Last night UPS delivered to my house a Nikon D40 with quite a few accessories. My wife bought them for me as a suprise. Have never delt with DSLR's before, to be honest never really delt with cameras to much besides point and shoot. So I have a few questions for whoever can answer them for me, I have googled these and watched vids on them but still have questions.

Apertrue - What is it? What different effects does it have from a lower number like 2 to a higher number like 32?
Shutter - What numbers do what? High vs Low?

I just need newb help for a nikon d40. I read one website by ken rockwell and i didnt think it was that helpful. Im trying not to use any of the pre-set modes, i want to be able to take some pretty damn good pictures.

So any links, vids, or general help will be very appricated.

Thanks for your time.

I too am in a similar position as far as knowledge goes, I think I can answer some questions though.

Aperture - Symbolized by an F followed by a number - basically it controls how much light is let to hit the image sensor. (I think)
Shutter Speed - How long the shutter is open for and how long the light will hit the image sensor, the longer it is open the more light and if you move it the picture will be blurred depending on how low it is. If you have a higher shutter speed the camera will take a picture faster and less light hits the sensor so more light is needed when taking at higher speeds.

aperature aka f-number = the hole on the lens that lets light thru, bigger f-number = smaller hole(you can see the hole in lens going smaller when taking pic), smaller hole naturally lets less light in and allso increades the area in focus. With low f-number you can get more light in camera and get nice background blur when focusing close, allso focal lenght effects the background blur(bigger zoom(longer focal lenght)= more blur)

shutter is the thing that goes off from the sensor when taking the pic inside camera, long shutter speed = more light in camera, but if you use for like 0.5 sec shutterspeed(1/2) you will get blurred pictures unless using tripod or something that keeps the camera really steady. When hand held minimum shutterspeed should be same as focal lenght. For example with 18mm focal lenght you should use minimum of 1/18 sec shutterspeed if your hands are really steady, but with 1/18 sec you will get motion blur if something in pic is moving, about 1/100 sec shutterspeed is desent for stopping motion if subject isnt moving too fast. With 55mm focal lenght you should use atleast 1/55 sec shutterspeed etc, but something like 1/250 should be used if you want really sharp pic or more like 1/500(or even more) if subject is moving really fast.

you didnt ask for iso, but ill explain it allso. Iso = sensitivity of sensor, low iso = low sensitivity = you need more light on sensor. High iso = more sensitive sensor, but it will get noise on pics. Pic that is well lit(no dark areas) will get less noise with same sensitivity than darker pics.

These are the 3 things you will use to control the camera. I suggest putting the camera to full manual mode and learning how to use it, that way you get the most out of your camera. It shouldnt take long untill you learn how to use these, took like 4 hours for me and i didnt have eny more info that you are getting now. When you shoot with full manual for some time you will learn to balance these 3 factors quite well, depending on what you want from the pic. If you start shooting with half auto modes like shutter priority you wont get as much out of your camera as you could, i suggest learning those after you have mastered manual mode, so you know what half auto mode to use and when to use them. If you shoot with full auto mode you will get point and shoot like pics and if thats enough there is no need for dslr.

Nice to see you spend a long time writing almost everything. Maybe we should make a sticky of it?

one thing im haveing a hard time with is how to change all the settings.

i read the man. no help or with websites

put the camera in manual(M) mode and then you can change all settings, i never used nikon dslrs, but im 100% sure you will find all info from manual, maybe u had it in some auto mode and then you cant change all settings. Put to manual mode and read the manual of the camera and im sure youll figure it out.

This link should have some usefull info, but not maybe on this case, but overally
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond40/

I believe you want high shutters idk thou.. I just come in the threat to see photos.. Some people have some really nice pics.

No. You are here to spam and probably looking for naked skanks as some of the your posts suggest and learn how to spell. btw do you even know what a shutter is?

This post was edited by Futurama on Jun 4 2009 01:48pm

for different photos and different aims you use different settings.

the best way is to play around with the manual settings till you get something you like, and you can make note to use it again for that type of photo youre trying to portray. (P S A M)
otherwise you can use the automatic settings too.