camera help

[dcombs44]

I have some questions about my Nikon D40: I'll add that I'm very new to SLRs.

I'm having trouble taking pictures of my tank without a flash. When I try to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both, the picture is always underexposed, and I can't change either enough to get a clean shot. If I use Program mode, the shutter speed always turns down around 15 or 20 resulting in a very blurry picture. Also, when using the flash, the lighting of the photo is not true to the actual colors of the tank.

Can someone please give me some advice as to how to try to correct this issue. I see so many beautiful macro and other tank shots taken with SLRs, and I'd love to know some of the secrets.

Thanks everyone.

 

[gregr]

The hard truth is there are no perfect settings that will give you crisp clear pics every time- photography is all about compromise. The main limiting factor is light- seems like there's never enough.
Instead of setting both the aperture and shutter speed manually I'd suggest using aperture priority to make things a little easier. But the best thing you can do is learn how the different settings work. This article describes how all the settings work together and once you've got that figured out you'll be able to choose the best settings for any given shot. With practice

 

[dcombs44]

Thanks. Haven't read the article yet, but I'll read through it asap.

 

[Absolute Reef]

It takes someone 2 hours to learn all the photographic principles, but it could take that someone 20 years to mastered it.

I say, you give yourself sometimes.

Welcome to the Nikon family

PS: What lenese do you use with that D40 ?