# Nikon D3100 pictures too dark...



## PineappleDood (Oct 25, 2013)

So I have a Nikon D3100 and I have been taking pictures with it and some turn out great and others don't. I know if the IOS number is high it lets in less light and vice versa. I also know the size of the aperture effects light as well as the shutter speed. so having known all that, I tried to take a pic with the IOS number high (i tried with it low too), aperture wide and the shutter speed low (I want to take the pics with it low). i took the pics in a well lit room with the windows(shades) open. i cant think of anything else i could do to make the pics brighter. and like i said... some pics turn out great and lit up nicely but others are just black (with varying settings). the current picture im trying to take is the same pic i took a little bit before just with the shutter speed longer (im not sure if the others were different. i don't think they were by much). so what im asking is how i can fix this??

thanks!


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## astroNikon (Oct 25, 2013)

Can you provide an example with EXIF data
One thing I used to do is take a photo on Auto (no flash) and then first set my Manual setting to that Auto setting, Then start changing things around to get what I'm looking for.  It might help just depends how dark it is for the Auto NF setting.

I also found my self from time to time with a Manual setting that was messing everything up.  So I compared it to Auto.  One time everything had a bluish tint compared to Auto, so I knew I set something that was causing it.  It takes a while to get a hold of everything and for things to become a checklist in your mind.

But in general when there's not enough light
you .. increase the ISO
increase the aperture
increase the shutter

one, 2 or all of them
of course each affects certain other things to various degrees.

or add a flash


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## PaulWog (Oct 25, 2013)

PineappleDood said:


> So I have a Nikon D3100 and I have been taking pictures with it and some turn out great and others don't. I know if the IOS number is high it lets in less light and vice versa. I also know the size of the aperture effects like as well as the shutter speed. so having known all that, I tried to take a pic with the IOS number high, aperture wide and the shutter speed low (I want to take the pics with it low). i took the pics in a well lit room with the windows(shades) open. i cant think of anything else i could do to make the pics brighter. and like i said... some pics turn out great and lit up nicely but others are just black. the current picture im trying to take is the same pic i took a little bit before just with the shutter speed longer (im not sure if the others were different. i don't think they were by much).
> 
> thanks!



The reason why your shots are coming out black is because you're underexposing them. You need to do one or multiple of the following: raise your ISO, select a faster aperture, reduce your shutter speed. When a shot comes out black, that simply means you've underexposed the shot (it really has nothing to do with the D3100 specifically). A black or dark shot is simply a shot that hasn't gotten enough light: Your sensor tries collecting the light, there isn't enough at its settings, so a lack of light equates to blackness. You already understand the exposure triangle somewhat, but I'll just go over these things again:
Higher ISO = Your camera is more sensitive to light, but more grain/noise will be in the picture.
Lower ISO = Your camera is less sensitive to light, less grain/noise in the picture.
Quicker Aperture (lower f-number) = Your lens lets in more light to your camera (think of a window becoming larger, more light into a room).
Slower Aperture (higher f-number): The opposite, obviously. 
And shutter speed you obviously know, although I'm not sure what you're doing that you want a slow shutter speed (it's not a bad thing to use a slow shutter speed, just curious).

If you're not sure why your shots are turning out black, you can set your D3100 to aperture-priority mode. Set your aperture and ISO to what you want them to be manually, and you'll see what shutter speed you should have. You can then adjust your aperture or ISO to whatever values you want them at and also see the shutter speed you should have. If you want your shutter speed slower on aperture priority, just lower your ISO or raise your aperture number.

I prefer to shoot in aperture priority generally. At least on my D5200 (which should be somewhat similar in terms of aperture priority), I find that the exposure of a shot in aperture priority is never off by much.


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## 480sparky (Oct 25, 2013)

Purchase a copy of Bryan Peterson's _Understanding Exposure_.


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## SCraig (Oct 25, 2013)

PineappleDood said:


> So I have a Nikon D3100 and I have been taking pictures with it and some turn out great and others don't. *I know if the IOS number is high it lets in less light and vice versa*. I also know the size of the aperture effects light as well as the shutter speed. so having known all that, I tried to take a pic with the IOS number high (i tried with it low too), aperture wide and the shutter speed low (I want to take the pics with it low). i took the pics in a well lit room with the windows(shades) open. i cant think of anything else i could do to make the pics brighter. and like i said... some pics turn out great and lit up nicely but others are just black (with varying settings). the current picture im trying to take is the same pic i took a little bit before just with the shutter speed longer (im not sure if the others were different. i don't think they were by much). so what im asking is how i can fix this??
> 
> thanks!


It's the other way around.  As mentioned above, high ISO means that the sensor is more sensitive to light yet at the same time is also more sensitive to noise.  Low ISO means that the sensor is less sensitive to light and also less sensitive to noise.

