Seiko for night shots use these ISO settings (1600 to 6400)

Those will improve your images dramatically for color, also for manual it controls your
shutter speed. Shutter speed is exposure time, basically say you have 1/4000 of a second
for a exposure time your catching 1/4000th of a second of light to get the image. Now you
camera should have a built in exposure meter that would look something like this.
----v------------
|__|__|__|__|
-2 -1 0 +1 +2
The lines will have a number in a negative or positive and the middle line will be your 0
marker which tells you your at perfect exposure.

I would recommend using OVF (over head view finder) if your using different lens, if your
still learning i would recommend live view which enables the LCD screen to be able to see
what the camera see's though it.

For you i would recommend doing small things first, if we get enough popularity i can set
a forum admined by me and emma for photography. This will enable everyone to learn from
each others mistakes and enable us to spread our influence and show our interests on a
international stage.

Emma, I got all the problems you mentioned with my tamron. Normally I ony using
the S and A because I dont know what the hack is M and P. But after read your reply
and tried a few hours, I started to get use to it. thank you very much, emma9 :)

I will try to capture some photo using funtion M tomorrow, I will post here and see
what is my mistake. Try to comment my mistake because I'm totally new to DSLR,
last time I only using compact samsung camera ES10 then NV 100HD.

You're welcome. Sometimes manuals aren't much help. If you have the time, look up
some tutorials on Google or even better, on Youtube. The video guides would better
help you visualize what to do, etc.

This tutorial should help :
http://www.nikondigitutor.com/eng/d3100/index.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hmm, what's the exact problem with your night shots?

Are they blurry, or are they very grainy? .. or under exposed (looking dark) ?

Emma9. I wonder why nikon menu cant explain like you which I can understand.
Thank you.

Recently I also bought A tamron Af 70-300 tele marco @62 lense. Any tips? all my
night shots turns out to be failure, maybe only 1 or 2 acceptable pieces.

Well, for DSLRs and lenses, look no further than a Nikon or Canon.

The other brands, while fairly good in their own right, are still a notch lagging in
imaging quality.

Nice choice.
Emma explained it very well.Its your first dslr?

I have a Sony A-330, good reliable well priced camera 10.2 meg's 3000x2000 res.

Hmm, good choice on the Nikon D3100. One of the best entry-level DSLRs around.
Anyway, on your question :

(M) - Manual :
This allows you full control over the camera's settings, including shutter speed,
aperture, ISO, white balance, exposure compensation, etc.


(S) - Shutter priority :
This mode lets you decide what shutter speed you want, while the camera
automatically decides the optimum aperture, ISO, etc for you.

Useful when shooting moving subjects. For example, you dial in a shutter speed of
1/500s to freeze a runner. The camera will then decide on optimum ISO and
aperture settings to ensure a well-exposed shot.


(A) - Aperture priority :
The opposite of (S). Here, you decide the aperture value, while the camera decides
the other settings such as shutter speed, ISO, etc.

Useful when isolating subjects from background, such as food. Dial in a low aperture
number, for example f3.5 (I assume you have the 18-55mm kit lens), and you'll
notice that your subject is sharp whilst everything else in the background is blurred
out. The camera will then assign an optimum shutter speed and ISO to ensure the
perfect exposure for the shot.


(P) - Program Auto :
A mixture of full auto and some of the above. The camera chooses most of the
settings for you, whilst allowing you to input some of your own. You can use this if
you're not very familiar with all aspects of the camera just yet, but still want to
exercise some creative control.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Just like in Navyfield, (M) or manual is still the best, as it allows you to be in full
control of your photographs. It can be a little tricky at first, but once you master the
basics, everything should come naturally.