The Ultimate Nikon SLR Handbook Vol 3

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Volume 3
2PAG2ES P0LU+S
elcome to the new Ultimate

Nikon SLR Handbook: Volume 3.
In this fully updated and revised
Nikon digital SLR photography
guide weve packed even more helpful camera
techniques and inspirational advice.
The rst chapter on camera skills offers a range
of features to help you master and be more productive
with your Nikon SLR. Learn all about the basics of
photography, then be inspired by our creative projects.
Chapter two is our nine-lesson Nikopedia. This complete
guide to camera techniques and photography concepts
will enable you to get to grips with specics including
depth of eld, exposure, white balance, and much more.
This is followed by 28 pages of expert Q&As. In chapter
four we reveal how to put this technical know-how into
practice with 20 projects you can attempt yourself
including shooting street candids, underwater
landscapes, silhouettes and more. If you get stuck,
watch the included video tutorials.
Finally, in chapter ve we provide guides and reviews
of the most useful accessories you can buy for your
SLR, including the best Nikon lenses, tripods,
ashguns, editing software and printers everything
you need to get the most out of your Nikon SLR.
Chris George, Series Editor
6 0 MIN U T E S
O F V ID E O !
CAMERA SKILLS
Future Publishing Limited

Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA
www.digitalcameraworld.com
NIKOPEDIA
Series Editor
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Art Editors
Chris George chris.george@futurenet.com

Steven Raynes
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Q&A
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GEAR CRAFT
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4 The Ultimate Nikon SLR Handbook: Volume 3 2015
CAMERA SKILLS
NIKOPEDIA
CHAPTER ONE
Camera skills
CHAPTER TWO
Nikopedia
78
CHAPTER FIVE
Essential accessories
192
The A-Z of Nikon lenses .............................194

Kit bag essentials ......................................216
GEAR CRAFT
Lenses: part 1 ............................................80

Lenses: part 2............................................84
Raw vs JPEG..............................................88
Depth of field............................................. 92
Exposure.................................................... 96
Sensor size ...............................................100
Getting more from raw ...........................104
The exposure triangle.............................108
White balance ...........................................112
Q&A
Boot camp .....................................................8

The ultimate guide to exposure ...............20
The professional portrait guide ...............32
Raw secrets ................................................44
12 Creative home projects ........................56
80 ways to sell your shots ........................68
Environmental portraits ..........................156

Self-portraits .............................................158
Soft-focus portraits .................................160
Low-angle shooting ..................................162
Foreground interest .................................164
Underwater photography ........................166
Birds in flight .............................................168
Painting with light ....................................170
Successful silhouettes ............................172
The histogram .......................................... 174
Making a softbox .......................................176
Neutralising orange backgrounds..........178
Macro lighting ...........................................180
Camera user modes .................................182
Lighting with snoots ................................184
Tilt-shift effects ........................................186
Tethered shooting ....................................188
CHAPTER THREE
Q&A
116
CHAPTER FOUR
Gear craft
148
Magnifying your subject ..........................150

Reducing glare ..........................................152
Telephoto flowers ....................................154
Our resident expert answers your Nikon

questions and solves your issues. If nobody
else can help, ask Chris!
CAMERA SKILLS
Page 8
GEAR CRAFT
Q&A
NIKOPEDIA
Page 20
Page 32
CAMERA SKILLS
Camera skills
NIKOPEDIA
Q&A
Page 44
Boot camp ..................................................................8

The ultimate guide to exposure .................. 20
The professional portrait guide .................. 32
Raw secrets ............................................................44
12 Creative home projects .............................. 56
80 ways to sell your shots.............................. 68
Page 68
GEAR CRAFT
Page 56
CAMERA SKILLS
NIKOPEDIA
Q&A
GEAR CRAFT
rse!
u
o
c
h
s
ra
c
r
u
o
h
it
w
t
fi
Q Get photo
tand at ease troops! Are you ready to work
hard to improve your shooting skills? Are you
going to make this the year that you truly
master your SLR, and get really photo t? If so, youve
come to the right place. This is the Nikon Boot Camp
our intensive ve-day course where our crack team of
camera commandos will take you through the basics,
and get you to think about photography like a true
soldier. Whether youre a new photography recruit or a
battle-scarred snapping squaddie, our instructors will
get you through our SLR assault course. And through
your own hard work youll come out the other side as a
better sharp shooter, with all the essential survival
skills you need to make the most of your own Nikon SLR.
Our course runs over ve days, which are split up by

