D3300 Nikon - Novice
Discussion
Good Morning All,
I have the basic D3300 Nikon DSLR and lens and i have generally only used it in auto for holiday and fishing photos, occasionally i have played about with manual settings but not really knowing what i have been doing.. I have done some reading before but ill be honest i have not retained any of the information.
My first child is due next week and it doesnt look like any form of newborn photoshoot will be possible which my partner was originally keen on.
My question is are there any basic-ish settings i can try out that anyone can recommmend to photograph a newborn, to try and acheive a few good photos to send to family ?
Any advice would be appreciated
Regards - Josh
I have the basic D3300 Nikon DSLR and lens and i have generally only used it in auto for holiday and fishing photos, occasionally i have played about with manual settings but not really knowing what i have been doing.. I have done some reading before but ill be honest i have not retained any of the information.
My first child is due next week and it doesnt look like any form of newborn photoshoot will be possible which my partner was originally keen on.
My question is are there any basic-ish settings i can try out that anyone can recommmend to photograph a newborn, to try and acheive a few good photos to send to family ?
Any advice would be appreciated
Regards - Josh
Hi and congratulations on your impending arrival.
The best photo is taken by the camera you have with you at the time, and you'll probably find that it'll be the smartphone in your pocket. So don't stress too much about getting lots of photos to a high standard with your D3300, you'll probably be too knackered.
Generally speaking, newborns tend to be asleep a lot for the first few weeks so you'll get plenty of opportunities to practice.
What lenses do you have available? Assuming you only have the 18-55 kit lens, you may want to buy yourself the 35mm 1.8 . It's a great lens and will give you a step up in quality and aperture flexibility.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nikon-AF-S-NIKKOR-DX-35-L...
If you've got any teddies or soft toys around the house, you can use those to help you get some practice in.
If's up to you whether you want to leave it on full auto, shutter priority, aperture priority or drop yourself into full manual so use the teddies to find what's comfortable for you.
If you have any natural light (sunlit windows etc) then this is likely to give you softer, more natural looking photos compared to a flash which tends to be a bit harsh in inexperienced hands. Shoot RAW to give yourself flexibility later on to rescue things.
If you can, do try and see if you can master using focus points to direct your focus where you want. Leaving everything up to the camera to figure out when focusing can lead to it getting confused when photographing newborns as it may end up focusing on a piece of mitten, the cheeks etc instead of the eyes / eyelids as intended.
Good luck and don't stress too much if they're not perfect, just enjoy the ride!
The best photo is taken by the camera you have with you at the time, and you'll probably find that it'll be the smartphone in your pocket. So don't stress too much about getting lots of photos to a high standard with your D3300, you'll probably be too knackered.
Generally speaking, newborns tend to be asleep a lot for the first few weeks so you'll get plenty of opportunities to practice.
What lenses do you have available? Assuming you only have the 18-55 kit lens, you may want to buy yourself the 35mm 1.8 . It's a great lens and will give you a step up in quality and aperture flexibility.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nikon-AF-S-NIKKOR-DX-35-L...
If you've got any teddies or soft toys around the house, you can use those to help you get some practice in.
If's up to you whether you want to leave it on full auto, shutter priority, aperture priority or drop yourself into full manual so use the teddies to find what's comfortable for you.
If you have any natural light (sunlit windows etc) then this is likely to give you softer, more natural looking photos compared to a flash which tends to be a bit harsh in inexperienced hands. Shoot RAW to give yourself flexibility later on to rescue things.
If you can, do try and see if you can master using focus points to direct your focus where you want. Leaving everything up to the camera to figure out when focusing can lead to it getting confused when photographing newborns as it may end up focusing on a piece of mitten, the cheeks etc instead of the eyes / eyelids as intended.
Good luck and don't stress too much if they're not perfect, just enjoy the ride!
eltawater said:
Hi and congratulations on your impending arrival.
The best photo is taken by the camera you have with you at the time, and you'll probably find that it'll be the smartphone in your pocket. So don't stress too much about getting lots of photos to a high standard with your D3300, you'll probably be too knackered.
Generally speaking, newborns tend to be asleep a lot for the first few weeks so you'll get plenty of opportunities to practice.
What lenses do you have available? Assuming you only have the 18-55 kit lens, you may want to buy yourself the 35mm 1.8 . It's a great lens and will give you a step up in quality and aperture flexibility.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nikon-AF-S-NIKKOR-DX-35-L...
If you've got any teddies or soft toys around the house, you can use those to help you get some practice in.
If's up to you whether you want to leave it on full auto, shutter priority, aperture priority or drop yourself into full manual so use the teddies to find what's comfortable for you.
If you have any natural light (sunlit windows etc) then this is likely to give you softer, more natural looking photos compared to a flash which tends to be a bit harsh in inexperienced hands. Shoot RAW to give yourself flexibility later on to rescue things.
If you can, do try and see if you can master using focus points to direct your focus where you want. Leaving everything up to the camera to figure out when focusing can lead to it getting confused when photographing newborns as it may end up focusing on a piece of mitten, the cheeks etc instead of the eyes / eyelids as intended.
