Nikon 3100 photos blurred when using Auto/Burst mode

[Elliot B.]

Bought this camera yesterday.

Don't know much about photography.

Put it into Burst mode, and it's set to Auto (No Flash).

The photos are all blurred, and neither I or the subject was moving that much. The scene was not that dark at all.

Any ideas?

Four examples have been attached below.

[HawkMan]

It's because you have no flash, well with a flash it would be slower.

basically there's not enough light to get a good picture fast enough so the camera needs to have the shutter open longer, this means you will get blur due to movement while the shutter is open.

this can be reduced by

1: flash

2: larger opening(lower number)

3: better lenses(combined with 2)

(2 and 3 will introduce depth of field of course though)

4: more light where you take photos.

5: and the most likely solution for you atm, higher ISO value, most likely your camera is currently set to auto, and to reduce noise in the picture the camera pics a decently high aperture, with a mdeium high iso in order to not introduce to much noise.

This is why you'll need to learn the semi manual controls and what stuff like ISO does. in this case you'll need to boost the iso to get good shots, but you'll have to experiment to see how high you can go before you get what you consider to much noise, often you'll have to sacrifice and accept bit of blur and a bit of noise, especially inside. You can't have a perfect sunny day everywhere.

btw, I thought you where getting a 3200 or 5100 ?

[Elliot B.]

<snip>

btw, I thought you where getting a 3200 or 5100 ?

3100 was ?310, 3200 was ?450.

We decided to go for the 3100 as we're new to photography.

[HawkMan]

Well there's a reason the 3200 is more, for one thing it has a better sensor that is capable of taking photos at higher ISO with less noise, which I think you can see would have been good for you. Personally I would have suggested you go for the 5100 then that was lower than the 3200 but a FAR better camera than the 3100.

If you still have open return on it, I suggest you consider it.

[Elliot B.]

Well there's a reason the 3200 is more, for one thing it has a better sensor that is capable of taking photos at higher ISO with less noise, which I think you can see would have been good for you. Personally I would have suggested you go for the 5100 then that was lower than the 3200 but a FAR better camera than the 3100.

If you still have open return on it, I suggest you consider it.

3100, ?310.

3200, ?450.

5100, ?530.

The 3100 is all we could afford.

[c.grz]

Try to increase the ISO slightly and increase your aperture (increase aperture by lowering the f stop number). The lower the f stop number; the more light is let into the sensor but we then have less of an "in focus area". It takes a lot of trial and error until you know what works under certain conditions.

I recommend reading a book about the fundamentals of photography, that helped me tons in getting better pictures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture

[Argote]

Is the ISO setting also set to AUTO? Do you have the "VR" setting on your lens enabled?

[Elliot B.]

Is the ISO setting also set to AUTO? Do you have the "VR" setting on your lens enabled?

Yes to both.

[richardsim7]

Give this a read :)

http://www.expertphotography.com/a-beginners-guide-to-photography

[Elliot B.]

Give this a read :)

http://www.expertpho...-to-photography

Tar :)

[ekw]

A good indicator of a blurry photo coming up is the sound of the shutter speed. You should hear two quick clicks that are barely distinguishable (for action shots), if you hear two clicks with a relatively noticable pause inbetween you'll need to adjust ISO or get a tripod for stable low exposure shots.

I like to leave my Nikon (D7000) in aperature mode and adjust ISO to indirectly influence shutter speed. I prefer natural light than flash most cases.

I would get used to manually adjusting ISO so you know what ISO value to use based on your current conditions. It takes practice to know what the right ISO is without having grainy pictures.

Happy shooting :).