Are you trying to shoot in manual mode?  It sounds like you don't have a good grasp of how exposure works so I STRONGLY recommend that you look at some of the tutorials Here.  Manual mode is for people who understand how exposure works, how aperture, shutter speed, and ISO relate to each other, and are able to tell what they are doing wrong.  I echo the post above that recommends shooting in one of the automatic modes (full automatic, shutter priority, or aperture priority) until you understand these things.


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## goodguy (Oct 25, 2013)

I think my honored friends here pretty much covered it all.
The sensor like to have a certain amount of light, not too much and not too little.
Too much light and you over expose which means white/burned picture.
Too little light and you are underexposed so your picture is too dark.

There is no problem with your camera, you need to understand the relations between the ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture.
Explaining it on this post will take me a whole day and I am afraid I will just confuse you.
You really need to take the time to lean these 3 and how they affect one another and there are other issues like the smaller F number (aperture is open and more light comes into the camera) means there is a Shallow Depth of Field which is another thing you need to consider when taking a picture.
Shutter speed, the longer the shutter is open means more light comes in the camera but that also increasing the risk of camera shake and blurry pictures.

On youtube there are wonderful people that will explain in a very clear and simple way these basic things and how to operate your camera in Manual, Aperture Priority and Shutter Priorety.

For starters I really like this lady, she was my teacher when I started to get into photography.
She has a lesson for each and every one of the basic settings, she is sweet and very easy to understand.
To me she was an eye opener and maybe you will find her as helpful as I found her to be.
Start with Lesson 1 and move to the next ones when you feel you understood each lesson.
First 3 lessons are for 

1.Aperture
2.Shutter Priority
3.ISO

Good luck 

http://www.youtube.com/user/easyexposure/videos


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## 480sparky (Oct 25, 2013)

SCraig said:


> It's the other way around.  As mentioned above, high ISO means that the sensor is more sensitive to light yet at the same time is also more sensitive to noise.  Low ISO means that the sensor is less sensitive to light and also less sensitive to noise...........



Technically, the sensor has the same sensitivity to light regardless of ISO.  By using a high ISO, you in effect underexpose the image, which means the camera's software needs to process the data more, which results in more noise.

Changing the ISO doesn't change a thing on the sensor.... it merely changes the processing of the data after the shutter closes.


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## Stevepwns (Oct 25, 2013)

480sparky said:


> SCraig said:
> 
> 
> > It's the other way around.  As mentioned above, high ISO means that the sensor is more sensitive to light yet at the same time is also more sensitive to noise.  Low ISO means that the sensor is less sensitive to light and also less sensitive to noise...........
> ...



Since we are shooting digital now, doesnt this apply to the entire exposure triangle?


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## 480sparky (Oct 25, 2013)

Stevepwns said:


> 480sparky said:
> 
> 
> > SCraig said:
> ...



Huh?


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## KmH (Oct 25, 2013)

480sparky said:


> Changing the ISO doesn't change a thing on the sensor.... it merely changes the processing of the data after the shutter closes.


As I understand it, on most CMOS image sensors a bias voltage applied to the pixels gets changed, and doenstream a different value of amplification can also be applied in front of the A/D converter.


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## astroNikon (Oct 25, 2013)

KmH said:


> 480sparky said:
> 
> 
> > Changing the ISO doesn't change a thing on the sensor.... it merely changes the processing of the data after the shutter closes.
> ...



Huh?


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## SCraig (Oct 25, 2013)

480sparky said:


> Technically, the sensor has the same sensitivity to light regardless of ISO.  By using a high ISO, you in effect underexpose the image, which means the camera's software needs to process the data more, which results in more noise.
> 
> Changing the ISO doesn't change a thing on the sensor.... it merely changes the processing of the data after the shutter closes.


Quoted from Here

"Much of the light collected in the photodiode is converted to electrical  signals. When high-ISO sensitivity is selected, however, the electrical  signal is often so faint that it cannot be used without amplification.  Minimizing the noise generated during amplification is vital to  obtaining high-quality images."

The word "Amplification" is the key word in that sentence.


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## robbins.photo (Oct 25, 2013)

PineappleDood said:


> So I have a Nikon D3100 and I have been taking pictures with it and some turn out great and others don't. I know if the IOS number is high it lets in less light and vice versa. I also know the size of the aperture effects light as well as the shutter speed. so having known all that, I tried to take a pic with the IOS number high (i tried with it low too), aperture wide and the shutter speed low (I want to take the pics with it low). i took the pics in a well lit room with the windows(shades) open. i cant think of anything else i could do to make the pics brighter. and like i said... some pics turn out great and lit up nicely but others are just black (with varying settings). the current picture im trying to take is the same pic i took a little bit before just with the shutter speed longer (im not sure if the others were different. i don't think they were by much). so what im asking is how i can fix this??
> 
> thanks!



Is the lens cap off?

Lol


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