Looking for some pointers with photography...

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1

Copied from my DITB thread…

Well, as some of you guys know, my girlfriend and I are heading to Maui in a week for eight days and I’m excited as hell! I recently purchased a Nikon D3000 with the basic 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens, a 70-200mm VR lens, a lowepro CompuPrimus AW backpack, and a nice 63" Sunpack tripod. I also have two 4 gig Optima SD cards that will hold roughly 1000 pictures each.

So onto my point with this thread… I really want to capture the beauty and awesomeness of this trip. I admit, I am pretty much a n00b with photography, however Steve (DITB) has really been guiding me on how to properly work my camera on our several outings.

With having the equipment that I have, are there any pointers or tips that one could give me in order to fully capture the surroundings and landscapes of Maui?

I plan on shooting everything in RAW settings and most likely keeping it in Aperture mode. Anything else you guys/gals advise??

Thanks

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im really pretty good at photography, but youre going to have to take me with in order for me to teach you.

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Aperature priority mode is pretty good.

Try to use a lower ISO setting, like 200. Should be fine with that in the daylight. If the shutter speeds are too slow for crisp pictures, you can crank it up a bit, but try not to go over 400 ISO.

Matrix Metering is best for what you’ll be doing.

Auto White Balance should be fine.

If you’re gonna take a picture of your girl standing in front of a scene or an object, and she has a lot of shadows covering her face, you can turn on your flash(yes even outdoors) and it might help erase the uneven lighting.

Proper exposure is key. Many things can be fixed in photoshop, but the hardest thing to do is fix under and over exposure. Lighting is key.
Other than that, just do your best to be creative with composing a good picture. If you’re more out to document your trip, just fire away!

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Biggest thing I’ve found is that if you can take good pictures with a point and shoot, you have the ability to take great pictures with a real camera. However, if you can’t take good P&S shots, no matter how good the camera, your shots will always suck.

Composing the image is the biggest factor.

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Ehhh, I think that is going a little too far. Learning how to use the settings on the camera (to get proper exposures) is VERY important, especially at a beginner level.

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Couple rules of thumb.

  • Aperture priority.
  • Try not to drop below shutter speed of “1/focal length” you’re at if shooting hand held. Ie: if zoomed at 200mm, the fastest you want to shoot is 1/200s.
  • VR will not make moving subjects clear. VR helps compensate for your unsteady hand, not making a bird stop in flight for your picture.
  • Run lowest ISO possible that keeps your shutter speeds in check with what I said above.
  • Typical landscape shots tend to shoot around f/9. This also subject to lighting, depth of field you’re after, zoom, etc.
  • Shoot RAW and don’t worry about white balance, you’ll fix this on the computer anyhow.
  • When you can shoot with a tripod and remote trigger release (or timer mode).
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Awesome, thanks everyone. I do plan on shooting with a tripod some of the time (when easy). With what you guys are saying I seemed to be right on par with for what I was planning on doing so that’s reassuring!