Hello! I just purchased a Nikon D3100 because I wanted to be able to take better night time photos at WDW. We leave for our trip on Wednesday and I'm still clueless on how I need to set it for the fireworks and the MNSSHP parade. Or any night photos for that matter! I don't plan on taking a tripod. Any advice would be great!! daytime or night time advice! Thanks!! Lori
Best advice i have for you is to read "The National Geographic Field Guide to Photography" on the plane. ; Its under $20 and basically explains it out easier then I could probably spell it out. Short version? For Daylight, outdoor photos, leave it on the green box and let the camera do all the metering. Worry about composition, moments, etc and let the camera do the rest. Nighttime? ; Pretty much the same thing, you could change it to aperture priority (the big A) and shoot with the most open aperture you have available to you and boost the ISO around 3200 or 6400. And in the meantime, I'd practice with it as much as you can in the next few days so you know what buttons do what instinctively. Good luck.
A fotodave sighting? ; Wow. ; That's a very interesting screen name. ; Almost figured out what it meant ... from my htc thunderbolt
I figured you'd like that Tim!! I have the David Busch's field guide to look over. Maybe that's what I should be reading on the plane! Thanks guys!
For daytime shots, the famous photographer Weegee once said "F8 and be there!" ; In modern terms, use aperture priority set to f/8 for a pretty good depth of field, and be ready for the shot. ; Of course, you need to pay attention to the shutter speed that the camera selects. ; If your subject is moving, you may need to increase the ISO or select a larger aperture (smaller f/number) to avoid blurry shots. ; As you learn more, you can venture into other apertures and modes. For fireworks, you really need a tripod and remote release, since most fireworks shots use manual mode, f/16, ISO 200 and 2-3 second exposures. For the night time parades, best results are obtained with a fast lens (f/1.8 or 1.4) and high ISO (1600 or 3200). ; If you don't have a fast lens, you still should use a high ISO. ; I usually use center-weighted metering so the camera reads the lights on the subject rather than the dark background. These are my opinions based on experience. ; I'm sure others have equally valid experience-based opinions. ; Try everything you read and see what works for you. The one thing you really need is three times as many memory cards as you think you need. Welcome to the boards and have fun on your trip!
You will get better results with this camera but you will not get great results of the fireworks without a tripod. ; Having said that, all the advice you've been given will help you. I also advocate using Da Grip for shooting with slow shutter speeds. ; You'll find how to use it from my blog post on the Secret to Sharp Photos. ; That is what I used to take this photo of Wishes. Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/15s, f/3.5, ISO 1600 @ 18mm focal length. Good luck!
I recommend [amazonsearch]Scott Kelby's Digital Photography Boxed Set, Volumes 1, 2, and 3[/amazonsearch]. ; Quick reads, easy to understand, with lots of short tips and tutorials.
Invest in a wired trigger, MC-DC2 Nikon *38 bucks*... and because you're using a pretty lightweight outfit most tripods will do just fine, so long as they aren't uber lightweight travel versions made for Point and Shoots. 1.) Set the ISO at a normal level, say 200 2.) Set your camera to Manual Mode now... if you purchase the wired trigger a.) set the camera to BULB (you select this using the front scroll (I believe))... essentially this will allow you keep the shutter open as long as you hold the trigger button if you don't buy the trigger, set the camera on to the timer setting (inside your menu set the timer to something short like 2 seconds) b.) without the trigger you'll have to experiment more The beautiful thing about the world is fireworks every night! So mess up one night, just try again the next night! Setting your aperature and shutter speed is personal preference 1.) ISO low at 100, set aperture to f/22 and let that shutter stay open for 4-5 seconds and see what you get 2.) bump ISO up to 200, mid range aperture (say f11) and a 2 second exposure. Mess around with the settings, no one is "right" and each have their own unique looks. And, as always... SHOOT RAW!
And once you are all set with tripod I strongly advise getting an ND filter, maybe start with 3 stops. This allows for much longer exposures, getting up into the 15 second or longer. Allpows getting all those wild colors and shell trails. Check out our illuminations and wishes threads from pixelmanias gor examples
this is my next trick... http://www.diyphotography.net/use-weldi ... -nd-filter ND filters, or at least good ones... ARE EXPENSIVE!
If you have a small filter ring diameter, it's not bad. ; But those big 77 and up filters can get pricey. ; That's actually the reason I've continued to use my 8 year old ND400 9 stop filter - it's a 58mm filter...but I've got 2 step down and 2 step up rings, so I can use it with 6 different lenses. ; The step ups are no problem - the filter's bigger than the lens...but the step downs mean vignetting or losing some of the wider ends of zooms. ; But getting a lot of use out of my $60 filter is better than buying a new one for hundreds! ;
Welcome aboard, Lori! BASIC SLR TIPS: 1) Avoid the Green Box Mode. It's a fully automatic mode, to be sure, but in my experience it doesn't produce results as good as the semi-automatic modes. 2) As a beginner, I shot exclusively in P mode (program shift). P mode is a semi-auto mode. It measures the light and decides on shutter speed and aperture for you, but allows you to manually shift them. You won't need to do that yet, but in my experience, P mode does a better job of metering, resulting in better shots in most situations. Later, I explored the semi-auto modes Tv and Av, which allow you select either the shutter speed (Tv) or the aperture (Av), and the camera selects the other for you. 3) Practice Scott's "Da Grip." Nothing will get you better shots in low light without a tripod than a steady base for your camera. 4) Use the VIEWFINDER. You may be tempted to use the LCD screen to line up your shots, as you do with a point and shoot camera, but as they say in New York, Fugetaboutit! Pressing the viewfinder to your eye makes it far easier to see your frame than peering at an LCD, especially in bright sunlight; it saves tons of battery life because the LCD can be off most of the time; and it will make your shots far steadier because the camera will be braced against your head instead of floating in mid-air. BASIC COMPOSITION TIPS: 1) The Rule of Thirds. Imagine if you will, that your camera's viewfinder is divided up by a tic-tac-toe board - three squares across, three squares down. Keep these lines in your brain at all times - and when you compose a shot, line up your subjects with those lines, instead of centering them. Picture of a lamp post? Don't center it, line it up with the vertical lines. Picture of the monorail? Don't center it, line it up with the horizontal lines. Picture of your kids in front of the Partners statue? Put your kids on the vertical line to the left, and the stature on the vertical line to the right. I harp on this one constantly, because it's the most basic technique of photography... that I constantly forget when I'm shooting my own pics. 2) ZOOM UP! Picture of your kids in front of Spaceship Earth? Zoom up so you can tell that it's your kids in the shot and not some random strangers. You can take wide shots of Spaceship Earth without your kids later, but when you want pics of your kids, you want pics of your kids. Likewise, if you see a cool feature like a statue or a topiary or a character, zoom up tight on it and forget the background. The background should not overwhelm or drown out the actual subject of a photo. Shoot people like Elvis on Ed Sullivan - from the waist up. Unless there is something about their legs and feet that is relevant to the pic, nobody needs to see them - but everybody wants to see peoples' faces in the pics. Here's a nice example. Which of these looks better, the wide shot where he's centered, or the close-up where he's off-center? Beyond that, have fun. Photography isn't about being good (I SHOULD KNOW), it's about enjoying the ride.
I too have a Nikon D3100, bought it last November. I use it often and have tried many effects. I find it to be a really good learner one since it does have a guide thing to guide you through some stuff. I probably haven't used everything but I'm just kind of point and shooting but some with the effects.
