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So I took the plunge today and splashed out on my first DSLR. I did a bit of research and settled for the new N1k0n 3300. Total price with kit lens (18-55mm), top spec UV filter, 16GB Class 10 SD Memory Card (never knew there were classes for memory cards :wacko: ), bag and tripod came in at $858 AUD. Nikon will give me $50 cash back and I'll get the tax back through duty free so final price is $730!!! Bargain I reckon! Next up will be the 55-270mm lens...but for now...baby steps.

Mega excited to start playing around with it and taking some decent shots. Does anyone out there have any specific experience with this camera or any helpful tips that they can share? TIA

Also found Chuck's excellent "Model Photography for Dummies" thread. This really should be pinned.

Edited by Crazy Snap Captain
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Everything you need to know about DSLRs and photography is here....

http://www.jeffcable.com/jeff-cable-videos

Superb instructor. Also check out his other links under "the blog" and "social media...Facebook" at the top of the page. TONS of good stuff!!

Bob

Many thanks Bob! That's great!

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Ah a very nice camera , I have the earlier model d3100 and I´m completely happy with it.

I only use my SLR for shooting the finished model.... here´s my set up....I cut and pasted it from my F-14 build a couple of years ago.

Finally the Persian cat is finished!

Been a fun build and my first participation in a group build ( go check out the Iran Iraq war groupbuild..thereôll be coming even more nice stuff from there!)

The cat is completely packed with resin and it was a bit challenging at times to make styrene meet :P/> However I think that the Gawa cat is a pretty nice kit and as long as you

dry fit parts and be a bit patient about it it fits together well and isnôt as hard to build as itôs ruomored, itôs just lots of parts and interesting assembly sollutions!

So you guys who have them in your stashes, pick ôem out and start building ôem :D/>

I had loads of support during the build and thatôs how I like it, Itôs better to recieve critique during the building process since you can rarely change anything after itôs built up!

So guys,thanx for all the feedback during the build.

Well I guess you want to see pictures now eh? and lots of them?

Iôll be getting to that in a moment.... first I thought Iôd show my photo set up and explain a bit about how I take the pics :D/> You with me on this?

OKi, here we go!

My little improvised studio consists of a big A2 paper sheet, I use a black background for light objects, a grey or blue for dark objects... I avoid white since I think itôs to much

contrast with my shutter times (Iôll be getting back to that)

Anyways, for lighing I use a few ordinary desk lamps and Iôve covered lamp cones with paper tissue. Itôs to difuse the light, spread it and avoid sharp reflexes from the light bulbs.

I cover the windows and the rest of the room is dark.. this makes the studio a bit mirky but that suits me fine because of the shutter times Iôm using (again gonna explain that later).

I use 3 main light sources and have additional light from a desk lamp out of frame and a lilttle halogen lamp, these are to give ambient light.

IMG_4986.jpg

Oki, thatôs the lilô studio...

Hereôs my lilôSLR, a I am a spammer, please report this post. D3100 with a 18-55 glass, standing on itôs tripod.

IMG_4987.jpg

Time to look at my camera set up...

First of all I put the camera in M, manual mode...and that of course means I have to set all the parameters myself.

IMG_4988.jpg

And here are the camera settings, Iôll explain the most importan settings :D/>

IMG_4989.jpg

The "M" in the upper left corner means Iôm in manual mode.

Iôm using a 2 second timed trigger, that is the exposure starts 2 seconds after Iôve pressed the trigger, that is so the camera is as vibration free as possible.

The bar on the right side shows:

Iôm taking picture in RAW format, simplified it means each picture contains more information than a JPEG or GIF, and can be manipulated with greater range without loss of quality...you can change all the settings in a photo programe like Photoshop.

WB= white balance, is set in a manual mode where Iôve taken a picture of something white and the camera has adjusted to recognize it as white in that particular light. (there are modes for say using a flash, shadow, dayligth and so on.

ISO= the sensitivity of the image sensor, the higher value the more light sensitivity and the grainier the photo. I use ISO 100 for best quality pictures,and that means I have to have good lighting for my exposures.

AF-s= Auto focus

below that the symbo shows my auto focus mode, I use "one point" modethat is my aouto focus has 14 points it can focus on and Iôve manually chosen the pooint I want to focus on, it can be seen in the lower left corner of the display... it shows Iôve chosen the center point.

the rest of the symbols are not important.

in the center of the display is my shutter time 4", wich means I have a 4 second exposure. The reason I have such a long shutter time is because I want a deep field of depth. Field of depth is how much of and object is in focus in the Z-axis near and far of the focus point.

Since I want as much as possible of my model to be in focus I have to have a long exposure time to let enough light in. the shorter the exposure the shorter the field of depth you get.

