D90 Help

[Ma*Becca]

This thread is for advice, help, questions etc...on Nikon's D90!

I recently recieved a D90 for my birthday and am having a hell of a time getting use to it. I'm wondering what settings everyone uses? I'm trying to set my white balance but cant seem to decided what colors go with outside and inside. Grrrrr its all so

Share your tips

[sukhakuli]

I have a D40, it's similar, but no video. I'm assuming that you are new to photography, but if not, forgive me.

For the white balance, I always set the custom white balance. Bring a white card with you, go to custom white balance in your menu. Fill the frame with the white card and take a picture. You are telling the camera that what it is looking at is white, and it will adjust from there. If I am just doing snapshots and going in and out of a lot of different lighting, like at Disneyland, I set it to auto white balance and it does a pretty good job.

Are you shooting with a kit lens? If so, I strongly recommend that you get a new lens. It will make an amazing difference in your pictures. Many people are happy with the 50 mm f 1.8, and as far as I know it is not too expensive. We have a 18-200 zoom, and a 60 mm macro, so I have no personal experience with it. The 2 lenses that I have (I also have the kit lens, around here somewhere... ) are well rounded enough to cover just about everything that I do with the camera. The zoom is nice for snapshots and nature/landscapes. The 60mm is a perfect portrait and macro (small things) pictures. I do want more lenses, but my camera is very usable now. I want a new professional camera, but until I decide what to buy, I'm sticking with my D40 and 2 lenses.

What are you going to do with it? Are you going to take it out and use it for snapshots mostly, or are you going to take pictures to print and frame? If you are primarily going to use it as a family camera and for snapshots, then get a decent zoom lens, set the metering on center weighted metering, the white balance on auto, the flash compensation on -1.7, and the exposure on P. Or if you are trying to capture fast motion, use the S mode. That will pretty much cover everything that a family camera needs to do. If you want to learn about exposure, let me know, and I'll drone on about that for a while.

[ProudArmyWifeD]

I have a D90 and mostly use the auto feature, it still takes gorgeous shots. I have yet to learn how to really use it. I want to, though. I also want another lens so I can take better portrait shots.

[sukhakuli]

Originally Posted by ProudArmyWifeD I have a D90 and mostly use the auto feature, it still takes gorgeous shots. I have yet to learn how to really use it. I want to, though. I also want another lens so I can take better portrait shots.

I think that when starting to learn photography the first thing to learn about is composition. Not everyone feels that way, and in general what you are going to hear from other people when they are telling you how to learn is to "get your camera off of auto" and read "understanding exposure." But, I think that stuff should come later. First learn the art, and then master the technical aspects. Your camera does a decent enough job of exposure and white balance, but the composition is all you. Here's a good link to start off with: Digital Photography Tips and Tutorials And there's tons of info here: Photography Composition Articles Library Don't bother buying a book, all the info you need to start off with is online for free.

Once you get your compositions looking good, then start playing with exposure. Exposure is more than just how light or dark your photo is, you can use it to enhance your compositions, too. The Exposure Triangle – In Beginner Speak “The End of Auto Mode” « Fletch’s Photo Blog Your exposure settings will change your depth of field, the depth of field is how much stuff you can have in focus at one time. So everything in front of it will be blurry, and everything behind it will be blurry. The depth of field is determined by how large your aperture is, and how far from the subject you are. Online Depth of Field Calculator

Hopefully this is a good start for anyone who is just starting out.