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Help With Camera Settings

Quetzalcoatl

Quetzalcoatl

Member
Joined
12 Jul 2011
Messages
324
Location
South Cheshire
I will start off by saying that my knowledge and understanding of photography is sketchy at best. However I am keen to learn and so a very generous collegue has lent me his old Nikon D40 to play with over the weekend.

I have become increasingly frustrated trying to get quality shots of my tanks progression using my canon compact. So I approached a friend at work who has a fetish for photography and he was only too happy to oblige. His quick "Press this, press that, do this, do the other instruction was a little too brief, so hopefully with a little guidance and tutoring from your good selves I can get some good images?

Could any of you pros point me in the right direction of a simple "Idiots guide" of basic settings that I should be adhering to which will help me capture some quality shots of my tank, and achieve anything like the quality photography that can be found in these here threads. :thumbup:
 
I got a nikon d70 and it took me a while to get some ok puctures.

The first thing to understand is what aperture and shutter speed does. Aperture is how much light gets into the camera, and shutter speed is how long is the light staying in.

For my tank with 150w of light I use a shutter of 25 to 40 and an aperture of f5 or f6 (from memory).

If I have flashes then faster shutter speed and higher apperture.

You then also have ISO.

Again, to do with lighting. I stick to iso 400, it works for me. :)

Above is my basic explanation, but I am sure that more experienced people will add more valuable tidbits. :)


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Cheers mate,

My very brief photography lesson this morning touched on aperture, and shutter speeds. :crazy: I am still trying to figure out how to make manual adjustments to the camera settings. I was given a disk with the camera, I presume it`s the manual? Maybe I should read...?

At present i`m running 3 tubes so around 112watts, should I be looking at similar settings to yours? Or will the difference in light force me to make adjustments.

The images I have been getting with the Nikon are a significant improvement on the compact, however I am still getting alot of reflection from the substrate even with the flash off? I know the camera is a little dated but I also know I can improve on my current efforts 100%

Nice one for your imput. Appreciated :thumbup:
 
Quetzalcoatl said:
...I know the camera is a little dated...
Click to expand...
That's what Nikon and Canon want you to think so that you'll go out and spend megabucks on a new camera that works exactly the same as all other cameras for the past 10 years.

For shooting tanks you cannot use automatic settings and get good exposures in a tank consistently. You have to set the camera's exposure settings to manual and use various combinations of aperture size and shutter speeds.

On the top right hand side of the D40, just behind the shutter button, is a dial with M, A, S, and P written on it (and some other goofy symbols). This is called the Exposure Mode Selector Knob.
When the camera is in full auto mode the little green "AUTO" symbol is aligned with the little white bar just to the left of the knob. Rotate this dial counterclockwise until the little white bar aligns with the "M". This means manual mode in which YOU are responsible for determining the aperture and speed.

This is not a big deal because this is a digital camera. So you set the aperture and speed each from different dial combination, you look at the image and erase it if it's not good, and try another combination.

On the D40 the shutter speed is set by rotating the dial on the right hand back panel. It's like a little knurled disk that protrudes from the back. Just rotate the dial and if you look in the viewfinder you'll see the shutter speed increase or decrease depending on which direction you rotate the dial. If the number goes higher the picture gets darker. To set the aperture you rotate the same dial but in addition you have to press the little button on the top panel just behind the shutter button that is marked "+/-". Again, in the viewfinder, if the aperture number gets larger the picture gets darker.

You problem, from what you described, is that the picture is too light so, while you are still in auto mode, look at the combination of aperture and shutter numbers that the camera thinks is right and then, when you rotate the knob to manual all you have to do is select either a higher shutter speed or a higher aperture number, or both. Just play with the combinations until you see something you like and generally these will be the numbers you will use most of the time.

