advice please

W

webby

Suspended / Banned
Messages
116
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi, I am new to the forum and have recently purchased a Nikon D40 (a Christmas pressie from my hubby - he listened!). I have looked at the handbook and also Langfords basic photography book and am getting just a tiny bit confused to say the least. I basically know nothing and am trying to get my head around apertures ISO shutter speed etc. I am interested in portraits and lanscapes and macro photography (haven't got a macro lens yet though so this will come later).
Do any of you have a pointers in where to start - would you start with playing around with the ISO settings and then apertures and shutter speed. Is there a particular ISO which is more "common" to start with? I only have the 18 - 55 kit lens at the moment - is this sufficient to start with until I learn the basics or would you suggest otherwise?

Sorry if its a bit vague but any advice is appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
 
Not sure if I have posted correctly please let me know. Any advice from anyone?
 
Stick with iso 200, shoot portraits in good natural light, no 60w light bulbs at half 10 at night.
F/4 - f/5 will cover full dof at 55mm full face
Shoot aperture priority (A) and let the camera choose shutter speed, don't let this drop below 100th of a second till you get a steady hand.
Choose the white balance for the lighting your using eg daylight = daylight :D
 
Hi Webby, welcome to the forum. Like you I am new to this game and I something of a lurker on the forum picking up hints along the way. I spend most of my time looking at the photos posted by the members and seeing what kit/methods they used to het them. Once I was confident enough I even posted a picture of my own. Best advice I can give (if I can give any at all) is try and avoid all the science in the early stages and just click away at whatever you want. When it comes together you will know what you did to achieve it.
 
Hi webby :) Welcome to the forums.

Congrats on the new camera :) and that is one hell of a question you have asked ;)

ISO: The lower the number the less noise you get in your final image (IE the speccly bits in shadows). But also the less sensative to light the sensor becomes. If you are shotting in nice day light you can normally get away with 100-200 ISO which will show very litte noise in your final shot. The darker the conditions you shoot in, the higher you will need your ISO (basically)

Aperture: The controls how much light is let through the lens onto the sensor. On one level this works like the ISO as in it controls how much light hits the sensor, but alongside doing that it also controls you depth of field (or DOF). Depth of field is basically how much of you image is in focus, so with a large DOF (which is a large f stop like f22) things close to you and things far away are in focus. With a small DOF (such as f2.8) only the area close to the focus point is in focus. This all sounds confusing, but it is part of the balance you have to create between noise and DOF. If it is quite dark and you are doing a landscape shot and want the foreground and distance both in focus you will need a large DOF, so you cant use your aperture to control your shutter speed, you will have to use you ISO.

Shutter Speed: This is how long the shutter stays open. Like ISO and aperture this also controls how much light is hitting the sensor. But this resulting time is (usually) a calculation of the other two settings. You have to be carefull that you shutter speed isnt too slow. The general rule of thumb is that your shutter speed should not be slower than the focal length you are shooting at (IE the mm...so if you are shooting a landscape and are using the 18mm end of your lens...so wide..then you can probably get away handholding a shot at 1/18th of a second, though that really is quite slow). Slow shutter speeds can greate blurred images, either by wobbling while the shutter is open or by things moving too fast (motion blur).

So basically it is all a balancing act of ISO, aperture and shutter speeds. It sounds daunting, but once you realise how they work together it really starts to make sense.

I would recommend putting you camera in AV mode, this lets you set the aperture and ISO but it will automatically work out the shutters speeds for you (again these shutter speeds can be altered by how the camera meters for the available light, but probably best not to worry about that now). Get outside and try various apertures and ISO settings and then take a good look at how the images come out. It might even be worth setting up your camera somewhere and taking a shot of the same thing but with different apertures and ISO settings, and whilst doing that watch how the shutter speeds change from shot to shot and how much either goes out of focus and how much stays in focus and then how much noise appears in high ISO images.

Most of all have fun and experiment :)
 
Welcome aboard webby, you posted fine :) But what seems like a simple question has so many possible answers ;)

Edit: too slow, Jimmy's covered it :lol:
 
Aperture priority is A, its a Nikon, to avoid confusion..
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
Hi webby :) Welcome to the forums.

Congrats on the new camera :) and that is one hell of a question you have asked ;)

ISO: The lower the number the less noise you get in your final image (IE the speccly bits in shadows). But also the less sensative to light the sensor becomes. If you are shotting in nice day light you can normally get away with 100-200 ISO which will show very litte noise in your final shot. The darker the conditions you shoot in, the higher you will need your ISO (basically)

Aperture: The controls how much light is let through the lens onto the sensor. On one level this works like the ISO as in it controls how much light hits the sensor, but alongside doing that it also controls you depth of field (or DOF). Depth of field is basically how much of you image is in focus, so with a large DOF (which is a large f stop like f22) things close to you and things far away are in focus. With a small DOF (such as f2.8) only the area close to the focus point is in focus. This all sounds confusing, but it is part of the balance you have to create between noise and DOF. If it is quite dark and you are doing a landscape shot and want the foreground and distance both in focus you will need a large DOF, so you cant use your aperture to control your shutter speed, you will have to use you ISO.

Shutter Speed: This is how long the shutter stays open. Like ISO and aperture this also controls how much light is hitting the sensor. But this resulting time is (usually) a calculation of the other two settings. You have to be carefull that you shutter speed isnt too slow. The general rule of thumb is that your shutter speed should not be slower than the focal length you are shooting at (IE the mm...so if you are shooting a landscape and are using the 18mm end of your lens...so wide..then you can probably get away handholding a shot at 1/18th of a second, though that really is quite slow). Slow shutter speeds can greate blurred images, either by wobbling while the shutter is open or by things moving too fast (motion blur).

So basically it is all a balancing act of ISO, aperture and shutter speeds. It sounds daunting, but once you realise how they work together it really starts to make sense.

I would recommend putting you camera in AV mode, this lets you set the aperture and ISO but it will automatically work out the shutters speeds for you (again these shutter speeds can be altered by how the camera meters for the available light, but probably best not to worry about that now). Get outside and try various apertures and ISO settings and then take a good look at how the images come out. It might even be worth setting up your camera somewhere and taking a shot of the same thing but with different apertures and ISO settings, and whilst doing that watch how the shutter speeds change from shot to shot and how much either goes out of focus and how much stays in focus and then how much noise appears in high ISO images.

Most of all have fun and experiment :)
Click to expand...

I too am very new to photography.and i have been trying to find an explanation to several things i.e. iso,aperture etc.. in very basic dummy terms, and the above by Jimmy_lemon has just covered it spot on, thanks very much.

thanks
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
Ah thanks Joxby :) Took a guess that it might be the same as the glorious Canon :p but guess not, hehe
Click to expand...


No, its a good'n'sound solid info post, be a shame to get bogged down with "wheres my AV knob":thumbs:
 
Thanks everyone especially Jimmy, you have put it in terms I actually understand - now I can go out and get some practice! Thanks again - I am sure I will be asking more in future!
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
It might even be worth setting up your camera somewhere and taking a shot of the same thing but with different apertures and ISO settings, and whilst doing that watch how the shutter speeds change from shot to shot and how much either goes out of focus and how much stays in focus and then how much noise appears in high ISO images.

Most of all have fun and experiment :)
Click to expand...

That is what I did, it worked for me......:thumbs:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top