Alaska Bound

[ccaballero]

Good morning TPF world, 200% new guy here. Long story short I have a family cruise to Alaska next June and decided to get a descent camera for the trip. Researching and reading learned that photography is WAY more than just point and shoot, never considered ISO, apperture, S. Speed would afect my shots.
So now I really want to learn the propper way to expose my trip as well as every day memorable things.
Went ahed and bought a Nikon D3100 body (no need for a noob to buy a Ferrari of a camera)
And a Nikkon 18-200mm VR lens ( did not care at all for a kit 18-55)

My plan as follows: shoot, shoot and shoot some more, keep a journal, Im trying to get assigments from the web to have a structured path. In January I will take a class, right now is not an option, and of course read as much as I can here and lots of youtube.

Let me know what you think, what you see wrong or that I could improve in the process

 

[greybeard]

Sounds like a plan

 

[tirediron]

One of the best ways to really learn and enjoy the process of learning is to join a local camera club. They invariably have members ranging in skill from "What's a lens?" to retired pros, and many conduct seminars and field trips which are fantastic ways to improve your skill.

 

[ccaballero]

Thanks for the reply’s, tried looking for a club today but had no hit in Puerto Rico. Will keep looking

 

[Dxer]

My first DSLR was also a D3100 and I still have it. It will work just fine with the 18-200mm. You will have a wide range of focal lengths to play with. A great way to get started. I hope you will share some of your photos with the group here after you get back from that frozen tundra up there.

 

[ccaballero]

Thanks, yesterday was my first outing with the camera and the family, tried to take many pictures without making the day all about my new photography endevour and can asses right away that even at "AUTO" mode and slowing down (not looking at sharpness or noise or excellence in quality) composition of a photo is WAY hard.
Still it was fun, and I think I might get an addiction with this

 

[Strodav]

Thanks, yesterday was my first outing with the camera and the family, tried to take many pictures without making the day all about my new photography endevour and can asses right away that even at "AUTO" mode and slowing down (not looking at sharpness or noise or excellence in quality) composition of a photo is WAY hard.
Still it was fun, and I think I might get an addiction with this

In addition to practice, read, practice, read, ..., you will want to set up a post processing workflow. A good way to download your pictures to a hard drive, then the software to process them (exposure, crop, resize, lighten shadows, darken highlights, ...) and post them to social media like facebook and print them out. Gimp is free and pretty good. For your trip to Alaska, make sure you have a spare battery and plenty of spare mem cards. I took somewhere between 200 and 400 pics / day. Also recommend a UV filter to protect your lens and circular polarizing filter to darken the skies and reduce reflections. You might also want to buy and take a fast prime like a 50mm f1.4 and maybe a 1.4x teleconverter. the fast prime will be great for those indoor shots.

 

[ccaballero]

Thank you Strodav, that is my next lens a Nikor 50mm AF-S 1.8. Im also practicing with Capture NX-D
Thanks for the advice, what you mean by post processing workflow?

 

[Strodav]

Thank you Strodav, that is my next lens a Nikor 50mm AF-S 1.8. Im also practicing with Capture NX-D
Thanks for the advice, what you mean by post processing workflow?

A process is just a thoughtful sequence of steps designed to accomplish a specific task. A Post Processing workflow is your sequence of steps to get your pics off your camera to a safe storage space then posting them to, say, social media or print them out. So here are some questions to ask yourself. How am I going to display (Facebook, hard copy print, Instagram, Flickr, ...); capture in raw or jpg; which computer; which color space srbg or Adobe rgb; how am I going to take images off my camera (mem card reader, usb, wireless, bluetooth); should I store a copy of all my originals or copy directly into post processing software from the camera; post processing software (Capture NX-D); what format to store them after post processing (usually tiff , jpg or both); tiff or jpg settings; backup storage to an external drive; backup originals or just those you want to keep after post processing; how much storage is needed, ... Its just really good to think these things out in advance so you don't loose or destroy your precious photos especially if you have a major computer crash where you have to reinstall your OS.

