12 replies to this topic

[karrun]

I have a Nikon P900. I wanted to slow down the motion of a flowing stream so I put it in shutter priority mode and changed the speed to 1/2 second. I thought the camera would adjust the aperture so as to not over-expose the shot, but it came out basically white. It looked like it stepped down the fstop from F-8 to only f 6.2 or something like that. Did I maybe use way to slow of a shutter speed? It was a bright day.

[Merco_61]

I don't understand... f/6.2 is a bigger aperture than f/8. What does the EXIF say? Can you post the overexposed shot with the EXIF intact so we can check if there is some strange setting you might have overlooked?

[mikew]

On the P900 f6.5 is the smallest aperture.

It sounds like there was too much light,one way you could check this is try aperture priority,set the camera on its smallest aperture (highest f number) and ISO 100,what ever shutter speed the camera chooses is the slowest you can go with out adding filters.

[Merco_61]

I think the minimum aperture is f/8 on the P900. I agree that there was probably too much light. On a sunny day, f/8 and ISO 100 would give a shutter speed of 1/400 following the sunny 16 rule of thumb. (f/16 gives a shutter speed of 1/ISO)

[mikew]

I think the minimum aperture is f/8 on the P900. I agree that there was probably too much light. On a sunny day, f/8 and ISO 100 would give a shutter speed of 1/400 following the sunny 16 rule of thumb. (f/16 gives a shutter speed of 1/ISO)

 

Yes i thought that but checked on the Nikon site and got this, they could be wrong and its a while since i sold my P900

 

• • F-number

  • f/2.8 to 6.5

•  

[Merco_61]

The f/2.8 to f/6.5 is the variable max aperture. The minimum aperture is 8 according to the reviews I have read as well as my own recollection. I haven't owned one, but I have had workshop participants who use them. This is from the photo.net review.

[dem]

It looked like it stepped down the fstop from F-8 to only f 6.2 or something like that. Did I maybe use way to slow of a shutter speed?

 

It might have stepped down from f/6.2 (or whatever the maximum aperture was at the focal length you were using) down to f/8. f/8 is the minimum aperture. The camera cannot close the aperture any smaller. Yet there is too much light coming in over half a second.

 

You can solve the overexposure problem by reducing the amount of light the sensor receives: either by shooting at a higher shutter speed or by putting a neutral density filter in front the lens.

[Cjtamu]

I noticed in your welcome post that you also have a D3200. For future reference, it might be a better choice for this kind of shot because most of the lenses for that camera will allow a much smaller aperture than the f/8 on the P900. That said, 0.5 second shutter speed in bright light is probably still going to require a filter. 

[sunshine]

In your original post you said the image came out white.  That means too much light got in.  I'm no expert and do not own a P900, but a suggestion would be to put the camera on aperture priority, set aperture to its smallest opening (largest number - apparently f/8 on your camera?) and see what the camera selects for shutter speed.  If it chose 1/30" for example, that's 4 full stops faster than your desired setting of 1/2".  That means that at your smallest aperture, in the lighting conditions you had at that time, you would need to somehow compensate for 4 stops of light in order to use a 1/2" shutter speed.  The only other variable you have control over is ISO.  If that was not set to its lowest value, you might have been able to compensate some by lowering the ISO.  If it already was set at the lowest, your only option will be to use a filter as suggested above.

 

Keep in mind that a 1/2" shutter speed will likely be way too slow to hand-hold the camera and get a sharp image unless the camera has some form of image stabilization built in.  If you want a non-blurry image at that speed you'll need to use a tripod.

[karrun]

Hey, thanks for all the input. As you probably guessed, I'm a beginner and still learning. It's pretty obvious to me that my P900 let in way too much light for the shutter speed I chose. Yes, the D3200 would have probably been a better choice for trying the shot, but i had just come from photographing some bison so had the P900 on me. Or I should have  used a filter for the P900. I am trying to learn how to use filters. Can someone suggest a class or resource so  can learn about grad, ND, polarizers, etc?

 

Thanks,

Karen

[Merco_61]

A good start is to download the B+W filter handbook or order it in dead tree format. It covers both filters for digital and filters for analog. Lee used to have quite a bit of information about how to use their filters both for lenses and for lighting. I am not sure where to find it since they revamped their site or if it is lost.

[dem]

A quick overview:

 

Choosing a Camera Lens Filter

[karrun]

Thank you!

 

Karen