Nikon D90 Settings

[mike810]

Hey guys,

I got a D90 and am having trouble setting it up to take decent fts and shots of my tank. Pics seem to come out kind of grainy to me and very very bright. Maybe you guys with D90s can help me or anyone in general can give me some pointers.

Here's a pic I took just right now so you guys can see what I'm talking about. TIA

 

[jbird69]

I dont have a D90 but too bright and grainy is usually from high ISO settings. Try to use an ISO of 400 or less. Use a tripod because this will slow your shutterspeed. It will help to have good ambient lighting in the room. Try setting it to Aperture priority (A) with an ISO of 400. If you have any photoshop software, adjust the levels with a levels auto fix. Levels auto fix does wonders for toning down the blues of aquarium shots.

 

[Brett9917]

The reason the picture is very bright is because you camera is trying to compensate for all the darkness around the tank. There are a couple ways to fix this... You can either zoom/move so that only the tank is in the frame, or you can adjust the metering so it is on spot metering (and then move the meter point so it is on the tank) Then the background will be all but black and hopefully the tank will be properly exposed, but the lights will always be brighter than everything else, because they are.

BTW: to adjust the metering, it's the button to the left of the on/off switch that has 4 quadrants plus the circle in the middle. Hold that down and spin the primary wheel until the secondary display shows just a rectangle and a single dot in the center.
To adjust where the camera meters, simply use the d-pad arrows. When looking through the viewfinder, you should see the different focal areas light up red, the one that is currently red is the area that the camera will focus and meter the light for.

Hope that helps! I have a D90, but I am not sure if my terminology is the same one you use.

 

[mike810]

Brett,

I understand what you're saying. I got the rectangle with a single dot in the center to show up. But when I try to use the d-pad. I dont see the red focal areas light up.

Confused... =)

 

[Brett9917]

Well glad you were able to understand what I was saying, I realized how much I don't use the proper/technical terms haha.

Anyways, going back this morning, I realized they only light up red when in low light situations, other wise they just remain black, but you should see the rectangle around which ever focal area you have selected.

Hope that straightens out the problem for you.

 

[xtm]

Looking at the EXIF, it looks like you have EV comp at +2.3. Set this to 0.00 and meter the scene again. Using manual exposure, try underexposing the whole frame by 1 or 2 stops to preserve the highlights. Btw, I don't think that's a grainy picture. Overexposed? Yes.

Set your ISO to 200 or 400 and try using a faster shutter speed. The EXIF on that photo says EV +2.3 exposed at 1/6. Try increasing your s/s to around 1/125 and see what you get.

 

[mike810]

Well glad you were able to understand what I was saying, I realized how much I don't use the proper/technical terms haha.

Anyways, going back this morning, I realized they only light up red when in low light situations, other wise they just remain black, but you should see the rectangle around which ever focal area you have selected.

Hope that straightens out the problem for you.

thanks for the help man, I don't understand all the proper/technical terms anyhow. I just got this camera and haven't learned it yet lol. That's why I'm asking you guys for help.

Looking at the EXIF, it looks like you have EV comp at +2.3. Set this to 0.00 and meter the scene again. Using manual exposure, try underexposing the whole frame by 1 or 2 stops to preserve the highlights. Btw, I don't think that's a grainy picture. Overexposed? Yes.

Set your ISO to 200 or 400 and try using a faster shutter speed. The EXIF on that photo says EV +2.3 exposed at 1/6. Try increasing your s/s to around 1/125 and see what you get.

I somehow found the EV playing around with the camera and set it to 0.00 like you said even though I have no clue with EV means or does. I also set the ISO to 200. I haven't been able to find the option to adjust the shutter speed. I don't get what you said in red. Maybe you can put it into laymans term :rollface:

Here is how I have my camera set right now. Maybe this can help you help me!

picture control: vivid
image quality: fine
white balance: cloudy
iso sensitivity: 200
active d-lighting: auto
color space: sRGB
long exp. nr: off
high iso nr: norm


Looking at the little display on top

Lo F7.1 (box with a S in it.)
square box with single dot in center
AF-A [3.8] k

Shooting in A Mode if that makes a difference.

I hope you understood this part. Here is what I took tonight with the new settings. Hope you can further help out.

TIA

 

[Brett9917]

Hmm, well for starters, I would suggest reading the owner's manual. I know it can look menacing, but it will help understand a lot of these terms, I promise. A camera's manual is one of the few manuals that I do read even when there is no assembly required.

