DSLR Camera- my pictures are either blurry or too dark?
Hi, I have been an owner of a Nikon D40, and am only completely satisfied with it when I have sufficient light. Otherwise my pictures are either too blurry (I slow the shutter speed to bring in more light) or they're too dark (I speed up the shutter speed to reduce blur), and I have never found a comfortable medium. Are there any other settings I can adjust? I have tried playing with ISO and manual aperture (so the camera chooses the shutter speed) and am still disappointed with the results. Any help would be greatly appreciated as no tutorial or online blogs are proving useful.
Go look up Digital Photography School if you have not already.
Your issue is that you have not learned how to properly take a photograph with correct exposure and focus. Learn about the exposure triangle for how to take a good shot.
Once you learn this you shouldn't have many, if any, problems with getting a good photo.
Why would you let the camera choose anything? You own the camera and should be the one who makes the decisions, if you're hand holding below 1/60 of a second then you'll likely get blur. If you can't get bright enough pictures by boosting the ISO and opening the aperture then it's obvious you need to use a flash/
You really need to learn about the Exposure Triangle which consists of Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed.http://digital-photography-school.com/learning-exposure-in-digital-photography
Once you've learned about the Exposure Triangle you'll understand why your statement "… I slow the shutter speed to bring in more light… " is incorrect. The only thing that can "… Bring in more light… " is the Aperture. What you need is a fast prime lens such as the Nikon AF-S 35mm f1.8 or the Nikon AF-S 50mm f1.8. You can also use a higher ISO but more objectionable digital noise will be the result.
If you want a quick shutter speed, but your photos end up dark, you can raise the ISO. The higher the ISO, the brighter the images. However, you will have more noise the higher you raise your ISO.
The D40 has been around a long time, and to this day you seem to be perplexed about exposure and when and why you have blur.
You need a larger aperture, or use a flash, or use a tripod, or be sure your subject is not moving, or a mix of any or all of the above.
I feel this book would be of great value to you. Forget stupid blogs and tutorials and use a real book, just like people have learned from for years.