Ah man I want some of those.
Got other more important stuff to get first though.

 

Nice pick up Marcus

 

i have the camera up and going now and playing with it and i have all day long sunday before monday comes


i had another nikon it was the coolpix l10

 

Point & Shoot doesn't count

Although, have your coolpix handy tomorrow, and take pics with it too.
If it was my kid, I wouldn't trust myself (or even the camera) after only one day using it.

Not saying don't use the dslr... you should absolutely use it, but use the p&s too, because you're used to it... make any since?

 

that line doesn't make any sense

 

^Oops you got me

 

Well if we are going to give him advice related to that then you are right, he'll have to shoot in aperture priority.

OK here it goes: Set your camera to Aperture Priority mode using the widest Aperture (lowest f number, this will change based on your focal length but at 18mm it will be f/3.5), Continuous Shooting - High, VR On, Auto ISO with a max of ISO 800 (I assume your camera can do this), AF-C Focus mode, Dynamic Area AF mode, and Matrix Metering.

These pages will prove very helpful to you: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d5000/af-settings.htm / http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d50...uide/index.htm

I hope I didn't just confuse you

 

yea im taking my other one with me as well this is my first kid i dont want to tell the doctors HEY FREZZE its picture time lol

 

^Very smart. Just in case its good to have the camera you are very comfortable with using. Make sure batteries are charged and you bring an the charger and extra memory cards with you.

 

Marcus hit nail-on-head.

Also, if you thumb through the book, it'll tell you how to change each of those settings.

 

o i will thanks man i have all the bags packed for emergency and everything ... im going to be up all night playing with my new camera o and i just bought a photoshop software to as well to play with .. i have things to keep me buzzy at the hospital for a few days

 

^You bought photoshop???? Oh man, you should have mentioned this to me on the phone earlier, I could've hooked you up.

 

You might also want to consider picking up a f1.8 50mm lens. (I would say a 1.4, but money might be a little more tight what with the baby and all)

Here's a copy of a post I made on another forum answering a guys question about a 1.4 lens (mostly applies to a 1.8 also) maybe you can filter through and find something that will help you out.

Ok, to properly answer is going to take a little bit of typing, but bear with me... if you pay attention, you'll learn a lot and hopefully have a much better understanding of SLR photography in general.

First of all, with any camera you have exposure. The camera has on board electronics to control exposure so that you can take pics in really bright, direct sunlight, or on a dark, overcast day or even inside and still have a good exposure (not too bright or too dark)

The camera primarily uses two things to control exposure.
The shutter speed and the aperture. Shutter speed is a really easy concept to get... bright day, lots of light, shutter can open and close really fast and get all the light you need for a good pic. Less light, and the shutter has to slow down to let in more light.
Obviously, you will run in to a point when it gets really dark that the shutter has to stay open so long that tiny movements in your hand, or in the subject you taking a picture of, will cause motion blur.

The other main thing the camera uses to control exposure is the aperture (often referred to as f-stop)

Here's the important bit
* Lower f numbers mean a larger aperture, means more light can get through the lens to the sensor, and allow the shutter to be faster. *

But the aperture has another effect...
A large aperture (aka low f #) will make a smaller "Depth of Field"
Some pictures, for example, everything is in focus, subject... background... all of it... those pictures have a large depth of field. (Small aperture, higher f-stop)
Then you have pictures where only the subject is in focus, and the further you get from the actual focal point, everything gets really really blurry.
These type pictures are said to have a very small depth of field.
The advantage to these pictures is an artistic look. The other advantage is that since the aperture is bigger, more light gets through, and the shutter can fire faster so you can shoot without motion blur, even in darker conditions (cloudy, indoor, etc...)

When you frame a shot and press the shutter release button half way to focus, the camera will show both the shutter speed and the aperture (f-stop) it is going to use for the shot, both on the display, and in the viewfinder along the bottom.
You'll see something like "f5.6 500" That means the f-stop is set at 5.6 and the shutter will be open for 1/500th of a second.

If your set to auto or "P" (aka 'program') mode, the camera will automatically decide both the shutter speed and f-stop to make the exposure work, however...
One of the nice things about an SLR is that you can move it over to "A" mode, and using the little wheel on the right, you can set the f-stop you want to use, and the camera will adjust only the shutter speed to make the exposure right.
For example, say it was cloudy, or you didn't have much light to work with and you wanted the shutter to be as fast as possible so you don't get motion blur... or you want to take some artistic looking shots with a very small depth of field (dof)
Put the camera in aperture priority (A) and set the f-stop to the lowest number possible

or... Maybe it's really sunny and you need to take a shot where everything is in focus (like a landscape)... aperture priority and set it high (around f11 or so)

You can also set the camera to shutter priority (S)
That will let you set your desired shutter speed and the camera will adjust only the aperture to compensate for exposure.
For example, maybe you want a long shutter to purposefully get motion blur, or maybe you want a really fast shutter speed to 'freeze' motion, like for sports photography.

But the thing about the f-stop is, you can always step it up to a higher number (smaller DOF, more light needed) but to go down in f-stop, the lens has to be built to accommodate the larger aperture.

Each lens will show it's lowest f-stop (largest aperture) available, or, if it's a lens you can zoom in and out, it may show a range. (like f3.5-4.5 or f3.5-6.3)
The first number is the minimum f-stop with the lens zoomed all the way out (wide).

The lens I was talking about is fixed at 50mm, so you can't zoom in-and-out, you have to actually walk closer or further from your subject to crop... but you can go all the way to a f 1.4... which may not sound like a big difference from say f3.5... but it is really a HUGE difference. The 1.4 will let you take sharp pics in even very low light, and gives a very cool artistic effect because the DOF is soooo small.

Here's a shot to show you what I mean.
Even though the weather was overcast and close to sunset, the lens let in enough light to have a plenty fast 1/400th shutter, and as you can see, the DOF is just razor thin.



(bunch more shots with this lens here: https://g35driver.com/forums/photogr...s-welcome.html)

 

The lens Marcus was using yesterday for his kid was a f2.8 which is very good at gathering light. Not quite as good as a 1.4, but the 1.4 (or 1.8) is a fixed lens, so you can't zoom in and out. It's great for taking pics that you can really take your time getting the cropping right (like a sleeping baby for example) but you really want a zoom lens for the delivery room to get the cropping right.

 

i been doing some practice .. yes i know its not a awesome picture but im learning ...