Need some tips,have the D5100 Nikon with Kit lens and AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G lens

[slicksilver]

Im heading out to a trip to Vegas with a batch of friends of mine and was wondering what is the best way/settings to use to take shots. I'm a novice when it comes to photography although I have the SLR and the additional lens. Got the 35mm lens years back on a friend's recommendation when I asked him on what I should get for low light indoor pictures. Almost all the photos taken with the cam are in Auto mode. I'm sure we wont be taking any landscape pictures. All the pictures will have my pals in them and the only change in environment will probably be daytime and night-time. Any tips ? Thanks in advance.

EDIT:>Dont mind hiring a lens online too. I dont know if this is needed or not but money is not a constraint. Better and higher quality pictures are more important than anything else. All of us will be splitting the rent on the lens.

 

[AViking]

You need to learn how the camera works so go ahead and buy pretty much any of those D5100 for dummies books. You need to learn how to get off of Auto mode.

Learn the relationship between:
Aperture
Shutter Speed
ISO

Then start by using P mode until you get comfortable with S and A mode. I would highly recommend learning how to use manual mode too.

Now I'm going to take a step back and assume that you're leaving for your trip very soon which means that my suggestions might be a bit too much. So for a short term solution put the camera in P mode and only pop the flash up if you REALLY need it. Auto mode tends to just fire off the flash for no good reason and I don't like that. If P mode fails you and you don't know what to do try one of the built in modes which I'm assuming the camera has. Like sunset mode. Then try Auto. If you're in a pinch or passing the camera off to someone else to shoot you can use Auto but if you don't want the flash to fire use the no flash mode.

 

[slicksilver]

Thank you AViking!. Yes just another week for the trip. Quick question, usually upto what distance in feet is the flash effective when shooting a subject?

 

[AViking]

in plain terms, the flash’s rating means that the unit is powerful enough to allow proper illumination of a subject that’s 10 feet away at f/4 at the ISO 100 (sensitivity) setting of your camera. Boost the ISO (or use a wider f/stop) and you can shoot subjects that are located at a great distance. For example, at ISO 800, the D5100’s flash is good enough for a subject at 20 feet using f/5.6 or, alternatively, you can expose that scene at the original 10 feet distance at f/11. Ordinarily, the D5100 takes care of all these calculations for you. If you need a bigger blast of light, you can add an external flash, like the Nikon SB-900, which lets you reach out to 3245 feet at ISO 200 and f/5.6 (or even farther at larger f/stops).

The problem isn't so much the rating of the flash though. It is that it makes all your pictures illuminated by a big light source from the front and removes shadows. It's not very attractive. I actually only use the built in flash for shots at the beach since in bright light I need to fill in those crazy shadows that are generated. For everything else I'd father bump the ISO up and take it with natural light or use my off camera flash.

 

[Indus]

Remember this.. auto is the worst way to use a DSLR.

The best advice I can give you.. you have a DSLR, you have a prime, use aperture priority at f/4 and all you need is an external flash for the camera and use it in bounce mode. The difference between on camera flash vs bounce flash is amazing..

 

[slicksilver]

Remember this.. auto is the worst way to use a DSLR.

The best advice I can give you.. you have a DSLR, you have a prime, use aperture priority at f/4 and all you need is an external flash for the camera and use it in bounce mode. The difference between on camera flash vs bounce flash is amazing..

Is this tip more geared towards taking indoor shots in the night? or generally all day? Which external flash do you suggest I get?

 

[CuriousMike]

Here's a way to approach this.
1. Stick the 35mm lens on the camera
2. Put your dial on 'A', aperture priority mode.
3. Learn how to read your shutter speed. Typically, something like 1/30 or 1/1000 or 2".
1/30 = 1/30 of a second. 2" means 2 seconds. You cannot handhold your camera for 2 seconds and expect a sharp photo. Aim to keep the shutter speed at or above 1/30 for handheld.

