Hello! I am fairly new at this but I am loving every bit of the photographing process. I haven't had any paying clients yet, but have worked on photos of friends and family for practice. Recently a young musician has agreed to have me photograph her for her website and to help me build a portfolio. I have a Nikon D90 SLR camera with the built in flash. I am very sure we will be taking pictures outdoors in natural lighting, but was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on settings or anything that will help me get started. Any suggestions? I am open to all criticism.
New Photographer...need help!
- Thread starter kmadd2004
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- Mike
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hi krista what lenses do you have? you say your new to photography but thats not quite a novice camera you have there .do you understand aperture,s and shutter speeds depth of field etc also that camera has a video mode so maybe a short vid to go on the web site might help not to long just a taste of what they might expect to see/hear hth more info req
Thanks for the reply! I have the original lens that came with the camera. We actually purchased the camera (my husband and I) to eliminate the frustration that we were getting from using a cheap digital for family photos. From what I can tell, the lens is a Nikon DX--AF-S NIKKOR 18-105mm. I have trouble understanding apeture when I read about it...but shutter speed and many other aspects of the basics are coming to me little by little. I have been reading books from the library and trying not to read books that are any older than three years. I am open to hearing a simple explanation of aperture if you have one...thanks for your advice on the video as well. I think I may do that if she is up to it. I know I have a lot of work to do so that I can eventually feel confident in my photos, but I am glad that my camera is so versitile and takes such beautiful photos. I do plan to eventually get some extra flashes, including a speed flash, so that I have a little more variety in my lighting options. Any suggestions on lenses or flashes? Again, thank you for the reply!
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- Storm Trooper
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'understanding exposures' by bryan peterson is highly recommended(£11 ish for latest revised addition). I found it helped me to understand the relationship of ISO, shutter speed and aperture.
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- Andy Grant
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I think this is right?
Aperture is decided by what f-number you choose.
The bigger the number (e.g f22) the smaller the hole that lets light onto the sensor.
So, the smaller the hole the slower your shutter speed must be to allow enough light in to correctly expose the image.
The other way round is the smaller the f-number the bigger the hole the faster you can set your shutter speed.
To alter the f-number on a D90 you spin the front wheel.
Now, the bigger your f-number the larger your depth of field becomes. Depth of field is how you describe how much of the image is in focus i.e bigger depth of field means that in a landscape shot the whole image from foreground to background is in focus.
For your shots you would probably use a narrower depth of field so that just the musician is in focus and the background is blurred.
I hope thats right but I've been awake since 4 and I'm really knackered now.
Cheers
Andy
Aperture is decided by what f-number you choose.
The bigger the number (e.g f22) the smaller the hole that lets light onto the sensor.
So, the smaller the hole the slower your shutter speed must be to allow enough light in to correctly expose the image.
The other way round is the smaller the f-number the bigger the hole the faster you can set your shutter speed.
To alter the f-number on a D90 you spin the front wheel.
Now, the bigger your f-number the larger your depth of field becomes. Depth of field is how you describe how much of the image is in focus i.e bigger depth of field means that in a landscape shot the whole image from foreground to background is in focus.
For your shots you would probably use a narrower depth of field so that just the musician is in focus and the background is blurred.
I hope thats right but I've been awake since 4 and I'm really knackered now.
Cheers
Andy
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- Kev
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It might sound condescending but have a look at the children's section in the library. The photography books there do not use technical language and usually have lots of photos as examples. I normally recommend this as a first step, you can always say that it is for a daughter, nephew etc 
Also to understand aperture, speed, depth of field etc any book will be helpful, even if it is 20 years old.
Also to understand aperture, speed, depth of field etc any book will be helpful, even if it is 20 years old.
Good book with some good exercises.
I think someone in classified has one for sale.
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- Richard
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I've lifted this from a previous thread on exposure setting. Hope it helps
Correct exposure can always be obtained by using several different combinations of shutter speed, lens aperture and ISO. You can mix and match them to give different pictorial effects - like wide lens apertures (low f/number) for shallow depth of field, or fast shutter speeds to freeze action – but the actual exposure level is always the same for a given situation. You might find it easier to use Av or Tv or M (instead of Program) to get the pictorial effect you want, but if you understand what the camera is doing, it makes no difference to the actual exposure.
Exposure setting is simply about getting exactly the right amount of light on to the camera’s sensor. This will give a picture that is nicely balanced with bright highlights, rich shadows, clear mid-tones and colours.
Try this analogy, and compare exposure setting to filling a glass with water.
