I've watched you tube tutorials, read things online, read the manual, and I just can't figure out all the settings. Of course I can take pictures in Auto mode, it does everything for you. But when I want to really focus on a certain thing, I can't. I can never get the shutter speed right, and I don't even understand aperture. Lately I've been trying to get a water droplet shot and they aren't turning out :(
If anyone has this camera or can help me out with SLR's in general it would help alot, I went from a point and shoot so anything would help. lol
:/
THANKS!
About the aperture : it's how much light the lens with let in. Thinks about one cup of water. There is two ways to get that. Open a tiny bit the faucet and wait a long time, or open the faucet a lot, and it takes less time. In photography, your camera will usually want to have "one cup of light". Think of the aperture as how much you open the faucet (let in a lot of light, or not). And the time you wait for the cup to fill is the shutter speed. You'll learn to play around with theses settings to get the effects you want (depth of field, freeze movement, etc).
I hope this brought answers and was not just more confusing lol.
when I change the aperture the picture just gets blurry or way out of focus or the lighting is bad, and i never know what mode to put it in.. S,M,A,P
and when I play around with them I forget what they were at before so all my pics after that look worse.
ughhh so frustrating
Hi Megan, I have a D5000 which I bought the day I started 365. I too had no idea how to use it. All I can say is read,read,read! I started off by reading "The book of Digital Photography" by Chris George,its goes through almost all you will need to know and explains it very well. There is so much out there either in books or online. Everything I know I have taught myself in 6 months and am now doing an online photography course. Also, just play around with your camera as much as you can,shoot in scene mode then take a look at the data to see what aperture and shutter speed was used. I found the manual pretty useless until I got my head around the basics. Don't expect to learn everything at once,maybe start my shooting in shutter mode "S" until you get your head around what different shutter speeds do and then move onto Aperture priority mode "A" and then finally onto manual mode "M".
Aperture controls the depth of field, a smaller aperture(larger number) increases the amount of the photo that is sharp(good for landscapes),a larger aperture(smaller number) restricts how much of the picture is sharp(good for portraits),the subject will be sharp,the background will be blurred.
A fast shutter will freeze movement,slow shutter will blur movement suggesting motion.
Good luck :)
Anyway,I'm no expert by any means but highly recommend that book or similar.
To expand on what @maola what saying, aperture also controls your depth of field (or how much of the image is in focus). With a small f-number (eg 2.8) your aperture will be large (wide open) and your depth of field will be small, so only the thing you are focusing on and maybe a small area around it will be in focus. With a large f-number (eg 18), your aperture will be small and your depth of field will be large and most of your image will be in focus. To see this for yourself, try putting your camera in Aperture Priority mode, then take the exact same photo at your smallest f-number (I assume it's something like 5.6), then at f/8, f/16 and f/22. Now upload them to the computer and compare.
I've found capturing water droplets to be quite hard. Try putting your camera on shutter priority and using a high shutter speed. Also, pre-focus your camera on the spot where you think the drop will be when you take the photo, then take your lens off autofocus (if you can). This will stop the delay when the camera focuses again when you take the shot. You also want to try and get as much light in the area as possible.
I will try these things! thank you guys so much it really is helpful. I just started on this site about a week ago and my favorite thing about it has to be how nice everyone is! :)
Also, just practice. If altering the aperture doesn't do what you want it to, then play with the shutter speeds a bit. Then change your aperture and try again. That way you'll really be able to see what effect the shutter speed and aperture have.
But... please don't leave your camera on auto all the time. The way I see it, if you're going to do that, you may as well have just got a fancy point and shoot. Just have a play and enjoy it and you'll get the hang of it eventually. @kirsty makes a good point about using A and S modes to start with. I got my D5000 in October and I now shoot in manual mmode, but there were a lot of bad shots to begin with. Expect to take a lot of bad ones to get one good on to start with.
One last thing, I promise.... You can change the effect that pressing the shutter button has, so that you can hold it down and it'll keep taking photos until you release it (can't remember what it's called, but it'll be in the intsrtuction book). I use that funtion loads, especially with portraits so I can get lots of similar images and pick the one with the best facial expression or whatever. You may find that's useful for the water drops as you'll get a sequence of the drop falling and hitting the water.
Hope all of that helps you at least a little. Ask if you have more questions.
I would suggest going to the local public library to get a few books on photography. Rather than a technical manual on a camera, some books teach you what you can do with your camera. Most of the methods for capturing a water droplet have been covered, and I know from personal experience a lot is just trial and error.
I use the D5000 also and shoot mostly in manual. The only time I put it in auto is when I'm just taking snapshots of the grandkids running around playing and there isn't time to play with the settings. Also taking you lens off auto and focusing yourself gives you more control over what you want in focus. The book Understanding Exposure by Byran Peterson is also a very good book. It help me learn more about how shutter speed, aperture and Iso work together.
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I hope this brought answers and was not just more confusing lol.
and when I play around with them I forget what they were at before so all my pics after that look worse.
ughhh so frustrating
maybe i'll just keep taking my pics in Auto :(
Aperture controls the depth of field, a smaller aperture(larger number) increases the amount of the photo that is sharp(good for landscapes),a larger aperture(smaller number) restricts how much of the picture is sharp(good for portraits),the subject will be sharp,the background will be blurred.
A fast shutter will freeze movement,slow shutter will blur movement suggesting motion.
Good luck :)
Anyway,I'm no expert by any means but highly recommend that book or similar.
http://www.digital-photography-school.com/digital-photography-tips-for-beginners
To expand on what @maola what saying, aperture also controls your depth of field (or how much of the image is in focus). With a small f-number (eg 2.8) your aperture will be large (wide open) and your depth of field will be small, so only the thing you are focusing on and maybe a small area around it will be in focus. With a large f-number (eg 18), your aperture will be small and your depth of field will be large and most of your image will be in focus. To see this for yourself, try putting your camera in Aperture Priority mode, then take the exact same photo at your smallest f-number (I assume it's something like 5.6), then at f/8, f/16 and f/22. Now upload them to the computer and compare.
I've found capturing water droplets to be quite hard. Try putting your camera on shutter priority and using a high shutter speed. Also, pre-focus your camera on the spot where you think the drop will be when you take the photo, then take your lens off autofocus (if you can). This will stop the delay when the camera focuses again when you take the shot. You also want to try and get as much light in the area as possible.
Good luck! Keep reading and experimenting.
But... please don't leave your camera on auto all the time. The way I see it, if you're going to do that, you may as well have just got a fancy point and shoot. Just have a play and enjoy it and you'll get the hang of it eventually. @kirsty makes a good point about using A and S modes to start with. I got my D5000 in October and I now shoot in manual mmode, but there were a lot of bad shots to begin with. Expect to take a lot of bad ones to get one good on to start with.
One last thing, I promise.... You can change the effect that pressing the shutter button has, so that you can hold it down and it'll keep taking photos until you release it (can't remember what it's called, but it'll be in the intsrtuction book). I use that funtion loads, especially with portraits so I can get lots of similar images and pick the one with the best facial expression or whatever. You may find that's useful for the water drops as you'll get a sequence of the drop falling and hitting the water.
Hope all of that helps you at least a little. Ask if you have more questions.