What settings to start with on Nikon D5000

[lynweber]

Hey everyone I hope u can reply quickly as I am excited to get started taking some great photos But honestly I am feeling really overwhelmed with all the new stuff on my first SLR camera. Please help!

So I got the D5000 I like so far but am so confused on what stuff means and does and where I should set things and you get the idea.

So what do you recommend? Does this camera zoom at all besides the lense?
Image quailty? Good ISO and Aperature settings to use all the time? Any other helpful tips for fellow D5000 users? Thanks!

[kirbinster]

Wow, almost too much to ask for. Why not just set it in auto mode and start playing. I highly suggest the Magic Lantern series, they have one for just about every camera which will do a good job in teaching you everything about the camera. Thom Hogan also has some very good camera specific guides.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by lynweber

Does this camera zoom at all besides the lense?

Thanks for that.

[kencaleno]

Step #1:
Grab your manual-Your manual will not teach you photography, but it will teach you to know your camera, and what all the “whistles and bells” are for, where they may be located, and how they function. Your manual will help you with the following-

Step #2:
Go into the menu of your camera, and find the menu “Reset” . Click this, and all settings, (if you have altered any) will revert to factory default settings.

Step #3:
Now is the time to set up your camera for optimum results, with just seven basic settings. These settings will be used as a base, to take you through several kinds of photographic options.

a) ISO setting………………………………............................... .............Lowest
b) Exposure Mode……………………………….................................. ......Aperture Priority (A/Av)
c) White Balance………………………………............Set on “Cloudy” For warm images. (sometimes, even in bright sunlight, reflected blue skies can make an image look Bluish, (Cool)
d) Drive Mode-Set this to “continuous”, then you will always be ready to capture the unexpected moment
e) Metering Mode ………………………………....Set it to “Matrix/ Evaluative/Multi-segment”
f) Focus points………………………………...........Centre only-The reason for this is that on most entry-level cameras, The only focus point that has cross sensors, is the central one-as others will have only either vertical, or horizontal sensors only-and you have to be at 90 degrees to these, to be accurate with your auto-focus.
g) Auto-focus Mode………………………..Set auto-focus to single shot, then the shutter will only fire when the subject is in focus (every shot will be sharp)

Setting focus points in viewfinder

detach lens, (so you are adjusting focus on focus point, not image) - adjust dioptre (next to viewfinder) so focus points are sharply in focus. (easier against a white, or light background) Re-attach lens.


Right! Camera all set up for Optimum capture. Now let’s find subjects to make images of……
E mail me for the rest of my beginner's guide,regards, Ken

[inkista]

Originally Posted by lynweber

So what do you recommend?

Start with P mode. It's full automatic, but you can still slide some settings around. Use that and get used to seeing what changing the iso and the white balance and exposure compensation do.

Once that gets boring/frustrating, slide into A mode and control the aperture as well.

Once that's a piece of cake, the go into full Manual and get used to using your meter and setting your aperture and shutter speed to exactly what you want.

Does this camera zoom at all besides the lense?

You mean like digital zoom? No. You can do that in post-processing by cropping and resizing.

Image quailty? Good ISO and Aperature settings to use all the time?

Everything's an it-depends setting. But here are the tradeoffs of the three main settings:

Aperture: the lower the f-number, the bigger the aperture, the more light, and the shallower your depth of field (the amount of stuff you can keep in focus) becomes.

Shutter speed: the slower the shutter speed, the more light, but the more chance motion blur from movement, either of the subject or the camera shaking will register on the image.

ISO: the higher the iso, the more light you can gather at once but the noisier the photo will become.

And I'd really recommend that you read this first, 'cause it's something nearly everyone gets wrong right off the bat:

How to Hold a Digital Camera

[lynweber]

Thank you all for your great help and yes I was referring to digital zoom not lens quality sorry if that sounded stupid but thanks for the ones that answered that. I had a lot of fun shooting today. I can't wait to process my images as I am shooting in RAW as well this will be fun. Thanks!

[lynweber]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

Thanks for that.

Sorry I should have specified digital zoom but thanks for making me feel dumb.

[inkista]

Yeah, he's really good at that.

Don't worry about it--it's a big mental leap from P&S camera features to the way that a dSLR works. I remember someone on the dpreview board asking how you zoomed the camera, because there wasn't any rocker switch on the body, and I remember how my head kind of exploded as I realized that there were some folks who had been programmed by their P&Ses to think a certain way. It makes perfect sense if you've never used a dSLR before.

And we've all done our share of silly stuff. I shot for six months with a fisheye without removing the collar that was just meant to keep the lens cap off the front element. And it wasn't until I read somewhere about "the beginner's mistake" of keeping it on, that I found out I'd been wasting about a third of my sensor:

With the collar:


Without the collar:


I didn't even think to ask the stupid question. You're ahead of the game if you do.

[Almond.Butterscotch]

Originally Posted by inkista

And we've all done our share of silly stuff. I shot for six months with a fisheye without removing the collar that was just meant to keep the lens cap off the front element. And it wasn't until I read somewhere about "the beginner's mistake" of keeping it on, that I found out I'd been wasting about a third of my sensor:

I think based on those two examples, I'll take the collared shot.

[inkista]

Eh, what's the point of a fisheye if you can't play with the distortion? Might as well just get a rectilinear ultrawide, like everybody else. Besides, I normally use that lens for panorama shooting--having the widest field of view possible is kind of the whole point when you're shooting equirectangulars handheld...