David Busch's Nikon D5100 Guide to Digital SLR Photography

480 Pages·2011·17.59 MB·English

by  David D. Busch

DAVID BUSCH’S
100
5
NIKON D
®
GUIDE TO DIGITAL SLR PHOTOGRAPHY
David D. Busch
Course Technology PTR
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David Busch’s Nikon® D5100 Guide to © 2012 David D. Busch
Digital SLR Photography
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David D. Busch
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Acknowledgments
Once again thanks to the folks at Course Technology PTR, who recognized that a cam-
era as popular as the Nikon D5100 deserves in-depth full-color coverage at a price any-
one can afford. Special thanks to executive editor Kevin Harreld, who always gives me
the freedom to let my imagination run free with a topic, as well as my veteran produc-
tion team including project editor Jenny Davidson and technical editor Mike Sullivan.
Also thanks to Bill Hartman, layout; Katherine Stimson, indexing; Sara Gullion, proof-
reading; Mike Tanamachi, cover design; and my agent, Carole Jelen, who has the amaz-
ing ability to keep both publishers and authors happy.
About the Author
With more than a million books in print, David D. Buschis the world’s #1 selling dig-
ital camera guide author, and the originator of popular digital photography series like
David Busch’s Pro Secrets and David Busch’s Quick Snap Guides. He has written nearly
two dozen hugely successful guidebooks and compact guides for Nikon digital SLR
models, and several dozen additional user guides for other camera models, as well as
many popular books devoted to dSLRs, including Mastering Digital SLR Photography,
Third Edition andDigital SLR Pro Secrets. As a roving photojournalist for more than 20
years, he illustrated his books, magazine articles, and newspaper reports with award-
winning images. He’s operated his own commercial studio, suffocated in formal dress
while shooting weddings-for-hire, and shot sports for a daily newspaper and upstate
New York college. His photos have been published in magazines as diverse as Scientific
American and Petersen’s PhotoGraphic, and his articles have appeared in Popular
Photography & Imaging, The Rangefinder, The Professional Photographer, and hundreds
of other publications. He’s also reviewed dozens of digital cameras for CNet and
Computer Shopper. His advice has been featured on National Public Radio’s All Tech
Considered.
When About.com named its top five books on Beginning Digital Photography, debut-
ing at the #1 and #2 slots were Busch’s Digital Photography All-In-One Desk Reference
for Dummies and Mastering Digital Photography.During the past year, he’s had as many
as five of his books listed in the Top 20 of Amazon.com’s Digital Photography Bestseller
list—simultaneously! Busch’s 100-plus other books published since 1983 include best-
sellers like David Busch’s Quick Snap Guide to Using Digital SLR Lenses.
Busch earned top category honors in the Computer Press Awards the first two years they
were given (for Sorry About The Explosion and Secrets of MacWrite, MacPaint and
MacDraw), and he later served as Master of Ceremonies for the awards. Visit his web-
site at http://www.dslrguides.com/blog.
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
PART I: GETTING STARTED
WITH YOUR NIKON D5100
Chapter 1
Nikon D5100: Thinking Outside of the Box 5
First Things First. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Initial Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Mastering the Multi Selector and Command Dials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Setting the Clock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Battery Included . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Final Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Chapter 2
Nikon D5100 Quick Start 23
Choosing a Release Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Selecting an Exposure Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Choosing an Auto/Scene or Effects Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Choosing an Advanced Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Choosing a Metering Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Choosing a Focus Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Choosing the Focus Area Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Other Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Adjusting White Balance and ISO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
vi David Busch’s Nikon D5100 Guide to Digital SLR Photography
Reviewing the Images You’ve Taken. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Using the Built-in Flash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Transferring Photos to Your Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Changing Default Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Resetting the Nikon D5100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Recommended Default Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Chapter 3
Nikon D5100 Roadmap 45
Nikon D5100: Full Frontal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
The Nikon D5100’s Business End. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Playing Back Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Zooming the Nikon D5100 Playback Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Viewing Thumbnails. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Working with Calendar View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Working with the Shooting Information/Photo Data Displays . . . . . . . . . 59
Using the Shooting Information Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Using the Photo Data Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Going Topside. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Lens Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Looking Inside the Viewfinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Underneath Your Nikon D5100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
PART II: BEYOND THE BASICS
Chapter 4
Getting the Right Exposure 81
Getting a Handle on Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
How the D5100 Calculates Exposure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Correctly Exposed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Overexposed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Underexposed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Choosing a Metering Method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Matrix Metering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Center-Weighted Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Spot Metering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Contents vii
Choosing an Exposure Method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Aperture-Priority. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Shutter-Priority. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Program Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Manual Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Using Scene Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Adjusting Exposure with ISO Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Dealing with Noise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Fixing Exposures with Histograms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Bracketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
White Balance Bracketing/ADL Bracketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
HDR Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Traditional HDR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Using the D5100’s In-Camera HDR Feature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Chapter 5
Mastering Autofocus Options 121
How Focus Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Phase Detection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Contrast Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Adding Circles of Confusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Using Autofocus with the Nikon D5100. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Autofocus Simplifies Our Lives… Doesn’t It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Bringing the Multi-CAM 1000 AF System into Focus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Autofocus Point Selection Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Choosing Autofocus Point Selection Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Autofocus Mode and Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Autofocus Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Chapter 6
Live View and D-Movies 137
The New Perspective of Live View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Beginning Live View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Viewing Live View Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Shooting in Live View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Shooting Movies with the D5100. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Viewing Your Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Editing Your Movies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
viii David Busch’s Nikon D5100 Guide to Digital SLR Photography
Tips for Shooting Better Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Make a Shooting Script. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Use Storyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Storytelling in Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Lighting for Video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Chapter 7
Advanced Techniques 161
Continuous Shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
A Tiny Slice of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Working with Short Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Three Ways to Take Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Working with Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Delayed Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Self-Timer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Time-Lapse/Interval Photography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Geotagging with the Nikon GP-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
WiFi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Focus Stacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
PART III: ADVANCED TOOLS
Chapter 8
Setup: Playback and Shooting Menus 185
Anatomy of the Nikon D5100’s Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Playback Menu Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Playback Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Playback Display Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Image Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Rotate Tall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Slide Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
DPOF Print Order. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Contents ix
Shooting Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Reset Shooting Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Storage Folder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Image Quality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Image Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
White Balance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Set Picture Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Manage Picture Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Auto Distortion Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Color Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Active D-Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
HDR (High Dynamic Range) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Long Exp. NR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
High ISO NR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
ISO Sensitivity Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Release Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Multiple Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Movie Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Interval Timer Shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Chapter 9
Setup: The Custom Settings Menu 231
Custom Settings Menu Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Reset Custom Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
a. Autofocus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
a1 AF-C Priority Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
a2 Built-in AF-Assist Illuminator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
a3 Rangefinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
b. Metering/Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
b1 EV Steps for Exposure Cntrl.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
c. Timers/AE Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
c1 Shutter Release Button AE-L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
c2 Auto Off Timers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
c3 Self-Timer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
c4 Remote on Duration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
d. Shooting/Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
d1 Beep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
d2 ISO Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240