What works for me is the lowest iso the camera has, an aperture that I think gives me enough focus throughout the shot I'm looking to get normally around f13, and then just changing the shutter speed accordingly. I also tend to underexpose and let lightroom adjust that later. I tend to go out when its pitch black and get set up so my shutter speed starts out in bulb and can go for a couple minutes easily and as time goes by, starts to get much faster as the sun rises and I tend to leave when the shutter speed is around 1/400 or so. Obviously the reverse at sunset. I find having the lowest iso and changing just one variable, shutter speed, works for me. I'm only a year into this so what i say has to be taken in that context however today, I don't use auto iso for landscapes. Trying to get pictures of birds in the woods? Different story.

FWIW, I used a 128g micro sd with an adapter in a d3400 without a problem. I then traded that camera for a used d810 this Christmas. It has a Cf slot and an sd slot. I set the sd slot for just jpegs and the CF slot for raw. Turned the camera on and found out it would not read the micro sd. Put in a regular size sd and no problem. Tried the micro again and same incompatible issue. It's probably somewhere in the manual what I can and can't use and I know the d3400 is newer by a few years but it is what it is.

After setting to f22 lock it there with the little red switch. Then mount on your camera just like you would any other nikon lens. If it doesn't autofocus, then maybe it's broken or your camera doesn't have an autofocus motor or its af motor is broken. If you don't have an af motor then don't lock the aperture and just manually focus with whatever f-stop you want. It'll be fine. If I've missed a step someone here will let me know.

Composing anything before I take the shot. I don't own tools for bif and a lot of other genres that I know I want to do but, I can do landscapes. Yet I can never seem to get the right composition. I do find that if I go as wide as possible and go to post process, I have a better chance at getting the composition I had imagined. I wish I had I had that natural artistic eye and I know sadly I don't. I will never let this hobby go and I'll acquire more arrows to hunt different genres however I know it will always be the Indian and never the arrow. Trying to find my limits is the hardest thing I find to shoot. But stick with it I will!

Route 4 through Queechee and Woodstock, anywhere along Route 7 or Route 100. If you go up 91, get off in Bellows Falls and just take Route 5 along the Connecticut River. Or cross the bridge at 89 and follow NH 12 North for a while. Kind of doesn't matter where you go up there, lots of wildlife, history, covered bridges, mountain vistas, foliage etc.

If you go up 87, follow 149 through Fort Ann to Route 4 in Whitehall and then just cut north along the NY side of Champlain and cross over on the ferry at least as far as Ticonderoga if not further up. Again won't matter how you meander over to Reading although if you do go that way, definitely make it to the Shelburne museum, you won't be disappointed.

Preview a picture and hit the up or down button while previewing. If the screen isn't showing you a bunch of info, then turn your histogram on. If you see a color graph look and see if everything is to the right, if it is then overexposed. If all to the left then under exposed. Then set the camera in M and half depress the shutter and look at the little dots on the bottom. If they're left, overexposed. Right, underexposed.

Then while still focusing, spin the upper right horizontal dial, that's your shutter speed. The little dots will move left or right. When you have it in the middle, then change your aperture by putting you right index finger on the little square button on top with the plus minus sign. Watch the dots go from left to right while you can see the f number change. Notice the smaller the number the more you overexposed and the larger the number the opposite. Then while still focusing, change the ISO by putting your left finger on the little button on the left side below the flash button. It says Fn. Spin the right dial left or right and notice the bigger the number, the more overexposed. Then get pissed off and read the manual again and learn something else but not what you were looking for. Then take a million shots while looking at your histogram and changing things. Repeat repeat repeat while looking on youtube and reading about exposure triangle again and again. A couple million more shots and it slowly starts to make sense. Once you kind of have an idea, then sign up for a class and you'll get more out of it.

Thanks Bob, your f makes my fg look like modern technology! Old School Photo in Dover NH. I'll have to try that, I live in Keene. So do you think I'm safe putting this lens on a d3400? It feels like it will go on but I haven't been willing to do the final "click" for fear I can't get it back off. I know the image would be cropped but it would help I think knowing if something is wrong with the lens I just can't see.

Nope, didn't hit the jackpot, just says series E on the front of it. Oh well! Also thanks for the advice of shooting one roll and not going nuts until I see what gets developed but, too late, on my third 24 roll; wife sending two out tonight. 40 bucks for two rolls oh well, I'd better slow down! Thanks for the help! Btw, how would one post a pic once I get them back?

