Am I doing something wrong???

Had a look at your exif, ISO 3200? That wont be helping
Edit to add, you could have halved your shutter speed and your iso
This is where an f1.8/2.8 helps in low light
 
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Where I was at 400 without flash it was really dark when I took a picture, is that the wrong thing to do?
My camera only goes to f5
 
A 400 shutter speed is fast enough to capture rapid movement.
With a focal length of 40mm, you could easilly slow that down and drop the iso, especially as youre subject wasn't moving
 
My focal length was 44cm, my shutter speed was 400 And my aperture was f5.6. With the ISO at 100 to 400 it was still really dark. Why would this be?
 
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My point was, you could slow down the shutter and drop the iso especially as you weren't trying to freeze movement
Just an option, there's no absolute right or wrong
 
Well, given the subjects weren't moving you could have used a shutter speed of around 1/60 for 44mm focal length with your D3100 (assuming you mean mm, not cm) or given the close distance maybe 1/100 to stop blur form camera shake.

What is the reason you are trying to shoot manual?
 
Should I use aperture or shutter speed first before manual? In aperture mode, with f5, the shutter speed says Lo on the screen and a message says 'Subject is too dark' with ISO 100. Does this mean I have to use the flash?
 
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Tot1984 said:
Should I use aperture or shutter speed first before manual?
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Shooting manual is fine, if you have time to adjust for light changes
use either of these priorities, depending on what you most want to control
for example, the bacground might be horrid, so a nice large aperture will blur it, or you may be shooting sport and need a fast shutter speed to freeze sharp action shots, or a slow one to depict movement
All depends what you hope to achieve in the final image
 
In aperture mode, with f5, the shutter speed says Lo on the screen and a message says 'Subject is too dark' with ISO 100. Does this mean I have to use the flash? And when I take a picture it's really dark, I found this when I was out and I didn't want to use the flash

Are those pictures bad then?
 
The first thing to do is get an understanding of exposure and also metering. Shutter speed, aperture, and ISO are three sides to the exposure triangle, alter one and another has to also alter to compensate eg:

1/100 f8, ISO 100
1/200 f5.6 ISO 100
1/100 f11 ISO 200

all have the same exposure value, so if shooting a racing car you want a fast shutter speed say 1/800 so to compensate your aperture would be f2.8, but that gives you a shallow depth of field, but if you then leave the aperture at f5.6 you would need to increase the ISO to 400. It is a matter of adjusting things to get the result you want.

Now metering you need to understand what the camera meter is seeing and what mode, ie evaluative (Canon) looks at the whole frame, Centre weighted, places more emphasis on the middle, and spot, well that's a tiny bit in the middle. However if you were using spot and it covered a very dark area in the centre of the frame but the rest of the scene was a lot lighter, then you would get an overexposure of the general scene.

Time to do some homework and a bit of reading.
 
So what settings would you use indoors without a flash? In auto I've just took a picture without flash, and in the exif it says ISO 3200 f5.6 shutter speed 1/10. So shouldn't I have used 3200 ISO in manual?
 
Tot1984 said:
Are those pictures bad then?
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Not at all, just suggesting a possible way to improve them, which comes from understanding your camera settings
There's no bad pictures if YOU like them. Keep shooting and enjoy it (y)
 
Tot1984 said:
So what settings would you use indoors without a flash? In auto I've just took a picture without flash, and in the exif it says ISO 3200 f5.6 shutter speed 1/10. So shouldn't I have used 3200 ISO in manual?
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It must have been much darker in this senario. Look at the shutter speed, very slow and with f5.6, there was no option but to crank up iso
 
It's just that you said to try slowing the shutter speed down and that would reduce the ISO from 3200 to around 400, but I tried that and the pictures came out dark with no flash. I tried 1/100 and ISO400, they came out really dark. Do you always use flash indoors?
 
Ah I think I get it now, I just slowed the shutter down put the aperture at around f5.6 and ISO 400. It got brighter. I'm still learning. Thanks for the advise though, much apretiated
 
We've all been there
Its just a matter of practice using different settings for different results
Get a better understanding of the exposure triangle, and it soon becomes clear
Have a play with the simulator, it instantly shows how adjustments affect the shot
 
What lens would you get for birds and nature but also landscapes and portraits?
I've been told 55-300mm, is that ideal? What about a tripod, will I need one soon?
 
Best advice is not to just rush out and buy stuff.

By shooting more and more you will know when and what kit you need.
 
Tot1984 said:
Ah I think I get it now, I just slowed the shutter down put the aperture at around f5.6 and ISO 400. It got brighter. I'm still learning. Thanks for the advise though, much apretiated
Click to expand...

These moments are great. There will be more. Stick with it.

Nawty said:
Best advice is not to just rush out and buy stuff.

By shooting more and more you will know when and what kit you need.
Click to expand...

This. Know what you have and how to use it first.

Regards.
 
no mistakes, you just need to experiment with different kind of light. and different compositions. the main thing is just to have fun. you will learn the camera more and more as you go :)
 
Using manual is not required get used to using the semi auto modes like shutter priority (you choose a shutter speed the camera do the rest set the ISO to auto to start with) and aperture priority (you set the aperture and the camera does the rest) first.
 
Tot1984 said:
What lens would you get for birds and nature but also landscapes and portraits?
I've been told 55-300mm, is that ideal? What about a tripod, will I need one soon?
Click to expand...

There isn't one. :)

Well there are options, but you're buying a bucketload of compromises, which you might be OK with? Or you might come back in a month and ask 'why aren't the pictures from my new lens sharp. They have distortion at the wide end and at the long end the shutter speeds are too low and I'm missing shots'.

There's a reason most of us have a collection of lenses, it's not cos we like shiny things, or because we have too much money, it's because that's what we need to capture a range of different subjects.
 
Phil V said:
There isn't one. :)

Well there are options, but you're buying a bucketload of compromises, which you might be OK with? Or you might come back in a month and ask 'why aren't the pictures from my new lens sharp. They have distortion at the wide end and at the long end the shutter speeds are too low and I'm missing shots'.

There's a reason most of us have a collection of lenses, it's not cos we like shiny things, or because we have too much money, it's because that's what we need to capture a range of different subjects.
Click to expand...

HA! Yes indeed. Again Phil speaks the truth, but not quite...It's ALSO cos we like shiny things. ;)
 
Ah, the joys of shiny new things, I think I'm turning into magpie!

All the advice above is excellent and it appears you are picking up knowledge already, so well done. By all means buy a new lens to take different shots, but do t think it will solve any issues of whether you take a good picture or not. This is normally doe. To the if dame tale above and not whether you have some whizzy kit.

However, on that note I'm off to browse and buy some whizzy new kit, need a sharper/faster replacement for my kit lens, and a zoom would be nice, this is gonna get expensive.....
 
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