Lude Generation

I recently purchased a nikon dslr camera so I could take some better quality pictures but I'm starting to realise there's alot more to them any one got any good tips for a beginner

Which Nikon one?

D3100 18-55 vr kit

When I first started taking pics with DSLR, I used Youtube as my main source for knowledge. They have some nice tutorials, step-by-step guide and also some nice example videos. Have a look through there and see how you get on..

Always take 2-3 shot of one thing you're trying to take..

Just found this.. Looks good to view and gain some tips and how to work the camera.

Have a look at some of the Magic Lantern guides.

nitin_s1 wrote:Just found this.. Looks good to view and gain some tips and how to work the camera.

Just watched this and it was very helpful thanks nitin, must watch more to gain some knowledge

Shiny wrote:Have a look at some of the Magic Lantern guides.

I will have a look at them aswell mate thanks

Take it off "Auto" - put it in Manual, and then shoot, shoot, shoot.

95% of your photos will be going straight into the Recycle Bin, but it's digital so costs you nothing anyway!

Manual is a big step.

My preference is to set the camera to AV mode. This allows you to control the aperture (i.e. depth of field, how much of the picture is in focus) and the camera then selects the shutter speed to get the right exposure. You can + or - the exposure to make adjustments. I still struggle sometimes with getting the exposure right in manual mode from the off as you can find you are way off.

Confused wrote:Take it off "Auto" - put it in Manual, and then shoot, shoot, shoot.

95% of your photos will be going straight into the Recycle Bin, but it's digital so costs you nothing anyway!

This. Some of us old buggers had to learn at the rate of about 7 quid film and processing for 24 shots and a week to see the results....

That said, Shutter and Aperture priority modes are wondrous things, so agree to some extent with the above also.

If you really want to be good, set the lens to 50mm and take all your pictures for a couple of months with that and using your feet, then add wide angle and zoom as separate stages...