Good luck and don't stress too much if they're not perfect, just enjoy the ride!
Thank you ! yes you are right most of the time the camera phone will probably be the nearest thing !The best photo is taken by the camera you have with you at the time, and you'll probably find that it'll be the smartphone in your pocket. So don't stress too much about getting lots of photos to a high standard with your D3300, you'll probably be too knackered.
Generally speaking, newborns tend to be asleep a lot for the first few weeks so you'll get plenty of opportunities to practice.
What lenses do you have available? Assuming you only have the 18-55 kit lens, you may want to buy yourself the 35mm 1.8 . It's a great lens and will give you a step up in quality and aperture flexibility.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nikon-AF-S-NIKKOR-DX-35-L...
If you've got any teddies or soft toys around the house, you can use those to help you get some practice in.
If's up to you whether you want to leave it on full auto, shutter priority, aperture priority or drop yourself into full manual so use the teddies to find what's comfortable for you.
If you have any natural light (sunlit windows etc) then this is likely to give you softer, more natural looking photos compared to a flash which tends to be a bit harsh in inexperienced hands. Shoot RAW to give yourself flexibility later on to rescue things.
If you can, do try and see if you can master using focus points to direct your focus where you want. Leaving everything up to the camera to figure out when focusing can lead to it getting confused when photographing newborns as it may end up focusing on a piece of mitten, the cheeks etc instead of the eyes / eyelids as intended.
Good luck and don't stress too much if they're not perfect, just enjoy the ride!
I will deffinately look into the lens recommended as i know its something that been long overdue to try and get into using it a bit more.
shutter priority, aperture priority - can you briefly explain what using shutter or aperture priority should be achieving each time ?
Thanks again for the advice !
Jcwjosh said:
Thank you ! yes you are right most of the time the camera phone will probably be the nearest thing !
I will deffinately look into the lens recommended as i know its something that been long overdue to try and get into using it a bit more.
shutter priority, aperture priority - can you briefly explain what using shutter or aperture priority should be achieving each time ?
Thanks again for the advice !
Putting it very clumsily, I'm sure it's full of holes and better explained elsewhere:I will deffinately look into the lens recommended as i know its something that been long overdue to try and get into using it a bit more.
shutter priority, aperture priority - can you briefly explain what using shutter or aperture priority should be achieving each time ?
Thanks again for the advice !
Photography relies on capturing light to create the image. The correct amount of light will go a long way to giving you the desired image. You can generally control this using 3 things, Shutter speed, Aperture, ISO (the exposure triangle). Altering one will likely require adjustments in the others to compensate.
Shutter priority vs Aperture priority modes just pins the camera down to keeping one setting fixed as you set it, and letting it adjust everything else to try and compensate to give you a reasonably exposed picture.
Shutter priority: I want this fixed shutter speed (1/200s for example) which allows a certain amount of light to be captured over this time period.
The camera can boost ISO sensitivity and open the aperture to allow more light in over this time period. Depending on how shaky your hands on, setting reasonably high fixed shutter speed can avoid blurry shots being taken, with the risk that the photos will be darker (not enough time allowed for light to be captured), the photo is noisy (ISO sensitivity too high) or have a narrow depth of field in focus (wider aperture).
Lenses also tend to have a sweet spot where a specific aperture will give you the sharpest image when in focus. This is very rarely at the widest aperture setting so allowing the camera free reign over aperture may result in reduced camera shake thanks to the fixed high shutter speed, but the image is not the sharpest as the camera set the lens to the widest aperture to allow the omst light in.
Aperture priority: I want this fixed aperture (f/3.5) which allows a certain amount of light in and gives a certain depth of field.
The camera can boost ISO sensitivity and slow the shutter speed to lengthen the time period of light capture. Wider apertures allow more light in but can result in less of the foreground / background being in focus around your desired focus point. The camera may also drop the shutter speed to below comfortable hand-holding speeds (< 1/125) depending on your hands, so you may end up with more camera shake and motion blur affected pictures.
eltawater said:
Putting it very clumsily, I'm sure it's full of holes and better explained elsewhere:
Photography relies on capturing light to create the image. The correct amount of light will go a long way to giving you the desired image. You can generally control this using 3 things, Shutter speed, Aperture, ISO (the exposure triangle). Altering one will likely require adjustments in the others to compensate.
Shutter priority vs Aperture priority modes just pins the camera down to keeping one setting fixed as you set it, and letting it adjust everything else to try and compensate to give you a reasonably exposed picture.
Shutter priority: I want this fixed shutter speed (1/200s for example) which allows a certain amount of light to be captured over this time period.
The camera can boost ISO sensitivity and open the aperture to allow more light in over this time period. Depending on how shaky your hands on, setting reasonably high fixed shutter speed can avoid blurry shots being taken, with the risk that the photos will be darker (not enough time allowed for light to be captured), the photo is noisy (ISO sensitivity too high) or have a narrow depth of field in focus (wider aperture).
