Lessons
Class Introduction
08:45 2Photo Basics
03:55 3Basic Camera Controls
05:11 4Mode Dial
19:08 5Top Of Camera
10:15 6Back Of Camera
06:11 7Viewfinder Display
05:07 8Back of Camera Buttons
22:08Live View Menu
16:05 10Movie Mode Menu
10:23 11Left & Right Sides Of Camera
15:57 12Bottom Of Camera
02:46 13Front Of Camera
03:18 14Lens Options
10:49 15Playback Menu
07:23 16Photo Shooting Menu
08:34 17ISO Shooting Menu
09:03 18Image Quality Shooting Menus
09:16 19Multiple Exposure & HDR Menus
05:48 20Movie Shooting Menu
07:25 21Custom Setting Menu
09:13 22Timer & Bracketing Menus
08:27 23Custom Control Menu
05:44 24Set Up Menu
28:47 25My Menu
03:03 26Camera Operation
09:50Lesson Info
Back Of Camera
All right, so that's the Honshu. Now, we're going to quickly jump to the back side of the camera. This dial is kind of on the top but you can see it more easily on the back of the camera, and this is the release mode. There is a button that you do have to press to release it, so it is a two-finger operation in order to change this and we're going to be able to change how our camera fires the shutter when we press down on the shutter release and so let's take a look at some of the different options in here. So when you press down half way, it focuses, but when you press down all the way, it takes a photo. Normally, it takes a single frame at a time, one shot at a time, this is your basic photography. We do have a couple of continuous modes, a low option, which will range between one and seven frames per second, and then a continuous high, which will shoot at eight frames per second. Now, on the continuous low, you can actually dictate exactly how fast or slow that that continuous low is...
, you can adjust it anywhere from one to seven frames per second by going into the custom setting menu, letter D, the shooting and display, and going into the continuous low mode shooting speed, so if you want to shoot at four frames per second, or five, you can give you that specific number. And if you're wondering, why would you set it for a particular number? Well there are different sports activities. And take something like running, which is something that I have photographed quite a bit. And runners run at a certain pace, and if you shoot them at six frames per second, about every other photo is going to look exactly the same. And so what you what is you want kind of an off set shutter- or a drive mode, from where they're shooting, or from where they're running, so that every photo has a slightly different look to it. And so, you can adjust that as needed. We do have two quiet options and this is where the camera slows down the mirror movement, to reduce noise in the camera. This is going to be very good for anyone who does wildlife photography, works at a theater, a courtroom, or on a movie set, or anytime you're just trying to reduce the sound of the camera. It doesn't truly make it silent, in any way, but it does make it less noisey. So we have a single version of this, and then we have a continuous version. It's not real fast, cause everything is being slowed down a little bit. But it's a good option in some cases. We do have a self timer, and in this case Nikon gives us a lot of different options if we're willing to dive into the custom menu because we can choose two, five, ten, or twenty second exposures. We can also choose to do a continuous exposure where we can shoot anywhere between one and nine exposures. If I'm doing a group shot, one of the things that I have a problem with is people blinking. And so if you're going to do a group shot, you don't want to shoot a group shot with just one photo. You want to shoot a few pictures because somebody is likely to be turning away, or blinking, or scratching themselves, or doing something that's distracting from the photograph. So what I do is I set the camera up to shoot anywhere between three and five shots, so that there's a few different chances for people to be ready and smiling and looking at the camera. And so you might want to try that technique the next time you have a group shot. Finally, we have M UP: mirror lock-up and this is for use when you are on a tripod and let me explain the little bit of problem and what this solves. With an SLR, when you press down on the shutter release the mirror goes up, and when it goes up, it goes up very quickly and it causes a vibration in the camera. And that vibration is happening right when the picture is being taken. And so that may cause a little bit of image blur on a photograph, even though you're using a tripod. And so the solution is to turn on mirror lock-up. And now what's going to happen is the first press of the shutter is going to kick the mirror up, it's going to have the same vibration that it always does but you wait about two or three seconds, and then you press the button again. After that vibration has settled out you take the exposure when the camera is absolutely perfectly still. And since you don't want to be pressing the button on the camera because that causes movement of the camera, this is a great time to be using the MC-DC2 or some other remote system with the camera. That way you can trigger the camera without actually touching the camera. Now this is not a rampant problem in all cases. This is just a problem in very special situations. Typically, when you're set up on a tripod at a modest, slow shutter speed. So I'm shooting photos in Yosemite National Park and I'm looking at the results and I'm noticing that they just don't look real sharp. And I then remembered, oh, I'm on a tripod and I forgot to put my camera in mirror lock-up. And so using mirror lock-up you can see that I'm able to gain much, much better sharpness out of it. Now this picture was taken at 1/8 of a second which is smack dab in the middle of the vibration zone. And this is where you're going to most likely get some sort of vibration from mirror movement in the camera. And so if you're doing landscape, or product photography, architectural photography, any time you're on a tripod at a modest, slow shutter speed like this, even if you have a good tripod, it's quite possible that that mirror movement is going to cause your camera to move around a little bit and get a blurry shot. So, mirror lock-up will help solve that problem. Another thing that will help solve the problem is the live-view option that we're going to talk about when we get to the backside on the camera. So live-view, mirror lock-up does about the same thing, the only difference is in mirror lock-up, the camera's back screen and sensor is not turned on and so it's not using quite as much battery power. So chances are you'll be using a number of these. Normally, as I say, I'll leave my camera in the single-shot mode until something else comes along.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Thomas Sielaff
Great, great course. Could not be any clearer on what to know, what to do, and in all, making understanding my camera a fun thing! Well, well, worth that cost. A steal really!!
Keshav
Helps you master the camera controls very quickly. I'm glad I took the course. Without it, I'm sure it would have taken me years to know and use the full power of this camera. Great Course. Highly recommend.
Roy Shenfield
This is a great course! I recently bought a D7500 and was somewhat stymied by the large number of different possible settings and the several hundred page user manual and menu guide. This course covers the vast majority of what I need to know and in a reasonable amount of detail. I especially liked the material on menus as he went through most of them in detail. Additionally all the slides shown in the course are available in pdf as well as several pages detailing the authors recommended settings. I highly recommend, especially given the $24.00 special offering for this.
Student Work
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Camera Guides