Bit of advice please

[The Chiller]

Hi
I will be buying my first dslr a d90 with the 18-105 and the 70-300 lenses the Sandisc Extreme 8gb class10 tomorrow. I will be going to Brands Hatch next weekend for the BSB. Please could one of you experts tell me what settings I should use to try and take some pictures. Please take into account I know absolutely nothing at the moment as I am new to all this.
Thank you for any help and advice.
Gary

 

[grahamc]

I see you say you know nothing....but do you know about apertures, ISO, shutter speeds, exposure compensation, etc?

Nice camera BTW... and you may need more than 8GBs

 

[The Chiller]

Hi Graham
Thanks for the reply. No I know nothing about apertures, ISO, shutter speeds, exposure compensation, etc. so I am looking for some help and guidance Just would like to learn about the above and practice panning before I go to the I.O.M. TT at the end of May. I do know I need more than 8gb so thats a start I suppose.
Thanks
Gary

 

[yamahatdm900]

Gary
For exposure and shutter speed have a look here
ISO look here
Basic settings for brands, bear in mind I havent use a D90 (i use a D300), mainly use shutter priorty mode at first start off with something like 1/500, for the blurred backgrounds in a panning shot you need a lower shutter speed. But at first start with higher shutted speed (nothing worse on your first time to go home and find nothing is sharp) and then you can work down.
This is going to be fine when there is no fences in the way. But if you are shooting through the catch fence you need a shallow depth of field (larger aperture e.g f2.8 give a shallow depth of field) so select aperture priorty mode and use the largest apeture you can - if at that aperture you can't get the shutter speed you want you may to increase the ISO.
Use CH shooting mode and Continious autofocusing mode. Try using single point selection for the focusing.
Also ifr you only have 8gig card just shoot in jpeg fine, you will get a lot more on the card.
If any that doen't make any sense just ask away.

 

[The Chiller]

Thanks Graham. I have just got back home from getting my new camera and lenses so a big learning curve for me. I may need to do a bit more asking or should I have said a lot.
Thanks again
Gary

 

[Matt_B]

Gary, just have a general play first but I can recommend reading the book 'Understanding Exposure'. Its a great read when you are just starting out and easy to digest.