Beginner A little help for a first timer :)

tip one - get down to her level , this avoids the 'my dog' angle shot with her looking up at you (per your avatar) - this applies equally to children, wildlife, flowers etc anything shorter than you basically
 
JessicaMay said:
Eeeeeek. Ordered it just now. Very very excited!!
You'll probably see A LOT from me asking a million and one different questions lol.

I go on holiday middle of august, so I'm hoping to have learned just enough to take some nice pics of our holiday.

I have a Great Dane who is very used to posing for me to take pics on my phone - and is also very photogenic - (I'm a bit snap happy and have 3,800 on my phone - not all of Delilah!) so I'll be practicing every day or near enough :)
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Look forward to them all
 
camcap said:
Just so you know Jessica you won't be entitled to the cash back offer from Nikon if you buy from HDREW and won't have the UK warranty (I am in no way saying don't buy from them and they give there own warranty) and by all the reviews I looked at seem a great company to deal with, just giving you the heads up, I was going to buy from them but I had a voucher for currys and also got a free battery grip lol
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HDEW do give a 3 year warranty which is better
 
Next lens to buy ... there's the bit where it can slowly get expensive.
By August you'll probably have a 35mm (or 50mm?) prime lens and be taking even better photos.
Did you get a kit with a short zoom and a longer zoom?
 
Don't take any notice to the arguments, you'll find all the answers on youtube or the Internet but by all means ask here to, as I said the main thing is to enjoy your photography. It will soon all fall into place.
 
I do try and do that as I realise this takes a much much better picture, but when I do I tend to get jumped and slobbered on lol. I go to a country park that has a lot of nice backgrounds for pics, I just get frustrated as they don't come out any good on the phone lol.
 
JessicaMay said:
I do try and do that as I realise this takes a much much better picture, but when I do I tend to get jumped and slobbered on lol. I go to a country park that has a lot of nice backgrounds for pics, I just get frustrated as they don't come out any good on the phone lol.
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The trick is either to wait til she's tired and then lie down on the floor and get a head on shot of a dog that's gone flomp , or get someone to hold her while you go 25m or so away and then snap her running towards you,,, you should have time for a few decent shots before you get jumped and slobbered all over
 
Ulfric I have no idea.....
The kit just said Nikon D3300 body with 18 - 55 VR II lens...
 
:p:p:p:p:p
big soft moose said:
The trick is either to wait til she's tired and then lie down on the floor and get a head on shot of a dog that's gone flomp , or get someone to hold her while you go 25m or so away and then snap her running towards you,,, you should have time for a few decent shots before you get jumped and slobbered all over
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Lol, she is pretty good at staying when I tell her to, so I do get some good zoomie pics :) I'll just have to practice and she'll learn with me that she needs to resist the urge to slobber for a few minutes :p
 
JessicaMay said:
Ulfric I have no idea.....
The kit just said Nikon D3300 body with 18 - 55 VR II lens...
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That will do you fine, if you have it to spare I'd recommend the 35 1.8 or 50 1.8 prime lenses will be great for your dog portraits and great image quality and both £100- 150 mark, I use the 50 for.my dogs all the time but that's on full frame camera the 35 would probably be better on the d3300
 
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JessicaMay said:
Ulfric I have no idea.....
The kit just said Nikon D3300 body with 18 - 55 VR II lens...
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that's the short zoom

in fairly short order you will probably want to get something like a 50-250 or 70-300 as well .. I can't advise on specifics as i;m a canonite, but i'm sure nikonians here will have many many suggestions
 
petert said:
That will do you fine, if you have it to spare I'd recommend the 35 1.8 or 50 1.8 prime lenses will be great for your dog portraits and great image quality and both £100- 150 mark
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i'd have thought they'd be less useful as they replicate the focal length she already has (all beit with a wider max aperture) - if she's going prime i'd say maybe the 85 f1.8 or a tamron 90mm f2.8 macro lens (which also takes good portraits)
 
Thank you both. Extra lenses may have to wait a few months.. I've gone over my budget really as it is lol.
 
big soft moose said:
that's the short zoom

in fairly short order you will probably want to get something like a 50-250 or 70-300 as well .. I can't advise on specifics as i;m a canonite, but i'm sure nikonians here will have many many suggestions
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The 70 300 vc is the far superior lens
 
Agree with petert I love my 35mm 1.8 prime it was the first lens I brought
 
The other problem is she's always sticking her gigantic unsightly tongue out, ruins the pic a bit when you've got something that looks like a ham sticking out everywhere!
 
