Any amateur photographers?

[Supertramp]

My girlfriend and I have just bought this between us (picture ironically taken on crappy iPhone 4):

Nikon D5300
It's our first proper camera that we wanted for our travels and all things in between. Never had an actual camera so everything is very new and just having fun playing it this morning.
Any other amateur photographers? Any tips and hints?

Some examples taken quickly this morning:

 

[jonboylaw]

Depends what you are aiming to do with the camera. I'm a canon man myself.
Bits of advice:
Always shoot in RAW mode . It allows you to maximise any post processing
Avoid pre programmed modes. I use aperture priority mode mostly as this let's you set depth of field (DOF) easily.
Get a decent tripod, nothing with a flimsy head, need to be sure the camera is locked solid.
Learn the basics, f number vs exposure time VS ISO etc
Buy the best optics you can, always spend on the glass.
Get a good remote release.
A good 50mm prime lens will do you well.
Practise, practise and practise.
Get a copy of Lightroom...



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[KevH]

Top tip is to learn the basics.

Get to know what everything does, that includes the buttons and menus. Read the manual, and as you do so, play with the buttons etc., taking lots of shots. The dog will love you for the attention, I promise.

Essentially, a camera is a just a tool, and you wouldn't use a high spec tool without having a good basic understanding of how it works.

So, play with it... take loads of pictures using all of the settings, so that you can see what each does.

Eventually you will possibly (I would say probably) adopt RAW and aperture priority, as has been said already, but you will need to know why these are good settings and what other settings offer too.

Then swap it for a Canon. :lol:

 

[gvee]

The best tip I can give you is to learn about the "exposure triangle": shutter speed, aperture and ISO.
Here's a nice little read on the subject: http://digital-photography-school.com/learning-exposure-in-digital-photography/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Secondly - review your photographs.
It is easy to take a million photos and just keep them all, only ever skimming past them on the viewfinder. Sometimes taking less photos and spending more time, on a larger screen, is better.

Thirdly - don't shoot using live-view, use the viewfinder! Also note that your viewfinder has an inbuilt focus that is adjustable. So if you wear glasses you can set your viewfinder to match your prescription strength, so you don't have to wear them whilst shooting (you can press your eye against the thing, instead of just your glasses!).



P.S. To go slightly against the grain - I very rarely shoot in RAW mode. This is because I don't perform any post-processing on my images except when they are for other people, and although JPEG is a rubbish file format, it is easily accessible.

 

[Camperbug]

Nice camera. As the first respondent said, it's all about Adobe Lightroom.
That's the gamechanger, I would spend 20 hours learning how to use it.

 

[KevH]

Nice camera. As the first respondent said, it's all about Adobe Lightroom.
That's the gamechanger, I would spend 20 hours learning how to use it.

As they say on the BBC, other software packages are available....you basically get what you pay for, and often pay for far more than you need. Maybe try a freeware package first, or a trial time-limited version of a proprietary brand. But that is a very different from the original question, so...

Enjoy your camera. And show us your pics.

 

[jonboylaw]

One more bit of kit to consider are a set of filters. A circular polariser for bright days will pop the colours and a Cokin P filter holder with some ND graduated filters to stop bright skies over exposing.



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[magoo]

The best tip I can give you is to learn about the "exposure triangle": shutter speed, aperture and ISO.

I used to teach photography and gvee has it in a nutshell. Shutter speed, aperture and ISO. And I'll add composition to that. Start off by setting your camera to 125s shutter speed in shutter priority mode just to get a feel for the camera.

 

[Davedub]

Depends what you are aiming to do with the camera. I'm a canon man myself.
Bits of advice:
Always shoot in RAW mode . It allows you to maximise any post processing
Avoid pre programmed modes. I use aperture priority mode mostly as this let's you set depth of field (DOF) easily.
Get a decent tripod, nothing with a flimsy head, need to be sure the camera is locked solid.
Learn the basics, f number vs exposure time VS ISO etc
Buy the best optics you can, always spend on the glass.
Get a good remote release.
A good 50mm prime lens will do you well.
Practise, practise and practise.
Get a copy of Lightroom...

Sent from my GX64 SatCom phone using Tapatalk

I think this quote says it all. This has covered all bases. From another canon man myself

 

[Supertramp]

Thank you for all the replies. We've joined our local photography club and we took the camera on it's first trip to the Lakes to try it out. Couple of shots:

Playing with all the settings was quite interesting and there is still loads to learn, but most importantly I took better pictures than I could have on my iPhone and we were really impressed with them.
Going to do some reading up on the tips given above so that for next time I'm a bit better prepared.