newbie

hi all, newbie here, looking to improve and learn how to use my new camera, d3100, i am reading a couple of books on this camera now, but its hard to understand all the jargon one minuite it makes sense then next it baffles me so much, any tips very welcome please

Welcome! Try out each feature as you read about it. It will all make sense eventually, shooting is the best way to learn. Learning from mistakes is ok and feel free to ask questions here!

Welcome.

Since lighting is at least 75% of a good photo understanding exposure is essential.
There are three main aspects of "proper" exposure that I like to view as a triangle with each one of these elements a different point of the triangle. You can't change the angle (increase or decrease) without the other two angles being affected.
1. ISO - This is the sensitivity to light your camera is. The higher the ISO the more sensitive to light it is. There is a trade off though. High ISO will cause your pic to be too grainy. If this were not true you could take a good shot in near darkness by just bumping up the ISO a lot. Theoretically you could do that but your pics would look awful.
2. Shutter speed - The slower the shutter speed the more light you let in. Too short... say less than 1/60th of a second and it will be blurry due to the shaking of your hand. You can use a tripod to make it more steady so that your shutter is open 30 seconds. Not always convenient to carry a tripod around with you. A faster shutter speed will freeze a moving subject like in a sports photo.
3. Aperture - This is how large or small the opening of the lens is. A large aperture is actually a lower f#. A large opening (smaller f#) the more light you let in. This also affects Depth of Field (DOF). DOF is how deep your shot is in focus. It looks nice when the background,or foreground, of a portrait is out of focus (Bokeh). A large f stop (smaller f #) will give you a shallow DOF.

These three things are essential to know and understand. Best thing to do is to take a picture of the same thing over and over and change your settings to see what it does.

I am a relative newbie myself but I can safely say you need to get this under your belt to be able to take consistently good photos.

I don't suspect that my comments are going to fully get your understanding of it but it will send you down the right path.

Experiment and have fun and ask questions. This is a great forum with some very helpful members.

Oh... one other thing.... Welcome Aboard!

hi all, thanks for the welcome's, i think i get the iso thingy now, ie. keep it to 100 in bright light and bump it up in dark or low light, i guess there is a lot more in the middle to know too, what i dont get yet is the f stops and the rest combining to get the results, all very confusing still, i would lie to take some photos of cars as i work with them so an ideal subject for me, i have seen the use of filters on the camera to block glare and show the true full colour of the paintwork without flashes or reflections more the case, any idea what filter does this and are cheap ones any good to start with?

Welcome...You Tube is a great learning tool...

piliff said:

hi all, thanks for the welcome's, i think i get the iso thingy now, ie. keep it to 100 in bright light and bump it up in dark or low light, i guess there is a lot more in the middle to know too, what i dont get yet is the f stops and the rest combining to get the results, all very confusing still, i would lie to take some photos of cars as i work with them so an ideal subject for me, i have seen the use of filters on the camera to block glare and show the true full colour of the paintwork without flashes or reflections more the case, any idea what filter does this and are cheap ones any good to start with?

Click to expand...

What are you using to process your shots. PhotoShop, Lightroom?
Are you using the pop up flash? That will almost always give a hard light with reflections.

I am not aware of any filters that will do what you are describing.

hi, not really using any software at present, thought i would try to get some decent photos using the camera rather that trying to alter them with software yet, thought maybe a nd filter would do this job, i had seen a video where a pro took a photo of a black car without the filter and it was all patchy with the sunlight on the paintwork, then with a poss might have been a graduate filter? the paintwork looked perfectly black with no glare at all.
remember i am a novice so i might be talking rubbish here

You might be thinking of a circular polarizing filter. This can reduce sunglare among other uses.

I do think that the vast majority of photographers use some sort of post production software. I personally like Lightroom as it is quite easy to use compared to Photoshop albeit with less features.

see told you i was a novice, would a polarizing filter do the trick you think, i have corel paintshop but not used it too much as yet.

The photos on this page show what a polarizing filter can do. You don't need to spend $75 to get one that works.
Amazon.com: Nikon 52mm Circular Polarizing Filter: Camera & Photo

piliff said:

hi, not really using any software at present, thought i would try to get some decent photos using the camera rather that trying to alter them with software yet, thought maybe a nd filter would do this job, i had seen a video where a pro took a photo of a black car without the filter and it was all patchy with the sunlight on the paintwork, then with a poss might have been a graduate filter? the paintwork looked perfectly black with no glare at all.
remember i am a novice so i might be talking rubbish here

Click to expand...

Early morning or late afternoon then you wont have harsh lighting...Put your camera on a tripod and you will achieve some great shots..

Welcome, I hope that you enjoy your Nikon and the forum as much as I do...

Pat in NH