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DSLR Quickstart
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I have recently sold my Nikon D70 and 28-80mm kit lens to a good friend. My friend, Tara, is newish to digital SLR photography and she no longer lives in Ireland, which means that I can?t really give her much direct help. So I thought I?d jot down a few tips to help her get the most enjoyment and make the best progress with her camera. The following is the first of three parts. (The second part will be on intermediate detail like flash, histograms and exposure compensation and the third part will be on full manual control.)
1. Read the manual for the minimum of essential information:
– shutter knob/adjustment
– aperture knob/adjustment
– ISO knob/adjustment
– white balance knob/adjustment
– point of focus adjustment and lock
– battery compartment and recharging
– card slot and reformatting of card2. Set just about everything, except point of focus, on auto and go out and enjoy the camera for 3-4 weeks. Shoot lots of different subjects at different focal lengths and angles. Concentrate on composition, which will always be the most important thing even when later working in manual modes and using all the technical bells and whistles. The only control that needs mastered is the point of focus control and its lock. Learn how to switch the point of focus, among the 6 available, to set it on the key subject in the photo. Then just shoot away. When shooting outdoors the sun should generally be to the left, right or behind you. If it is in front of you, even partially, your subject will be in shadow. If it is further in front of you, you?ll risk other problems like lens flare too, for which a lens hood is usually needed. Later you may want to shoot into the sun, maybe for silhouettes or other back lighting effects, but the mastery of that, and fill flash, etc, is best left for a month or two.
3. Set the camera to shutter priority ? the ?S? of ?P?, ?A?, ?S, ?M?. This is the time to learn the guideline for what shutter speed you can shoot at when hand holding a camera. The rule, as applicable to a D70, is that you can?t get a successful shot handheld below 1.5 times the focal length. This means that using the widest angle, the 28mm, you should use 1/50 of a second. (28 x 1.5 = 42, but as there is no 1/42s on the camera the next fastest is used, ie 1/50s) Similarly at 35mm focal length 1/60s is used, at 50mm 1/80s, at 80mm 1/120s and so forth. Shoot lots of subjects at different focal lengths until this is well understood. Note too that the limitations of the lens may mean that in dull conditions you may not be able to shoot at 80mm and 1/120s.
4. Set the camera to aperture priority ? the ?A? of ?P?, ?A?, ?S, ?M?. This is a more useful setting, or at least a more creative setting, than shutter priority. Basically there are three groups of apertures, each with a different creative effect. At the low end there is f3.3 through to about f5.6. These apertures along with longer focal lengths tend to blur the background, so they are used to ?isolate the subject?. Great for shooting a person as the subject against an unimportant background where you don?t want background detail to distract from the subject. Better lenses which go down to f2 or below produce this effect much better. The next group of apertures is around f8. On many lenses this is where, technically, the lens performs best and gives its best results. This is ideal where there is little or no distance between subject and background. One example may be a shot of a person with their back to a wall which they are leaning against. It is almost impossible to get an aperture low enough to blur that wall and isolate the subject, so we can sometimes decide not to bother and go for optimal image quality and an image that has all its detail fairly sharp by using an aperture around f8. Lastly there is a group of apertures from f16 upwards. These apertures will produce images that are sharp from the foreground through to the far distance. These are used for ?tell a story? compositions ? ie images which have foreground, middle-ground and background interest. Landscapes are often shot at these apertures, and it is often recommended to set the focal point on a subject about a third of the way into the scene. Shoot lots of photos at these settings until aperture and its creative possibilities are well understood.
5. Experiment.
Can you add anything or make other recommendations?
BertieWooster wrote:
Can you add anything or make other recommendations?
Print this off and read it… very useful tips.
Great stuff Bertie. Really useful advice. I know it’s not an actual tutorial but perhaps Tutorials is where it belongs?
Rob.
Thats very good advice. Since I know your friend Tara is very beautiful can I suggest mentioning the self-timer :D :D
Seriously you might want to give Tara this link also;
http://www.nikondigitutor.com/eng/d70/index.php
Hi Bertie,
As Tara will be firing on auto from the start and concentrating on the compositions, maybe give her a couple of pointers on composition and framing. I’m sure that she’ll have a ball! And I second the self-timer location suggestion made by my esteemed colleague Mr. Fintan :)
Si
Excellent Bertie!! I don’t have a DSLR but I’m sure most of the above applies to DSLR “type” cameras like mine. I’ve been reading through several Beginners Digital photography books at the moment and you have explained the basics more succinctly than any of the books I’ve read so far.
Keep it up..looking forward to part 2 :D
BertieWooster wrote:
My friend, Tara, is newish to digital SLR photography and she no longer lives in Ireland, which means that I can?t really give her much direct help.
Can you add anything or make other recommendations?Indeed I have worked with Tara a few times and have featured her on my Studio Calendar 2006 and Christmas Card this year in her best “Santa” suit …… so I am trying to talk her into joining us on the forum here. Tara is a very beautiful girl and for all who dont know her you can see her on my Gallery – including the pic I used on my christmas card.
So, Bertie, I would suggest you might drop a hint to her, and encourage her to sign up here ………… I will be twisting her arm again when I talk to her in the new year.
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