New to DSLR
Jan 2, 2017 17:48:38 #
Jan 2, 2017 18:15:39 #
Something that is one I never considered until recently is WHITE BALANCE. Specifically when shooting RAW photos. Learn as much as you can.
Jan 2, 2017 19:00:00 #
golfercat
Loc: Southern Calif
THERE ARE many good suggestions so far. You also need SD memory cards for your new camera. The memory card needs to be formated in your camera to have the correct file structure.
HAPPY SHOOTING
HAPPY SHOOTING
Jan 2, 2017 19:07:59 #
I almost forgot my faverot camera story. My Filipino girl friend loves thrift stores. Yeb she's a thrift store junky. You can lay out a bucket of paste julery and put one silver or gold pin in she will find it. It's a fun game for her. Anyway one day she came home with a few 35mm film cameras. I told her film cameras are a thing of the past. And I went on to tell her if she wanted a camera I would buy her one. She said no I have yours. She then took the cameras out of there cases and gave me the cases. And she says " they very nice" I said yes !!! So. Then she says you bummer that's her word for Not Smart. I ask what are you talking about. So she goes and gets my camera bag and takes out my lenes that I had kept in the bubble wrap or Nikon bag. Then she takes the lens and puts them in the camera cases she had bought. They are very nice, work good, very cool, then she digs out all my old cameras with what she has just bought and put them with my beer mug collection. Then she says " very nice " I said ya very good. Then she says "sometimes your head is broken" Yep
Jan 2, 2017 19:44:19 #
dcampbell52 wrote:
Yes and I live in Florida where today, it got down... (show quote)
It's called adapting... Warm or cold are perceived relative to each other. If you went back to live in Pennsylvania, it wouldn't take long to adapt again! Here in Vermont, temperatures down around 14 degrees last night, today it "warmed up" to 26 degrees. With some sun and no wind, it actually felt rather pleasant! (Of course, a coat, hat, gloves still required!) When we get wind, forget outdoor activities! Brrrr......
Jan 3, 2017 00:36:39 #
Smiling Elk wrote:
Something that is one I never considered until recently is WHITE BALANCE. Specifically when shooting RAW photos. Learn as much as you can.
That is a good point. Nothing wrecks a good photo like white balance being off.
Wsilman, Auto White Balance pretty much nails it 99% of the time on my Nikon D700,
and there is no reason your much newer Nikon isn't the same or better in that respect.
Having said that, you may have noticed, I wrote "pretty much"... ie AWB gets it close
enough to provide acceptable results. It's good enough that differences in monitors
and printers can be greater than any error in WB that our Nikons set to AWB provide most of the time.
If an image is very important though, and further down your photographic path, do a "Preset White Balance" aimed at a "grey card" under the light and conditions that you
will be using for the subject photo. When white balance is perfect, those few degrees kelvin, separates a professional image from good photo.
For now though, in your compositions, keep your verticals vertical, and your horizons horizontal.
Jan 3, 2017 03:01:42 #
Jan 3, 2017 07:57:53 #
Smiling Elk wrote:
Something that is one I never considered until recently is WHITE BALANCE. Specifically when shooting RAW photos. Learn as much as you can.
White balance setting should not be an issue when shooting RAW. Since you must post-process a RAW file to achieve a usable image file (jpg,TIFF), you can set the best looking color balance then. Remember that RAW data files are not image files....they are massive data files and the image you see on the camera LCD is merely a jpg representation of that data file.
Jan 3, 2017 09:07:54 #
dynaquest1 wrote:
White balance setting should not be an issue when shooting RAW. Since you must post-process a RAW file to achieve a usable image file (jpg,TIFF), you can set the best looking color balance then. Remember that RAW data files are not image files....they are massive data files and the image you see on the camera LCD is merely a jpg representation of that data file.
Which is one of the reasons that I tell my wife to NEVER delete images on the camera. The size of memory cards and the fact that we (she and I) always shoot RAW/NEF means that many images that look so/so on the back of the camera may actually be good or at least salvageable. The one exception to this rule is images with bad focus. Most other shots are probably recoverable.
Jan 3, 2017 09:17:39 #
Great choice. You will love it. Download the full manual for learning and future reference. Also plenty of instructional videos available on the internet. Have fun learning your new camera!!
Jan 3, 2017 15:49:26 #
Bram boy
Loc: Vancouver Island B.C. Canada
wsilman wrote:
Hello...I just purchased a Nikon 3400 kit from Amazon.Waiting on the brown truck to deliver next week...Any thoughts or pointers from anyone...I am the photographer st my local Church and have been using 26M.P. cell phone...Thanks for any advice...
I would cancel the 3400 and get a refurbished D7200 or a D7100" it's a much better camera water resent dust sealed , even if it cost a bit more
Jan 3, 2017 17:36:55 #
Bram boy wrote:
I would cancel the 3400 and get a refurbished D7200 or a D7100" it's a much better camera water resent dust sealed , even if it cost a bit more
I concur!!!
Jan 4, 2017 07:24:56 #
Dun1
Loc: Atlanta, GA
Yes get an extra battery for sure.
David Busch's books are by far and away a great supplement to the "user manual"
After you shoot and see your results, learn to find a setting other then automatic that best suits the particular setting you are shooting
Learn to shoot in the manual mode, keep a note pad, keep track of you settings so you can correct or adjust the setting to make your shots better.
Go to the Nikon website and find any videos that might help you if you have questions.
Don't be that person who had a question to ask, but considered it was too stupid to ask, there might be a hundred others who had the same question and would not ask it for fear of suffering being labeled stupid also.
David Busch's books are by far and away a great supplement to the "user manual"
After you shoot and see your results, learn to find a setting other then automatic that best suits the particular setting you are shooting
Learn to shoot in the manual mode, keep a note pad, keep track of you settings so you can correct or adjust the setting to make your shots better.
Go to the Nikon website and find any videos that might help you if you have questions.
Don't be that person who had a question to ask, but considered it was too stupid to ask, there might be a hundred others who had the same question and would not ask it for fear of suffering being labeled stupid also.
Jan 4, 2017 09:23:56 #
Under most circumstances, I would agree that shooting in RAW, you could get by with using AWB, especially if you are shooting in consistent light. But I have seen the difference, such as with portraits, where, if your subject is shaded and your background has bright light, AWB can not distinguish the difference because it measures all light coming through the lens. I'm sure there are ways around this issue. But it does happen. The hope here is to back off the post processing time, which most professionals aim to do, unless the have a Photoshop expert on staff.
Jan 4, 2017 09:31:59 #
Smiling Elk wrote:
Under most circumstances, I would agree that shoot... (show quote)
AWB is terrible when you're aiming for consistency from image to image with JPEGs. If you plan to make a large number of images that must match in color, brightness, etc., then you should be using 100% manual exposure and a custom (Nikon calls it "preset") white balance.
AWB may be okay in raw mode if you use a target for click balance, or a ColorChecker Passport, and batch adjust images. It is also useful in rapidly changing lighting conditions (changing light sources).
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