subject too dark query?

[egor110]

At the grand prix my camera kept coming up with subject too dark.

Camera was on shutter priority 1/250th, zoom around 250.

How can i avoid this and if it happens again what do i do? I guess wind the shutter speed down but that wouldn't be quick enough for motorsports?

[mrmr96]

What camera? What aperture? What ISO?

[egor110]

It was a nikon d60, not sure about iso/aperture as the camera picked it i just dialled up shuter speeds.

[mrmr96]

Sounds a bit odd then. I suppose it was overcast a lot of the time, but you'd think it would still expose (or attempt to) at 1/250th!

[andy-xr]

There's an obvious get around, dial in the settings yerself

It could be that you had minus 5 stops of EV in, the metering was the 'wrong' kind, the max ISO was set to 400.... Cameras are dumb really and sometimes you need to take over. I'm no manual-all-the-way snob by any means but if you're not getting what you want sometimes you need to make changes!

[paul911]

egor110 said:

It was a nikon d60, not sure about iso/aperture as the camera picked it i just dialled up shuter speeds.

Is that bit correct?

I’m a Canon user so this may not be the same for Nikon, but you may have had your ISO set to best quality (think its 200 for Nikon). Canon have an auto (A) setting for ISO, that needs to be set (in shutter priority and aperture priority). Does the D90 do the same?

[andy-xr]

paul911 said:

egor110 said:

It was a nikon d60, not sure about iso/aperture as the camera picked it i just dialled up shuter speeds.

Is that bit correct?

I’m a Canon user so this may not be the same for Nikon, but you may have had your ISO set to best quality (think its 200 for Nikon). Canon have an auto (A) setting for ISO, that needs to be set (in shutter priority and aperture priority). Does the D90 do the same?

Shutter priority, so camera would pick aperture, and there's a max ISO setting for auto/PAS that you can enter. My betting is that max ISO would have been set to something fairly low, the thing I've noticed with Nikons is that they tend to whack ISO up rather than aperture, which is the opposite of what Canons do

[egor110]

andy-xr said:

Shutter priority, so camera would pick aperture, and there's a max ISO setting for auto/PAS that you can enter. My betting is that max ISO would have been set to something fairly low, the thing I've noticed with Nikons is that they tend to whack ISO up rather than aperture, which is the opposite of what Canons do

So once i find how to set the max iso, would 100-400 be ok for motorsports?
I'm outside at brands sunday so should have more light anyway but then i'm back to silverstone.

[mrmr96]

egor110 said:

So once i find how to set the max iso, would 100-400 be ok for motorsports?
I'm outside at brands sunday so should have more light anyway but then i'm back to silverstone.

For 1/250 on a dark day you may need to go over 400 is you're using a long lens (i.e. small aperture.)

[GetCarter]

egor110 said:

would 100-400 be ok for motorsports?

On an overcast day with a long lens, you are more or less screwed. A full frame sensor will make a HUGE difference, gaining you up to 6 stops.

[RobDickinson]

Post.An.Example.

With EXIF intact.

Is it that hard..!?

[andy-xr]

RobDickinson said:

Post.An.Example.

With EXIF intact.

Is it that hard..!?

It will be if the camera wouldn't take a photo because it was too dark!

[RobDickinson]

Since when do slr's refuse to take a photo?!?

Sell the D60 buy a canon.

[egor110]

How am i supposed to know out of 700 pictures which were the ones it warned me the subject was to dark?

[RobDickinson]

The dark ones?

[andy-xr]

I'm outta here!!

[Simpo Two]

Lord knows what other settings you have enabled, but one obvious fix is to use a slower shutter speed, if possible. If you can't, and you're at maximum aperture, then the only way out is to increase ISO.

The camera will tell you what ISO it's using - do you see anything in the bottom of the viewfinder?

[RobDickinson]

How do nikons work in shutter priority when there isnt enough light to achieve a decent exposure at the selected shutter speed (lens wide open, ISO fixed?)

I assume that is the issue.

ISO 100 (or whatever) 1/250th - shutter priority and lens wide open + light levels too low.

As suggested , increase ISO or buy a faster lens, or lower the shutter speeds

[K12beano]

Could we possibly take a step back here.....

egor110 said:

At the grand prix my camera kept coming up with subject too dark.

When you say "kept coming up with" I'm a bit lost as to what it was doing..... call me Thick but just what was happening?

egor1 said:

Camera was on shutter priority 1/250th, zoom around 250.

OK - I now know you mean a Nikon body... "zoom" you mean a lens at 250mm focal length..... out of interest, what lens?

egor1 said:

How can i avoid this and if it happens again what do i do?

Some things you cannot avoid - including low light. If you do nothing it seems likely that the same thing will happen again

egor1 said:

I guess wind the shutter speed down but that wouldn't be quick enough for motorsports?

So, let's take a half step back again. Have you got a grasp of shutter speed<=>aperture<=>ISO? Then again, what's going on with what you think the shutter speed should be?

[GetCarter]

K12beano said:

Could we possibly take a step back here.....

egor110 said:

At the grand prix my camera kept coming up with subject too dark.

When you say "kept coming up with" I'm a bit lost as to what it was doing.

I've never had a Nikon that 'came up with 'subject too dark''. I can only assume the camera refused to focus?