Noob Errors

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zooks

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Name
Shaun
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all,

I've had my D3100 a year and have hardly scratched the surface of half its functions and I would like to learn how to get the best from the equipment I have.

I have been playing around in aperture priority and tbh i'm a bit lost.

I'm taking my dslr on holiday with me soon and have recently bought a used 18-200 lens to try to cover most bases without swapping lens all the time however my pictures don't seen very sharp.

As I dont really know what i'm doing I also don't know where i'm going wrong either :D.

This pic was taken at 200mm f/5.6 100iso 1/125. What did I get wrong or am I asking too much of the lens at max zoom?

Thanks for reading


DSC_0093 by zooks15, on Flickr
 
Well I'd say you missed focus on the bird, the large leaves to the right and in front seem to be more in focus, were you letting the camera choose the focus point? In addition 125 is too slow for small birds and unless your lens has stabilization it's too slow to handhold at 200mm (unless you're made of stone :D). Up the ISO until you can get a shutter speed of 1/400 or so and ensure that you are using the centre focus point and have another go.

Edit: Sorry, that seemed a little abrupt, welcome to the hugely frustrating (and satisfying) world of DSLRs :wave:
 
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One general rule of thumb that you don't seem to have followed it that your shutter speed should be at least the equivalent of your focal length so at 200mm you'd want 1/200th or faster to minimise the likelyhood of any camera shake.

Also, although the Nikon 18-200mm lens is a fairly decent lens and capable of taking some sharp images you're never going to get the best out of it at the extremes of the focal length so at 200mm it will always be slightly softer than at say 70-150mm.
 
Yeah your camera seems to have focused on the brances on the left, Best to set a focus point yourself.

As a general rule of thumb if your shooting at 200mm handheld you would need your shutter speed to be 1/200s to keep things nice and sharp, but for moving subjects around 1/800 down to no less than 1/500 will keep most things nice an sharp, Just set your ISO higher to get the faster shutter speeds in AV.
 
See I told you I didn't know what was doing. Thanks for tips so far guys
 
Just keep practicing as much as possible and read as much as poss and you will get better
 
Another helpful thing is to talk about photography. It seems simple but it is amazing what you can pick up in the course of a conversation. If you have no-one in your immediate circle who is into cameras, join a local camera club or spend your time on here. Also read some good books (Scott Kelby books are good for a beginner) and practise, practise, practise. See what your local college has in the way of courses. Or another good idea is to spend a day with a proper photographer - check your local ones, some might do 1 day courses. That will bring you on in leaps and bounds.
 
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