Picture is becoming whitish

raishulalam

I have been using Nikon D3100 with 18-55 mm Lens . But now i can see that Pictures are not coming that clear . little whitish . Is is due to i dont use any Lens Guard ?

bruto

First thing I'd do is get the "EXIF" information for a shot, and see if some settings have changed.

If you go to the playback menu and get the display options, you can choose one that gives the basic information - called "overview." Check the box for that. Now when you play back images on the camera, you can use the up and down arrows to choose which playback option is shown. On the overview you'll see basic settings such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and any compensation. Make sure you did not accidentally get some exposure compensation or some unwanted exposure mode. You will also get a histogram, which is a post-shot exposure graph. Ideally, your histogram should show some information from the far left (black) to just a gnat's eyebrow short of the far right (white). If the histogram looks crowded toward the right, you're overexposing somewhere, and blowing out highlights.

One other playback option is called "highlghts," and informally called "the blinkies." When this is enabled it will flash blown highlights as black. If your exposure is good, areas you want to depict should not flash. Sometimes you can't help but have sky flashing, and often there will be small specular highlights. If you shoot a sunset, the sun will always flash, but it's handy to see what parts are too bright.

If you shoot with light oblique to the lens, it will cause some flare, and this can be helped with a lens hood. On the zoom lens you will have to make sure the hood fits and does not darken corners at 18 mm. I found that the old Nikon HN-3 hood, originally a screw-on hood for full frame 35 millimeter, works perfectly here, and being metal it helps protect the lens a bit too. It's compact enough that you need never take it off, and if you have the original Nikon lens cap it will fit on the inside of the hood. If you can't find that hood, you can probably get a collapsible rubber one, but make sure it's for a wide angle lens, and check for vignetting.

How clear and contrasty your images are may also be a matter of taste. The 18-55 lens should give you pretty nice results if all is right, and it's good and sharp, but it's not as crisply contrasty as more expensive lenses, or as prime lenses usually are. If it's just a little effect you can tune it out in post processing in some programs.

If the exposures are decent but you need more contrast, one thing that helps a little is to disable "auto D-lighting." This feature increases dynamic range, and opens up shadows a little, and it can be very nice at times, but it can also make for a lighter look and somewhat muddy shadows, so try with it off.

Make sure you're using the lowest ISO you can get away with too. High ISO will result mostly in unwanted noise, but because most of the noise is seen in dark areas, it can contribute to a washed-out look. If you use Auto ISO always start at 100 and let the camera decide when to raise it.

Some of this may also be dependent on what kind of light you're in. If you're not noticing any areas of a picture that are too dark, you might try a stop or so of negative exposure compensation. That will darken the image, but in some situations where the dynamic range of the scene is limited, this can help.

raishulalam

Thanks For Your Comment .