How To Use A Nikon Camera

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If you are bewildered past your Nikon digital SLR's numerous buttons, modes, and settings, and don't experience like reading through hundreds of pages of camera transmission, don't worry, you're not alone. The following steps will guide you through the few settings y'all should care about and the basics of using every Nikon digital SLR ever fabricated,^[i] from 1999 right up to today.

There are a lot of similarities betwixt all Nikon digital SLRs, only there are besides some significant differences betwixt classes of camera. These categorizations are used here for convenience'south sake and accept zero to practice with paradigm quality (a D3000 is miles ahead of 1999's professional person D1 on this count):

• High-end cameras are the more expensive cameras with instant adjustments to nearly every setting, important and unimportant, on the camera. This includes all the unmarried-digit (D1/D1H/D1X, D2H and descendants, D3, D4) professional person cameras, equally well as the D300 and D700.
• Mid-range cameras typically have a style dial on the acme plate to the left of the viewfinder, rather than a drive-mode selector. They have directly buttons for white remainder, ISO, shooting way, and so on.
• Entry-level cameras include the D40, D60, and the electric current D3000 and D5000 models. These require you to dig through menus to set drive mode, ISO, white balance and other things, as they don't have buttons for immediate admission to these things.

There are a bunch of settings that you will want to set upwardly in one case, and but one time, with your Nikon digital SLR. Every bit with everything else in this article, we'll brand some enormous generalisations that will go you out there and shooting only don't concord truthful for everyone all the fourth dimension. You can play with these things subsequently, but for now, you want the basics out of the way.

1. 1

   Set your photographic camera to continuous shooting. By default, your photographic camera might be set for single-frame shooting, which pregnant that you go one shot (and but one shot) for each press of the shutter button. You don't want this. Continuous shooting volition allow your camera shoot at its fastest frame rate for every bit long as you hold the shutter button. Doing this is more-or-less costless on digital cameras, and even if you're not shooting things that move quickly (for which continuous shooting is mandatory), there's a good reason to use this: information technology results in sharper photos. Shooting a sequence of two or three shots rather than a single one means that it's more likely that one of them will be sharp, whereas if you take just one you might become unlucky. Yous're also less likely to get camera shake directly acquired past you jabbing the shutter push repeatedly.

   Don't worry virtually this shortening your shutter life; many Nikon SLRs are still working later hundreds of thousands of shutter actuations.^[2]

   • High finish cameras: you take a dedicated dial for this on the elevation-left of the camera, with a C position, which is what yous desire. Button the button next to the dial to unlock information technology and plow the dial. Your photographic camera might have a Ch and Cl position; this is continuous/high-speed and continuous/depression-speed. This is more than or less self-explanatory, so option the 1 that works best for y'all.
   • Mid-range cameras: concord downward the drive style button and spin the primary command punch. Look at the peak LCD and wait until you lot see the three rectangles (rather than a single-rectangle, or a timer icon) indicating that continuous shooting is on.
   • Entry-level cameras: you'll take to dig through the menus to discover this. You're on your own here, because this differs from camera to photographic camera.

2. 2

   Plow on vibration reduction (VR) if your lens has it, and leave it on. If you're shooting in low lite, or if you don't have very steady easily, this volition ensure that you can get sharp shots without photographic camera shake in all merely the most unfavourable lighting. Y'all'll need to turn this off only if you're shooting from a tripod (and the whole signal of VR is that you lot don't need to use a tripod in most conditions).^[iii]

3. iii

   Set your camera to utilize matrix metering. An explanation of this is beyond the scope of this article; it's plenty to say that matrix metering is very clever and works well enough about of the fourth dimension under nearly conditions. On high-end cameras, you lot accept a defended switch for this. On mid-range cameras, hold down the button while turning the master command cycle until the matrix metering symbol is displayed. Once more, on the cheaper ones, you're going to have to dig through the menus to find it (though you may exist able to skip this; they probably use the matrix meter by default).

4. 4

   Set your camera to continuous servo autofocus (C). In this mode, the photographic camera will focus continuously for as long every bit you half-press your shutter push, and tin can predict subject movement, also. Information technology's fine for even so subjects also.(You don't need to worry besides much most the other focus modes. Single-servo (S) is useless for photographing anything that moves, because it locks focus every bit soon every bit it is achieved. And manual focusing is almost never necessary; information technology's rare for the camera to get and so upset that it won't be able to focus at all, and in the very rare cases that it does, that volition hateful that yous won't get focus confirmation in the viewfinder, either.)

