My first thread noob D5100 and I need help!long post.

[TammyCampbell]

Both Claire and Alice found adventure by tripping | Outlanders and adventurers welcomed WordPress.com siteIm new to the forum .. And my DH bought me the Nikon d5100 too, I'm looking to make it more complete. I have the Nikon DX nikkor 18-55 mm so I need a longer lens..Looking at a lot of gear. The sigma 70-300 lens looks promising, and I'm trying to decide what wide angle adapter and telephoto adaptor is worth buying.right now I'm very comfortable with my canon powershot. So not use to the Nikon at all. I am a true novice to anything other than a point and shoot with a uv filter.tamandjohn | Smile! Im working on being my best WordPress.com site ever the links are to my blogs.. Mostly taken with my canon powershot. With a uv filter. I have a flicker account too. I've been shooting like a crazy lately. So no editing has been done to my photos other than cropping. I was having fun Now I have to learn how this camera works.. Lol.
So this grasshopper is looking for some. Nikon instruction..I've taken a few photos with it but I'm frustrated with how limited my range is and my lack of knowledge of the camera.. This batch here on flicker is basically test shots between the two cameras the photos that say nikon snow are the ones shot with it. But I only took 50 shots and the camera battery died. I don't know if that is normal or not. The pictures at the end of the set are the comparison pictures. http://flic.kr/s/aHsjN76wcn​

 

[robbins.photo]

Both Claire and Alice found adventure by tripping | Outlanders and adventurers welcomed WordPress.com siteIm new to the forum .. And my DH bought me the Nikon d5100 too, I'm looking to make it more complete. I have the Nikon DX nikkor 18-55 mm so I need a longer lens..Looking at a lot of gear. The sigma 70-300 lens looks promising, and I'm trying to decide what wide angle adapter and telephoto adaptor is worth buying.right now I'm very comfortable with my canon powershot. So not use to the Nikon at all. I am a true novice to anything other than a point and shoot with a uv filter.tamandjohn | Smile! Im working on being my best WordPress.com site ever the links are to my blogs.. Mostly taken with my canon powershot. With a uv filter. I have a flicker account too. I've been shooting like a crazy lately. So no editing has been done to my photos other than cropping. I was having fun Now I have to learn how this camera works.. Lol.
So this grasshopper is looking for some. Nikon instruction..I've taken a few photos with it but I'm frustrated with how limited my range is and my lack of knowledge of the camera.. This batch here on flicker is basically test shots between the two cameras the photos that say nikon snow are the ones shot with it. But I only took 50 shots and the camera battery died. I don't know if that is normal or not. favs of the day - a set on Flickr​

I don't generally recommend wide angle or "telephoto" adapters that screw onto your existing lens, the image quality is usually pretty bad when using them. For a telephoto lens a Sigma 4.5-5.6 70-300 mm isn't a terrible choice, but if you can afford it I highly recommend the Nikon 70-300 mm 4.5-5.6 with VR instead. It is probably one of the best telephoto lenses you can get as far as sharpness and image quality without spending an arm and a leg. Nothing in it's price range really comes close.

These are just a couple of images I've shot with my Nikkor 70-300 mm, you can see a whole lot more on my Flickr account (link is in red in my signature line) if you'd like to see a few more and get a good idea as to the IQ you can expect.

Ok, so took a quick look at some of your bird photos, odds are good here that the autofocus was probably set up for an area mode - on the photos where the bird is behind the branches it looks like the cameras autofocus mode got confused, thought you were aiming for the branches, and that's what it focused on - since the shot was taken at f5.8 the depth of field wasn't sufficient to keep the bird in focus as well.

I'll post a little bit longer explanation on how to use the focus points on the D5100 or increase your DOF (Depth of Field) to help in situations like this one in a few minutes, will take a bit to type it all out.. lol

 

[robbins.photo]

Ok, to adjust your autofocus mode on the D5100, if the info screen is already on the screen press the info button so you can change settings. If not, press the info button to get to the info screen, then press it again to allow you to change your settings.

Use the up and down of the multicontroller button to change the menu selection, what your after is the autofocus area mode selection, it should be the 4th option from the bottom. Arrow up or down till you get to that option, then press the ok button. This will get you into the sub menu that controls the cameras autofocus.

If your in a situation where your shooting through branches or other things that might cause the camera to pick the wrong focus area, change to single point focus mode. What this does is whatever autofocus point you choose when shooting, that's what the camera will focus on regardless of how much other clutter might be in the way. Once you've changed hit the info button again and you'll be ready to shoot.

