Nikon D40 best settings without flash

we are going to St Petersburg and have been informed that we can take pictures inside the buildings but without using flash. With the Nikon D40 what would be the best set up for good pictures inside?

Bit of a noobie and if leaving it set as auto is the answer then I am fine with that

thanks LC ;)

we are going to St Petersburg and have been informed that we can take pictures inside the buildings but without using flash. With the Nikon D40 what would be the best set up for good pictures inside?

 

Bit of a noobie and if leaving it set as auto is the answer then I am fine with that

 

thanks LC ;)

Manually set the ISO to 1600 and let Auto take care of the Aperture and Shutter Speed.

Or... get to know your camera!

Here's an article I did for a CC class on Low-Light photography:

http://www.pptphoto.com/ArticlePages/LowLight.htm

It may give you a better understanding of how your camera "sees" light and what the non-auto world can do for you! ;)

Dave

You might want to read this article here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40/users-guide/index.htm

Ken is an interesting character drawing lots of criticism and hate posting, but has some pretty good articles. He like I loved our D40's.

1st set Auto ISO set with max ISO at 1600 and minimum shutterspeed at 1/15. That is a good overall setting to have no matter what shooting conditions. Camera will pick everything else in P mode. If you don't have a VR / stablizied lense better to set minimum shutter speed one stop faster at 1/30 or so. The auto ISO mode is one thing that Nikon has that really is great for all around catch all in almost any shooting mode! Thus as you say its almost just setting "auto" ;)

Indoor shooting scream for a wide angle and fast. If you have a 10-20mm zoom great, if not 18-55 range will work. What is best indoors is a fast prime lense. The 35mm new nikoor DX is perfect. I believe it runs 199 new or you can look local on craigslist or ebay and fine one for maybe as cheap as 125. You'll be suprised how this small light lense can open up indoor shooting with no flash. It being 1.8 aperture allows you to shoot almost in 4 times as dim lighting conditions as with our standard consumer zoom lens.

Happy shooting!

we are going to St Petersburg and have been informed that we can take pictures inside the buildings but without using flash. With the Nikon D40 what would be the best set up for good pictures inside?

 

Bit of a noobie and if leaving it set as auto is the answer then I am fine with that

 

thanks LC ;)

Agree with Dave's advice on getting to know your camera. But that's a learning process. In the meantime, above advice to go with either manually set high ISO, or auto ISO, are both OK. And a better low light lens - something 'fast' with an aperture that can go fairly wide like F1.4 - F2.8 would help get more light from a dim situation. I'll advise from a slightly different standpoint:

How you take the shot is very important. First off, if at all possible to lay the camera down on a level surface or use a tripod, definitely do so. This is always going to yield the best results, because you can lower the ISO to 400 or so, and use a slower shutter speed to gather more light, usually resulting in better detail, color, and less noise. If tripod or laying the camera down isn't important, the next best thing would be to brace yourself with the camera against a wall or post or something. This will let you shoot handheld as steadily as possible, and keep you from making little movements or vibrations which can result in blur at slower shutter speeds. If you have to completely free-hand it with nothing to lean against, then learn good stance with your camera - use the optical viewfinder braced against your face comforably, both hands on the camera - left hand on the lens barrel or cradling under the camera body, elbows tight in against your torso for stability, half-moon standing position with one leg out front, and the other behind and at a 45 degree angle. Calm your breathing, take a deep breath in, and shoot while exhaling long and evenly. Half press focus and metering on the shutter button first, as opposed to mashing the shutter button each time...the half-press will allow you to steady yourself and ready the camera, so you can gently press the rest of the way on the shutter slowly and evenly with less movement.

Always try to use the lowest ISO you can get away with and still get enough shutter speed - that's why I like to manually set ISO. Generally, best to watch the shutter speed - even in Automatic modes, to make sure it is staying above at least 1/30 to 1/40 second. If it falls any slower than that, consider bumping up to the next ISO and see how that does. You can use Auto ISO too, but sometimes the camera may default to a higher ISO than really needed.

Hope that all wasn't too confusing!

Manually set the ISO to 1600 and let Auto take care of the Aperture and Shutter Speed.

 

Or... get to know your camera!

