Camera Suggestions?

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by kepp

I'm definitely going to try this. I've been mistaking shutter speed for ISO when in AV mode. So when the aperture was set to 2.8, it was using a slow shutter speed because the ISO was set too low (I never set it). This clears some things up for me.

I also read some comments from some people that said you don't need to use image stabilization when using high ISO/fast shutter speeds? Does it really matter either way?

All things being equal, and you want to take a big step, if you shoot RAW, you can fix the color later... But they are big pics and can't do much about burned (over exposed) or dark (under exposed) pics. But knowing how to set the white balance is always something good to know. And I think learning this and keeping white paper with you might be simpler that learning end remember all the numbers associated with various color and light temperatures.

Watch these:



And this one has bracketing too. Kinda cool too!

[kepp]

Originally Posted by GloryDayz

All things being equal, and you want to take a big step, if you shoot RAW, you can fix the color later... But they are big pics and can't do much about burned (over exposed) or dark (under exposed) pics. But knowing how to set the white balance is always something good to know. And I think learning this and keeping white paper with you might be simpler that learning end remember all the numbers associated with various color and light temperatures.

Watch these:

Thanks, I'll watch those.

So I took the camera to my daughter's practice and made the adjustments...set the ISO to H (3200 I believe) and used AV mode with aperture set to 2.8. HUGE DIFFERENCE! No blurry pics save for the ones where I was just off target. It froze flips and back handsprings perfectly with no blurring. Thanks for the help everyone. Its good that I'm getting this down, because I think some parents thought I was just some perv that came in off the streets with a telephoto lens.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by kepp

Thanks, I'll watch those.

So I took the camera to my daughter's practice and made the adjustments...set the ISO to H (3200 I believe) and used AV mode with aperture set to 2.8. HUGE DIFFERENCE! No blurry pics save for the ones where I was just off target. It froze flips and back handsprings perfectly with no blurring. Thanks for the help everyone. Its good that I'm getting this down, because I think some parents thought I was just some perv that came in off the streets with a telephoto lens.

Sweet... Next you'll want to "grasp" on focus point (in non-servo mode), and focusing in the servo/one-shot modes.

Once you find which of those make you happiest, then moving into metering (center weighted or more averaging) will be sweet..

Know this, digital or film, light and lighting is the biggest part of photography. So learning how to manipulate light is what it's all about. And dealing with flash And yeah, you can flash in a gym too if you get a good one, and you'll find out how much progress you've made. And I think you can get a really good grasp of most of it by just writing down the things you want to learn, and focus on just that for a day or two.

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by GloryDayz

Sweet... Next you'll want to "grasp" on focus point (in non-servo mode), and focusing in the servo/one-shot modes.

Once you find which of those make you happiest, then moving into metering (center weighted or more averaging) will be sweet..

Know this, digital or film, light and lighting is the biggest part of photography. So learning how to manipulate light is what it's all about. And dealing with flash And yeah, you can flash in a gym too if you get a good one, and you'll find out how much progress you've made. And I think you can get a really good grasp of most of it by just writing down the things you want to learn, and focus on just that for a day or two.

I've had my D3100 for a couple of years now and really haven't learned to use it to its capabilities. Can you recommend a good website that will cover some of the intermediate/advanced subjects?

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by Dartgod

I've had my D3100 for a couple of years now and really haven't learned to use it to its capabilities. Can you recommend a good website that will cover some of the intermediate/advanced subjects?

The blog at www.fredmiranda.com is usually awesome, but I'll tell you, youtube is awesome if you know what you're looking to do. And Nikon has a ton out there. Hell, their mirror lock-up is still the best out there IMO, but that pretty advanced stuff right there (if you're doing stuff that needs it like shooting timed exposures of stars).

But here's an article for how to set it on you D3100: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/conten...kon-d3100.html


The key are the subjects you search for on youtube. In this case look for youtube videos for the D3100's white balance. Even though the concept is the same across all cameras, the procedure is pretty specific to a brand, so it'll save time. The key will be to understand why you're setting white balance. Photo nerds like to talk smart and call/say different kinds of light have different temperatures/warmth. Whatever, it's all about photons! But alas, all folks need to know is that when you shoot under florescent lights you might get a blue tone, and in some cases green tones! You don't want that, so here's what you can do..... So white balance "the subject" is worth a 5-10 minute video. Once you've heard the nerds talk, the important part is how do deal with it using your super-smart camera.

But the concepts of using AV for a camera that you've dropped a 2.8 lens on, that's just something that you do and it's pretty simple - set the camera to AV, set the ISO to something really fast, then shoot. The concept is to use the "bright" 2.8 lens, and the easiest way to do that is to use AV. See, I'm more lazy than smart.

Here's a tutorial of AV/DoF (Depth of Field) that's worth a few minutes of your empoyer's time and his bandwidth..

http://youtu.be/X8wL3gdJ7KA

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by GloryDayz

The blog at www.fredmiranda.com is usually awesome, but I'll tell you, youtube is awesome if you know what you're looking to do. And Nikon has a ton out there. Hell, their mirror lock-up is still the best out there IMO, but that pretty advanced stuff right there (if you're doing stuff that needs it like shooting timed exposures of stars).

But here's an article for how to set it on you D3100: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/conten...kon-d3100.html


The key are the subjects you search for on youtube. In this case look for youtube videos for the D3100's white balance. Even though the concept is the same across all cameras, the procedure is pretty specific to a brand, so it'll save time. The key will be to understand why you're setting white balance. Photo nerds like to talk smart and call/say different kinds of light have different temperatures/warmth. Whatever, it's all about photons! But alas, all folks need to know is that when you shoot under florescent lights you might get a blue tone, and in some cases green tones! You don't want that, so here's what you can do..... So white balance "the subject" is worth a 5-10 minute video. Once you've heard the nerds talk, the important part is how do deal with it using your super-smart camera.

But the concepts of using AV for a camera that you've dropped a 2.8 lens on, that's just something that you do and it's pretty simple - set the camera to AV, set the ISO to something really fast, then shoot. The concept is to use the "bright" 2.8 lens, and the easiest way to do that is to use AV. See, I'm more lazy than smart.

Here's a tutorial of AV/DoF (Depth of Field) that's worth a few minutes of your empoyer's time and his bandwidth..

http://youtu.be/X8wL3gdJ7KA

Awesome, thanks. I could probably just talk to my dad about it too. He's a very good photographer. I've posted some of his work here before.