You need a certain amount of water to fill the glass. Same as you need a certain amount of light for the correct exposure.
The tap is your camera, and you can either turn the water on full (wide aperture, low f/number) or just a slow trickle (small aperture, high f/number).
And you can leave the tap on for a short time (fast shutter speed) or for as long as you like (slow shutter speed).
You can fill the glass either by turning the tap on full for a short time, or slowly for a long time. The glass still gets filled the same.
Changing the ISO changes the size of the glass. A low ISO number is a big glass needing a lot of water, and high ISO is a small glass, needing less.
At all times, the camera knows the size of the glass, it knows how much water comes out of the tap as you turn it, and it knows how long you can turn it on for.
The only variable the camera doesn't know is how bright the sun is shining - that's the water pressure in this analogy. Lots of light is high water pressure which will gush out of the tap fast, even if it's only turned on a little, but if it's darker then the water pressure is low and it will only trickle out even when the tap is full on.
In exposure metering, the camera measures the brightness of the light, the water pressure, and because it knows exactly what all the other factors are, it then presents you with a combination of camera settings - how hard to turn on the tap, and for how long - to fill the glass exactly, and give you correct exposure.
To continue this analogy a bit further, if we imagine a pint beer glass then filling to the line is correct exposure, below the line is under exposure, and above the line is over exposure.
The thing that confuses most people about exposure setting is the halving and doubling relationship between all the exposure controls. Once you’ve got the hang of this, the different exposure modes are easy to understand and adjust. For example, 1/125sec is obviously twice as long as 1/250sec, and ISO 100 is half as sensitive to light as ISO 200.
Less obvious is that f/4 passes twice as much light as f/5.6, which passes twice as much light as f/8, and so on. The key with f/numbers is that they are not linked by the number 2, but by the square root of 2, which is 1.4. Who knows why, and it’s been confusing photographers for generations, but now you know, the mists should be lifted!
Correct exposure can always be obtained by using several different combinations of shutter speed, lens aperture and ISO. You can mix and match them to give different pictorial effects - like wide lens apertures (low f/number) for shallow depth of field, or fast shutter speeds to freeze action – but the actual exposure level is always the same for a given situation. You might find it easier to use Av or Tv or M (instead of Program) to get the pictorial effect you want, but if you understand what the camera is doing, it makes no difference to the actual exposure.
Exposure setting is simply about getting exactly the right amount of light on to the camera’s sensor. This will give a picture that is nicely balanced with bright highlights, rich shadows, clear mid-tones and colours.
Try this analogy, and compare exposure setting to filling a glass with water.
You need a certain amount of water to fill the glass. Same as you need a certain amount of light for the correct exposure.
The tap is your camera, and you can either turn the water on full (wide aperture, low f/number) or just a slow trickle (small aperture, high f/number).
And you can leave the tap on for a short time (fast shutter speed) or for as long as you like (slow shutter speed).
You can fill the glass either by turning the tap on full for a short time, or slowly for a long time. The glass still gets filled the same.
Changing the ISO changes the size of the glass. A low ISO number is a big glass needing a lot of water, and high ISO is a small glass, needing less.
At all times, the camera knows the size of the glass, it knows how much water comes out of the tap as you turn it, and it knows how long you can turn it on for.
The only variable the camera doesn't know is how bright the sun is shining - that's the water pressure in this analogy. Lots of light is high water pressure which will gush out of the tap fast, even if it's only turned on a little, but if it's darker then the water pressure is low and it will only trickle out even when the tap is full on.
In exposure metering, the camera measures the brightness of the light, the water pressure, and because it knows exactly what all the other factors are, it then presents you with a combination of camera settings - how hard to turn on the tap, and for how long - to fill the glass exactly, and give you correct exposure.
To continue this analogy a bit further, if we imagine a pint beer glass then filling to the line is correct exposure, below the line is under exposure, and above the line is over exposure.
The thing that confuses most people about exposure setting is the halving and doubling relationship between all the exposure controls. Once you’ve got the hang of this, the different exposure modes are easy to understand and adjust. For example, 1/125sec is obviously twice as long as 1/250sec, and ISO 100 is half as sensitive to light as ISO 200.
Less obvious is that f/4 passes twice as much light as f/5.6, which passes twice as much light as f/8, and so on. The key with f/numbers is that they are not linked by the number 2, but by the square root of 2, which is 1.4. Who knows why, and it’s been confusing photographers for generations, but now you know, the mists should be lifted!