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Hi,

Has the camera arrived?

When you are ready do a search for D7000 best settings and set the camera up

Learn how to adjust exposure compensation I believe the D7000 can sometimes over expose, so needs a small amount -1/3 exposure compensation or thereabouts also I have read that you should make sure D-Lighting is turned off. Not important at this stage but important to know. Look at postings from RomanJohnston he is an old hand and has or had the D7000.

Thom's guide should cover most things and there are some interesting articles on his site.

Cambridge in colour http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/ is a good place to read articles and they explain the basics, there is also a Depth of field calculator in the DOF tutorial. dont worry about the specific distances, just get an idea of how depth of field varies with aperture and distance, you will have to dial in the 1.5 crop factor for DX in the calculator.

If you have not started already learn how to use Raw.

Do a search for Ronnie Gaubert who recently passed away his photos of nature were truly inspiring. there are many old threads he posted on the D300-100 forum

At first everything will be a jumble but things will start to fall into place.

John
 
Cytokine said:
Hi,

Has the camera arrived?

When you are ready do a search for D7000 best settings and set the camera up

Learn how to adjust exposure compensation I believe the D7000 can sometimes over expose, so needs a small amount -1/3 exposure compensation or thereabouts also I have read that you should make sure D-Lighting is turned off. Not important at this stage but important to know. Look at postings from RomanJohnston he is an old hand and has or had the D7000.

Thom's guide should cover most things and there are some interesting articles on his site.

Cambridge in colour http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/ is a good place to read articles and they explain the basics, there is also a Depth of field calculator in the DOF tutorial. dont worry about the specific distances, just get an idea of how depth of field varies with aperture and distance, you will have to dial in the 1.5 crop factor for DX in the calculator.

If you have not started already learn how to use Raw.

Do a search for Ronnie Gaubert who recently passed away his photos of nature were truly inspiring. there are many old threads he posted on the D300-100 forum

At first everything will be a jumble but things will start to fall into place.

John
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Thank you so much for the tips! I will definitely check it all out!!
 
Cytokine said:
When you are ready do a search for D7000 best settings and set the camera up
Click to expand...
I strongly suggest not doing this. Blindly copying someone else's settings is a sure way to cause problems and confuse a new user. Start with the defaults and simply take photos. If you don't like the way something is working, look into whether there is a setting that will change it.
 
I picked up the camera last night. I can see what you are saying about the default settings. It might mess me up if I use a setting I dont understand yet.

I was trying the camera in A priority but do you think I should start out fully manual?
 
Neither! Complement your camera with a book on exposure. Learn a little about Shutter speeds, ISO and aperture and how they relate to eachother and go from there. Without a little knowledge if you go straight to manual in my opinion you are asking for trouble.
 
jumpingjack said:
Neither! Complement your camera with a book on exposure. Learn a little about Shutter speeds, ISO and aperture and how they relate to eachother and go from there. Without a little knowledge if you go straight to manual in my opinion you are asking for trouble.
Click to expand...
I have Understanding Exposure . Started reading it last week but still need to finish it. Pretty easy to understand
 
Many photographers use aperture priority most of the time although you should understand how the other modes work as you will change them to find the best for each application.

While learning, aperture priority is great as it takes time out of the equation, though you have to watch the read out to ensure that the speed is high enough to stop camera shake. (you have probably read this already) to freeze motion you will need high speeds and so you open the aperture until the speed goes up. This will also narrow the depth of field. (more blur).

Set the camera to base ISO usually 100 as this is where the best image quality is. If there is not enough light when your lens is fully open and the speed is too low then you can increase ISO. Increasing ISO usually comes at the price of lower image quality as you go higher, so only use as necessary. Your camera has good High ISO so this penalty will not be as high as some other cameras.

John
 
About the second or third thousandth pic, you will find it to quite the most loveable inanimate object you've ever gotten! The 50mm should give you unbelievably sharp pics.
 
Reilly Diefenbach said:
About the second or third thousandth pic, you will find it to quite the most loveable inanimate object you've ever gotten! The 50mm should give you unbelievably sharp pics.
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I have taken about a hundred this morning ....mostly just fooling around with my baby girl. I do LOVE the lens. The only thing is...maybe the 35 mm 1.8 would have been a better choice because I have to back up about 5 feet just to get my baby's full body in the frame. This is fine, but I also have older children and I may have to back right out of the room to get them in the frame!

I mostly do upper body/head shots though ...but it is still a bit tight.

I do love the lens in every other way so far....
 
