Shutter speed priority?

[babygiggles04]

Ok so when I put my cam to shutter speed priority and its gives me a message that the object is too dark! is sunny out! My ISO is 200/400 and even in 800 i get the message! anywhere from 400-3000 i get the message! I own a Nikon D40! any help please!? Its getting on my nerves!!! I just want to be able to photograph fast moving objects and I cant!!! HELP!

thanks!

[OsmosisStudios]

What was your aperture? What shutterspeed did you choose? What were you pointing the camera at? What metering mode were you in?

[babygiggles04]

1/1600 pointing at my kid riding his bike and i used matrix metering I think aperture was set to F4..

[CiiVii]

What did your meter show? That it was okay? Under/over exposed?

[babygiggles04]

Originally Posted by CiiVii

What did your meter show? That it was okay? Under/over exposed?

where can i see that info?

[OsmosisStudios]

1/1600 is overkill. Serious overkill. You'd likely be okay with 2 stops less (1/400) and probably still be good if you can pan even remotely well at 1/200.

[CiiVii]

That's why I asked

This info can be seen both through the viewfinder (across the bottom) and on your lcd screen, unless info is disabled. Look for what looks like this: +- - - 0 - - - - That is your meter reading. There is a "|" beneath the zero and when you change your shutter speed, aperture, and ISO combination in manual mode, you may see dashes to the left or right of the "|". That is your meter indicator. "0" is what your camera considers to be a-okay, when it starts filling toward the plus sign that is over exposed, towards the minus is underexposed.

That should get you started. You don't have to be right at zero, that's just your camera's best guess. The D40 tends to overexpose a wee bit in matrix, so you often can get away with underexposing 1/3 to 2/3 of a stop. Play with it and see what you think.

[dakwegmo]

If it was bright and sunny, then f/4 1/1600 ISO200 should give you enough light for a proper exposure. It may even over-expose the shot a stop. If it was cloudy or you were shooting into the shade, then you would likely get that message. Though, the D40 will let you shoot an underexposed image, even if it gives you that warning. What it won't do is fire in autofocus mode when it doesn't have a focus lock. You'll have to make sure you get that green dot in the viewfinder, or switch to manual mode so you can focus it yourself.

[babygiggles04]

Originally Posted by CiiVii

That's why I asked

This info can be seen both through the viewfinder (across the bottom) and on your lcd screen, unless info is disabled. Look for what looks like this: +- - - 0 - - - - That is your meter reading. There is a "|" beneath the zero and when you change your shutter speed, aperture, and ISO combination in manual mode, you may see dashes to the left or right of the "|". That is your meter indicator. "0" is what your camera considers to be a-okay, when it starts filling toward the plus sign that is over exposed, towards the minus is underexposed.

That should get you started. You don't have to be right at zero, that's just your camera's best guess. The D40 tends to overexpose a wee bit in matrix, so you often can get away with underexposing 1/3 to 2/3 of a stop. Play with it and see what you think.

Ha! i was way underexposed!! so gald I am taking a 3 hour workshop to get to know my cam!! LOL so the idea is to get it to the 0 by playing around?!??

[CiiVii]

What "should" work (as mentioned above) is only a good place to start. Read the meter.

"so the idea is to get it to the 0 by playing around?!??"

Basically, yes.