Help again please :)

[Jennifleur79]

Hi All

Hope that you are all well

I have been looking at additional lenses for my Nikon D60, I have the one that came in the kit when I bought the camera which is an 18-55mm lens.

Which do you think would be the next one to set my sights on, I am still a beginner but I would ideally like to be able to zoom further & potentially shoot closer up if that makes sense? Do I have to buy Nikon lenses or is there an alternative brand I can buy?

Also, at the moment I do any editting to my photos in Picasa or Photobucket/Flickr etc, I don't have any photo editting software other than this. Can you recommend the best one for beginners, with opportunity to help me develop at the same time?

Any help much appreciated

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by Jennifleur79

I have been looking at additional lenses for my Nikon D60, I have the one that came in the kit when I bought the camera which is an 18-55mm lens.

Which do you think would be the next one to set my sights on, I am still a beginner but I would ideally like to be able to zoom further & potentially shoot closer up if that makes sense? Do I have to buy Nikon lenses or is there an alternative brand I can buy?

My general suggestions from another thread:

Originally Posted by loveDSLR

Lenses:

General
24-70 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8 VR, 35 f/1.8 AF-S DX or 50 f/1.8 (only if you have a DX consumer body)

UWA
10-24 DX, 14-24 f/2.8 or 17-35 f/2.8 (wedding. overlapped is intended), Sigma 12-24

Macro
60, 105, 200, Sigma 105, 150, Tamron 90, 180

Portraits
35 f/1.8 DX, 50 f/1.4, 85 f/1.4, 105 DC, 135 DC, 200 f/2 VR

Sports, BIF and Wildlife
200-400, 300, 400, 500 etc.

Low night
Nikon 50 f/1.2 AIS, Nikon 58 f/1.2 NOCT (discontinued)

Misc.
10.5 DX or 16 (fun lens)
18-200 VR DX or Tamron 28-300 VC (DX and FX all-in-one)
28-105, 35-70 f/2.8 discontinued (FX walkabout)
80-400 VR

Suggested lists:

Affordable:
18-55, 55-200 VR or 70-300 VR, 50 f/1.8 (manual focus on some bodies) or 35 f/1.8 AF-S DX, extension tubes

Good (D80, D90 and D300):
Sigma 10-20/Nikon 10-24, Sigma/Tamron 24-70 f/2.8, Nikon 70-300 VR, 50 f/1.8, Nikon 60/Tamron 90/Sigma 105

Better (D80, D90 and D300):
Nikon 10-24 DX/Nikon 12-24 DX, Sigma/Tamron/Nikon 24-70 f/2.8, Sigma/Tamron/Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 or Nikon 80-200 f/2.8, Nikon 105 macro VR/Sigma 150/Tamron 180, 50 f/1.4, 80-400 VR

Best:
14-24 or 17-35 f/2.8, 24-70 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8, 85 f/1.4, 200 f/2, 300 f/2.8, 200-400 f/4, 105 micro VR or 200 micro, 58 f/1.2 NOCT

Prioritize your focal length needs and substitute them with brands/models according to your budget.

[RexK_Cozumel]

as for photoediting programs. I am a big fan of adobe. I have been using their products for many years now so I would highly recommend their stuff naturally.

You can download free 30 day full trials of all their software at their website. I would recommend checking out lightroom and elements for starters photoshop CS4 can get a little intimidating for beginners but it is a super powerful program and is the industry standard in graphics editing.

[Jennifleur79]

Hi Thanks for all of that, if I'm honest I don't really understand it but that is because I am so new to all of this! ROFL!
What do they all mean?

[Jennifleur79]

Originally Posted by RexK_Cozumel

as for photoediting programs. I am a big fan of adobe. I have been using their products for many years now so I would highly recommend their stuff naturally.

You can download free 30 day full trials of all their software at their website. I would recommend checking out lightroom and elements for starters photoshop CS4 can get a little intimidating for beginners but it is a super powerful program and is the industry standard in graphics editing.

Thanks, I'll have a look at these then My friend has lightroom, I'll have a look at his next opportunity

[m.c.adams]

For editing, thier are alot of programs out there. Corel Paint Shop Pro X2 is a good one. I use it for quick processing sometimes, even though I now am using Lightroom for that purpose. Photoshop Elements is a good starting point, because as RexK states, Photoshop is the industry standard.
Mark

[RexK_Cozumel]

Originally Posted by Jennifleur79

Hi Thanks for all of that, if I'm honest I don't really understand it but that is because I am so new to all of this! ROFL!
What do they all mean?

What parts are you having trouble understanding? you will have to be more specific since the post was pretty long and lots of information was thrown out there.

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by Jennifleur79

I would ideally like to be able to zoom further if that makes sense? Do I have to buy Nikon lenses or is there an alternative brand I can buy?

Get a Nikon 55-200 VR (affordable) or Nikon 70-300 VR (better).

Originally Posted by Jennifleur79

I would ideally like to be able shoot closer up if that makes sense? Do I have to buy Nikon lenses or is there an alternative brand I can buy?

If close up imply macro then get a set of extension tube (affordable) or a macro lens (e.g., Nikon AF-S 60mm F2.8 Micro).

[inkista]

Originally Posted by Jennifleur79

Which do you think would be the next one to set my sights on, I am still a beginner but I would ideally like to be able to zoom further & potentially shoot closer up if that makes sense?

In lens terms, this would translate to wanting a longer focal length. But my advice is something you may not want to hear. And that would be to just try getting closer. And the second lens you should consider in my book is a 35/1.8 or a 50/1.8--a fast prime lens that will force you to use your feet to compose and not rely on a zoom ring.

The reasons for this are that the prime (non-zooming) lens will give you more aperture to work with than your 18-55, and is likely to be sharper as well as giving you a blurred background more easily. And it'll be an inexpensive lens, as lenses go. But more importantly, when you cannot rely on zoom to do your composition, and it's all about camera placement and framing, you tend to think more and spend a few more seconds on considering composition. For some bizarre reason a zoom can tend to short-circuit these considerations--that once you choose where you stand, your concentration narrows down to zooming as the only factor. A prime forces you to reconsider if you're standing in the right place a lot more.

Also, just to learn about lens basics, like focal length and maximum apeture and primes vs. zooms, I'd recommend this primer.

Do I have to buy Nikon lenses or is there an alternative brand I can buy?

Tamron, Sigma, and Tokina all make new lenses in the Nikon mount. Basically, all you want to be sure of is that the lens is compatible with the Nikon F/G mount. You can also use older manual focus Nikon lenses, as long as they're F-mount. You won't have autofocus, but you can find some real bargains.

Also, at the moment I do any editing to my photos in Picasa or Photobucket/Flickr etc, I don't have any photo editing software other than this. Can you recommend the best one for beginners, with opportunity to help me develop at the same time?

To my mind, Picasa/iPhoto are the beginner software packages. I think you're asking for something a bit more advanced.

It may be more geek-oriented than helpful, but the Gimp is an open source (read: free) piece of software that can perform many of the same post-processing tasks that Photoshop can. It's a good solution for some people, not so great for others. But since it's free, I'd recommend trying it to see.

If you're really serious and willing to spend a bit of money, the package I'd recommend downloading and trying the trial version of is Lightroom (or if you're on a Mac, maybe Aperture). Unlike Photoshop/the Gimp, Lightroom and Aperture are not strictly for post-processing, but more for a photography workflow. They're like a beefed-up pro version of Picasa.

[m.c.adams]

Jen, I just got an e-mail from Corel that says they have PaintShop Pro X2 Ultimate on sale at their website for $29.99. Just a heads-up if your interested.
Mark