Looking to troubleshoot....'image too dark'

Jenn

Senior Member
Tried to take firework pix on Saturday night and got a few, but missed so many......shutter was not responding! I know the 'image was too dark' - didn't need that message!...der, it was night time!! I had lowest ISO, 6 second or more exposure and was about f11..........SO....played around in the dark last night ....was my shutter speed too short....used bulb, fiddled with ISO up to 400, fstops from hero to zero and unless there was a small light source, ziltch. It must be me...what am I doing wrong - how do I get long exposures of say, fireworks or lightning, that begin after the exposure time? Is that where I'm adrift, expectations wrong? Not a shutter problem....on auto or in daylight (with some ND filters) all is fine. Getting quite exasperated!!

Oh great wise ones, put me straight!

Jenn
 

Jenn

Senior Member
Shut the door that's good!! I was in manual......I'm guessing the firework was very close to explosion ....my reflexes need a sharpen! Thank you.
 

Danno

Senior Member
Jenn you say that the shutter did not seem to work. My first thought is; did you have the camera set to manual focus. A trick is to focus on the first firework shot using autofocus, and then lock the focus by setting the lens to manual focus. Then the lens will fire every time. I am assuming you used a tripod, wider lens and shutter release.
 

Jenn

Senior Member
'All the gear, no idea' springs to mind...! Have tripod, shutter release cable that is a ***** to attach, but hey ho!! Will have to learn how many clicks from auto to manual cos I can't see in the dark or even reach to see...then fingers crossed!! Would like to add a picture but a) dunno how!! and b) picture has lost shooting info...I see all the images here are well labelled. May add it as my avatar...think I could do that! Thanks!
 

Marilynne

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod

Jenn

Senior Member
Thank you Marilynne.......do you mean like this: TW fair 14.10.17 _20171017121740835.jpg


Yes!!!! Still lost composition info tho...........:confused:
 

nickt

Senior Member
Have tripod, shutter release cable that is a ***** to attach, but hey ho!!
You have the d3300? Look into a ML-L3 infrared remote. The Chinese knock-offs can be bought for next to nothing. Setting shutter to Bulb with remote active will actually put you in Time mode which is one press to open and another press to close. The downside is this mode runs your battery down quicker while its active and the mode expires if not used for a time (set up to 15 minutes). Just snap a picture every 10 minutes or so to keep the mode active.

If there is significant light behind you, don't forget to cover the viewfinder, it will get in and mess up your shots.
 

Jenn

Senior Member
Um......I use picture stamper for logo and resizing but the main culprit, I think, is Photos.....I use this to change from NEF to jpgs............hangs head in shame.............:redface-new:
 

Mike150

Senior Member
Will have to learn how many clicks from auto to manual cos I can't see in the dark or even reach to see...then fingers crossed!!

I have a hard enough time seeing in he daytime, forget at night. I keep a small size MAG light in my camera bag for camera setting changes at night.
 

lokatz

Senior Member
shutter was not responding! ...

Jenn, I'm still a bit confused as to what your issue was. Every so often, you pressed the shutter button and nothing happened? You said you were in Manual mode, so the shutter should have clicked away every time regardless of how the light was. Pitch black should still have recorded an image.

The only settings I can see that would explain a 'shutter fail' are if you were in AF mode and your camera's AF-S / AF-C Priority Selection (that's usually in the Custom menu, items a1+a2), were set to Focus. With those settings, the camera will do nothing when you press the shutter release button until something is in focus.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Tried to take firework pix on Saturday night and got a few, but missed so many......shutter was not responding! I know the 'image was too dark' - didn't need that message!...der, it was night time!! I had lowest ISO, 6 second or more exposure and was about f11..........SO....played around in the dark last night ....was my shutter speed too short....used bulb, fiddled with ISO up to 400, fstops from hero to zero and unless there was a small light source, ziltch. It must be me...what am I doing wrong - how do I get long exposures of say, fireworks or lightning, that begin after the exposure time? Is that where I'm adrift, expectations wrong? Not a shutter problem....on auto or in daylight (with some ND filters) all is fine. Getting quite exasperated!!

Oh great wise ones, put me straight!

Jenn
It has nothing to do with exposure, per se; your camera was telling you it was too dark for it to achieve focus-lock, and until the camera "knows" something is in focus, it won't take a shot. You can over-ride this feature by changing the Focus Priority setting to "Release" instead of "Focus".
 

lokatz

Senior Member
... until the camera "knows" something is in focus, it won't take a shot. You can over-ride this feature by changing the Focus Priority setting to "Release" instead of "Focus".

Paul, I believe this is only true in AF mode. In Manual, the camera will still shoot - at least, my D500 does.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Paul, I believe this is only true in AF mode. In Manual, the camera will still shoot - at least, my D500 does.
By "AF mode" do you mean one of the Auto-focus Modes versus using Manual focus? If that's the case then, yes, you're correct.

I understood the OP to mean she was shooting in Manual exposure-mode which, obviously, is separate from the Auto-focus/Auto-focus Area modes and all that.

On my D750 I can trip the shutter without focus-lock when shooting in manual-focus, but not when using any of the Auto-focus modes (AF-S, AF-C, AF-Auto), unless of course the Release Priority setting is set to "Release [Priority]" (which it is not on my camera). With the Release Priority setting set to "Focus [Priority]" the camera requires a focus-lock before it takes a shot. This holds true even when I'm shooting in what I call Full Manual (exposure mode).

But I did read most of this thread rather quickly so perhaps I'm not understanding something.
 
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Jenn

Senior Member
Thanks so much, peeps! I have learnt sooo much - it was the settings I had wrong....it was on auto in the focus priority......my properly remote remote shutter is due today (thanks Amazon prime!!) I have downloaded View NX so hopefully the info will not be lost, can post pix, just so much help...... a ​BIG thanks to everyone who took the time to answer

Grateful Jenn
 

cliffk

Senior Member
Had the same issue last year on Bonfire Night and only rectified thanks to the light of the other half's phone! Looking forward to better results this year!

Some great tips here guys so will bear these in mind too!

Cliff
 
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