Won't take a picture???

D

DVX100Shooter

Veteran
I was out tonight trying to get some cool shots of the wild lightening we had and I missed about 7 or 8 big lightening flashes and bolts. My camera would not take a picture for nothing. I was shooting manual mode. I found out if I hold the button down longer than 2 seconds it would take but by that time I would have missed my shot. I then spun the wheel over to the Night mode and it worked at first but then was doing the same thing as in Manual mode. Later, I turned on LiveView and it wouldn't take a picture by the press of the button on that either. I had to hold the button down for 2-3 seconds.

Is there something I am doing wrong in all of this? I am new to the camera and still getting used to all the settings and what not.

Oh yea, at first I had my shutter set to BULB but then I bumped it up to 1". I think the aperature was set at 3.5
 
An SLR release button has two settings; half down, down. If you just go straight for half down and it's in an auto mode, the camera will take a second to fill in the other part- calculating exposure, auto focusing if needed, things like that. If you held it half down first it should be pretty much instantaneous unless you have mirror lockup set, which it wouldn't be by default. And I don't even know if this camera has that option. It could also have been working, still writing to the card, although that shouldn't happen if you weren't taking pictures too fast (burst mode). Or the long shutter speed caused you to get out of sync with the camera. And if you aren't aware, bulb mode means open as long as you hold the button down.

In general, calculating exposure for priority or automatic modes and things like that take longer in low light than otherwise.
 
When you use autofocus in a dark location your camera might have problems focusing. By default, the camera won't fire unless it's in focus, also know as Focus Priority. You can deal with this a couple of ways:

- You can turn the focus to manual, then you shoot at any time, but will have to manually focus,
- Change the focus area mode to single and use the center focus point, it's optimized for low light (the others are not),
- You can change to Release Priority, this will fire the camera anytime you press the button, even if it's not in focus,
- Turn on the AF Assist lamp, anytime your camera tries to focus, the little light will go on to try and help your camera. Alternatively, you can get an SB-600, 800 or 900 as they have a more effective AF Assist lamp (you can turn off the flash from firing and only have it set to AF Assist),
- Get a lens that can open up to f/2.8 or more, the more light, the better for focusing.
- Use the focus and recompose technique. Aim your focus point on something bright that your camera can focus on, then press the shutter button half way and hold it, then recompose and press the button completely to take the photo. While you hold the button your camera will hold the focus. Alternatively, you can make the AF-L/AE-L button do this for you as well.

I don't have a D90, but I'm pretty sure that you have all these options available to you (I use a D300).
 
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Exactly. In this particular case i'd use manual for sure. Many auto lenses focus manually beyond infinity though so beware.
 
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