JessicaMay said:
Thank you both. Extra lenses may have to wait a few months.. I've gone over my budget really as it is lol.
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second hand is always an option - i recommend MPB photographic in that regard - you can click through the banner add at the top of the forum,
 
JessicaMay said:
The other problem is she's always sticking her gigantic unsightly tongue out, ruins the pic a bit when you've got something that looks like a ham sticking out everywhere!
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its charecterful - thats what Great Danes do. you wait til you get an action shot with spit and slobber flying everywhere :LOL:
 
Yeah can't wait lol.

So 35mm 1.8 prime.... Can I ask that to be explained in basics for me. What does it do differently to the one I've got? Sorry if I'm asking stupid questions!
 
It's one focal length no zoom you have to zoom with your feet but by nature prime lenses are sharper than zoom lenses, better image quality
 
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JessicaMay said:
Yeah can't wait lol.

So 35mm 1.8 prime.... Can I ask that to be explained in basics for me. What does it do differently to the one I've got? Sorry if I'm asking stupid questions!
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Prime = not a zoom , it has one focal length - in this case 35mm ,m primes are smaller lighter, and arguably better quality glass/construction (although the primes are sharper argument is much less true now than it was about 10 years ago as zooms have improved tremedously)

f1,8 is the maximum aperture it can open to - your kit lens is probably f3.5 a the wide end ... wider max app is good because

a) it focuses more easily in low light
b) a wide apperture creates a narrow depth of field creating a pleasing out of focus blurred background (assuming you focused in the right place)
 
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JessicaMay said:
Yeah can't wait lol.

So 35mm 1.8 prime.... Can I ask that to be explained in basics for me. What does it do differently to the one I've got? Sorry if I'm asking stupid questions!
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Also 1.8 will be good in low light many zooms will be 5.6 at their longest which will be not much good in low light, lower number better low light capabilities
 
the key thing to get right in your head is the relationship between apperture, shutter speed and ISO - once you've nailed that this stuff will make a lot more sense.

There are some good books, articles etc out there plus of course theres youtube

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2...gle-aperture-shutter-speed-and-iso-explained/


also it will makemore sense when you've got your camera and can try this stuff out, the joy of digital is that trial and error doesnt cost anything
 
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I shall be Googling and youtubeing all day tomorrow thank you.

Really appreciate everyone's patience and help!
 
I've found an online photography course for beginners, on how to get the best out of a dSLR camera... Is it worth doing this?
 
Personally there's enough information without paying for courses imho, I would take things one step at a time and master the basics and go from there. I don't believe you need a course for that. There's plenty of videos on youtube that will tell you everything you need to know
 
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petert said:
Personally there's enough information without paying for courses imho, I would take things one step at a time and master the basics and go from there. I don't believe you need a course for that. There's plenty of videos on youtube that will tell you everything you need to know
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what he said - i'm fully self taught (apart from some one day workshops much later in my photographic career) and it didnt do me any harm... wibble
 
Getting the basics is really not difficult especially once you understand your camera and only practice will do that, after that you'll have a better idea where you want to go with photography
 
Learn P A S M and exposure compensation and your half way there and white balance
 
So been doing some reading up...

ISO - the light sensitivity level. Lower sensitivity is better for taking action/fast pictures and creates a sharper image. High sensitivity is good for low light situations, but compromises quality as pics will get noise...

Shutter speed - fast shutter speeds are for snapping a quick, sharp image, to freeze action. Slow shutter speeds to take pictures that create a sense of motions (as the thing that is moving gets blurred)...

Aperture - the smaller the f number, the larger the aperture and vice versa. Large apertures will isolate the foreground and blur the background, small apertures will have all of it in focus. Having larger apertures in low light will enable you to take a picture faster.



I understand that's VERY VERY basic but it's a start right?

If the courses are no good I'll leave it, however my mum sent me a link to one that was only £19 so though it was worth asking about!
 
I think your getting the idea already, wait till you get the camera try things out, it will soon become clear what changing different settings will do, you'll soon realise no course necessary
 
crofter said:
That camera seems to have a guide mode that may be useful to you to get you started,at least it may help with the terminology involved,lots to learn,enjoy your new adventure.
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Yes I believe it does so thats like a course already in the camera :) after a few days you'll realise how simple it is
 
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