What to do when your shutter speed is too slow,
a) Modify the aperture ( how big the hole is in your lens letting light in.). Typically, you'll spin your main control wheel to modify the aperture size. f2.8 is bigger than f4 is bigger than f8. If you're outdoors in lots of light, f2.8 might let in too much light. If you're indoors with modest lighting, f8 probably won't let in enough light.
Change the apeture and watch your shutter speed change.
b) If modifying your aperture still doesn't bring your shutter speed up to >= 1/30 second, then learn how to adjust your ISO. There is probably an option on your D5100 to assign your "Fn" button to control ISO. ISO controls how sensitive your camera is to light. The default value is probably 200 - crisp photos with good light. It can go up to probably 3200 - very sensitive, but photos get 'noisy'.
Spin your shutter speed up to 400, 800, 1600 and watch as your shutter speed gets faster and faster.

Play with those combo's - you're trying to balance your Aperture and your ISO to give you a fast enough shutter speed so you don't have blurry photos.

You might just go into your house, in a modestly lit room and try this:
Set your aperture to f2.8, and your ISO to 1600. See what the shutter speed is.
Move to a dimmer room and try the same.

 

[CuriousMike]

Is this tip more geared towards taking indoor shots in the night? or generally all day? Which external flash do you suggest I get?

'Bounce flash' is effective indoors.
The flash will be an additional flash unit that clicks on the top of your camera - you can rotate the flash so that it is aiming UP.
If the ceiling for the room you're in isn't too high, the flash will bounce off the ceiling and back down on the scene, typically creating a pleasing light -- i.e., the flash isn't pounding the subject right in their face.

Example: The room was dark, and I was standing 2 feet away from our cat.
Notice the lighting on the cat isn't harsh ( harsh would be the flash hitting her in the face.) rather, the flash hit our ceiling and created a more diffused (softer) light

 

[biostud]

I have the same setup and this is way I set it to for normal photo.

A (Aperture mode), use the wheel to compose your shots, both regarding focus depth and light sensitivity.
Auto ISO max 3200, this prevents the pictures from getting too grainy.
min shutter speed 1/100, 1/160 or 1/200 depending on how steady your hands are. This minimize the risk of shaken pictures.

This way you can easily compose your pictures, and manage to get good results.

If there's not enough light the shutter speed will increase, increasing the chance of shaken pictures. Then you have to reduce aperture towards f/1.8 to increase the amount of light getting through the lens, sacrificing focus depth.

 

[Syborg1211]

Slick, I'm going to go against the grain here and advise differently than my fellow photogs above. While my recommendation is to still heed their advice and learn the other camera modes when you can, I don't know if you'll be able to do it in a week. Unless you plan on practicing every night this week (in live situations with moving people and low light situations), I think you're going to make a lot of mistakes on your trip figuring all of this out.

Using personal experience, you definitely don't learn how to use the more manual modes until you're under pressure to get it right with people looking at you wondering wtf you're doing. In my experience, this led to a lot of messed up and frustrating pictures in the past when I was still figuring things out. You usually don't learn until after you've gotten back to your computer that darn you shoulda upped the ISO or something else was set wrong.

To learn these kinds of things on a trip that you won't be able to reproduce is definitely saddening. Here's the thing - auto mode will figure out what you're trying to do and get things close to right about 60% of the time. When you first switch it into the other modes like Aperture priority mode, you'll get things right maybe 30-40% of the time. Once you learn how to manipulate your camera settings to do what you want, your hit rate will rise above 70-80%+, but this is after a lot of experimentation and learning. Experimentation and learning that you cannot in any way condense into a single week.

So my recommendation is to roll with the no-flash auto mode (lightning bolt with a cross over it) for this trip and learn more things after the trip.

 

[CuriousMike]

Auto ISO max 3200, this prevents the pictures from getting too grainy.
min shutter speed 1/100, 1/160 or 1/200 depending on how steady your hands are.

Or that !

( The D5000 doesn't have min shutter speed )

 

[slicksilver]

Slick, I'm going to go against the grain here and advise differently than my fellow photogs above. While my recommendation is to still heed their advice and learn the other camera modes when you can, I don't know if you'll be able to do it in a week. Unless you plan on practicing every night this week (in live situations with moving people and low light situations), I think you're going to make a lot of mistakes on your trip figuring all of this out.