Reilly Diefenbach said:
The 50mm should give you unbelievably sharp pics.
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As sweetbutterfly is a newbie, she may be interested to know that her 18-105 kit lens will actually give her comparably sharp images as her expensive 50mm prime (or 35mm for that matter) at f/5.6 - with the benefit of having to walk less, see for instance here: http://www.lenstip.com/182.4-Lens_review-Nikon_Nikkor_AF-S_DX_18-105_mm_f_3.5-5.6_VR_ED_Image_resolution.html

But then again, sharpness is not the only reason why one buys a 50 (or a 35) - low light performance is the main reason why one would buy one :-)

Cheers,
Jack
 
It's slightly improved sharpness over any zoom, and a bit better contrast. More pop. It's hard to beat that little 50mm. I agree, though, the Nikon zooms are great, I've got four.
 
sweetbutterfy1973 said:
Reilly Diefenbach said:
About the second or third thousandth pic, you will find it to quite the most loveable inanimate object you've ever gotten! The 50mm should give you unbelievably sharp pics.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
It is at its sharpest at f5.6 or f8, its softer from F1.4 - f2 which you can exploit
sweetbutterfy1973 said:
I have taken about a hundred this morning ....mostly just fooling around with my baby girl. I do LOVE the lens. The only thing is...maybe the 35 mm 1.8 would have been a better choice because I have to back up about 5 feet just to get my baby's full body in the frame. This is fine, but I also have older children and I may have to back right out of the room to get them in the frame!
Click to expand...
Now you understand the problem with the 85mm lens
sweetbutterfy1973 said:
I mostly do upper body/head shots though ...but it is still a bit tight.
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The 35 is a bit borderline for portrait but might suit you, the other nice thing about the fifty is that it does not distort straight edges. use your zoom lens at 35 and look at straight edges and noses etc.,

Try the on board flash as a fill flash, Nikon flash system is soo good. For the best results try to use the natural daylight from a window or door. and don't be afraid to get close, some of the best portraits crop part of the head to concentrate on the eyes, windows to the soul.
sweetbutterfy1973 said:
I do love the lens in every other way so far....
Click to expand...
 
Cytokine said:
The 35 is a bit borderline for portrait but might suit you, the other nice thing about the fifty is that it does not distort straight edges. use your zoom lens at 35 and look at straight edges and noses etc.,
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It seems you're referring to perspective distortion, which is a function of proximity. The focal length of the lens has nothing to do with it. The 35/1.8 may well have more barrel distortion than the 50/1.4, but that's not what makes noses appear large relative to the rest of the face, etc.
 
binary_eye said:
Cytokine said:
The 35 is a bit borderline for portrait but might suit you, the other nice thing about the fifty is that it does not distort straight edges. use your zoom lens at 35 and look at straight edges and noses etc.,
Click to expand...
It seems you're referring to perspective distortion, which is a function of proximity. The focal length of the lens has nothing to do with it. The 35/1.8 may well have more barrel distortion than the 50/1.4, but that's not what makes noses appear large relative to the rest of the face, etc.
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I have never seen a 35mm being recommended as a portrait lens. That said if you notice I said it might suit her and to try her zoom at thirty five as it will give her an idea of the 35. on noses as well as straight edges. I am sorry if this is not clear.

John
 
It's all about distance, but with a short lens, being the right distance to avoid persective distortion (15 ft or so) usually means that a human sized subject's head is a relatively small part of the frame. That's great if you wanted to show a person's whole body, or them in "their enviornment" but not so good if you wanted to show just a face, you'll be cropping quite a bit.
 
The 85mm lens on a DX body (like the D90 or the D700) will have a field of view cropped down to that of about 127mm focal length (equivalent to full frame or 35mm film). The perspective is not altered. While this is still fine for portraits it does mean that you would need more space between the camera and subject for anything other than head & shoulder portraits.

What Jack Hogan advised makes perfect sense. The 18-105 kit lens is a very decent lens, and provides you with some flexibility. It is also extremely affordable when bought with a body as a kit, possibly the best value for money you'll get. Its not as fast as the primes, so you won't achieve shallow depth of field in portraits, but apart from that it quite compentent.

You could also consider the 50mm f1.8, which gives a FOV crop of 75mm (equiv) Its not a classic portrait lens but would competently fill the gap between the a 35mm & 85mm lens. The new version will auto-focus on the entry level bodies, while the older version is cheaper. Either will autofocus on the D90 or D7000.

Regards
John
 
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