Question by Lidiya: Question about camera aperture.?
Hello photographers. I am a novice at photography, and I have problems with my aperture mode on the camera. I have Nikon D7000 that someone gave me as a gift. I understand what aperture is, and what the depth of field is, but for some reason I cannot put this knowledge into practice.
Whenever I go out to shoot landscape and the pictures alike, I like to choose the aperture mode to be able to bring everything in focus. However, no matter what I try, all the pics come out really dark. Whenever I try to shoot portraits and go the other way, all the pictures come out dark too. On the Manual mode, where I can control the shutter speed too, everything comes out ok. And it just bugs me: if I can figure out Manual mode, why can’t I figure the half-automatic Aperture mode?
The only other thing I am able to control in aperture mode is ISO, but it does not bring much difference either.
Do you guys think there is a problem with the camera, glass, or just me. How can I fix this problem. I already tried to reset everything — doesn’t hep.
Best answer:
Answer by fhotoace
Try this link
http://camerasim.com/camera-simulator.html
This will teach you how to balance the ISO, shutter speed and lens aperture
You do this using the camera in the manual mode until you get the hang of it.
Then when you pick an aperture in the aperture priority mode, you will have a good idea what the depth of field will be
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
If you can use manual to make the correct exposure then immediately with the camera pointed in the same place use aperture priority, keep the same aperture and see what shutter speed it chooses. If it’s radically different then it does sound like a camera problem. Try to update your firmware and see if that helps. I’m not an expert on this. Just a fixit guy making a guess.
Sounds to me like you’ve accidentally dialled in some negative exposure compensation (- EV) this doesn’t reset when you switch the camera off… Check in your manual how to adjust it back to zero.
EDIT
Exposure compensation isn’t active in Manual mode only in the automatic modes, so this would explain your problem.
When you are shooting in Aperture Priority the camera selects the shutter speed. The only reason I can think of that your landscape pictures would be dark is that you’ve set the EV (Exposure Compensation) to -2 (2 stops underexposed) or greater. So check and see if you’ve set the EV to -2 or -3, reset it to 0, and your exposures should be fine.
In Manual Mode the EV setting has no effect.
Changing the ISO will have little appreciable effect since in Aperture Priority the camera selects the shutter speed based on the ISO and the f-stop you’ve selected. Suppose you’re using ISO 100 and f16 and the camera determines that a shutter speed of 1/100 sec. will give a correct exposure. If you change the ISO to 200 at f16 the camera will set a shutter speed of 1/200 sec. The two exposures will be identical.
Now suppose that you’ve accidentally set the EV to -2. Whereas before the camera selected 1/100 sec. as the correct shutter speed at ISO 100 and f16, to underexpose by 2 stops (which is what you’re telling it you want to do by using -2 EV) the camera will use a 1/400 sec. shutter speed. The result? A dark picture. If you change the ISO to 200 at f16 and -2 EV the camera will set a shutter speed of 1/800 sec. Again, your picture will be dark.
I shoot all my landscapes in Aperture Priority at ISO 100.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/drifter45h/3982233634/
I also consider a tripod as mandatory for good landscape photography.