7100 is a good place to start. Here is a short video on Exposure Compensation (EC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EP2U-yG1A4 It is fairly short, under four minutes, and does a good job of explaining EC. While it doesn't address the setting on a D300, the methods are close. A more thorough tutorial is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TfgO4HBsac. Other videos specific to setting/resetting EC on the D300 are available on the internet if you need them.


If you're all mixed up over this, and the advice from Peter 7100 and in the videos doesn't work, you may need to reset your camera's settings. Here is another video link to help guide you through that process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPgouzrXuRw.

Good luck and let us know if this helps you.

WM
 
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MrsRobs

Senior Member
Thanks Peter, I checked the exposure compensation, and thats set at 0. Thanks Whiskeyman, I will spend my evening watching the videos, see if that helps balance the colours out a bit. My interpretation of the pics im taking is that they are missing colour. Missing vibrancy.

dsc_2774.jpg
 

Peter7100

Senior Member
Thanks Peter, I checked the exposure compensation, and thats set at 0. Thanks Whiskeyman, I will spend my evening watching the videos, see if that helps balance the colours out a bit. My interpretation of the pics im taking is that they are missing colour. Missing vibrancy.

dsc_2774.jpg

As far as the exposure goes, I would suggest the main subjects of the dogs heads are actually in the shadows. If the dogs were a metre or so forward they probably would have been in perfect light. There is also something called spot metering that can accomodate for shadows but I would say that is for an experienced user familiar with their camera. There are settings within the camera that allow to increase saturation etc but most people don't adjust these and prefer to post process the shots, by using something like Lightroom or Photoshop. That works best when you shoot in RAW and not jpeg.
At first it might seem like a lot to learn, but if you gradually build up your understanding through videos and forums in can be very rewarding.
Well behaved looking dogs :) .
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
As Peter7100 says above, with your subjects in such mixed light, you are going to have issues with exposure. In this case, fill flash might have helped; however, it likely wouldn't totally make up for the uneven illumination of your subjects. Without good light, you won't have a good photo.

In addition, it appears that there isn't a lot of range in the color spectrum of your photo, especially in the background, which the camera can't make up for.

WM
 
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MrsRobs

Senior Member
Thank you all for your replies. Its been very educational. I understand about exposure, and have to be mindful of light and shadows on cloudy days. I wanted to show you the before and after of your advice. You can see the difference, the first pic on standard settings, second on +1 exposure , and vivid setting.


dsc_2878.jpg


dsc_2879.jpg
 

BeegRhob

Senior Member
If you would like to learn about the D300 and you don't have a manual, try the Nikon site here https://www.nikon.com/ and go to the site for Spain, if that is what your native language is. You will see what settings you can use for your camera.

Rob
 

Peter7100

Senior Member
Thank you all for your replies. Its been very educational. I understand about exposure, and have to be mindful of light and shadows on cloudy days. I wanted to show you the before and after of your advice. You can see the difference, the first pic on standard settings, second on +1 exposure , and vivid setting.


dsc_2878.jpg


dsc_2879.jpg

You will be making us all jealous if you post pictures of nice weather with a pool :). Can’t wait to get some lovely Spanish sunshine again!
 

MrsRobs

Senior Member
Thank you. We are very lucky to be here in Spain during this horrendous time.

I think I now understand the basics of Exposure. Fascinating, how much is actually involved in taking a good picture!

Ive stumbled across White balance and ISO now, I was reading Ken Rockwell's article on it, and put the WB to auto. Do you use the auto setting, or do you adjust it for the conditions of the shot every time?

Also, do you play around with the ISO setting? Mine is set to 200 currently, but also set to auto-iso.

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge with me.
 

Peter7100

Senior Member
Thank you. We are very lucky to be here in Spain during this horrendous time.

I think I now understand the basics of Exposure. Fascinating, how much is actually involved in taking a good picture!

Ive stumbled across White balance and ISO now, I was reading Ken Rockwell's article on it, and put the WB to auto. Do you use the auto setting, or do you adjust it for the conditions of the shot every time?

Also, do you play around with the ISO setting? Mine is set to 200 currently, but also set to auto-iso.

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge with me.

I tend to leave my WB at auto nearly all the time unless I was shooting under street lights. ISO however I am frequently changing. Ideally you want to have it as low as possible but this is not always possible in poor light. If you leave it at say 100 or 200 and the light is poor then there is a possibility the shutter speed will be too slow and cause blur in your picture. Auto ISO should stop this happening and I use it myself about 50% the time (living in Scotland it is not always blazing sunlight :cool:), but when I know the light is good I will often set it to 100 or just above. Hope that makes sense.
 

MrsRobs

Senior Member
Thanks, will do the same, have been enjoying playing around with the exposure today. Taking the same shot, and then adding removing exposure. Will do the same with ISO settings until I get it clear the difference between exposure and ISO. Your snow shots are really cool. Is it snowing that heavily in Scotland now? We were there 2 summers ago on a golf tour. What a beautiful country, and so green!
 

NestorStura

Senior Member
Hi, welcome to the forum.
I live in Murcia, Spain also. I am glad to find someone from this side of the world.
I wish you enjoy this group, they're very nice people and know a lot!!!

Bye
Néstor

Enviado desde mi RMX1931 mediante Tapatalk
 
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