After I had a chance to play with my aunt's Nikon D40 last weekend I couldn't go back to my Casio Exilm, so I decided to make Christmas come a little early this year and I went ahead and upgraded to a Nikon D60 which I found for a descend price. Now my question is to all the other "professional" photographers on here is, what are some pointers that you can give me, so my pictures come out well?

So far for the new Camera I have bought:
4GB SDHC Memory
Armor Protective Skin - Link
Pelican® Case 1400 - Link

Here are some pictures that I took with the D40:
Grand Canyon Trip - http://flickr.com/photos/samuraiaz/sets/72157606011776824/
Dog Pictures - http://flickr.com/photos/samuraiaz/sets/72157605976790816/

Now my question is to all the other "professional" photographers on here is, what are some pointers that you can give me, so my pictures come out well?

Still not there yet... but:

• Never use the traditional settings again (i.e. mountains, girls head on the selector) or else you just wasted money on a DSLR
• Don't let your shutter speed drop under 1/125
• ISO is now your friend instead of your enemy
• Get a CPL filter
• Get a remote shutter release
• Use Photoshop CS2/CS3 or Light Room. It is a now a necessity not a luxury.
• Then once you've learned the basics. Try only taking the pics in raw.
• Never post a pic until you've straightened your horizons from here on out until Jesus comes
• Learn how to clone unwanteds out of your shots including the dust spots no one tells you your camera sensor will always get
• Use people's eyes as a your focal points on Portraits and make them take off their hats and sunglasses :eyeroll:
• Learn and obey the law of thirds
• Post in the big boy forums and prepare to get trampled with critique- then learn from it.
• Always use the Unsharp mask tool before you publish your shots since your camera leaves that processing to you
• Same with saturation and curves
• Get a cool hat and rediculously large lens hood to impress small camera people
• Wear a gun to keep them from talking to you
• Don't take better pictures than the guy with the cool hat, rediculously large lens hood, and sidearm.

skatchkins wrote:Still not there yet... but:

• Never use the traditional settings again (i.e. mountains, girls head on the selector) or else you just wasted money on a DSLR
• Don't let your shutter speed drop under 1/125
• ISO is now your friend instead of your enemy
• Get a CPL filter
• Get a remote shutter release
• Use Photoshop CS2/CS3 or Light Room. It is a now a necessity not a luxury.
• Then once you've learned the basics. Try only taking the pics in raw.
• Never post a pic until you've straightened your horizons from here on out until Jesus comes
• Learn how to clone unwanteds out of your shots including the dust spots no one tells you your camera sensor will always get
• Use people's eyes as a your focal points on Portraits and make them take off their hats and sunglasses :eyeroll:
• Learn and obey the law of thirds
• Post in the big boy forums and prepare to get trampled with critique- then learn from it.
• Always use the Unsharp mask tool before you publish your shots since your camera leaves that processing to you
• Same with saturation and curves
  
• Get a cool hat and rediculously large lens hood to impress small camera people
• Wear a gun to keep them from talking to you
• Don't take better pictures than the guy with the cool hat, rediculously large lens hood, and sidearm.

LOL

Thanks for the tips, what are the big boy forums for DSLR's?

good choice of camera! (D80 user)
Mike has some VERY good points!
(im needing CS2/CS3 may consider light house too)
as for lenses stay with NIKKOR as a 1st choice tamron (spell check) is good & so is sigma RUNAWAY from quantry (ritz brand)
another point is to shoot in manual this is a good way to learn how to tweak ISO Apature & exposure to the desired shot.
enjoy the new DSLR! & go out & have fun with it :)g)

Sc00by wrote:good choice of camera! (D80 user)
Mike has some VERY good points!
(im needing CS2/CS3 may consider light house too)
as for lenses stay with NIKKOR as a 1st choice tamron (spell check) is good & so is sigma RUNAWAY from quantry (ritz brand)
another point is to shoot in manual this is a good way to learn how to tweak ISO Apature & exposure to the desired shot.
enjoy the new DSLR! & go out & have fun with it :)g)

Cool, thanks, how do you guys protect your cameras off-road?

Thanks for the tips, what are the big boy forums for DSLR's?

Well... see you and I can't really be friends in a true public setting. I'm a Canon guy and well you're... we'll say... a N-word.
I frequent Photography-on-the.net. Usually more of the Landscape section.

Scooby chose the same seat in the bus as you so he might have some better insight into that.

SamuraiAZ wrote:Cool, thanks, how do you guys protect your cameras off-road?

I have a Lowepro bag that holds the camera and at least 3 lenses. Extra 2GB card. Joby tripod with regular tripod strapped onto the bag. Some filters and attachments.

It never leaves my sight and has done pretty well. It's dust that you'll have to battle on AZ trails.

I had to get a biger bag to acomidate all the stuff, ended up with a quandry bag (bag is fine lenses are junk though) my camera bag was in the back of my XJ when I hit that cactus & it got knocked around, but all the gear was good! my bag is double padded & has the velcro deviders so you can adjust your set up.
For dust / lense cleanning I use the NIKON dust pen, ( I get them frm adoroma) I would post a link but I have no computer / internet for a few more days :(

skatchkins wrote:Well... see you and I can't really be friends in a true public setting. I'm a Canon guy and well you're... we'll say... a N-word.
I frequent Photography-on-the.net. Usually more of the Landscape section.

Scooby chose the same seat in the bus as you so he might have some better insight into that.

LOL thanks

skatchkins wrote:Well... see you and I can't really be friends in a true public setting. I'm a Canon guy and well you're... we'll say... a N-word.
I frequent Photography-on-the.net. Usually more of the Landscape section.

Scooby chose the same seat in the bus as you so he might have some better insight into that.

LOL thanks
Also when you take pictures in RAW, how big is the file usually?

SamuraiAZ wrote:LOL thanks
Also when you take pictures in RAW, how big is the file usually?

With my D80 they average 9mb
With my friends D200 = 19mb

For editing RAW is the best, so I typicaly shoot stuff in jpeg, unless its something I think is worth putting some work into then Ill change it to RAW.

FIRST PICTURES WITH THE D60








ANY and ALL tips are appreciated!

The rest of the gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samuraiaz/sets/72157606191910251/

Well none of them are good per say. But that's b/c of the subj/background, not your camera. But you need to keep shooting these kind of shots anyway so you're ready with the settings and composition and lighting when the good photo ops present themselves, so yes these pics serve a purpose.
Figure out your desired depth of field too so say the whole tiki mask thing is all in focus (the shutter speed was also to slow for handheld). Keep shooting multiple shots of things around you and print some too.
The goal of your keeping photos, printing them, hanging them from here on out is not that they are good (even if they are actually especially spectactular) but b/c come next year, if you're not able to look back on them embarassedly, you haven't improved.

Don't forget, you're not going to get the in-camera sharpness or color you're expecting unless you process it with something like PS. I could use a good point and shoot if I wanted the camera to do those things.

Congrats on your camera. Keep it where you can see it so you'll use it more but never expect the pictures to come to you!

F stop set a 2

F stop set at 30


I finally figured out how F stop works!

So whats the F stop?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_stop
In optics, the f-number (sometimes called focal ratio, f-ratio, or relative aperture[1]) of an optical system expresses the diameter of the entrance pupil in terms of the effective focal length of the lens; in simpler terms, the f-number is the focal length divided by the aperture diameter. It is a dimensionless number that is a quantitative measure of lens speed, an important concept in photography.

my first night shots

cool, are you using a tripod for those?

Yep