 

Here's an article I did for a CC class on Low-Light photography:

http://www.pptphoto.com/ArticlePages/LowLight.htm

 

It may give you a better understanding of how your camera "sees" light and what the non-auto world can do for you! ;)

 

Dave

I am not sure that I totally agree with this advice. I would set it for Aperture priority, set the aperture to wide open, and let the camera pick the shutter speed. That way, you will be using the highest shutter speed that is consistent with the light conditions. If the camera shows over exposure, retake it at a lower ISO.

This may be a bit too complicated but I would also set the exposure meter to center weighted average to reduce the chance that the meter will be fooled by windows and lights that are outside the area of interest. I am assuming that what you are interested in is likely to be in the center of the image.

Finally, make sure to set the flash so that it does not flash automatically. I don't own a D40 so I do not know how this one works but for some cameras, auto-flash mode is the default and the camera will flash whenever it senses that it is needed.

This will take a bit more camera knowledge than the other suggestions but should result in better pictures.

Hope this helps.

DON

D40:

1) Set AutoISO in D40: Max ISO 1600 ( noise is still tolerable ) and for web viewing or 4x6 with a little cleanup more than usable. Set exposure for VR / stabilized lense to 1/15 or so, for non stabilizied probably 1/30. For longer focal length follow the rule 1/focal length.

2) Set to P mode. In this mode flash has to be activated manually or turn dial to icon with flash crossed out. All modes except the "green" icon work with AutoISO!

The Nikon cameras are pretty good with Auto ISO they don't go to either the slowest shutter or highest ISO as a default. In low light you will get it it wide open and higest ISO and slowest shutter speed. If that still doesn't work the camera drops shutterspeed more while staying at wides aperture and your ISO setting, will never go above what you set as max ISO. Very sweet settings for getting the most without worrying about ISO/Noise.

I am not sure that I totally agree with this advice. I would set it for Aperture priority, set the aperture to wide open, and let the camera pick the shutter speed. That way, you will be using the highest shutter speed that is consistent with the light conditions. If the camera shows over exposure, retake it at a lower ISO.

 

This may be a bit too complicated but I would also set the exposure meter to center weighted average to reduce the chance that the meter will be fooled by windows and lights that are outside the area of interest. I am assuming that what you are interested in is likely to be in the center of the image.

 

Finally, make sure to set the flash so that it does not flash automatically. I don't own a D40 so I do not know how this one works but for some cameras, auto-flash mode is the default and the camera will flash whenever it senses that it is needed.

 

This will take a bit more camera knowledge than the other suggestions but should result in better pictures.

 

Hope this helps.

 

DON

I don't disagree in spirit, but...

In Auto, as opposed to "P", the D40 uses some fairly good AI to determine the content of a scene and in a dimly lighted cathedral, it will choose one of the scene modes (probably "Flash Off" if the flash pop-up is disabled) best suited to the conditions. Flash off biases towards a wide aperture, providing higher shutter speeds to reduce blur.

I suggested Auto based on the OPs admission of "Noobieness" and the fact that the rather advanced auto scene mode makes pretty good decisions when faced with moderately difficult lighting.

I, as you probably do, shoot 98% in aperture priority mode for exactly the reasons you noted. Remembering to check settings and adjust as needed is second-nature to veterans of the manual SLR days, but adjusting a lot of settings without knowing what they will do can result in a lot of disappointing images. Additionally, setting the aperture wide open makes careful attention to focus more critical to compensate for reduced depth of field.

Cameras like the D40 are a boon to noobies since manufacturers put a lot of R&D into making the Auto mode a reasonable substitute for experience.

Dave

You might want to read this article here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40/users-guide/index.htm

 

Ken is an interesting character drawing lots of criticism and hate posting, but has some pretty good articles. He like I loved our D40's.

 

I don't make any photo-related purchases without consulting Ken's site. He is so talented and knowledgable.

Thanks for all the advice yes I should learn my camera more but with work grand kids etc etc you know.

I have found the article very good thanks Pierces and will take it on board. I have the D40 and AF-S DX VR ZOOM 18 - 200 Lens so that should give me good results, should I use a filter?

I want to take good pictures after going all that way to Russia

thanks again to all who replied :D:o

...should I use a filter?

 

If you mean for indoor pictures, no. Filters (polarizers especially) can be of use for outdoor scenes but you won't really see any benefit form using any basic filters inside.

Here's another article from yet another class on filters and how cameras see light:

http://www.pptphoto.com/ArticlePages/Filters.htm

Dave