Paulo found this link some time back for beginners=> http://www.shortcourses.com/use/

Cheers,
 
Yeah, don't get fooled thinking that the camera is outdated. I am with the d70 and does all I want. Would like to get a d90 or a d700 but this is mostly for the build quality and video. :)

As Clive says play with it, once you get the hang of it you will see that it is easy to shoot just on manual mode.

The more photos you take, the more you play with it the better you will get. Also it os digital, so the crap ones you can just delete. Take also notes of the settings you had so that you can go back to it.


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Hey guys, thanks for the advice. A* as usual. :clap:

After reading Ceg`s "instruction manual" I will get busy with the manual settings this afternoon! After the football obviously. :D

Just out of interest? If I was to make him a cheeky offer for the camera, what woud a respectable valuation be. Info on the lens reads. DX SWM ED Aspherical (infinity)-0.28m/0.92ft

Oh, and how do you disable the flash when in manual mode?
 
The price of the camera body has nothing to do with the price of the lens. The two are separate items that play together and that is the fundamental difference between SLRs and the compact camera you found so limiting. It is not clear to me exactly which lens your friend let you borrow with the D40 but;
DX means that the lens is compatible with camera bodies that have a smaller digital image sensor, and this captures an image size which is about 40% smaller than the older analog SLRs which used 35mm film.

The SWM means Silent Wave Motor, which means that the lens has it's own autofocus motor independent of the camera body. That motor is powered via a tiny metal contact which completes an electrical circuit when the body and lens are mated. Many Nikon lenses do not have their own motor. The autofocus must be driven by a screw which mates to the body. This is one reason Nikon lost the camera war versus Canon. The D40 can only use modern lenses which have their own autofocus motor because it does not have a jackscrew. This is not a big deal because their are plenty of good lenses around that are compatible. It's only if you had a lot of old motor-less lenses that would cause a problem.

ED means Extra-Low Dispersion and it is a type of glass that when light passes through the glass the various colors that make up white light do not separate as much. This reduces the occurrence of the green and purple color fringes you sometimes see outlining certain shapes and objects in an image. This is really useful in telephoto lenses because of the long distances which result in greater separation of colors. It's not really all that useful for short lenses but is a great marketing tool.

If you look at the glass elements in a lens you'll see that most of them are concave or convex. These shapes that the glass is cut to can be aligned perfectly to a sphere of a given diameter, so these are called spherical lens elements. It's easy to grind a lens to the spherical shape but this shape is not the best shape to transmit light cleanly, so as the light passes through this shape it gets distorted and has to be corrected by passing the light through another spherical shape which has an opposite distortion to cancel the previous distortion. This is why lenses have so many different glass elements inside. aspherical lenses are curved surfaces but the curved shape does not match perfectly with a sphere. In the old days it was very difficult to produce an aspherical shape because the lens had to be hand ground to get the desired shape. Now they have figured out clever manufacturing methods of getting the desired shapes (such as using molds and pouring clear plastic instead of real glass) so this also is a marketing tool, but you can get the optical performance of old in a lighter and cheaper package.

In order to asses the value of the lens it's necessary to know what the focal length is and whether it is a zoom or a prime lens. D40s are typically sold in a kit which includes a standard issue 18-55mm zoom lens. Look on the front of the lens and the numbers preceding the letters "mm" will give you a clue. If this is lens included then I would assume somewhere between £200-£400 depending on the condition of the equipment (i.e. does it have scratches, dents, missing paint and so forth). If you've not figured out by now, the lens is the important part, not the body so the price will depends mostly on the quality of the lens. As a result, you should consider, before making an offer whether this is the lens for you based on what other types of photography you would like to do. For example, if you like to take pictures of birds as well as photograph the tank then you need a lens that can stretch the distances. If you think you would like to do landscapes then you need a lens capable of shooting at wide angles as well.