photographic subject and camera topic. On day one we
head to the hills to get down and dirty with exposure
and landscapes. On day two we learn essential eld
skills depth of eld skills, that is and use them for
taking portraits of civilians. On the third day, we head
back to camp to learn about why focusing is more a
challenge when shooting still lifes. On day four the
mission is moving targets, and using the right shutter
speed to avoid disaster from a shaky trigger nger, and
ensuring that we can freeze even the fastest of targets.
We nish off our Boot Camp by getting you to lose your
fear of noise and be a master of the push up! So what
are you waiting for? Grab your backpack and off we go
CAMERA SKILLS
NIKOPEDIA
GEAR CRAFT
ILLUSTRATIONS BY PAUL STERRY
Q&A
WHAT YOULL LEARN
DAY 2
FIELD EXERCISES
DAY 3
FOCUSED FITNESS
DAY 4
MOVING TARGETS
DAY 5
PUSH UP SKILLS
DAY 1
EXERCISES IN EXPOSURE
Q&A
GEAR CRAFT
Bulb
15
30 B
20
2
00
1000 500
EXERCISES IN
EXPOSURE
2 1 2 4
CAMERA SKILLS
15
12
5 60 30
4
DAY 1 LANDSCAPES
00
40
Every action has consequences

Exposure means balancing aperture, shutter
speed and ISO against the prevailing lighting
conditions. Here, nightfall combined with a
narrow aperture and a low ISO mean that we
need a very long (95-second) exposure, and so
the moving clouds and sea become a blur.
The secret to exposure is learning

when to trust your camera, and when
you need to exercise more control!
our Nikon is a powerful
weapon, and even
without intervention
from you can take a pretty decent
exposure, but there are two rules
that any new recruit should learn,
and that all of us can forget in
battle. First, exposure needs more
care when shooting a highcontrast scene typically when
you have bright light sources and
50
NIKOPEDIA
CAMERA SKILLS
dark shadow areas in the same

shot. These can present
themselves at any time of day or
night. As your camera cant expose
correctly for all areas, it needs
your help with the tactics.
Second, with SLRs its usually a
court martial offence to let bright
areas of your shot blow out, so the
highlights end up a detail-free,
unrecoverable white splodge.
KIT INSPECTION
ESSENTIALS FOR BETTER EXPOSURES
ND GRAD FILTER
ALARM CLOCK
D-SLRs dont cope

well with high
contrast. Reduce
the brightness
difference
between sky and
land using a neutral density
graduated lter. They come in
varying strengths; a good start is
a two-stop soft-edged one.
Landscapes
often look their
best when the
sun is low in
the sky, so it
pays to get up for
dawn. The light is less harsh and
you get more surface shadows,
and because the light changes
quickly you get lots of variety.
Use a third leg!

A tripod ia a
cumbersome piece
of kit, but its not just
useful for really long exposures.
A solid platform not only means
you can use any shutter speed you
want, it also means you can choose
the aperture and ISO that really
suits your shot strategy.
IMAGE BY
KARUN RUKTANGTUM
Nikon D800, Nikon AF-S
14-24mm f/2.8 ED,
95 secs, f/16, ISO100
TECHNICAL BRIEFING #01

TARGET respect the
rules of reciprocity!
The controls for exposure can seem complex,
but its just like lling a glass with water!
How far you open the tap is the aperture.
The water pressure is the intensity of light.
The shutter speed is how long you leave the tap
running if the light is low, you open the tap up
more or let it run for longer (or both).
ISO is the size of the glass. If light is scarce,
you can use a high ISO (a smaller glass).
Theres no xed perfect exposure.
T
ANN
N
TE TO
EU AW
I
L
L .
R
Give the meter a nudge