The next and final important variable is Aperture, itôs shownb as the value F29 in the display and thereôs a graphic representation of the aperture to the left of the shutter time. Iôm using the smallest aperture (the smaller the aperture the higher the F-value) since I`m using such a long

shutter time I canôt let too much light in at a time since it would result in an over exposured picture and be totally white.

After laborating with shutter time and aperture in my lignting I found the combination of 4" and F29 to give me the best pictures and biggest field of depth.

Had I had brighter light sources I could have shorter shutter time.

Hope ya enjoyed a short intro to model photography :D/>

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awesome tutorial Janne.

I firmly believe that the 18-55 is the BEST lens for shooting models. I have tried a bunch of professional lenses, and it is still lens I go to for its depth of field and sharpness.

a few things I would like to add to Janne's comments

you will need a remote N!kon makes a really nice little infrared remote for about $20

personally I use daylight 6500k CFL bulbs for shooting my models, they dont get hot and you dont need to diffuse them.

not sure if it was mentioned, the VR needs to be turned off on the lens while you are using a tripod.

have you put any thought into how you are going to process your images? you can do a fair bit of it right in your camera, but the screen is a little small.

most windows computers have the ability to edit photos in PAINT. I use a program called LIGHTROOM to edit my stuff. it usually runs about $100 but it is worth every penny.

when the photography bug really sinks its teeth in and you want to get some more lenses.a great lens makes all the difference in the world.

the N!kon 35mm 1.8dx is super sharp and fairly cheap $250-300. cheap is a relative term here.

if you want a good walkaround lens I had the TAMRON 18-270pzd lens it was sharp and the VR is rock solid. it runs for about $500.

when shopping for a new lens research it before dropping a bunch of money on it.

hth

Dylan

Edited by dylan
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Congrats. That's a great camera. If you're using the camera for anything other than taking pictures of models the first lens you absolutely have to purchase is the 50mm 1.8G. It's freaking spectacular and can be had for $200. You obviously don't want to be using it wide open on models, but I promise you that it's sharpness will blow you away compared to the kit lens.

Like others I'd suggest using a three light setup and buy yourself some daylight balanced bulbs. I prefer to use speed-lights and cancel out ambient light, but the three light setup works well.

If you plan to do a lot of photography away from modeling be it family, landscaper, or whatever, you absolutely should invest in Lightroom. The nice thing about it now though is you can get it through Creative Cloud for $10/month along with Photoshop. I think it's a great bargain.

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Also found Chuck's excellent "Model Photography for Dummies" thread. This really should be pinned.

Congratulations! Thanks for the tutorial plug, which I just re-read and not much has changed in my mind from when I wrote that 16 months ago. I have the Nikon D7000, D600 and recently I bought the Nikon D810 (36 mp!), so I know a bit about your camera, even though I don't own one. Here's a link to a website that I refer to all the time for Nikon equipment, although this guy reviews Canon stuff as well:

Ken Rockwell Photography

So-called "real photographers" bash this guy all the time, but what I like about his website is that he talks in plain language that most of us can understand and he definitely speaks his mind.

When or if you buy another zoom lens, check out his recommendations here:

Best Nikon Lenses

Everything you need to know about Nikon equipment is very well documented in Ken's website, so the only thing I can suggest that you should consider when buying a new lens is whether or not you might get a full frame "FX" camera one day over the "DX" smaller sensor one you now own. DX lenses are made for DX cameras like the 3300, but they are not much good on an FX camera because you lose a lot of the resolution you paid extra for. There is absolutely nothing wrong with DX cameras. They are much lighter and portable than FX full frame versions and they take great pictures, which is why I still own my D7000. The lenses I bought for my D7000 though, are worthless on my D600 and D810, so I've had to buy new lenses for these bodies.

One other thing to remember. Camera bodies are sort of like PC's. They are a bit expensive and cutting edge at first, but after 5 years or so they quickly become dinosaurs as new and often cheaper cameras come along that are much better, so they have a limited shelf life if you want the best. Camera lenses have a much longer shelf life of 15-20 years or more, because they don't change that much. You can use a 30 year old Nikon lens on your new camera and it will still work, but you will have to use it manually because there are no electronics in the old lenses. Camera lenses usually also don't go down in price and in many circumstances, they actually go up in price, so the best bang for your buck is to buy good lenses over camera bodies.

Cheers,

Chuck

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Crazy Snap Captain,

Congratulations on your new Nikon 3300 set up. You're going to love it. I'm still shooting with my old D90 and a few Nikkor lenses, but the results are still stellar IMHO. Aigore's post with basic information is spot on. Chuck's link to Ken Rockwall's site has more Nikon information then you can use. I bought a user manual besides the one that came with my D90, and I still use both from time to time. Today's cameras can do so much that it's nearly impossible to remember what all the settings are, and what they're used for.

Joel

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