On the left side front, near where the lens meets the body, there should be a little button with a lightning bolt symbol. As I recall, you hold down this button and rotate the little protruding disk (aka command dial) to change flash modes. It may be that Flash gets immediately disabled when you rotate the exposure mode dial to "M", I can't recall exactly on this model. In any case, check the rear display or viewfinder for the status of the lightning bolt. :crazy:

Cheers,

Cheers,
 
before making an offer whether this is the lens for you based on what other types of photography you would like to do. For example, if you like to take pictures of birds as well as photograph the tank then you need a lens that can stretch the distances.
Click to expand...
Ceg...Shame on you! I`m a married man. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Seriously though, thank you very much for this excellent "idiots guide" introduction to lenses and their functionality! It has been a very interesting, and informative post. :thumbup:

On closer inspection on top of the lens it reads...
NIKON DX AF-S NIKKOR 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G2 ED.
Might as well be Spanish to my eyes??
 
Quetzalcoatl said:
NIKON DX AF-S NIKKOR 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G2 ED.
Might as well be Spanish to my eyes??
Click to expand...
I'm not too familiar with Nikon gear but I'll take some educated guesses.

Nikon - It's made by Nikon

DX AF-S - It's designed for Nikon's cameras with cropped sensors and won't work on full-frame.

Nikkor - Nikon's lens trade name.

18-55mm - focal length range.

1:3.5-5.6 - Max aperture value f/3.5 at 18mm end, f/5.6 at 55mm.

G2 - 2nd generation lens

ED - Extra low dispersion (from Clive's post)

In summary I believe it's the regular kit lens supplied with Nikon's latest entry level cameras.
 
Quetzalcoatl said:
Thanks for clearing that up George. So not that special then? :thumbdown:
Click to expand...
Even though this is "just a kit" lens it does not follow that the lens is inferior. The reason this lens is inexpensive and has less appeal is:
1) It is mostly made of plastic instead of metal.
2) The maximum aperture is not all that wide, especially at the max focal length of 55mm, which means it's difficult to get good non-flash shots in dim light.
3) The range of focal lengths is not terribly special. The view you see the world in with your own two eyes is more or less simulated at a lens focal length of about 50mm. So the perspective that a 50mm lens sees the world in is pretty much the way you see it. That's why you will see 50mm lenses referred to as "Normal" lenses. When the focal length of a lens is below this number the world appears wider and individual objects appear smaller. This is the view a rabbit or deer might have, where they see more of the world but less details of the world. These lenses are referred to as "wide angle" from about 35mm down to about 12mm. The lower the number the wider the field of view.

In this image you can see that the lens is set to 35mm because the number 35 lines up with the little white dot. At 18 you see more of the world and at 55 you see less of it. Zoom lenses used to be very difficult to manufacture, now not so much.

Here are what makes this lens special in it's own way compared to lenses made 30 years ago.
1) It's very inexpensive.
2) Being plastic means it's very light so it's easier to carry around with you and is not a burden when you are trying to get a shot in a difficult to reach location, like on the top of a mountain, or in a hot jungle. Just try carrying around an older metal lens fitted with 18 different glass elements for a day. Then you will learn to appreciate a plastic lens.
3) The lens happens to be very sharp, as mentioned by George.
4) The lens does not distort straight lines as much as some lenses do. This won't matter much if you don't take pictures of things with lots of straight lines.
5) VR is a special feature of modern lenses which compensates for shakiness of hands when you are pointing the camera. This is especially useful in dim light and can reduce or prevent blurred images due to slight movement when the shutter is open. This VR compensates somewhat for the fact that the maximum aperture of the lens is only 3.5. Again, this feature is less useful if your hands are steady but the subject is moving.
6) The lens can focus objects as close as 0.28 meters (less than 12 inches). There are lenses costing 10-20 times as much which cannot focus this closely.
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So this is a very special lens if your goal is to take pictures of friends & family, tanks shots, some basic landscape shots and general outdoor photography where low lighting is not an issue. Lenses are made special by the photographers use of the lens. If you use this lens in a way where the strength of the lens is, and if you minimize using the lens in situations where the lens is at it's weakest, then you'll be all right. Do not look down your nose at cheap plastic lenses because they make photography accessible and their optics rival that of more expensive lenses.

