I got a Nikon d3000 as a graduation gift and now I want to learn something about photography, so far I am able to adjust to aperture for blurring the background and shutter speeds for catching a speed action. But want to learn some more. Anybody here who can help or give me a free lesson/., Just got out of school so do not want to go back for a photography class.

Doesn't the D3000 have an onboard tutorial function on how to use each feature? I read in a review that as you take a picture, it guides you through the steps?

'The intelligent Guide Mode asks you about the image you want to capture and automatically optimizes the settings for the best possible results. When you’ve gained more experience, you can then use the Guide Mode to find out how to adjust the settings yourself.'
http://www.photographyblog.com/revie..._d3000_review/

I went through all that a lot and found out about the blurring background and the shutter speeds, but I wanted to explore some more.
I know the camera I have would not have all the fancy features and also the lens will not be able to handle all that. I was really interested in the astro-photography, but dont want to shell out a 500 for a telscope lens when I need to fix my ac in a car while its 90 in here.

yes...aircon in a car is a lot more important than staring at the stars...been there, done that and got the T-Shirt

Have you tried here?

http://photographycourse.net/

Thanks dude,

Go read a textbook about optics, especially
lens optics, focusing, F-number
diffraction limit
transfer function
aberrations

Further literature about CCD/CMOS could help as well, especially basic principles, readout, noise...

Or go study physics

thanks, I can read all that may be except for physics, barely passed high school on science classes. science including physics, chemistry and biology is just not my thing. glad i took management and eased it out now.

basics:

- low iso = low noise (iso is like an amplifier - turn it up you get more signal but also the noise gets amplified)
- learn to shoot manual or at least in aperture & shutter priority modes
- learn to use manual white balance and exposure compensation
- read up on lenses what the focal length means, digital sensor crop, why good lenses are not cheap and so on. Like said before read about aberations, purple fringe and all that.
- shoot shoot shoot or f/8 and be there
- I find the National Geographic Photography books good. (not the thin digital photography one, but a thicker one about photography in general)

You can read tons of optics books and still have no photo on your card.

Start shooting in RAW, and see how you can work on the RAW images afterwards. Get a good tool like LR2 or Aperture if you're on Mac (I'm on Mac yet prefer LR2 to Aperture). Get yourself a good workflow.

The Nikon D3000 is very much an entry-level camera. Only 3FPS will prevent you from doing good sports photography (even though it's still a dSLR, so you still have the instant shoot, compared to a P&S). Because the sensor on the D3000 (and most entry to mid-range cameras) is smaller than a full-frame sensor (such as on the Canon 5D, or Nikon D3x), you get a "crop factor".

This is simple physics: because the size of the sensor is smaller than a full-frame, you can capture less information, thus there is a zoom effect. Your Nikon has a crop factor of roughly 1.5. This means that if you put a 24mm lens on it, you end up with the same field of view as a 36mm lens on a full-frame (35mm equivalent). Here's a good reference page that explains this.

This being said, you shouldn't think in terms of 35mm equivalent constantly. It's good to know, if you believe you'll be moving up to full frame cameras one day, or if you're used to shooting full frame film previously, but really, it will impact your DoF calculations so much that it'll make you make more mistakes than anything else. I tend to calculate DoF off the top of my head before taking the picture, before even looking through the viewfinder. I make minor adjustments once I'm looking, but most is done before I even take the camera out of my bag (I specialise in street photography, so need to take the camera out only at the last moment).

I would say initially shoot in Aperture priority mode (rotate the mode switch to A on a D3000), but you seem to be understanding that quite well. Also, try to understand where your lens is best. You probably have a kit lens, which means it'll be quite average all over the line. If you get other lenses, you'll note serious softness in the corners when completely zoomed out or in.

Most entry-level glass is well, entry-level. This means that it'll be very soft when the aperture is wide open (anything under f/2.8). Take the habit of shooting around two or three stops smaller than your max aperture. Because of this, you'll quickly jump to manual (one click counter-clock wise from aperture priority, "M").

In manual, you fix everything. Set yourself a specific aperture and shutter speed, and play with the ISO. Analyse the pictures to try and see the difference between 100 ISO and 1600 or 3200 (does the D3000 go that high?). You'll notice that pictures with an ISO of 800 and above are quickly unusable for anything other than candid photography. Though, if you make them black&white, the noise from the high ISO can make it interesting in specific shots (you can check meta information of pictures on Flickr by clicking on "More properties" in the bottom right corner, includes focal length, ISO speed, shutter speed, etc).

As I said in the beginning, shoot RAW. Or if your camera supports it, shoot RAW + JPEG. Play with the different modes (make your camera process to black&white, and then use the RAW image to go B&W in post-proc), and see how the camera is biased to make pictures "better" to the layman's eye, when really you can do a much better job in post-proc.

RAW means "output from the sensor, no processing". This also means that any exposure bias that you asked the camera to perform will be ignored. Any fancy editing, done in-camera, will be ignored. The JPEG will contain all that information, but your RAW picture will be pure.

I have two cameras I shoot most with, one dSLR, a Canon 40d (semi-pro/consumer high-end) and a P&S, Panasonic LX3 (very high-end, almost pro P&S). The LX3 always shoots in RAW + JPEG, the 40D usually shoots in RAW or JPEG, never both. I also have another 40d, with a 200mm prime lens on it. My main 40D body has a 50mm prime on it, and sometimes I'll put a tamron 18-200mm on it (the tamron and 200mm prime are borrowed from a friend). My next acquisition will probably be a Canon 10-22mm for very wide angle.

Hope this helps,

Crashanddie you are my man. Thanks a lot. I will play with it the way you suggested. I have found a 200 a pop 75x lens for d3000 in ebay, by the price point of that and any other name brand products I know that it will be crappy. But thanks dude I really appreciate it.