Nikon D5300 Photography Resources/Tips

Hey everyone, so I purchased a Nikon D5300 for my wife. We are moving to Europe this fall and I wanted a nice enough camera to be able to take some great pictures while we are there. I have been practicing but I am very new to this and was wondering if anyone had any tips on lens, resources, software, etc. to help my slow learning curve. Please note that I am a beginner and do not take offense being talked to as such!

Thanks

Cody

The D5300 is a decent camera to start with. What came with it in the kit you bought? You may have everything you need to start learning. Many great photos have been made with "kit" lenses (meaning included with the camera body as a kit). It's better to buy a new lens because it fills a specific need. Something that your current gear can't do.

It sounds like you may want to learn the Exposure Triangle and basic composition. There are tons of good books and videos on the subjects. You may want to check out Tony Northrups "Stunning Digital Photography" on Amazon.

I'm pretty familiar with my D5200 so I can answer model specific questions.

Blue_2 said:

The D5300 is a decent camera to start with. What came with it in the kit you bought? You may have everything you need to start learning. Many great photos have been made with "kit" lenses (meaning included with the camera body as a kit). It's better to buy a new lens because it fills a specific need. Something that your current gear can't do.

It sounds like you may want to learn the Exposure Triangle and basic composition. There are tons of good books and videos on the subjects. You may want to check out Tony Northrups "Stunning Digital Photography" on Amazon.

I'm pretty familiar with my D5200 so I can answer model specific questions.

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Thanks for the reply! I have the 18-55mm kit lense. It also came with a wide angle type of attachment, as well as a zoom attachment. Both do not seem to be high quality. I also received a Tri-Pod, some different filters, all of which is again, cheaper. I will look into the resource you suggested. As for lenses, are there any must have necessity lenses you guys recommend?

Thanks,
Cody

knickin_aint_easy said:

Thanks for the reply! I have the 18-55mm kit lense. It also came with a wide angle type of attachment, as well as a zoom attachment. Both do not seem to be high quality. I also received a Tri-Pod, some different filters, all of which is again, cheaper. I will look into the resource you suggested. As for lenses, are there any must have necessity lenses you guys recommend?

Thanks,
Cody

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The 35/1.8 DX for low light and street shooting, and the 70-300 VR for range. Both are highly recommended, plus the former is pretty much a must-have for any DX user.

That setup is more than adequate for 99.9% of people out there, it'll be miles ahead of using your iPhone on auto

As with most things around here, basic gear works well until you move from being a functional user into a hobbyist.

I second what Dan said. Tony Northrup also has a lot of great videos on Youtube, including one devoted to all the features of the 5300. For walking around you might want to consider a different strap. The Black Rapid Curve keeps the camera at your hip while allowing you to quickly raise it and shoot.

I've discovered that Tony guys youtube page. Don't know if it's helping my pictures, but I think I'm learning from it all though.

The best resource you will ever find is nikonians.org worth the sub but you can do free if money is tight

Nikon has an app that will guide you through the ins and outs of photography. They will have beginner tips, intermediate tips, and advanced tips. The app is called Nikon L&E (Learn and Explore). You can also, if you have one, go on Pinterest and look up photography tips. One last source I can think of is National Geographic. If you go to their website and set up a "YourShot" account, you should be able to read tips and how-to's that their photographers occasionally post. Hope this helps!

Good for starting out.

Read, practice, read and practice some more. I wouldn't buy any more photography kit until you understand what the camera can do and what it can't do. When you decide to buy something new try to fill a gap in the cameras capabilities.

Great advice guys!
I found that snapping away and changing settings here and there and looking at the differences was the best way for me to get the hang of it, I guess I am more of a practical person than theory, although you still need to know what the buttons do! Only when I got more comfortable using manual settings did I look at new lenses etc.

Thank all of you for the tips!

Cheers,
Cody

knickin_aint_easy said:

Thank all of you for the tips!

Cheers,
Cody

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Anytime.

Learn the camera and learn how a camera works. Every camera works the same. From the most basic box brownie to the most expensive Leica.

You have a shutter that opens and closes. You can adjust how fast that happens (or how long it is open).

You have an aperture. It can be adjusted to be big or small.

Both of those dictate how much light reaches the film/sensor.

Once you get a handle on all that you can start looking at new gear like lenses. What a larger or smaller aperture does. Why you want to use a large aperture in certain situations, why you want a fast shutter speed in other situations.

When I purchased my D5100 (yesterday's -1 equivalent model) I found the number of dials and buttons and menus a bit daunting to say the least. I read the manual a bit . . . but it was not really too helpful. I wanted to get up to speed quick. I found a on line set of videos on Creative Live by John Greengo. It got me in touch with this camera pretty much as quickly as could be. This is more from a where things are point of view. The composition, lighting, art . . . well that's a separate thing or things I'll continue to work on.

A great camera does not make a great photographer. As was said. Get out there and practice with a purpose. I knew a guy who had his camera in hand all the time. Took shots of everything he saw, pretty much. All of his shots looked like crime scene photos minus the body.

Practice with purpose in mind. There are lots of authors out there and many of them often contradict each other. I prefer to read from one author whom I respect as a photographer. In my case it is Freeman Patterson, Galen Rowell, and Jack Dykinga. I'm a nature photographer. If it were me I would go with the below if I could find them. Lots of youtube videos on the 5300

Photography
for the Joy of It

Photography and
the Art of Seeing

Photography of
Natural Things

Photographing the
World Around You

natenaaron said:

A great camera does not make a great photographer. As was said. Get out there and practice with a purpose. I knew a guy who had his camera in hand all the time. Took shots of everything he saw, pretty much. All of his shots looked like crime scene photos minus the body.

Practice with purpose in mind. There are lots of authors out there and many of them often contradict each other. I prefer to read from one author whom I respect as a photographer. In my case it is Freeman Patterson, Galen Rowell, and Jack Dykinga. I'm a nature photographer. If it were me I would go with the below if I could find them. Lots of youtube videos on the 5300

Photography
for the Joy of It

Photography and
the Art of Seeing

Photography of
Natural Things

Photographing the
World Around You

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QFT. won't help much if you go shoot macro for 5 minutes birds in flight for 10 then landscape for an hour. if you are going to shoot shoot ONE THING until you can get the composition and exposure right. when I go to the beach in the morining it's with the purpose of capturing the sunrise usually. I don't even take my large zooms. when i go birding I don't pay a lot of attention to landscape shots..

Thats exactly what I was saying.

I just picked up a 5300 body for $319. as soon as it gets here it's off to lifepixel to get the IR filter replaced