   • On all cameras: if yous have an A-M switch (or A/M-M, A/M meaning autofocus with immediate manual override), fix this to A, or A/M.
   • On high end cameras: in that location's a focus style switch on the front end of the camera on the right (if y'all're looking at it from the front) of the lens mount, with three positions: C, South, and Thou. Set this to "C".
   • On all other cameras: you might accept a similar switch in the same place, with AF (autofocus) and M (manual focus) positions. Set this to "AF", if you accept information technology. Y'all'll have to dig through your menus (again, different from photographic camera to camera) in gild to detect the setting for continuous-servo AF.

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1. ane

   Plow your camera on and go out it on. Like all movie and digital SLR cameras, your camera will go to sleep when information technology is non used, and it will consume almost no battery power at all when it is turned-on-but-asleep. Having to plough your camera on when something happens is a sure manner to miss shots, potentially great ones.

2. ii

   Get out there and look for things to shoot. This is beyond the scope of this article, simply the basics of getting great photos are covered in How to Develop Your Photography Skills.

3. 3

   Don't use "alive view" even if your photographic camera has information technology. The whole betoken of an SLR is to utilise the instant optical reflex viewfinder (the "SLR" in "digital SLR"), rather than the ho-hum LCD of a point-and-shoot. What's more, this means ditching the intelligent, fast phase-detection autofocus that Nikon have perfected over two decades and replacing it with a dull, inaccurate dissimilarity-detection autofocus system from a inexpensive camcorder. If yous're not sure you lot want guaranteed missed shots and/or poor focus, use the viewfinder rather than the LCD.

4. 4

   Pick an exposure fashion. If your camera has a "Fashion" button, you lot change the exposure mode by property this down and spinning the main control punch until the desired mode appears in your height LCD and in your viewfinder. Other (cheaper) cameras will have a big friendly mode punch on the pinnacle of the camera to the left of the viewfinder. The basic modes are the same on all cameras, and there are merely 3 that y'all should care about:

   • Programmed automatic (P). This volition select both an aperture and shutter speed for you. Near of the time, and especially in normal lighting, this is the mode y'all want to use. Yes, it's a fully-automated manner and you lot've been told that this will hinder your creativity. This is nonsense on stilts, particularly given that you lot tin can shift the programme using the master control dial on the rear of the camera. So if the photographic camera picks a shutter speed of 1/125 at an aperture of f/5.vi, you tin can shift this to i/fourscore at f/7.1, or ane/200 at f/iv.2, etc etc, right up to the limitations of your aperture and shutter.
   • Aperture priority (A). This will let you to select an aperture for the lens (you usually exercise this past turning the secondary command punch on the front of the camera; if you lot don't have one of these, employ the main command punch on the rear), and the camera will select a shutter speed for a right exposure. The primary reason to use this is for control over your depth of field. Large apertures (smaller numbers, like f/one.8) will give you a shallower depth of field (less of your photo in focus and faster shutter speeds, useful for blurring the background of a portrait, for example. Smaller apertures (larger numbers, such equally f/xvi) will requite you more depth of field, and also force longer shutter speeds.
     

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     Aperture priority style is useful to force a shallow depth of field, and to throw the background far out of focus (or the complete reverse). This was shot on a 55-200mm VR, at 200mm, with an aperture of f/5.6.

   • Shutter priority (S) will allow you lot to set a shutter speed with the master command dial (which will announced in your viewfinder) and the photographic camera volition cull an aperture on the lens to friction match. Employ this if you want to freeze motility (like sports, or anything else that moves), or if yous're using a telephoto lens that mandates using a faster shutter speed to avoid photographic camera milk shake.
   • The residue. On the entry-level and mid-range cameras, the mode dial has an "Auto" position. Don't use this; it's much like programmed automatic, but inflexible (you can't shift the program, for example) and ruder (it pops the flash without asking). The various "scene modes" on the cheaper cameras should be ignored for the aforementioned reason. If yous want to political party like it's 1976, there's also a fully manual (Chiliad) fashion on all cameras; there'southward almost no reason to ever use this.^[four]

5. 5

   Set your white rest . This is more of import than whatsoever other setting on your camera. The human eye automatically compensates for dissimilar kinds of lighting; white looks white to us in near any kind of lighting, whether that's in the shade (in which example it's slightly bluer), or under incandescent lighting (where information technology's shifted towards orange), or under some weird bogus calorie-free sources (which can change several times a second!). A digital camera sees colours as they really are, and the white balance setting shifts the colours so that they expect natural in the finished photograph.^[5]