For starters, EV stands for Exposure Value. Basically this function tells the camera how much (or less) brighter to make the picture while trying to keep the same basic setting you have the camera set to already. So in your case, +2.3EV means that you told your camera to take that picture at 2.3 times brighter than what it normally would have. When XTM says to try stopping it down, lower the EV to maybe -.3 or -.7.

You can't adjust the shutter speed directly because you are shooting in A-Mode. The A stands for Aperture, which means the user gets to determine the f-stop (how large of a depth of field) and then the camera determines the shutter speed. The higher the f/# the more of the picture will be in focus, but the longer the shutter is required to be open. Playing with EV and ISO will adjust the shutter speed.

As far as the settings on your camera goes, if you have photo editing software, change image quality to RAW and white balance to Auto. If you do have some sort of software, this will allow you to eliminate the bluish look that you have in this picture, and get it closer to how you see it. Other than that, that is how usually shoot.

For the little display on top
Lo=low battery charge (charge it!) haha
F/7.1 refers to the f-stop that I mentioned earlier, try lowering it to 4.5 or 5.6 and see what happens there.
Box w/ S = You are shooting single exposure mode, not burst. Kind of like a pistol instead of machine gun
The box with the single dot is what I was telling you about on choosing your focal and light metering area.
AF-A= Auto Focus - Automatic. You camera tries to adjust the focal area.
3.8k is an estimation of how many more pictures you can take before you fill up your memory card. So you have approximately 3,800 pictures left.

 

[kilroy217]

This may sound kind of harsh, but I don't intend it to be. When I was first learning about photography, a friend gave me this advice and it has helped me improve my photography with unspeakable bounds. Anyway, here goes:

By telling you what settings to use in this specific instance, you'll learn how to take this specific shot, but you will not learn how to take a proper photograph. First, learn about photography in general - take a few books out of the library, take a class, talk to a friend who is a photographer, etc. This will give you the terminology and the "why" of the equation. Step two is applying that to your specific camera - the users manual is a great place to start here. This will give you the "how" of the equation. Put the two together, and you're a photographer. Then, when a photograph doesn't come out the way you want to, you can figure it out for yourself.

I hope I'm not being too harsh here, but I hope you can file my post under the "give a man a fish, feed him for a day. teach him to fish, feed him for life" category. good luck.

 

[xtm]

....... I don't get what you said in red. Maybe you can put it into laymans term :rollface:

It was layman's term. Put it in Manual mode. Your dial has P-A-S-M + scene modes right? Switch the dial to "M". This will give you manual control of both the aperture and shutter speed. Look at your top LCD. You see the bar? That's your meter. It has a plus and minus sign, which tells you if your scene is bright (overexposed) or dark (underexposed). A "proper" exposure has the bar in the middle. You move the bar by turning the rear or front dial (depends on how your camera is set up, the default setting is rear dial = shutter speed) You want to UNDER expose by 1 or 2 stops, meaning put the bar towards (-) by two clicks.

Here is how I have my camera set right now. Maybe this can help you help me!
picture control: vivid
image quality: fine
white balance: cloudy
iso sensitivity: 200
active d-lighting: auto
color space: sRGB
long exp. nr: off
high iso nr: norm

A couple of changes.. I would set the white balance to Auto and Active D-Lighting to OFF

Brett explained a lot of good points, but this....

For the little display on top
Lo=low battery charge (charge it!) haha

A flashing "Lo" means low light. You will not see this if you're in Manual mode

This may sound kind of harsh, but I don't intend it to be. When I was first learning about photography, a friend gave me this advice and it has helped me improve my photography with unspeakable bounds. Anyway, here goes:

By telling you what settings to use in this specific instance, you'll learn how to take this specific shot, but you will not learn how to take a proper photograph. First, learn about photography in general - take a few books out of the library, take a class, talk to a friend who is a photographer, etc. This will give you the terminology and the "why" of the equation. Step two is applying that to your specific camera - the users manual is a great place to start here. This will give you the "how" of the equation. Put the two together, and you're a photographer. Then, when a photograph doesn't come out the way you want to, you can figure it out for yourself.

I hope I'm not being too harsh here, but I hope you can file my post under the "give a man a fish, feed him for a day. teach him to fish, feed him for life" category. good luck.

Not harsh, and I agree. We were all newbies once, heck I'm still learning things everyday!
To the OP, I suggest getting the book "Understanding Exposure" by Brian Peterson. Really good book that lays it out in layman's term. This is a great start, IMO.

