New user needs help!

[StaciesMom15]

All my photos are coming out underexposed. The settings are 400 ISO, F5.0, 1/60. All of the pictures are almost completely black. 

It comes out bright if I put my ISO at 3200, but it's super noisy, or my shutter speed at 2", but it's super blurry. Putting my F5.0 up all the way to F30 just makes the photo completely black, like I have the lens cap one. I don't btw, I checked. 

Please help. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

[John_]

What model camera do you have? In the meantime reset all your settings to their defaults in the settings menu

[StaciesMom15]

Rebel T6, also I don't think I've ever messed with my in-depth camera settings.

[wq9nsc]

It sounds like this is a situation where your camera probably needs to be using its built in flash because basically you don't have enough ambient light for the camera and lens setup you are using if you are stuck between blur or noise.  Your F stop, shutter speed, and ISO setting are the "exposure triangle" and the combination of the three have to be set to result in the proper "standard" exposure for good results.  The camera will try to do this with its full auto mode and it should fire the flash to attempt to correct for lack of light however its range is limited and won't help with distant subjects.

Setting the F stop to a lower number means the lens is wider open and lets in more light while reducing depth of field; with low light you need it as wide open (lowest F number) as possible while still achieving enough depth of field which is the area from the front through the back of your photo that is within acceptably sharp focus.  Many lower cost lens are considered to be "slow" meaning their maximum aperture (lowest F number) is fairly high.

Setting to a slower shutter speed lets more light hit the sensor but you can get blur both from subject movement and camera shake.  If the subject is perfectly stationary, you can use a tripod to avoid the issue of camera shake but you still need a sufficiently fast shutter speed to avoid motion blur if your subject isn't still.

Increasing ISO effectively increases sensor sensitivity to lower levels of light but it does so by amplifying both the "signal" which is the desired output created by light exposure and also the random noise generated by the sensor, low noise amp, and analog to digital converter.  Increasing ISO sensitivity via this gain increase results in more noise and is far worse with lower cost and smaller sensors.

It sounds like your situation calls for the use of a flash and if there isn't enough output from the built in flash you may need to consider additional lighting or a faster lens.

Rodger

[ebiggs1]

 Well StaciesMom15,

How do you know these are the settings?  "The settings are 400 ISO, F5.0, 1/60."

This kinda leads me to believe you are in M (manual) mode?  Here is what you do, kido.

Reset the camera to factory settings. Menus, under tools, clear all settings and also clear all settings, too. Put it in P mode, ISO 200, average WB. Put the lens on AF. Go outside, nice day and take some shots.  If they are good, there is nothing wrong with your camera. Most likely you set something wrong before.

Most of the time you will want to use P mode. So, I would try the same shots that didn't work before except use P mode. If none of this worked come back with a report on how you did and we will offer some more suggestions.

[StaciesMom15]

Thanks y'all I will try out your tips.

And yes I was in Manual mode. I'm still learning a lot about my new camera, I always had those little digital cameras, nothing this complex. I know that once I get the hang of it all I will love it!

Also yes using the built-in flash did help. I thought it looked a little harsh, but I found some black paper and kind of redirected the light and bounced it off the wall of the side of the subject, and it worked wonderfully.

Thank y'all again.

[ebiggs1]

When you are shooting in P mode notice the settings the camera is choosing in the view finder.  

[ebiggs1 · Accepted solution]

"All my photos are coming out underexposed."

If you are indoors you want a higher number ISO.  Perhaps 800 or 1600.   If you are outside on a nice day you need a lower number, set the ISO to 200. In P mode this is really all you need to set yourself. You can leave the WB to average.

I mostly tell folks to ignore the fully auto mode green square so you should, too. Also avoid the M mode until you fully understand exposure.

For the absolute best photos, I would like to see you use Raw file format. Not jpg.  Raw requires you use a post editor. But it is really easy and it allows a great range of adjustments to your photos.

[StaciesMom15]

I have read in many places to avoid full auto. I will definitely use the P mode until I learn more, thank you. 

I guess my apartment is darker than I thought because even at 800/1600, it's underexposed. Not nearly as much though.

And I have been taking my photos in RAW and jpg. I got Photoshop for Christmas from my inlaws, so that's another thing I need to learn.

Thank you for your advice.

[ebiggs1]

"I got Photoshop for Christmas ..."

Fantastic!    You can go as deep into a photo or as little as you want with PS.

"...even at 800/1600, it's underexposed."

The only next step is a faster lens if you don't like higher ISO numbers.  Usually 3200 is still pretty good but the grain structure will increase as the ISO goes up.  ISO 200 is usually the best for grain.  But proper exposure is also a key factor.  A properly exposed ISO 3200 can look good. It is under exposure that you tend to see the grain more apparently.

The ef 50mm f1.8 lens is a good fast lens that is really affordable around $125 bucks.