When you look through the viewfinder the "point" your using to focus with will be highlighted in red. You can select whatever point you want but to start with for practice you might just want to leave it on the center point. Put the center point on whatever you want to focus on, press the shutter halfway down and bam - the camera will use that point and bring it into sharp focus for you. Press the shutter the rest of the way and you should get a nice, sharply focused image in that area.

You can change the autofocus mode whenever you need to by going back to the info screen and back into that sub menu, going from area to single point, 3d - whatever works best for your current shooting situation.

Ok, now, on depth of field - to change this you need to be able to change the aperture on your lens. The aperture controls how much light the lens lets into the camera. The smaller the F number, the wider the lens opens (yes, it's backwards, but that's how it is). However the smaller your F number the "thinner" your depth of field becomes - meaning that things that are on the same horizontal plane as whatever point your focused on will be in focus, but the further away you get from that horizontal plane the more out of focus those objects will become. Photographers often use this to separate a subject from the background. However in the case of your cardinal photos you can also "stop down" your lens - by raising the F stop number it will increase your depth of field, meaning more and more of those elements can be brought into sharp focus even if they are not on the same plane as your focus point.

However decreasing the aperture does have a disadvantage as well, the lens won't be allowing as much light into the camera so as a result to get a properly exposed image you might have to decrease your shutter speed or increase your ISO. Decreasing the shutter speed means that the shutter stays open longer and allows more light into the camera, however the downside is that the slower the shutter speed the more susceptible the camera is to camera shake (VR can make a big difference here) or if your subject (the bird) moves you will most likely get motion blur as a result because the shutter is open long enough that the motion of the bird blurs the shot. So really for critter pictures you want a higher shutter speed whenever possible. So your other option is to increase your ISO - the disadvantage here is once you get your ISO high enough you start introducing noise into the image.

So for shooting wildlife I normally use A mode - Aperture priority. By default when using the aperture priority when I use the thumbwheel it allows me to change the lens aperture, setting it up or down as needed. I select my aperture, then I change my ISO until I get my desired shutter speed. For smaller birds 1/1000 or higher is great if you have enough light.

 

[TammyCampbell]

Thanks. So the macro lenses they aren't a good buy either?
I just wanted to let you know the bird ones were with the canon. I haven't learned how to make my nikon take an action shot. And those were at long distances. I don't quite have the distance lens yet for my nikon, only the starter lens. 18-55mm nikkor Dx the next links are photos taken with the Nikon .
Nikon photos snow | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Nikon photos snow | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Nikon photos snow | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Nikon photos snow | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Nikon photos snow | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[TammyCampbell]

This is a lot of great information, I'm looking through my functions right now, THANKS SO MUCH!

 

[robbins.photo]

This is a lot of great information, I'm looking through my functions right now, THANKS SO MUCH!

Lol.. well, there's more. On my D5100 first thing I did was to hit the menu button, select the icon that looks like a pencil, and scroll down to the controls menu. Under controls you'll find a menu option, "Assign /FN Button". If it doesn't say ISO already, select it and change it to ISO. What this does for you is to assign your ISO settings to the function button. The function button is on the left hand side of the camera below the flash button. Now what you can do is press and hold that function button, as long as the function button is held down when you move the scroll wheel on the back of the camera you can very quickly adjust your ISO up or down.

This lets you stay in A mode and very quickly adjust your ISO and Aperture to get the desired settings, your shutter speed will adjust automatically based on those settings to get proper exposure. Now using the center focus point works great if you want your subject that your focusing on in the center of your shot. But if you want to focus on something that isn't in the center, you have a couple of options.

You can change the focus point by using the up/down left/right buttons on the multicontroller - it allows you to pick any of the available focus points so you can focus on something that isn't necessarily in the center of your picture. The other method is to recompose. To recompose, put your selected focus point on whatever you want to be in focus and press the shutter button halfway down. Keep the shutter button depressed halfway, then move the camera until you have the shot framed the way you want, then when you press the shutter button all the way down the camera will stay focused on whatever you focused on before you moved it.

That pretty much covers the basics - I use A mode probably about 85-90% of the time, most of the rest of the time I'll use S mode but that's a longer conversation entirely.. lol

 

[robbins.photo]

Thanks. So the macro lenses they aren't a good buy either?
I just wanted to let you know the bird ones were with the canon. I haven't learned how to make my nikon take an action shot. And those were at long distances. I don't quite have the distance lens yet for my nikon, only the starter lens. 18-55mm nikkor Dx the next links are photos taken with the Nikon .
Nikon photos snow | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Nikon photos snow | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Nikon photos snow | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Nikon photos snow | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Nikon photos snow | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Action shots are pretty much all about shutter speed. In A mode you can adjust the ISO, the higher the ISO the faster the shutter speed. The info screen will shot this as 1/something - where the something is your shutter speed. If your looking through the viewfinder this will be the first number on the left hand side, so you can keep an eye on your shutter speed while you shoot. The higher this number the faster your shutter will open and close, and the faster that speed is the better the camera is able to stop something in motion.