 

[Brett9917]

Brett explained a lot of good points, but this....
A flashing "Lo" means low light. You will not see this if you're in Manual mode

I didn't even think about that... good call haha.

 

[mike810]

Hmm, well for starters, I would suggest reading the owner's manual. I know it can look menacing, but it will help understand a lot of these terms, I promise. A camera's manual is one of the few manuals that I do read even when there is no assembly required.

For starters, EV stands for Exposure Value. Basically this function tells the camera how much (or less) brighter to make the picture while trying to keep the same basic setting you have the camera set to already. So in your case, +2.3EV means that you told your camera to take that picture at 2.3 times brighter than what it normally would have. When XTM says to try stopping it down, lower the EV to maybe -.3 or -.7.

You can't adjust the shutter speed directly because you are shooting in A-Mode. The A stands for Aperture, which means the user gets to determine the f-stop (how large of a depth of field) and then the camera determines the shutter speed. The higher the f/# the more of the picture will be in focus, but the longer the shutter is required to be open. Playing with EV and ISO will adjust the shutter speed.

As far as the settings on your camera goes, if you have photo editing software, change image quality to RAW and white balance to Auto. If you do have some sort of software, this will allow you to eliminate the bluish look that you have in this picture, and get it closer to how you see it. Other than that, that is how usually shoot.

For the little display on top
Lo=low battery charge (charge it!) haha
F/7.1 refers to the f-stop that I mentioned earlier, try lowering it to 4.5 or 5.6 and see what happens there.
Box w/ S = You are shooting single exposure mode, not burst. Kind of like a pistol instead of machine gun
The box with the single dot is what I was telling you about on choosing your focal and light metering area.
AF-A= Auto Focus - Automatic. You camera tries to adjust the focal area.
3.8k is an estimation of how many more pictures you can take before you fill up your memory card. So you have approximately 3,800 pictures left.

Thanks for the detailed information. Really appreciate it, will def pick up the manual. Just haven't had much time to get around to it.

This may sound kind of harsh, but I don't intend it to be. When I was first learning about photography, a friend gave me this advice and it has helped me improve my photography with unspeakable bounds. Anyway, here goes:

By telling you what settings to use in this specific instance, you'll learn how to take this specific shot, but you will not learn how to take a proper photograph. First, learn about photography in general - take a few books out of the library, take a class, talk to a friend who is a photographer, etc. This will give you the terminology and the "why" of the equation. Step two is applying that to your specific camera - the users manual is a great place to start here. This will give you the "how" of the equation. Put the two together, and you're a photographer. Then, when a photograph doesn't come out the way you want to, you can figure it out for yourself.

I hope I'm not being too harsh here, but I hope you can file my post under the "give a man a fish, feed him for a day. teach him to fish, feed him for life" category. good luck.

Not harsh at all and I totally agree with what you said. My wife and I were planning to take a class but with my crazy work schedule, we never signed up for one. So I guess the next best thing would be to go through the manual like Brett suggested.

It was layman's term. Put it in Manual mode. Your dial has P-A-S-M + scene modes right? Switch the dial to "M". This will give you manual control of both the aperture and shutter speed. Look at your top LCD. You see the bar? That's your meter. It has a plus and minus sign, which tells you if your scene is bright (overexposed) or dark (underexposed). A "proper" exposure has the bar in the middle. You move the bar by turning the rear or front dial (depends on how your camera is set up, the default setting is rear dial = shutter speed) You want to UNDER expose by 1 or 2 stops, meaning put the bar towards (-) by two clicks.

Thank you for dumbing it down for me. I understand what you're saying and will take some practice shots tonight. Was very informative and I learned a lot from you guys just from this thread. Thank you all so much.

 

[jbird69]

There is a wealth of info on youtube. Go there and type in your camera model and start surfing. Video tutorials can be very helpful

 

[mike810]

Hey guys,

Just want to THANK YOU guys for all your help. I just put in an order for a tripod to help. Here's a pic I took tonight, if you ask me. I think all your tips and advice really paid off. Now I just need a program to edit the photos.

 

[ATinPGH]

I have a D90 and I was wondering if you'd share the settings you used to take the shot...which is great by the way!

Aaron

 

[mike810]

Hey Aaron

I used the tips everyone provided in this thread to take that shot. If it doesn't work for u. I'll be glad to share the settings with u.