Cheers,
 
Yeah, the lenses are only as good as you are. Also the weight matters a lot. :)

Plastic is light but also breakable. Metal is heavier but bomb proof. I got a 105mm ais lens that weights more than the camera, but this lens takes amazing shots and it is really sturdy, if you smack someone on the head with it they will regret ever having messed up with you. :)


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:wideyed: That`s some post Ceg. Nice one. I`ve learned alot today.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the thread. It`s been really helpfull. :thumbup:

So after just about getting my head around GH + KH, CEC, TDS, CO2, EI it would appear that I`ve got a looong way to go in regards to photography. Bring it on! I may have to make a cheeky offer for the D40 then. Does £150 sound feasible?
 
ghostsword said:
Yeah, don't get fooled thinking that the camera is outdated. I am with the d70 and does all I want. Would like to get a d90 or a d700 but this is mostly for the build quality and video. :)

As Clive says play with it, once you get the hang of it you will see that it is easy to shoot just on manual mode.

The more photos you take, the more you play with it the better you will get. Also it os digital, so the crap ones you can just delete. Take also notes of the settings you had so that you can go back to it.


___________________________
Click to expand...

Luis if you want video, don't get the D700 mate, it doesn't have it, LOL.
 
Quetzalcoatl said:
:wideyed: That`s some post Ceg. Nice one. I`ve learned alot today.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the thread. It`s been really helpfull. :thumbup:

So after just about getting my head around GH + KH, CEC, TDS, CO2, EI it would appear that I`ve got a looong way to go in regards to photography. Bring it on! I may have to make a cheeky offer for the D40 then. Does £150 sound feasible?
Click to expand...

check out Ebay for listings of the D80.... its a better build IMO but still not too advanced to learn well.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Digital-C...catref=1&_sc=1&_sop=15&_trksid=p3286.c0.m1538

This one in particular seems quite a good one, depending on price, as it has an 18mm to 200mm zoom lens. As its a cropped frame sensor this would give you and effective focal length of 27mm (reasonably wide) to 300mm (very decent for zooming outdoors)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nikon-D80...lCameras_JN&hash=item256bd47d25#ht_724wt_1154

As far as useful photography courses go that are free, try this one...
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm

Or the one posted earlier looks good, and this one looks like it covers a bit more detail...
http://photographycourse.net/
 
hello, you will probably find at the 18mm (wide) end of your lens you will get distortion ,so i would avoid taking shots with alot of llines especially near the edges of your lens,if oyu shoot your shot at f8 to f11 you should get the best sharpness the lens is capable of.,most lenses have asweet spot which is usally with the lens stopped down a couple of stops.i would use a support of some type and the cameras self timer.avoid vibration.the ligthing on the tank should be quite adequate to start with but you may end up with a longish exposure hence supporting the camera.try it it is great fun and the more you pratice the camera will get easier to use.it is a very capable camera and would be a great starting point to dslr photography. skankypup http://www.flickr.com/photos/skankypup/
 
Cheers guys.

I begrudgingly had to return the camera today, as it was only loaned by a collegue at work. I made him an offer but unfortunately he had already promised it to his daughter! :arghh:

I have now been biten by the photography bug and face the difficult decision of using the money I`d saved for my rescape, or keeping a close eye on Ebay for a bargain! Decisions, Decisions.

Skankypup. Your talent is really quite impressive. Presuming that you are educated in the art of photography, and not just self taught?
 
hi liam,i taught myself how to use a camera,i joined a photography club a couple of years ago and we have lots of competitions which are are a great way to push yourself,try reading things like photo mags etc ,there are also lots of useful stuff on youtube ,go for it ,its a great hobby, :D
 
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