Your Nikons built-in meter is just
a guide, so be prepared to make
the shot darker or lighter than it
suggests. We recommend you start
using A (aperture-priority) mode and then use
exposure compensation to make this brighter or
darker. If youve completed basic training, you can
use M (manual) mode, which lets you tweak the
overall exposure much more quickly.
CAMERA SKILLS
CAMERA SKILLS
NIKOPEDIA
Set the Image Quality of your Nikon to RAW or

NEF. One of the many advantages of this format
is that it gives you more tonal detail, and more
exibility to tweak the exposure of the image
on your computer back at base.
Q&A
Anything but NEF is naff
Seeing in the dark
UNLOCK THE HISTOGRAM

Make sure your SLR shows you its
exposure graph, or histogram. Go to
Display Options in the Playback
menu, and enable this. Press Up as
you review the shot to see the graph.
EYES TO THE RIGHT

The more exposure you give the
shot, the further the graph goes to
the right. You want a histogram that
touches the right-hand edge, but
that doesnt peak at the right.
TURN ON THE BLINKIES

If you dont have time for graphs,
turn on Highlights in the Playback
Display Options. You can then
review images so that burnt-out
over-exposed areas blink at you!
ASSAULT
COURSE
GET TO
GRIPS WITH
GRAPHS
GEAR CRAFT
Your camera can see things that you just

dont see with the naked eye. You can boost
the ISO or use a long, long shutter speed (as in
this shot) to reveal hidden details in the darkest
corners of the scene.
CAMERA SKILLS
NIKOPEDIA
Q&A
GEAR CRAFT
CAMERA SKILLS
IMAGE BY CHARLES HILDRETH
Nikon D700, Nikon 85mm f/1.4G,
1/3200 sec, f/1.4, ISO400
DAY 2 PORTRAITS
FIELD EXERCISES
For shots with real impact, you need
control of whats blurred and whats
VKDUS,WVDOODERXWWKHGHSWKRIHOG
ont ever forget this!
A lens can only ever focus
precisely on one distance
at a time, and so whatever you do,
only one point (or plane) is
perfectly sharp. In practice,
thankfully, more of your picture
looks sharp because of a an optical
principle known as depth of eld.
Controlling depth of eld is one
of the key skills that any sharp
shooter needs to master, because
it enables you to decide which bits
are in focus. Just as importantly,
you need to learn to use depth of
DC
eld to control whats blurred.

Optical blur is what distinguishes
SLR photography from shooting
with a compact camera or
cellphone, because it gives you
the power to defocus whole zones
of your image.
The key control for depth of eld
is aperture, which you can easily
alter in A, S, P or M exposure
modes. But you need to learn that
aperture alone is not enough. Use
your camera position and the focal
length of your lens to become a
master of this essential eld craft.
Format FX
SLRs are better than compact
cameras and cellphones because
they have bigger sensors, which
let you restrict depth of eld more
effectively. Full-frame FX SLRs let
you big up the blur to a greater degree
than possible with a DX Nikon SLR.
FX
DX
Background blur
KIT INSPECTION
PERFECT PARTNERS FOR PORTRAITS
50mm f/1.8
Flashgun
The fastest lens

with the widest
maximum
aperture you can
afford gives you
more ability to limit depth of
eld for beautifully blurred
backgrounds. Two really
affordable options are the Nikon
50mm f/1.8D and 50mm f/1.8G.
Try to avoid
using ash as
the main light
source with
portraits. Instead
use it as a ll-in day or night.
The ash lls in ugly shadows
under the nose and adds a real
sparkle (known as a catch light)
to the persons eyes.
Just because something is out of focus,

doesnt mean it isnt distracting. It may even
still be recognisable. There are degrees of
being out of focus, and you often need to
use more than a wide aperture to get the
bokeh effect you need. Make sure the model
isnt too close to the background, and use a
longer lens to help increase the blur.