20131201 1253 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

This was shot at 1/800 - pretty much freezing the birds wings in mid flap.

DSC_0304 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

That one was 1/500 - if you look closely you can see a little motion blur but not a whole lot.

DSC_0667 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

That's 1/4000 - which is usually enough to stop most anything in it's tracks

Almost forgot, can't really give you a recommendation on the macro filters, I don't really do much macro photography so I've never tried them personally.

 

[TammyCampbell]

Thanks so much. I'm becoming literate in camera.. Your shots are gorgeous !

 

[robbins.photo]

Thanks so much. I'm becoming literate in camera.. Your shots are gorgeous !

Thanks, I try to get a little better on each outing. As you can see I spend a lot of time at our local zoo.. lol

 

[TammyCampbell]

You have a year pass? We did once upon a time when we live near one. nikon learning.. - a set on Flickr Well I had no luck with animals today..It was a foggy morning . but some of the photos were decent. Im just bummed I cant get a closeup on a lot of things. they still were out of reach of my current lens. I need a longer lens. . they say we have eagles near by. I spent 7 hours trying. My favorite shot today.. http://wp.me/p45MUk-3u

 

[robbins.photo]

You have a year pass? We did once upon a time when we live near one. nikon learning.. - a set on Flickr Well I had no luck with animals today..It was a foggy morning . but some of the photos were decent. Im just bummed I cant get a closeup on a lot of things. they still were out of reach of my current lens. I need a longer lens. . they say we have eagles near by. I spent 7 hours trying

Yup.. bought the one year pass - paid for itself in about 2 weeks.. lol. You've got some really great landscape shots in there - really liked the bridge shot, though you might want to rotate it just a smidge to square up the horizon. Looks like your off to a flying start though. Keep an eye on Ebay and see if you can get a good deal on a Nikon 70-300 mm 4.5-5.6 VR, they really are worth every penny. You can also check sites like Adorama, B&H Photo, KEH - and see if they have any refurbished or even used. All of them are very reputable sites. Found a refurbished model on Adorama that's got a pretty good deal going on it right now. I actually purchased mine used from Ebay, spent about $210 on it with shipping.

Refurbished Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR Lens - Refurbished by Nikon USA 2161B

 

[TammyCampbell]

Thanks.. It wasn't easy.. I took to heart what you said to me yesterday. I left my mistakes in there too. lol.. Some over exsposed and underexposed. and some just unfocused.. I'll get there. I think.. lol. Ill check those links out too.. so the 55-300 mm one you wouldn't recommend?

 

[robbins.photo]

Thanks.. It wasn't easy.. I took to heart what you said to me yesterday. I left my mistakes in there too. lol.. Some over exsposed and underexposed. and some just unfocused.. I'll get there. I think.. lol. Ill check those links out too.. so the 55-300 mm one you wouldn't recommend?

Depends on your budget really, the reviews on the 55-300 mm are a little more mixed than they are for the 70-300 mm - but a lot of folks swear by them and certainly they are a bit cheaper. Thing that's nice about DSLR is you can always buy a 55-300 mm yourself, try it and see if it suits your needs, if not you can sell it and buy something else. Sure, you'll take a bit of a loss on it that way but if you by refurb the loss isn't usually huge.

In fact I ran across a 55-300 mm refurb on ebay.. let me see if can find that link again:

Nikon Nikkor AF s 55 300mm F 4 5 5 6 VR DX Ed G Lens USA Warranty Free Shipping 0018208021970 | eBay

From the reviews I've read it sounds like overall it's a pretty good lens, one of the things a couple of reviewers pointed out is that it's not an internal focus like the 70-300mm, meaning that when the lens goes to focus the lens itself will actually rotate. This really isn't too terribly important in most situations however it might come into play if you start using certain filters like CPL's that you need to adjust by rotating.

The other thing that is often mentioned is that the autofocus feature on this lens is slow by comparison to a lot of others, so that might be something to really consider. If you're going to be photographing birds/wildlife in particular my guess is you'll probably outgrow this lens pretty quickly.

 

[alv]

i use the 55-300 lens ,im new to this also. most pics on my flicker account are with this lens.i like it ,it seems to search alittle al

 

[robbins.photo]

i use the 55-300 lens ,im new to this also. most pics on my flicker account are with this lens.i like it ,it seems to search alittle al

You've got some nice images in there - I've never used the 55-300 so I can only go by what I've read, would you say the autofocus is good enough to keep up with a moving target, say the airplanes, under decent lighting conditions?