Using personal experience, you definitely don't learn how to use the more manual modes until you're under pressure to get it right with people looking at you wondering wtf you're doing. In my experience, this led to a lot of messed up and frustrating pictures in the past when I was still figuring things out. You usually don't learn until after you've gotten back to your computer that darn you shoulda upped the ISO or something else was set wrong.

To learn these kinds of things on a trip that you won't be able to reproduce is definitely saddening. Here's the thing - auto mode will figure out what you're trying to do and get things close to right about 60% of the time. When you first switch it into the other modes like Aperture priority mode, you'll get things right maybe 30-40% of the time. Once you learn how to manipulate your camera settings to do what you want, your hit rate will rise above 70-80%+, but this is after a lot of experimentation and learning. Experimentation and learning that you cannot in any way condense into a single week.

So my recommendation is to roll with the no-flash auto mode (lightning bolt with a cross over it) for this trip and learn more things after the trip.

I think I'll go with your suggestion with auto and no flash for all the important shots. I'll keep practicing with the other settings until I get a hang of how things work and start shooting manual pictures later on.

Thank you all. One quick question, will renting out a lens better the auto shots in any way? Friends basically suggested that we rent out a good lens for the trip. Now I know a good lens is only as good as the shooter but does having a expensive lens make auto shots better?

 

[slicksilver]

'Bounce flash' is effective indoors.
The flash will be an additional flash unit that clicks on the top of your camera - you can rotate the flash so that it is aiming UP.
If the ceiling for the room you're in isn't too high, the flash will bounce off the ceiling and back down on the scene, typically creating a pleasing light -- i.e., the flash isn't pounding the subject right in their face.

Example: The room was dark, and I was standing 2 feet away from our cat.
Notice the lighting on the cat isn't harsh ( harsh would be the flash hitting her in the face.) rather, the flash hit our ceiling and created a more diffused (softer) light

Thanks I'll keep shooting with your tips until I get a hang of the settings. The bounce flash suggestion I'm thinking will not be very applicable to me as most places we plan to frequent in Vegas have very high ceilings.

 

[Syborg1211]

One quick question, will renting out a lens better the auto shots in any way?

The 35mm 1.8g is a really solid lens that will perform well in low light conditions. There's not really another prime lens you can get that will warrant all the trouble of renting.

However, you might put that 35mm on your camera and look through the viewfinder and get a feel for the focal length. Generally, I find the 35mm to be a bit too zoomed in on the D5100 for landscape type of shots. Get a feel for how far you would have to stand back in order to capture a group shot with the amount of context background that you'd like to get and see if that's too far for your liking. If it is, you might check out a zoom lens that can go wider than 35mm while still maintaining a decent aperture such as the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 OS HSM (great lens). Primes are always sharper and better performing than zooms, but zooms offer versatility. The Sigma I mentioned is one of the sharpest zooms for DX format cameras.

 

[DeeeV]

35 mm f/1.8G the best buy ever for my D5100.
Still use the kit lens from time to time.

 

[Anteaus]

I think I'll go with your suggestion with auto and no flash for all the important shots. I'll keep practicing with the other settings until I get a hang of how things work and start shooting manual pictures later on.

Thank you all. One quick question, will renting out a lens better the auto shots in any way? Friends basically suggested that we rent out a good lens for the trip. Now I know a good lens is only as good as the shooter but does having a expensive lens make auto shots better?

Not really. Your 35mm is about as fast as your going to short of spending a ton of money on an f/1.4, and while you'll gain a bit more light the DOF will be almost ridiculously thin not to mention soft. Auto is a handicap, and not in the "it will usually get you close but not perfect, but more in the "it will get you there some of the time but really screw you at others". There is no need to learn how to shoot full manual, but honestly there are only two things you need to learn to shoot well most of the time:

1. How shutter speed, aperture, and ISO relate to each other.

2. How and when to use shutter and aperture priority modes.

The rest is about learning what your camera is capable of and how to meter. You have to think of a D-SLR as less like a point and shoot and more of an imaging tool. With a little time the people in this thread can turn you into one hell of a photographer.

I'm going to go off the beaten path, and say that if money truly is no object and time is really tight, I would suggest buying a prosumer point and shoot like the Canon S120. It has all the major controls of a D-SLR, but is much more auto friendly. It has a much larger sensor than average point and shoots so it has better low light capabilities and a fast lens. I only suggest it due to your time constraints. It can also be used in full manual for training. Just a thought. It might not be what you wanted to hear though lol.

