Getting the colours right in outdoor shots isn’t that difficult. Your Nikon’s Auto White Balance system will usually do a good job of measuring and adapting to any shifts in the colour of the lighting, or you can use one of the preset White Balance settings, such as Direct Sunlight, Cloudy or Shade, to set the White Balance yourself.
But indoors, it’s not quite so easy. The colour of the light can change quite dramatically, depending on what you’re using as a light source. Even the colour of your walls will have an effect because they will reflect light back on to your subject.
Find out how to take control of your Nikon DSLR to ensure perfect colours in your indoor photos
As we learned in yesterday’s post about rules for photography at the Olympics, photographers visiting the Games will not be able to bring tripods into events.
While this may disappoint many photographers, there are often many situations in which we’re forced to shoot without tripods. With some practice, there are ways to hold a camera steady when a tripod isn’t an option so you can get sharp pictures. Here are three of our favourites.
With film cameras, exposure is controlled by aperture and shutter speed settings at a fixed ISO setting (which is dictated by your film). Digital cameras allow you to change the ISO setting with just the push of a button, but on most models this can be performed automatically with your ‘Auto ISO’ function.
This is very useful when the lighting conditions are changing quickly – when you’re moving from outdoors to indoors, or from bright sunlight into shadows.
Measuring the brightness of the scene you’re shooting is a crucial part of getting the right exposure for your pictures. To this end, your camera has three basic metering modes to choose from which will help you measure the brightness of your scene.
The brightness of the scene can vary enormously across the picture. For instance, the sky will usually be much lighter than the foreground. As such, an average reading is needed for a scene like this.
In our latest photography cheat sheet below we’ve highlighted the three main metering modes your camera offers and explain what each of them does.
What is AF? We all know what autofocus is in principle, but how many of us really know how it works?
The autofocus system in your DSLR works by looking at the image, and then adjusting the lens using a motor. It can tell whether a shot is in focus by using the principle that a sharp image has a higher contrast than an out-of-focus one.
With the announcement of the Nikon D3200 last week, you might be considering a new DSLR. You might be considering the D3200! With 24.2 megapixels, it certainly seems, on paper at least, like the ultimate beginners’ camera.
Whether you’re looking to upgrade or stick with what you got, we thought we would break down one of the key elements of your Nikon DSLR: its shutter speed scale.
Nikon DSLRs enable you to take much more creative photos. But this extra functionality does require you to spend a bit more time getting to know your camera settings. This can be frustrating if you’re keen to get shooting, but it’s the only way to ensure your Nikon camera’s set up properly for the best results.
To help you get started on your journey, here are the key things you should know about how to dial in the best camera settings for your Nikon DSLR.
One thing we consistently hear from people is confusion about aperture and just what exactly those numbers mean. Understanding aperture can take some time for a beginning photographer, but hopefully we can speed this process up for you! Inside is a handy f-stop chart we put together which you can drag and drop on to your desktop.
Print it out – print three out! – and stick it in your camera bag. The sooner you start understanding aperture and f-stops, the sooner you’ll start to get sharper, more creative pictures.
To make an image you expose light-sensitive material to a controlled amount of illumination. Twenty years ago that material was a chemical emulsion coated onto film, and before that it was coated onto a glass plate. These days, you’ll use the CMOS sensor at the heart of your Nikon DSLR.
Nikon DSLRs make it very easy for you to get take command of your pictures, offering a number of exposure controls conveniently located around your Nikon camera body.
Whether you’re shooting star trails or urban light patterns, you’re going to be dealing with exposures that run into several seconds, if not minutes.
Taking long exposures can be daunting, but it doesn’t have mean the death of your night photography ambitions if you learn how to use the Bulb mode on your Nikon DSLR.