I went to a yard sale this past Saturday and found a fg20 nikon with a 50mm f1.8 lens and a 80-200 f4.5 Telesor lens all in a retro pink canvas bag that had obviously sat in someone's basement for an awfully long time; mouse poop, cobwebs, dank smell etc. Knowing probably nothing was any good but wanting to explore a bit without practicing on my new d3400, I made the plunge and picked it all up for a dollar. Lo and behold, everything cleaned up including the battery compartment which had exploded. I picked up 200 Fuji film and batteries and have begun to play. I haven't developed any roll of film yet and obviously can't see what I've done and so my question is, am I wasting my time trying to play with this old technology or, do you have any specific ideas I might try to learn with this thing that I can apply going forward? Also, do I have a truly full frame camera? The 50 mm lens intrigues me as I find I have to walk forward and backward sometimes in order to get what I'm going after. Thanks for any insights you all might have. I am a newbie but did take a class so I know enough to know I know nothing.

I use (what I believe is) full manual half of the time because I started out clueless Christmas day when I got a d3400 and started out shooting wildly in that "auto" setting which seemed to work pretty well. But there were a lot more buttons and I'd play with them and nothing would work. So I signed up for a beginner's course I just finished and in essence was taught how to get out of auto and start learning how to begin to manually set iso speed and aperture and manually focus. But before I take a shot now, I put the camera in auto and take a shot and then try and take the same shot fully manual to see if I can more or less replicate what the camera did. That's what I was taught to do so that's what I do. I'm slowly getting better but I have a long way to go. Looking through a viewfinder and changing settings in manual I find still difficult to do and find much easier on a tripod when the scene isn't changing on me so much. In a changing environment auto works better for me because the camera reacts faster than i can adjusting things. Example is hummingbirds in our yard. Given the time to set up a tripod and focus where i want, i find i can get better pictures than i can in auto. However i have a family gathering this weekend and i already know although i might sneak over to manual, the speed i can change things will be too slow and memories gone so, full auto it will be. In September the next course is all about understanding and using light both natural and artificial and I can already see that's probably going to be more difficult than learning to shoot manual. It was explained to me that controlling light was only the next step in manual. In January I have my last course in composition and was told this is the last step in manual. So I do use manual in the camera half the time but apparently I have a long way to go and I haven't even gotten my arms around manipulating things in Lightroom yet

I bought a sigma 18-300 3.5 6.3 for a d3400 mainly because I didn't know what was doing but instantly knew it was far and away better than the two kit lenses that came with the camera. For the 400 I paid for it, I knew I wasn't getting something that was world class because I had no way of knowing which direction I would take this new hobby. BTW, it does have a zoom lock on it so zoom creep isn't an issue. I sometimes wish I could get better sharpness but then I also think it's more the Indian and less the arrow; still trying to learn it all. In any event it's an excellent all around lens that never has to leave the body until you get to the point that you know you need the thousand dollar specific lens for where you're headed. To me, I got the perfect lens to allow me enough latitude to learn this new hobby and then I'll go from there. Before I ever spend another cent in glass, I already know I'll upgrade the body first. I dont think any of the lenses mentioned will hurt you dollar for dollar, I just happened to get a sigma and couldn't be happier, knowing I couldn't be happier with the purchase.

Go out Tamiami trail and look for the smallest post office in the US. on the right. Continue past that half mile ish to joanie's blue crab shack on the left. Bring your camera in. It won't disappoint, even the bathrooms. Especially the bathrooms. Also Kelly's Fish House and the Shell Shack next to it. Awfully colorful tables and shells on display. There's an elementary school on Marco that has an eagle's nest across from it. You have to wait around a bit but they'll show up. The Bubble Room in Sanibel is another interior place you'd want to get photos in and around. Just stopping along the way anywhere will get you all the wildlife opportunities you could want with gators birds swamps etc.

You're dealing with a hockey mom so you're never going to win anyway. If the child is worth it to you then I'd just give her the file on a cheap disc in RAW and leave it at that. Don't know your level of involvement with the team but her ignorance will come and go. The respect her child has for you years up the road will far outlast her ignorance today.

Umm, duh, didn't think of it that way! I will wait until I see where I go with this before I introduce flash to the mix. Just saved me 350ish, thanks!!!!!

I've learned a lot about lenses and cameras in general by just sitting back and reading everyone's posts for the last couple months. Thanks for all that; I'm now more confused than ever! I bought a d3400 kit although I did finally pick up a sigma 18-300 which is light-years beyond the kit lenses Nikon gave me. I have a long way to go to upgrade both the camera body and lenses and I'll just let my passion or lack thereof direct where I end up. So my next request for information is this, I've got a beginner camera, a mid-level beginner cover it all lens and, no idea of what kind of flash I might consider. I found a nissin Di866 and it's the original for 90 bucks. The new MarkII is 350 ish. They fit my camera so, what is a decent mid-level flash I should be considering? Thanks guys,
John