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Learning the Camera Nikon D40

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Step One Turn your camera to the manual setting; on the Nikon turn the dial on the top to M, and also on the lens choose the M for manual focus. Now your ready.

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Photographic Triangle A correct exposure (picture) is a combination of your choice of the right size hole in your lens (the aperture), the right amount of time the light is allowed to remain on the digital sensor (the shutter speed) and the sensitivity to light (the ISO).

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The ISO Until we get more comfortable with the camera, we will keep our ISO or film speed set at 400. To adjust the ISO, press the info button on top. Press the question mark to get the ISO sensitivity screen. Use the arrows to select ISO and set it to 400.

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Focusing the Camera The proper way to hold a camera for optimum stablity

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Shutter Speed Shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter is open. Shutter speed is measured in seconds or in most cases fractions of seconds. The bigger the denominator the faster the speed (ie 1/1000 is much faster than 1/30).

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In most cases youll probably be using shutter speeds of 1/60th of a second or faster. This is because anything slower than this is very difficult to use without getting camera shake. Camera shake is when your camera is moving while the shutter is open and results in blur in your photos.

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Shutter speeds available to you on your camera will usually double (approximately) with each setting. As a result youll usually have the options for the following shutter speeds 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, 1/8 etc. This doubling is handy to keep in mind as aperture settings also double the amount of light that is let in as a result increasing shutter speed by one stop and decreasing aperture by one stop should give you similar exposure levels.

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Adjust the shutter speed on Nikon D40 Press the info button (right beneath the on/off button and use the dial on the right side of the camera. Rotating left will decrease shutter speed and right will increase. When considering what shutter speed to use in an image you should always ask yourself whether anything in your scene is moving and how youd like to capture that movement. If there is movement in your scene you have the choice of either freezing the movement (so it looks still) or letting the moving object intentionally blur (giving it a sense of movement).

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Freeze Motion To freeze movement in an image youll want to choose a faster shutter speed and to let the movement blur youll want to choose a slower shutter speed. The actual speeds you should choose will vary depending upon the speed of the subject in your shot and how much you want it to be blurred

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Aperture Aperture is the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken When you hit the shutter release button of your camera a hole opens up that allows your cameras image sensor to catch a glimpse of the scene youre wanting to capture. The aperture that you set impacts the size of that hole. The larger the hole the more light that gets in the smaller the hole the less light Aperture is measured in f-stops. f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6,f/8,f/22 etc. Moving from one f-stop to the next doubles or halves the size of the amount of opening in your lens (and the amount of light getting through)

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Large apertures (where lots of light gets through) are given f/stop smaller numbers Smaller apertures (where less light gets through) have larger f-stop numbers. So f/2.8 is in fact a much larger aperture than f/22

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Depth of Field and Aperture Depth of Field (DOF) is that amount of your shot that will be in focus. Large depth of field means that most of your image will be in focus whether its close to your camera or far away (f/22).

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Small (or shallow) depth of field means that only part of the image will be in focus and the rest will be fuzzy. To adjust the aperture on the Nikon D40: Press the info button. Then press and hold the +/- button and turn the dial. Left to increase, right to decrease. Remember: Large apertures (where lots of light gets through) are given smaller numbers like f 2.8 Smaller apertures (where less light gets through) have larger f-stop numbers like f 22.

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Metering There are 3 choices on your camera for metering: Matrix recommended for most situations, camera meters a wide area of the frame Center Weighted camera meters entire frame but assigns greatest weight to center (classic meter for portraits) Spot camera meters exposure in active focus area only. This ensures the subject will be exposed correctly even if background is very light or dark.

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Setting the Meter on the Nikon D40 Press the menu button on left side of camera Use the arrows to select metering Arrow over to left to set the meter to matrix. Press menu again to go back. To View the Meter: Use the screen and you can read the meter inside the view finder as you are shooting your subject.

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Excellent Resource http://www.digital-photography-school.com/ I encourage you to sign up for their newsletter and this is a great place to find an answer to a question if I am not available.

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Assignment Photography: Learning the camera Assignment Due Monday September 12, 2011 Students will: Navigate the Nikon D40 Camera in manual mode Adjust the shutter speed and aperture Use the light meter Take exposures that illustrate frozen motion and blurred motion Post 3 examples of each to their wiki page and label the images with the shutter speed and aperture used.