Beginner What settings shall I use?

willkia

willkia

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Will
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Hi guys,

Fairly new to the DSLR scene. Recently purchased a Nikon D3300.

I was just taking some snaps of my nephew and family today. Just general snaps as they sat and watched TV or my nephew playing with his toys etc.

I had the setting on Auto but all the pics came out blurry. :(

Can you recommend any settings please?

Thanks
 
I'd guess the scene was relatively poorly lit so the auto setting has chosen a fairly slow shutter speed. This will obviously pick up movement from the subjects.
To get crisp pics of people who might be moving around you want to start with a shutter speed of AT LEAST 1/125, but ideally even faster. You will have to adjust the aperture and ISO accordingly to make up for the reduced exposure.
Using a flash will help you get a fast shutter speed without raising the ISO, and save you from some noisy images. However the built in flash isn't that great (harsh, direct light). A basic, unsophisticated trick for indoor photography is to get a flashgun with a swivel head, point it at the ceiling (provides more even, diffuse light) and bump your SS up to 1/200 (or whatever the flash sync speed is).
 
What setting shall i chose where I can change the ISO and shutter speed?
 
One option to help in this situation is the following.

If you go into the shooting menu and scroll to ISO sensitivity settings, then scroll down to Auto ISO sensitivity control, turn this to ON. Then select the maximum sensitivity to say 1600, and then change the minimum shutter speed to about 1/125.

This will then automatically raise the ISO to get a shutter speed of at least 1/125 when in P or A mode, providing there is enough light to allow the camera to do so. Just beware when the camera uses a high ISO, the pictures will be a bit noisy and not crisp as a lower ISO would give.


This needs to be used with caution, as you could find you forget about it and end up with crucial shots being shot at a much higher ISO than the need to be. You can set the auto ISO minimum speed to AUTO, which will help, but its best to only use it in situations where the light is varying and you want to ensure you can freeze motion at expense of ISO noise.

The simple option is to study the exposure triangle, and how each part contributes to a photo. By changing one, you by default change another and its up to you to decides which you want to sacrifice for the other.
Either freeze motion and have a noise image, or have a blurry photo at a low ISO. Im presuming you are using the kit lens, in which case your aperture is very limited, so changing the ISO or using flash is the only option.
 
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