New Camera!

[Cocry]

Just picked up a Nikon 5100 last night so hopefully I will be posting a lot in here in the near future. Any tips/tricks for a newab would be appreciate it.

Thanks!

Cory

[joshuapaul]

Great little camera, you'll enjoy it. You can keep it on "auto" mode and adjust your exposure compensation (the +\- button) to dial in a good exposure. That's a really easy way to get a reliable exposure when you're multitasking.

[Flysmallie]

Any tips/tricks for a newab would be appreciate it.

Read a lot, learn your camera, learn to take pictures without using Auto mode. Nothing against Auto mode but you will learn a lot more about a camera when you start using it in manual mode and learn how different settings affect the outcome. Take tons of pictures, they are digital so you can delete all the junk. Pay attention to your settings so that is you do get something good you can understand why it was good. Take a lot of pictures. Have a lot of fun. Post some shots. And did I mention to take a lot of pictures.

[junkman]

Flysmallie, you sound like my wife. take lots and lots of pictures. or make me take lots and lots of pictures. LOL

[ness]

Everything Flysmallie said.

But, don't just fire away with the hope that one will turn out. Sure, the marginal cost is zero but you won't really learn to take photographs that way.

Find time to slow down, put it on manual, look around, pick a shot, set the aperture and shutter speed, see what happens. Use the histogram to understand the exposure and fine tune it. Do this when you can and it will cement in your mind what is going on around you and in your camera, and your photography will be better.

BTW -- you're camera is better than any Ansel Adams ever had.

[mic]

Just picked up a Nikon 5100 last night so hopefully I will be posting a lot in here in the near future. Any tips/tricks for a newab would be appreciate it.

Thanks!

Cory

My advice would be follow the other ones posted above...and...buy a top line and "fast" lense as soon as you can. Your ability to take pictures improves greatly when you get high quality lens with a smaller or fast F-Stop because you get more light into the Cmos Chip which improves overall color and fast action pics. If you take more landscape pics focus on a wide angle. If not, go with a standard lens or even a macro. I'm a pentex guy, but a quick search found this inexpensive 35mm f1.8 for under $200. It isn't a zoom, but with 16.2 megapixels you can do a lot of crop and zooming with your computer.

http://www.nikonusa....f%252F1.8G.html

[Flysmallie]

My advice would be follow the other ones posted above...and...buy a top line and "fast" lense as soon as you can. Your ability to take pictures improves greatly when you get high quality lens with a smaller or fast F-Stop because you get more light into the Cmos Chip which improves overall color and fast action pics. If you take more landscape pics focus on a wide angle. If not, go with a standard lens or even a macro. I'm a pentex guy, but a quick search found this inexpensive 35mm f1.8 for under $200. It isn't a zoom, but with 16.2 megapixels you can do a lot of crop and zooming with your computer.

http://www.nikonusa....f%252F1.8G.html

Nikon makes a 50mm 1.8 that you can usually pick up for around $125. It's a great lens. It's a prime lens so you have to do the Fred Flintstone zoom, but it takes some amazing pictures. But if you are doing a lot of outdoor/daylight stuff you won't have to worry about this too much in the beginning.

It's all about light and how you use it to your advantage.

Here is the 50 at B&H Photo. $124.95 and free shipping.

Nikon 50mm 1.8

[Cocry]

appreciate the good words!

[jdmidwest]

Here is a good site with lots of tips and lessons.

Digital Photography School . com

Read all you can about the camera and play with the settings. Auto is fine, but program or ae mode will get you better photos. Different lenses are a plus too. A nice set of filters with polarize and uv are a cheap addition that yields some great results. A monopod will help you stabilize the camera for longer exposures. Hi Cap rechargeable batteries and a charger. Hi Speed SD card.

Take lots of pics, you can always delete the bad ones. Set the camera to continous shooting and hold the trigger down to catch action shots.

Get a copy of Photoshop Elements for photo editing or use some of the great freeware like GIMP or FASTSTONE IMAGE VIEWER to create finished products.

[Cocry]