DSLR Newbie D3100 (Red) Owner

hello, everyone!!
I am new to the site and already enjoying all the posts and info. I purchased my 3100 about 2 months ago. I stepped up from a point and shoot Nikon S570. I am completely blown away by the amazing pictures the camera takes. But I am also overwhelmed by all the different settings that can be made. I try to stick to AUTO when shooting when on vacation or just at a family outing. Like I said in the title, I am a DSLR rookie and I know nothing about Aperture, F stops, shutter speed or ANYTHING!! So I will be asking many questions so try to bear with me. The lens I have is OK... I find it works well with objects that are close. I tried shooting the moon and it just looks like the sun at night, no details of the lunar surface. Well I appreciate you all taking the time to read this. I will spending a lot of time here and doing some reading and messing with the camera settings. I have not tried to shoot a video yet but I will. In the near future!!

BTW what is a good picture hosting site to use???

If you want to, you can definitely learn all about "Aperture, F stops shutter speed or ANYTHING" on here.
As to your next question

BTW what is a good picture hosting site to use???

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I use Photobucket to host my photos!

Tiefighter said:

I tried shooting the moon and it just looks like the sun at night, no details of the lunar surface.

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Welcome to the forum. A good book that every beginner ought to have is Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure. Your public library probably has a copy.

But the moon is special. Your moon was just greatly overexposed. The moon is illuminated by the sun (same as here), and a normal daytime sunlight exposure is about right. However, the camera automation sees all the black of night sky, and tries to make that black be bright. So for the moon, Manual exposure will be necessary. Trial and error exposure - if still overexposed, crank the exposure down and try again, and keep going until you reach a more typical daytime exposure. Keep going too far first time, to be sure you understand the situation.

Here is a good starting point, with an exposure chart:

Shooting the Moon

Some such exposure charts specify f/16. f/16 is hardly necessary for the moon, depth of field is not a concern.


Also see
moon photography - Google Search

Hi Tiefighter... I'm new here, too. However, I've had my D3100 since Christmas, 2010.
About picture hosting? I use Flickr. You can also post your shots here on Nikonites in your own Gallery. This makes them easy, no wait, EASY to grab and place in your posts.

That being said, I'm actually going to post a photo linked from my Flickr page to talk about your moon experiment.

DSC_0542_crop2 by Lakeside Annie, on Flickr

FIRST things first... are you using a tripod? What lens are you using? Do you have a remote shutter release?
I linked my shot from Flickr because you can go to the "Additional Info: Settings" to see all kinds of things about that shot. I've seen better, clearer shots of the moon and it's surface, but for the equipment I have, I thought this was one of my better shots.

I used a tripod. I also used the Nikon MC-DC2 (Nikon MC-DC2 Remote Release Cord 25395 B&H Photo Video). And my only zoom lens I own, the 55-300 f/4.5-5.6. Auto focus wasn't working too well for me, so I'd use Auto Focus to get a general, initial focus on the perimeter of the moon. Then, I'd turn off Auto Focus and manually fiddle ever so gently with the manual focus ring. ISO for this shot was set to 800. F11. 1/100 of a second exposure. Then, I'd check my shot preview, zooming in as much as I could to make sure my shot was as clear as I could tell on the camera's lcd.

Once loaded on my computer I cropped the heck out of the shot and made a few adjustments for clarity/sharpness.

ETA:
Oh, and just for comparison's sake, here's the original without cropping or enhancements.

DSC_0542 by Lakeside Annie, on Flickr

Tiefighter said:

... I am also overwhelmed by all the different settings that can be made. I try to stick to AUTO when shooting when on vacation or just at a family outing. Like I said in the title, I am a DSLR rookie and I know nothing about Aperture, F stops, shutter speed or ANYTHING!!

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Save yourself a LOT of time and frustration and get a copy of the The D3100 Digital Field Guide and get on grip on the basics of photography and the functions of your camera. This book is the manual that SHOULD have been in the box with your D3100.

Welcome! Isn't that red D3100 a beauty!? (that's what I shoot)

I tried all the books, etc... even these great forums, all for a few months. How I found my groove starting to improve was by taking a local photography class. 6 2-hour classes (1 a week) for around $100.00. The guy I found teaches high school and community college courses as well, and just in the 1st 2 hour class, I learned more than digging through all those aforementioned sources.

Good luck and happy shooting!

Welcome to the forum

If you fill out your profile we can better answer any questions that you might have.
You can do that at http://nikonites.com/profile.php?do=editprofile

Some useful links
Nikon Product Manuals available for download
Nikon | Imaging Products | Digitutor


Thanks

Annie, I am using a tripod when taking my moon shoots. It just never occured to me to crop the finished photo, but as Wayne was saying I believe my exposure is washing out the shot. I will try again with the next clear sky with playing with the exposure. I have to get the 3100 guide book that Horoscope Fish was speaking off. I had a lot of issues with the auto focus also. Trial and Error seems to be the name of the game I guess.

Does anyone have a preference on which image quality they prefer? I have been using FINE only because RAW+FINE greatly reduces the total SD card space.

@ Pretzel, the red is beautiful. But I cant stand that red strap!!

If you are not going to use RAW then you should be using Fine/Large. That is the best quality you can get. No point in throwing away any pixels.

Here is one of my moon shots. I used my tripod, timer set as to not disturb when shutter was closing and I set the shutter speed to 30 sec.

The star at the 11 o clock is actually Saturn. I am assuming the reason it looks like a dash is due to earth's rotation?!?!

Tracsoft - Don Kuykendall said:

If you are not going to use RAW then you should be using Fine/Large. That is the best quality you can get. No point in throwing away any pixels.

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Thats what I figured...

Tiefighter said:

Here is one of my moon shots. I used my tripod, timer set as to not disturb when shutter was closing and I set the shutter speed to 30 sec.

The star at the 11 o clock is actually Saturn. I am assuming the reason it looks like a dash is due to earth's rotation?!?!

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Very over exposed. Remember that is moon is just a reflection of the sun.. It is very bright. If you use spot metering you will come a lot closer to getting a correct reading. Try Googleing to see what setting you need to use. Then Bracket the shot a couple of stop either way.

You might try ISO 200, Aperture f5.6, Speed 0.005 sec (1/200) as a starting point.

Tracsoft - Don Kuykendall said:

Very over exposed. Remember that is moon is just a reflection of the sun.. It is very bright. If you use spot metering you will come a lot closer to getting a correct reading. Try Googleing to see what setting you need to use. Then Bracket the shot a couple of stop either way.

You might try ISO 200, Aperture f5.6, Speed 0.005 sec (1/200) as a starting point.

Click to expand...

​The best part was I had a blast taking the shots!! I will do some more research and try again!! Thanks Don

I am only starting to get good shots of the moon now, but I find my best ones are hand held.

here is my settings, f/5.6 iso 200 1/80 at 300mm, then cropped. I never had much success with the tripod.

dec 2011 luner 008 - Nikonites Gallery

this was the type of shot I used to get