Stingingfork wrote:
Hi Dennis,
In '07 I went from my Nikon film camera to the D300 (the best I could afford at the time) but other than using it indoors for several family weddings, the usual grandkid shots as they were growing up and family get-togethers I've never really used it very much, all of the different settings sort of intimated I guess. As much time as I spend on the hiking trails I thought about pulling it out of storage and using it in place of my point & shoot that had served me pretty well in the backcountry. I was just concerned that using it in that type of outdoors setting might hasten its' demise with the sensitive electronics unless I took extra precautions (not exactly sure what those would be specifically). I also haven't spent a lot of time on the variety of menu settings that it has, for the time being I would assume setting it on the default auto settings would be best for me unless there are some common settings that would suffice under most daylight outdoor conditions without my having to take a photography class. Most of my pics will be concentrating on waterfalls and panoramic or vista type of settings. I know the basics as far as using shutter speed to stop action or slow the shutter speed as with the water flow to give it the silky look and the aperture setting to alter my depth of field but after that my knowledge fades out. Any advice as to sticking with the auto settings or trying to go manual as well as keeping it trouble free would be appreciated.
Hi Dennis, br br In '07 I went from my Nikon film... (
show quote)
The basics you want to think about:
1. focal length and composition
2. exposure: ISO, aperture, shutter speed
3. focus
4. color
5. image details
It sounds like you know enough to be very effective, just take the camera and shoot. You probably want to use A (aperture priority) instead of P (program) since you understand the nuances of shutter speed and aperture, and aperture is the physically limited parameter. I would not use auto ISO, but instead select the ISO based on the overall light, between ISO 200 - 1600 (the noise at 1600 is noticeable, so go there only if you have to).
With focus, there is a lot you can think about here:
* AF-S / AF-C, single shot or continuous AF, based on the level of motion
* Single point or auto point selection, start with auto until you need to pick a particular spot for the main subject focus
* back button focus (BBF). That's a whole different topic. :-)
For color, I would start with auto white balance and either the standard or vivid picture mode (I think you get that choice).
I would suggest shooting raw+jpeg, because you may want to just use the jpegs for now, but down the road you may want to do more with some of your shots, and the raw file will give you more flexibility. And keep the jpegs at large/fine, because it's better to deal with storage space than missing out on the best version of a great shot.
That might be enough to start with, let the camera do the rest until you want to learn about more options. :-)