Lenses also tend to have a sweet spot where a specific aperture will give you the sharpest image when in focus. This is very rarely at the widest aperture setting so allowing the camera free reign over aperture may result in reduced camera shake thanks to the fixed high shutter speed, but the image is not the sharpest as the camera set the lens to the widest aperture to allow the omst light in.
Aperture priority: I want this fixed aperture (f/3.5) which allows a certain amount of light in and gives a certain depth of field.
The camera can boost ISO sensitivity and slow the shutter speed to lengthen the time period of light capture. Wider apertures allow more light in but can result in less of the foreground / background being in focus around your desired focus point. The camera may also drop the shutter speed to below comfortable hand-holding speeds (< 1/125) depending on your hands, so you may end up with more camera shake and motion blur affected pictures.
Thank you so much ! I will have a play around this weekend and try and write down what i am finding is working best.Photography relies on capturing light to create the image. The correct amount of light will go a long way to giving you the desired image. You can generally control this using 3 things, Shutter speed, Aperture, ISO (the exposure triangle). Altering one will likely require adjustments in the others to compensate.
Shutter priority vs Aperture priority modes just pins the camera down to keeping one setting fixed as you set it, and letting it adjust everything else to try and compensate to give you a reasonably exposed picture.
Shutter priority: I want this fixed shutter speed (1/200s for example) which allows a certain amount of light to be captured over this time period.
The camera can boost ISO sensitivity and open the aperture to allow more light in over this time period. Depending on how shaky your hands on, setting reasonably high fixed shutter speed can avoid blurry shots being taken, with the risk that the photos will be darker (not enough time allowed for light to be captured), the photo is noisy (ISO sensitivity too high) or have a narrow depth of field in focus (wider aperture).
Lenses also tend to have a sweet spot where a specific aperture will give you the sharpest image when in focus. This is very rarely at the widest aperture setting so allowing the camera free reign over aperture may result in reduced camera shake thanks to the fixed high shutter speed, but the image is not the sharpest as the camera set the lens to the widest aperture to allow the omst light in.
Aperture priority: I want this fixed aperture (f/3.5) which allows a certain amount of light in and gives a certain depth of field.
The camera can boost ISO sensitivity and slow the shutter speed to lengthen the time period of light capture. Wider apertures allow more light in but can result in less of the foreground / background being in focus around your desired focus point. The camera may also drop the shutter speed to below comfortable hand-holding speeds (< 1/125) depending on your hands, so you may end up with more camera shake and motion blur affected pictures.
Welcome to the wonderful world of DSLR-dom!
One handy way to get approach the task is to think what you want to achieve, and then work backwards to get it. So I'm thinking first, we need a fast enough shutter speed to stop camera shake and subject movement. Maybe 1/100th sec.
Now think about the depth of field (DOF). Shallow is sexy and nice, but it can make focusing harder if too shallow - like only one eye is sharp. Maybe f4.
Light. This is massively important - a camera can only record what's in front of it. You probably have too much to think about to worry about things like bounce flash so stick with ambient light, and consider using a piece of white card to reflect some light into the darkest shadows.
Final thing - ISO. 800 is a good one-size-fits-all starting point. High enough to get decent shutter speeds, low enough not to go grainy.
So, using Aperture Priority, set the camera to f4, point it at the subject and see what shutter speed you're getting. If it's above 1/100th, you're clear to fire. Now it's just a question of composition and capturing the expression. At least pixels are free
ETA: read the manual, and know what your camera is focusing on.
One handy way to get approach the task is to think what you want to achieve, and then work backwards to get it. So I'm thinking first, we need a fast enough shutter speed to stop camera shake and subject movement. Maybe 1/100th sec.
Now think about the depth of field (DOF). Shallow is sexy and nice, but it can make focusing harder if too shallow - like only one eye is sharp. Maybe f4.
Light. This is massively important - a camera can only record what's in front of it. You probably have too much to think about to worry about things like bounce flash so stick with ambient light, and consider using a piece of white card to reflect some light into the darkest shadows.
Final thing - ISO. 800 is a good one-size-fits-all starting point. High enough to get decent shutter speeds, low enough not to go grainy.
So, using Aperture Priority, set the camera to f4, point it at the subject and see what shutter speed you're getting. If it's above 1/100th, you're clear to fire. Now it's just a question of composition and capturing the expression. At least pixels are free
ETA: read the manual, and know what your camera is focusing on.
Can't vouch for them, but saw that this site has released a number of tutorial videos for free view YouTube, previously priced at $150 a piece.
Watched a bit of the one on exposure. I thought they did a reasonable job of explaining it in an interesting way. Might be worth a look.
https://photographylife.com/
Congratulations on the little one! As mentioned above they'll be static and poseable for a little while but you'll want to be ready with the DSLR once crawling and mobile!
Watched a bit of the one on exposure. I thought they did a reasonable job of explaining it in an interesting way. Might be worth a look.
https://photographylife.com/
Congratulations on the little one! As mentioned above they'll be static and poseable for a little while but you'll want to be ready with the DSLR once crawling and mobile!
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