TARGET the three
factors controlling
depth of field
Aperture is the way of controlling depth of
eld without changing your framing or
moving your feet. A narrow aperture makes
more of the shot in focus.
Target distance counts, too! The closer you
get, the less depth of eld there is.
Use your zoom to control depth of eld.
A long telephoto lens will tend to achieve
more blur than a wide-angle lens.
NNINGS
NT A. JE
SERGEA
f/5.6
f/11
f/22
Eyes right!
NIKOPEDIA
Minimising the amount of your shot thats

sharp is one of the most effective tricks
you can play with your SLR. But for this
type of shot to work, something needs
to be in focus that draws the eye of the
viewer and juxtaposes with the blurred
bits. With portraits, of people or animals,
you need to ensure that at least one of
your subjects eyes is perfectly sharp (it
should be the one closest to the camera).
Then it wont matter if the rest of the
head is progressively blurred.
CAMERA SKILLS
CAMERA SKILLS
Q&A
Mission: Impossible
85mm at f/4.5
This is better, but youll get no
medal! We have now zoomed right
out to the telephoto end, and set the
maximum aperture. But that
backdrop is still too distracting!
85mm at f/4.5
Now we have a portrait that is worth
a mention in despatches. The
background has less detail, and our
man is standing further away from
it, so its perfectly defocused.
ASSAULT
COURSE 24mm at f/8
everything in focus makes
STAND OUT Getting
for a dull shot here. A wide-angle
and a mid-sized aperture
FROM THE lens
combine to give you lots of depth of
BACKGROUND eld, which, frankly, we dont want.
GEAR CRAFT
With some subjects its

impossible to get
everything in focus,
however narrow an
aperture you use, or
whatever lens you own.
This is particularly so with
close-range targets. Youll
soon learn the situations
where not everything can
be pin-sharp.
CAMERA SKILLS
CAMERA SKILLS
DAY 3 STILL LIFE
FOCUSED FITNESS
GEAR CRAFT
Q&A
ocusing is easy to master

if you have plenty of
depth of eld. If you use a
wide lens with a narrow aperture
and dont get too close to your
target, you wont have a problem,
but start using a long telephoto,
a macro, or a wide-aperture prime
at it widest aperture and youll
soon nd that getting the camera
to focus accurately and reliably on
the right point takes some skill.
Focusing manually by simply
looking through the viewnder is
useless on a D-SLR. You have to
trust the
autofocus. But
you need to tell
it where to
focus. In many
situations, choosing
the focus point is not
enough. The AF feeds off contrast,
so you need to point it at
something with an edge or with
some texture that it can lock onto.
Most importantly, get into the
habit of checking your shots are
sharp before you leave the scene
and lose the ability to reshoot!
KIT INSPECTION
BACKPACK ESSENTIALS FOR SHARPER SHOTS
LOUPE
17-55mm f/2.8
It is hard to use
the LCD screen
to check focus
outdoors on a
bright day. A
magnifying loupe, like this one
from Hoodman, lets you see
whats on the LCD screen more
easily by cutting out glare and
distracting reections.
The faster the

maximum
aperture of your
lens, the faster
and more sensitive
your autofocus will be. The fast
maximum aperture of the Nikon
17-55mm f/2.8G makes it a great
choice if you want to upgrade the
kit lens for your DX-format D-SLR.
ASSAULT
COURSE
MIRRORING
A TARGETS
POSITION
THE SINGLE LIFE

If your subject isnt moving, make
sure you dont use the continuous
AF-C mode. Your lens focuses faster
and more accurately with the single
shot AF-S focus mode.
GENERAL C. GEORGE
NIKOPEDIA
The autofocus mechanism is one of

the hardest SLR systems for any
photographer to fully control
TARGET get
straight to
the point!
Different Nikons have different

numbers of autofocus points.
Your SLR can pick the one to
use, but its good practice to get
used to selecting it yourself.
Choose the Single Point AF
mode, then use the four-way
controller on the back of the camera to choose the one that you want,
which will light up. The autofocus needs to be awake and working, so you
may need to give the trigger a squeeze before you pick your point.
WAIT FOR THE GREEN LIGHT

