I need help

Itzyu

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I have just negotiated an amazing deal on a Nikon D80 with a kit 18-135 Nikkor Lens
-70-300 Nikkor Lens and
-50mm 1.8aperature Nikkor Lens
and accessories, like a kick butt case, extra long life battery, pro tripod...
I have zero experience. I have been using point and shoot digitalis cameras, and I once took a high school photography class in 94'. How do I learn this camera? I just dropped 1000 on a camera and accessories that frankly... intimidates the heck out of me. I have seen the online classes, and my husband even downloaded a "From the eyes of a pro" tutorial. Will this be sufficient?
 
trial and error, takes a while to get the hang of it, but once the light goes off its all worth it....

just read every book you can get your hands on and then take some pics, post them on here, let us tear them apart, then go back out and try again.....rinse and repeat

thats what is working for me, learn something new everyday...
 
Did it come with the manual? If so read it so you understand the functions. Also dont use the preset shooting modes, the camera will blow out highlights in bright light in them, when in Matrix metering. I have the D80 myself and love it. But it takes a little tweaking to get it fully right.
 
As everyone else said, the more you shoot the more you will learn. I recently got a D40 and it took awhile to get used to. But there is so much to learn that getting used to it is just the beginning! Best of luck and read/watch as much as you can!
 
The D80 is an amazing camera. One thing I learned from *cough* Ken Rockwells websight, is that the D80 has a tendancy to overexpose in bright, sunny conditions. for outdoors, I do set my exposure compensation to -0.7EV. I think this will serve you well.

Other than that read, search and inquire about you concerns. As Joves pointed out, read your manual. There are also some field guides you can purchase, but I would wait until you are a little more comfortable with the camera. Good luck and glad to see yet another Nikonian amongst us. :biggrin:
 
Thanks everyone. I played with it this morning at the park, and it's not so scary anymore. I can't wait to figure out how to move away from the auto settings!
 
Grats on your new camera. You must be looking all over the place for an opportunity to take a shot. I would suggest working in AV mode. This will allow you to play with the aperture to learn more about DoF and how it effects your photos. AV mode allows your camera to automatically adjust shutter speed to achieve a properly exposed photo. Notice how your camera reacts to the shutter speeds. Soon, you will notice that your photos might get a little blurry during shutter speeds; like 1/30 or longer. Longer shutter speeds require a super steady hand or in most cases, a tripod. In that case, lower your f/# and take notes on how your camera speeds up the shutter speed; perhaps moving to 1/60 or faster. If you'd rather stick with you current f/#, then try raising your iso. Sorry if I may have explained a little too much. I just remember how overwhelmed I felt when I got my camera a month ago. But check out AV mode. IMO, its great to use when learning how iso, aperture, and shutter speed effects exposure. Good luck :)
 
The D80 is an amazing camera. One thing I learned from *cough* Ken Rockwells websight, is that the D80 has a tendancy to overexpose in bright, sunny conditions. for outdoors, I do set my exposure compensation to -0.7EV. I think this will serve you well.

Other than that read, search and inquire about you concerns. As Joves pointed out, read your manual. There are also some field guides you can purchase, but I would wait until you are a little more comfortable with the camera. Good luck and glad to see yet another Nikonian amongst us. :biggrin:

i agree, whenever i take outdoor photos, i set the exposure to around -.7 because sometimes the exposure w/this camera can be real bad. but nevertheless, it is a fun camera and i love it and im a beginner at best, lol. so im sure youll love it to
 
Thanks everyone. I played with it this morning at the park, and it's not so scary anymore. I can't wait to figure out how to move away from the auto settings!
How to move away from the auto settings....

There should be a little dial on top of the camera set to auto. Turn this dial and you have moved away from the auto settings! Simple as that! :D

Seriously, just hang out here in this forum reading every post in the beginner section and in the beyond the basics section. Also, check out the different galleries to see what works and what doesn't work for others.

It isn't all that difficult. I'm not using a dSLR, but I do use my camera in full manual mode, and sometimes in Aperture priority, but mostly fully manual. I am limited strictly by the limitations of my cheaper camera now, not by knowledge of photography and how to adjust the camera.

I have 2 sites I used and read through that I felt was great when I first bought my camera. I will post the links below. They explained about aperture, shutter, and ISO pretty well, which are your building blocks to creating a photograph with your camera. They explained quite a lot of other stuff also, such as composition and more. After getting some understanding of what the different camera settings did, I read about 3 chapters of the highly recommended book, Understanding Exposure. Within the first 3 chapters is where the relationship of the shutter, aperture, and ISO all clicked and made sense in my head.

Once that happens, you realize that photography isn't all that difficult. Capturing an image with a camera outside of the AUTO setting isn't any more difficult than capturing it with AUTO setting.

Here's the 2 links. Have a look at them, I learned a lot reading through these links and reading through this forum.

Digital Camera Help

ShortCourses-The On-line Library of Digital Photography

I also created a link page and uploaded it a while back. It has these 2 links and many many more you can look through. You're welcome to take a look at it here. Hope this all helps and good luck. It's a lot of fun.
 
Once that happens, you realize that photography isn't all that difficult. Capturing an image with a camera outside of the AUTO setting isn't any more difficult than capturing it with AUTO setting.

Here's the 2 links. Have a look at them, I learned a lot reading through these links and reading through this forum.

Digital Camera Help

ShortCourses-The On-line Library of Digital Photography

I also created a link page and uploaded it a while back. It has these 2 links and many many more you can look through. You're welcome to take a look at it here. Hope this all helps and good luck. It's a lot of fun.

Thank you very much. I appreciate the links, and look forward to digging through them.
 

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