   On most cameras you have a "WB" button; agree this downwardly while spinning the main control punch. These are the settings yous care about:

   • Cloudy and shade, marked with a deject symbol and a film of a business firm casting a shadow respectively, are where you desire to exist almost of the time when you are outdoors, even when under straight sunlight. "Shade" is slightly warmer than "cloudy"; experiment with this to discover the ane that'south right for yous.
   • Auto, marked with an A, volition endeavor to ready the white remainder automatically. This sometimes results in colours that are likewise absurd; as it has been said, "engineers are interested in copying color test charts, non making a good photo".^[5] On the other hand, this might be a skilful pick for shooting under really weird artificial lighting like mercury vapour lamps, or under mixed lighting sources. Newer cameras do a much meliorate job of guessing this than older ones.
   • Daylight, marked with a sun symbol, is supposed to exist best for straight sunlight. Once more, the colours sometimes come out a scrap too cool.
   • Tungsten and fluorescent, marked with a light seedling and a fluorescent strip-calorie-free respectively, are for shooting under bogus lighting indoors. This tin can be safely ignored for real photography; indoor lighting is deadening and yous should be outside shooting things. On the other manus, you lot can use these outdoors to great consequence; for example, you lot can use tungsten to make skies turn blue.

6. 6

   Utilise your flash judiciously. If you want better than boring washed-out party snapshots, don't become stuck with indoor lighting that forces you to nuke your subject with direct wink. Get outside, where the fun calorie-free happens. On the other hand, Nikon's excellent flash system (and the insanely fast 1/500 flash sync on older cameras) is great for filling shadows in bright outdoor lighting, to avoid (for example) dark shadows nether eyes in daylight.

7. 7

   Set your ISO. The ISO is a measure of the sensor'south sensitivity to lite; lower ISOs mean less sensitivity to light, giving less noise but slower shutter speeds (making camera milkshake more probable), and college ISOs do the opposite. If you're shooting in vivid daylight, go out this at the slowest speed (commonly 200, and sometimes 100).

   Otherwise, there'due south a quick and easy way to work out what your ISO should be. Take the focal length of your lens (due east.g. 200mm), and multiply it by 1.five (on all cameras only the D3, D4, D600, D700 and D800, giving you 300 in our example). If y'all're using a VR lens (y'all should) and have VR turned on (you should), divide this effigy past four (e.g. 75). Every bit a general rule, you desire to choose a shutter speed at to the lowest degree as fast as your resulting number (eastward.yard. roughly i/80th of a second, or 1/300th without VR). Kick up your ISO until yous're able to shoot at shutter speeds at to the lowest degree this fast.

   On most cameras, yous can change the ISO past belongings down the ISO push and turning the primary control dial; the LCD (or one of them) will show y'all your ISO equally it changes. You're still left to dig through the menus to detect an ISO setting on the D3000, the D40, and friends.

8. 8

   One-half printing your shutter button to focus. Hopefully, yous'll get lucky, and the photographic camera will pick the correct focus point (the little rectangles dotted around your viewfinder) and lock on to the right affair. When the photographic camera is in focus, a minor, green confirmation dot will appear in the lesser left of your viewfinder. However, there'southward a few scenarios in which that doesn't concur truthful.

   • Off-centre subjects. Depending on how far off-centre, and on your camera, it might pick the incorrect focus betoken. If this is and then, centre your subject in your frame, focus, then hold downwards your AE-50/AF-L push button as yous recompose the shot and shoot. (A flim-flam: utilize this on portrait shots. Focus on the eyes, lock, then recompose.)
   • Subjects with something closer to them than the subject. On all cameras some of the fourth dimension, the camera will endeavour to focus on the closest thing to the camera. Handy, but that's non what yous desire all the time. Yous'll take to set your camera to single-expanse AF (non to exist confused with unmarried-servo AF), which will allow yous to pick a single focus point rather than letting the photographic camera approximate one for yous.To set up this on most cameras, you'll have to dig through the photographic camera'south two k menu options for autofocus setup (though you get a dedicated button for this on the high-stop cameras; switch this to the single, pocket-sized rectangle). Once you've done this, you can employ the multi-selector on the rear to pick an autofocus point.
   • Really low lite. You'll have to manually focus. Set up your lens to M (or the switch on your camera, if you're using a traditional screw-type AF or AF-D lens). Grab the focus ring and plow information technology. Of form, if your camera is hung upward and tin can't focus, then you probably won't have much better luck telling whether y'all're in focus or not. If your lens has a distance scale you can guess the altitude and set it on your lens, and pretend yous're shooting a Voigtlander Vito B from 1954.
   • Some combinations of camera and lens when zoomed all the way in just don't like each other and decline to find focus in whatsoever situation. The D300 and 55-200mm VR lens do this sometimes. If this happens to y'all, zoom your lens out, focus on your subject and zoom back in once again once it finds focus.

