First SLR

Jamauk

Jamauk

Jamauk

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Joined
16 Mar 2004
Posts
1,917
Location
Oxford
I just got my first SLR, a Nikon D50, just wondered if anyone had any tips on using it properly, and how to get decent pictures out of it.
 
Read the manual
Take photos
Change the settings
Read the manual more
Take more photos
etc etc

Also, check out what kinds of piccies people are taking and try and emulate them.

Great thing about digital, you can keep taking and don't cost you a penny.
 
Not much more i can add really, just take lots and lots of pics, you can usually learn more from bad shots than from good ones so don't just delete them. Read the EXIF data (information embeded into the image) and try to work out what went wrong :)
Doesn't that saying go something like you remember 10% of what you hear, 50% of what we see and 90% of what we do, so go just get out there and snap away :D
 
Keep your camera on manual and as mentioned above learn from your results. Digital produces instant feedback so you learn very quickly compared to film.

Also read up on photographic principles. These are some terms you should try to come to grips with:

Exposure, composition, shutter speed, aperture, iso/asa setting, grain/noise, depth of field, dynamic range, rule of thirds...
 
There is nothing more useful than getting out there, armed with your new D50 and just snapping away. Get a book or two, and have a look at a few of the magazines you may have in your library and local newsagents :)

If you find yourself with a difficult metering job, use your cameras EV/EC function and set it to -1 or something if there is a very bright focal point or +1 if there is a darker focal point.

A good place to start is around your local park - avoiding any gangs of youths! Then when you get a bit more accustomed, maybe do some people photos around town :)

I hope this helps!
 
hoodmeister said:
I keep on meaning to have a flick through the manual for my D70, its not been opened yet :o

I just played. Lots.
Click to expand...

Manuals are good as a reference but there is no substiute to just playing and looking at the results :)
 
Thanks for your help, I was reading through the manual earlier whilst I was waiting for the battery to charge up, my previous camera was a Sony DSC-P120 which basically did everything for you, so I have a lot of new things to learn about photography. I've spent a few hours today just taking photos, but nothing came out very good (not that I expected it to), but it gave me a vague idea of how to operate the camera.
 
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