I'm using a Nikon D40, and looking for some help.?

Question

Well I've been taking pictures for almost 4 month's, had one of my photo's published and copy written. I'm looking for tips on camera settings, I've been messing with the settings myself and not sure if it's good considering I'm still an amateur and not sure what every setting does.. I use one lense the most and it's the AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3 5.6 G2 ED, I also use my newest lense, AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm 1:4-5.6G ED with VR. I'm trying to focus most of my experience on portraits and some landscapes such as sunsets and sun rises. I've yet gotten an external flash but I'll be getting the SB-600 i-TTL. What I'm asking is how do I get the best quality out of my camera using manual settings?

Answer 1

Here are some suggestions:

-- Don't use Manual Exposure -- it forces you to think about two things at once. Use settings with only one variable, such as:

-- Aperture Priority for shots where depth of field is more important.

-- Shutter Priority where stopping action is more important.

-- Also, put your flash on i-TTL BL and leave it there. Tune it with the flash comp buttons.

-- Don't bother with Exposure Compensation except to set an overall under- or over- exposure for all pics. Use AE Lock to tune exposures.

Overall, you'll get much better results by letting the camera do the thinking and just making tweaks where necessary.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Here are 3 books that might be of interest to you:

"How Digital Photography Works, 2nd. Edition" by Ron White

"Advanced Digital Photography" by Tom Ang

"The Joy of Digital Photography" by Jeff Wignall

These were reviewed in the Dec. 2007 issue of Shutterbug Magazine (shutterbug.com). There are a couple of others on portrait and landscape photography.

One more excellent reason to subscribe to at least one photography magazine.