 

[ccaballero]

Lot to plan ahead. Have parts of it down, but did not thought of it as organized.
Storage- an external 1T harddrive
Format- both raw and jpeg
Color space- srbg, not by knowledge but by Camera default
The few I have processed were stored as jpegbper NX-D
Display??? For now im not displaying, they are just for me but would like both to print and post for critique and sugestions


Thanks again

 

[JoeW]

Let me jump ahead and talk about Alaska and some of the potential stuff you'll be shooting there.
1. Probably zero chance of the Northern Lights (it will be June).
2. Some lovely landscapes. Consider getting a polarizing filter to enhance those (it will add pop to the skies and deal with reflection off of the water).
3. Lots of opportunities to shoot wildlife--probably Orcas and various types of whales from the cruise ship or a skiff that takes you in to feeding places. Lots of eagles and other birds. Depending upon where you go in-land, probably some moose. Shooting wildlife can be tough so practice shooting dogs at the dog park back home. Learn how quickly (or slowly) your camera and lens autofocus. Get a feel for how fast you need to shoot to avoid a lot of blur.
4. You'll probably make a stop in the Old Town (I find it a bit cheesy) at Juneau. If you like that sort of thing, lots of saloons and old-time store fronts, some people in costume, lots of local crafts. Learn how to switch ISO in to compensate for poor indoor light.
5. Probably a bunch of waterfalls or water running off of glaciers. Get yourself a good tripod. Or, barring that, something like a Platypus (a camera table-stand) or something similar.
6. I assume you'll be going with family. Lots of "okay, everyone lets go pose in front of the glacier!" so learn how to use the auto-timer or get an infrared release to use with your body and learn how to use it (I think the timer is better so you don't have a bunch of photos with you extending one arm to the camera).
5. Get yourself some extra SD cards. This is probably a once in a life-time trip for you. Don't miss a shot. And no, don't get one humongous SD card, b/c cards fail or get lost.

 

[ccaballero]

Thanks Joe

 

[Strodav]

Lot to plan ahead. Have parts of it down, but did not thought of it as organized.
Storage- an external 1T harddrive
Format- both raw and jpeg
Color space- srbg, not by knowledge but by Camera default
The few I have processed were stored as jpegbper NX-D
Display??? For now im not displaying, they are just for me but would like both to print and post for critique and sugestions


Thanks again

Highly recommend you keep at least 2 copies of your original images, but not on your C: drive. I download all my original photo files to an internal one TB drive (not C: but E). My PP software makes a complete backup of my originals to a second TB drive (not C: or E: but D) in dng format. BTW, my PP software stores all its work on the E: drive, not C:. Finally, I save all of my 3, 4, and 5 star processed images to my internal C: drive AND an external portable one TB USB drive. If one of my drives crashes, I'm good. If I loose my system on the C: drive and have to rebuild my machine, I'm good. Suggest you use Adobe rgb color space to make the jpg files from your camera pop and you will want to resize some of your images to a long size 1200 pixels so you can post them here on The Photo Forum.

 

[SquarePeg]

For learning, here are a couple of recommendations

1 - Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson - a great introduction to the exposure triangle and includes access to some video tutorials
2 - Kelbyone or Lynda.com have free 30 day trial periods and both offer many beginner level classes online
3 - Creative Live - has pay on demand classes but also offers free "live" streaming 7 days/week - a great way to waste a rainy weekend day
4 - If your focus is going to be Alaska - spend your time on some landscape tutorials and practice with your tripod before the trip
5 - Post photos for critique on forums like this and use the feedback to improve

 

[ccaballero]

resize some of your images to a long size 1200 pixels

I will n eed to learn how to do that.

Thanks for the excellent advice. Although I was not planing to take a tripod to the Alaska trip, to avoid much intrusion with the family, would it be 100% necessary for good photos?