I'm new to photography.

I have gained access to a d90, it's kinda like me stealing my cousins, but yeah haha.

Just wondering if you guys can give me some starter tips on getting into it.

I spent most of today going around town snapping at random stuff. Most of the pics didn't really turn out that great though.


Hope to meet you all.

do you understand shutterspeed, aperture and ISO, etc?

Yeah I did some googling, but I'm still not fully aware on how it affects my photos yet, moreso I'm not sure how changing the things change the outcome of my photos..

ok well the D90's mode dial will have a setting 'P' this is a fully automatic setting, but allows lots of options to be played with.

Setting 'A' (aperture) is where you tell the camera how much light to let through the lens - the smaller the number is the more light will get in. The camera will choose a shutterspeed which will make your pictures look like they should. You use 'A' mode if you are shooting in low light, or if you need to get lots in focus (if you select big number more of the picture will be in focus)

Setting 'S' (shutterspeed) is where you tell the camera for how long the main sensor needs to be exposed for. You select a fast speed (higher than 1/500) to shoot action or fast moving scenes. Since you are a beginner i think you should only use 'S' mode if you need to tell the camera that somthing fast is happening.

Setting 'M' (manual) is where you must tell the camera all of the settings, and it doesnt help you much! i wouldnt use this mode until you have used the camera a while.


ISO is how sensitive the camera is to light. A bigger number means more light!

ISO 200 is for sunny days
ISO 400 is for dusk
Anything higher is normally for dark conditions, like indoor.


hope this helps!

This post was edited by doyleo on Mar 11 2009 11:52am

Well you may want to read through the manual and/or search for guides and tutorials online before start taking pictures. Personally I think you should play around with a simple point and shoot camera for awhile before start using slr so at least you'll get some experience taking pictures and change certain settings.

@doyleo hmm I think ISO 100 would be better for sunny days at least that's what I use when it's sunny outside unless you are taking pictures of fast moving objects :p. well I could be wrong though lol.

some nikons only go down to 200, im not sure if this was the case here - so i said 200