just bought nikon d3100 and never used a dslr before.

rhys-jewell

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Rhys
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right so i have wanted a dslr for ages and finally gone and treated myself to a nikon d3100. im having fun with the auto setting at the moment, and using the guide to try an teach myself a few things but not 100% on alot. sometimes the flash comes up when i dont want it to? dont know how to stop this? also i want to be able to adjust shutter speed etc and moving things like people etc how do i make them still images without causing a blur?
 
The flash will only pop up in auto mode. Or if you accidentally press the flash button on the left hand side of the camera.

As for freezing people, turn the dial on the top to 'S', rotate the wheel to at least 1/500th and shoot away :D
 
any other bits and bobs u can tell me to try and get more used to the camera and better shots etc...
 
any other bits and bobs u can tell me to try and get more used to the camera and better shots etc...

Hang around here and pester the old hands like I did :D

Welcome to the d3100 and TP club, in my opinion, it;s a great camera to learn with
I've found just about everything I;ve wanted to know on here, and the more I learn, the more questions it raises
Have a look around the back threads, as some of the lingo goes over the head a bit, then what you cant find, ask in the appropriate section or join a discussion
:thumbs:
 
Hi

Welcome to the club. Have a look here, there is a lot of info:

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=23

Also worth having a read of Bryan Peterson's book called Understanding Exposure. Some people may say that the book is not worth it but for me it helped me a bit to understanding apature, shutter speeds, iso etc.

Apart from that have a play with the camera as much as you can..
 
Yeah im the same i bought a d3100 and just constantly out learning with it, you could try buying this months "Digital Camera" magazine aswell there is a dvd in it with aperature, shutter speed etc explained.
 
Good move on the purchase. The D3100 is no different to any other DSLR at a fundamental level so IMO the best thing you can do is learn the basics of exposure and composition. I favour Bryan Petersons' Understanding Exposure book and Michael Freeman has a great book on composition called something like 'the photographers eye. Once you have read these (particularly the former) or any equivalents, the terms that your manual refers to will start to make sense. Before that it'll just be meaningless jargon. Once it all clicks, it becomes a fantastic experience.
 
ive been youtubing for the last hour. ive worked out so far apature is the ability to blur the background and focus on the main item in the photo. shutter speed can be used to slow water i.e. long shutter speed to capture moving water or fast for someone or something moving... and iso havent got there yet. however shutter speed, apature and iso all are linked as each adjusts how small or large the lens is to let more or less light in? correct? this would be why my camera sometimes tells me its too bright or too dark? i really dont want to touch the auto button anymore so its shooting at what i can (mainly the better half) to see what results i can get? anyone got any more tips or things they can throw at me to try? good things to take photos of? what apature do i use to get everything in the background to blur and my main item to focus? as these are my favourate photos. thanks very much.
 
Thats pretty much it, although only aperture pysically adjusts the size of the hole in the lens. Shutter speed controls how long the shutter curtain opens to reveal the actual sensor to light, and the ISO amplifies the sensor's sensitivity to light.
To get an exposure, you need to adjust each of these, as they are all linked.

If you want a fast shutter speed, you need a big hole (wide aperture, lower f/number) to let more light in. However if you want as much in focus as possible, you need a narrow aperture (small hole, higher f/number) So as you cant have both, you'd adjust the ISO to make the sensor more sensitive to light, allowing the faster shutter speed. You can then close the aperture to get the required depth of field, or amount in focus.
Higher ISO means a comprimise of more digital noise in your photo.

To get the effect you want of blurred backgrounds, you need to lowest f/number you can, so on your lens will be between f/3.5 and f/5.6 depending on how much you are zoomed in.

Ideally you want a lens that can go lower, as this will give a much better effect, however by maximising the distance of the subject from the background, you can get a similar effect.
 
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