So I'm buying a D7000.

[sports_brah]

Some gentleman is selling his Nikon D7000 Body | Nikon NIKKOR AF-S 50mm f/1.4G Lens for £310 on this very forum, and I've wanted to give photography a try for a while.

Seems like an inexpensive route into it?


Does anyone have any tips and starters on software to have installed? Also, any tips on how to get good habits, and probably most importantly, things to do to help build a fledgling interest? I'm going to look for local clubs, but any other hints would be appreciated.


Thanks!

 

[mattyg]

Putting a grip on it makes it feel almost like a pro body.

 

[SickAsAParrot]

Seems like an inexpensive route into it?

Very inexpensive, the lens alone accounts for 2/3 of that price!

All I can suggest is get Lightroom, take all you photos in RAW and as long as you don't need to do any major pixel editing Lightroom will do 99% of what you'll ever need to do manipulation-wise. Having to study and critique every picture you take will slowly give you an appreciation of what makes a good photo.

Otherwise go out and take pictures. Often on day trips I limit myself and just take the 50mm to see what I can achieve.

 

[danoliver1]

Biggest thing you can do is get out and practice take lots of pics try the different modes understand how your camera works. Youtube is great for info.

 

[MrWhippy]

I wanted to "get into photography" a while back. Bought a D70 and ran it for a couple of years to make sure I really did want to get into it before spending a larger sum of money.

Then I went up to a D7000. It's a cracking camera, way better at photography than my abilities (though that is probably still true of the D70 if I'm honest).

I'd echo SickAsAParrot, Lightroom is a great bit of software, you can demo it for 30 days I think before deciding to purchase. Full price is best part of 100 quid, or alternatively if your that way inclined, you can rent it. Adobe do a Creative Cloud plan, you pay about 9 quid a month and for that you get Lightroom and Photoshop. You can trial the rental plan for a month also (i think). I'd trial the plan if I were you and then in that month work out if you want/need photoshop or just lightroom.

Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure is a book that usually gets recommended to beginners. I bought a copy and I'd say it's worth the cover price.

Other than that, there's 3 things I'd advise from my own experience going from total beginner to slightly more experienced beginner.

1) practice, practice, practice. taking lot's of photos and then working on them seems to be the absolute best way to improve.

2) don't be put off if you seem to be taking literally hundreds of duff shots in the early days. compact cameras and modern phones do an awful lot of work for you when you use them to take snaps. much of that you'll need to learn how to do for yourself with a dslr, and until you do, the results from your "proper" camera may well disapoint you compared to what you might of got just clicking away with a phone/compact. the bad shots aren't totally worthless. look at 'em, work out what you did wrong, and then you can delete 'em.

3) (try to) resist throwing money at it. within days of getting your hands on the new camera, if your as afflicted by the tech bug as most of us on this forum, you'll be pricing up lenses, tripods, flashes etc. the list goes on, the wallet empties. buy the gear if you've got the cash, but the thing is, a new lens wont magicly make all of your pictures better, lots of practice will.

have fun...

 

[sports_brah]

Putting a grip on it makes it feel almost like a pro body.

A grip?

Very inexpensive, the lens alone accounts for 2/3 of that price!

All I can suggest is get Lightroom, take all you photos in RAW and as long as you don't need to do any major pixel editing Lightroom will do 99% of what you'll ever need to do manipulation-wise. Having to study and critique every picture you take will slowly give you an appreciation of what makes a good photo.

Otherwise go out and take pictures. Often on day trips I limit myself and just take the 50mm to see what I can achieve.

I'll get that so and have a look at getting some tutorials.

Biggest thing you can do is get out and practice take lots of pics try the different modes understand how your camera works. Youtube is great for info.

Cheers!

I wanted to "get into photography" a while back. Bought a D70 and ran it for a couple of years to make sure I really did want to get into it before spending a larger sum of money.

Then I went up to a D7000. It's a cracking camera, way better at photography than my abilities (though that is probably still true of the D70 if I'm honest).

I'd echo SickAsAParrot, Lightroom is a great bit of software, you can demo it for 30 days I think before deciding to purchase. Full price is best part of 100 quid, or alternatively if your that way inclined, you can rent it. Adobe do a Creative Cloud plan, you pay about 9 quid a month and for that you get Lightroom and Photoshop. You can trial the rental plan for a month also (i think). I'd trial the plan if I were you and then in that month work out if you want/need photoshop or just lightroom.

Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure is a book that usually gets recommended to beginners. I bought a copy and I'd say it's worth the cover price.

Other than that, there's 3 things I'd advise from my own experience going from total beginner to slightly more experienced beginner.

1) practice, practice, practice. taking lot's of photos and then working on them seems to be the absolute best way to improve.

2) don't be put off if you seem to be taking literally hundreds of duff shots in the early days. compact cameras and modern phones do an awful lot of work for you when you use them to take snaps. much of that you'll need to learn how to do for yourself with a dslr, and until you do, the results from your "proper" camera may well disapoint you compared to what you might of got just clicking away with a phone/compact. the bad shots aren't totally worthless. look at 'em, work out what you did wrong, and then you can delete 'em.

3) (try to) resist throwing money at it. within days of getting your hands on the new camera, if your as afflicted by the tech bug as most of us on this forum, you'll be pricing up lenses, tripods, flashes etc. the list goes on, the wallet empties. buy the gear if you've got the cash, but the thing is, a new lens wont magicly make all of your pictures better, lots of practice will.

have fun...

Excellent advise thanks! I'll look at that book in a bit!

I know what you mean about upgrade bug.

 

[deFiniLoGy]

A grip?

A battery grip.

Nikon MB-D11 is the offical version and there are quite a bit of third party ones

 

[Amp34]

A grip, for those that need really, really, really long battery life, shoot exclusively in portrait or are significantly lacking in the trouser department and want at least one large thing in their small hands...

On a more serious note unless you are need it for either of the first two, or have freakishly large hands (like XXXL glove hands) you'll be perfectly fine without. You may find it more comfortable but it's not going to make a big difference, except in bulk of the camera. I'd recommend saving the money on that and putting it towards another lens or filter. If you plan on shooting outside then a circular polariser will be next on the list, way above a grip.

 

[sports_brah]

Ah, I'll pass on it so. My hands are pretty damn large, but I don't reckon XXXL haha.

 

[K.C. Leblanc]

I love my D7000 (well I'd have loved a D400 even more but it never got invented),

As others have said, Lightroom is amazing for photo processing. It does take some getting used to but it's well worth it. Just remember the images have to be good in the first place.

Lastly the 50 f1.4 is a lovely lens, but you might not find it covers all bases. I would also get some sort of wide - medium zoom. Even an 18-55 will be ok to get started.