 

[xj0hnx]

Old thread, but meh, something that hasn't been mentioned, your 35mm on the D5100, or any other Nikon DX crop sensor camera is actually going to be a 52.5mm. All Nikon's consumer, most prosumer, as well as the Pro former flagships D1's, and D2's have a crop factor of 1.5, Canon's are 1.6, except the pro body 1D, which are 1.3 ..weird.

I'd stay in P - Program Mode while learning the in's and out's of the exposure triangle and how to really use M- Manual Mode.

I would suggest buying a prosumer point and shoot like the Canon S120. It has all the major controls of a D-SLR, but is much more auto friendly.

This just make me chuckle. There is nothing on the S120, or just about any point and shoot, that could be considered "Prosumer". It has no where near the controls that make something like the D300S, or 5D considered "prosumer", can't change lenses, can't add external flash, etc ...

 

[Anteaus]

This just make me chuckle. There is nothing on the S120, or just about any point and shoot, that could be considered "Prosumer". It has no where near the controls that make something like the D300S, or 5D considered "prosumer", can't change lenses, can't add external flash, etc ...

It's all relative as well as subjective. It is prosumer compared to other point and shoots, not D-SLRs lol. I just meant that it carries a feature set more robust than the average point and shoot and commands a higher price tag accordingly.

All D-SLRs have the same basic functionality. It is only when you start tacking on features (physical and software) that the camera's become "prosumer" and then up to "professional" based on who is traditionally likely to use them. This progression applies to P&Ss independent of D-SLRs.

You might disagree with my assessment, but the trend is there.

 

[xj0hnx]

It's all relative as well as subjective. It is prosumer compared to other point and shoots, not D-SLRs lol. I just meant that it carries a feature set more robust than the average point and shoot and commands a higher price tag accordingly.

All D-SLRs have the same basic functionality. It is only when you start tacking on features (physical and software) that the camera's become "prosumer" and then up to "professional" based on who is traditionally likely to use them. This progression applies to P&Ss independent of D-SLRs.

You might disagree with my assessment, but the trend is there.

I guess it's one of those agree to disagree things. To my a P&S is a P&S no matter how many features it has. I can't consider a camera prosumer unless you can change the lens, and access a majority of the functions on the fly with your eye in the view finder, not have to get at them through a menu, even a really neat touch screen one.

What is funny is that it seems a lot of professional shooters use "prosumers", while a lot of better off hobbyist are the one sporting the pro bodies. I've seen so many videos and pictures of pros and it seems a lot of them are shooting like D300, D700, D7100, 5D', 6D, 60D lol. Occasionally they'll break out the D3X, or 1D, but the smaller bodies seems to be more popular for everyday use.

 

[Anteaus]

I guess it's one of those agree to disagree things. To my a P&S is a P&S no matter how many features it has. I can't consider a camera prosumer unless you can change the lens, and access a majority of the functions on the fly with your eye in the view finder, not have to get at them through a menu, even a really neat touch screen one.

What is funny is that it seems a lot of professional shooters use "prosumers", while a lot of better off hobbyist are the one sporting the pro bodies. I've seen so many videos and pictures of pros and it seems a lot of them are shooting like D300, D700, D7100, 5D', 6D, 60D lol. Occasionally they'll break out the D3X, or 1D, but the smaller bodies seems to be more popular for everyday use.

I understand where you are coming from. I use the term prosumer in regards to where a product fits into it's direct competition. For example, in the D-SLR world you have entry level cameras such as D3XXX and D5XXX and then shift up to prosumer bodies such as the D7XXX which have much of the capability of the professional bodies but without some of the bells and whistles and build quality. Nikon specifically cites which bodies are professional, as ownership of at least 2 of those cameras is required as one of the conditions of joining Nikon Profession Services (NPS). Currently, the only crop body that falls into that category is the D300s, which is partly why the D7000/D7100 is considered "prosumer". On the FX front, the D800 is the minimum that qualifies.

I'm not saying my way is right though. Its just in my experience that has been how cameras were compared.