9. 9

   Have a picture. Really, take two or three; hold downwardly the shutter button (you did gear up your camera to continuous shooting, right?). That way if, past some stroke of bad luck, one of your shots isn't abrupt because of camera shake, at least one of them is likely to be sharp, even if you're at a shutter speed that'southward besides tedious for your lens' focal length.

10. 10

    Check your LCD. Look for areas that are blown out to pure white which shouldn't be blown out to pure white, and wait for areas that are way too dark, so...

11. 11

    Use your exposure bounty to get your exposure correct. This is the button marked +/- next to your shutter button, and is the other absolutely critical adjustment on digital cameras. While Nikon's matrix meter is smart, it won't become exposure absolutely perfect all of the time, and isn't a substitute for artistic judgment. Exposure compensation simply forces the camera to over- or nether-betrayal by a given amount.

    To ready exposure compensation, hold the exposure compensation button down while turning the main command punch; either to the correct to underexpose (darker), or to the left to overexpose (lighter). If in dubiety, underexpose it. Diddled highlights on digital can never be recovered curt of painting them back in by hand, but you lot can recover from all but the virtually final under-exposure (at the cost of bringing out more than dissonance, which isn't that of import).

12. 12

    Keep shooting until it looks right. You might have to adjust exposure compensation and white residuum from shot-to-shot as the lighting changes, and then regularly review your images on your LCD.

13. 13

    Get your photos off your camera. Learn to do some very basic post-processing in image editing tools similar GIMP or Photoshop, such as sharpening, adjusting dissimilarity and colour remainder, and and then on. Don't rely on post-processing tricks to make your photos interesting.

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Add New Question

• Question

  How practice I set it for video?

  

  Make certain your camera is stabilized. You lot tin can use a tripod, monopod etc. for this. Become the right options for your video. It depends on what you capture. If y'all are filming a cinematic video endeavor to use lower fps. If you volition edit the colors later on capturing video make certain the color settings in neutral.

• Question

  What are the best settings for shooting a hockey game with D7000?

  

  It doesn't thing much virtually which camera y'all are using, unless you want to shoot in a 'scene way,', in which example you should pick 'sports' or 'action'. Otherwise, use shutter priority (Tv) and selection a fast shutter speed - probably at least 1/100 sec (maybe 1/250 for hockey). That will help to freeze the action. The residue of your settings are less important, and will depend on how much lite in that location is. For a high shutter speed, y'all will probably either need a big aperture (low f/number), high ISO, or both.

• Question

  What can I practise to be taking the all-time shots, even at night?

  

  Employ a tripod and remote shutter release or self-timer to proceed the photographic camera even so. Also think about your white balance - brand certain it is set according to the color of your lite source. You may need to illuminate what you are shooting then that you can focus on it accurately. Raising your ISO tin brand the photographic camera more sensitive to calorie-free but as well make the motion picture more "noisy," so either keep the shutter open longer at a lower ISO, or bargain with the noise. Some cameras have less noise than others at high ISOs.

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References

1. ↑ Like everything else in this commodity, this is a lie for simplicity's sake: nosotros beginning at 1999. For those who like historical curiosities, Jarle Aasland has a splendid website defended to some strange cameras built earlier the D1 made digital SLRs practical.
2. ↑ See hither for a 6-year-old Nikon D2H with over 379,000 shutter actuations, or the Shutter Life Expectancy Database.
3. ↑ Image Stabilization on Tripods, by Darren Rowse.
4. ↑ Yous'll only ever need this if you're in such farthermost weather, or want enormous such enormous over- or under-exposure, that several stops of exposure bounty isn't enough to get you lot the effect y'all desire. Y'all'll also need to exercise this to use AI and AI-s lenses on cheaper cameras, which you shouldn't be doing anyway.
5. ↑ ^{v.0 5.1} For gory details, and some fantabulous advice, see How to Set White Balance by Ken Rockwell.

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