Gently squeeze the trigger to get the
autofocus to re up. When it nds its
target and locks on, a green light
appears in the viewnder (and you
get an optional beep too).
LIVE ROUNDS
In low light, or when youre very
close to your target, it can often be
easier and more accurate to focus
using Live View. You then autofocus
on any point in the frame.
Pixels on parade
IMAGE BY
ZACHARY VOO
Nikon D600,
Nikon 50mm f/1.4,
1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO200
Dont just assume

your SLR has taken a
sharp shot. Check it.
Replay the image and
zoom right into key
areas to check you
dont need to reshoot.
CAMERA SKILLS
CAMERA SKILLS
NIKOPEDIA
Q&A
GEAR CRAFT
Close encounters
Pick a target
You need to pick the spot that
youre going to focus on carefully,
especially if you have or want
limited depth of eld.
Wait for support

A tripod can be a great help when precision
focusing is necessary, such as with close-ups.
Even a millimetre more or less camera-tosubject distance makes a difference. You can
use manual focus, Live View and a zoomed-in
preview to check that the target is pin-sharp.
How close you can go

depends on the lens
youre using. The 50mm
f/1.4 used here has a
minimum focusing
distance of 45cm.
DAY 4 ACTION
MOVING TARGETS
Image is everything
The speed of the subject
doesnt dictate the shutter
speed you need to use to
freeze the action its the
speed at which it moves across
the frame that counts. If a bike
is close to the lens you need a
faster shutter speed than for a
ghter jet on the horizon,
because its moving across the
viewnder faster.
Beat the shakes with our handy

HOGJXLGHWRWKHEHVWVKXWWHUVSHHGV
to suit every shooting occasion
he rst rule of Boot Camp
is that if theres blur in
your pictures it has to be
there deliberately! There are no
excuses for camera shake, and
moving targets should be frozen,
unless you want to use a blurry
effect for artistic reasons.
The key to achieving these
things is to use the right shutter
speed for the job. Your rst stop is
to avoid the shakes. If youre
hand-holding your camera, the
image isnt completely still, and
you need to set a shutter speed
thats fast enough to allow for the

involuntary movements of your
arms and body. How fast you need
to go will depend on things such as
how t you are and how cold it is,
but also on the focal length of the
lens youre using. The longer the
lens, the more obvious any slight
movement in the lens becomes in
the image, necessitating a faster
shutter speed than if you had a
wider angle of view. But if youre in
any doubt, always play safe and go
for a faster shutter speed than you
think you need!
KIT INSPECTION
FAST-ACTION BOLT-ONS FOR SHARP SHOOTERS
70-200mm f/2.8
1.4x teleconverter
A long lens is the

tool of choice for
wildlife and
sport. How long a
lens you need will
vary, but one with a
fast maximum aperture will help
you focus faster, get higher
shutter speeds and isolate the
action from the background.
A teleconverter is
a great portable
add-on for
giving you more
repower when
you need to crop in
that bit closer. They only work
effectively with certain faster
lenses, so shop with care and
check the requirements.
IMAGE BY PHILIP PLATZER

Nikon D4, Nikon 16mm f/2.8D Fisheye,
1/1600 sec, f/11, ISO400

S.
LE
W
VA
TE
The standard way of working out which

shutter speed to use is the reciprocal rule:
if using a 50mm lens, you need to use a
shutter speed of 1/50 sec or faster. For a
500mm, use a minimum of 1/500 sec.
If you use a DX camera, you need to take
the crop factor into account and multiply
the shutter speed by 1.5, so use 1/750 sec
with a 500mm lens.
If you use VR you can get away with a
slower speed, if the subject isnt moving.
IS
TARGET
BANISH CAMERA SHAKE
PR
I
CAMERA SKILLS
NIKOPEDIA
Q&A
GEAR CRAFT
CAMERA SKILLS
1/500 sec
1/125 sec
1/30 sec
1/8 sec
Take a selection
In some low-light situations,
you just have to give it a go and
use a shutter speed slower
than the guidelines suggest.
Our tip here is to take several
shots, because one will always
be sharper than the others
although this only works for
stationary subjects.
CAMERA SKILLS
CAMERA SKILLS
NIKOPEDIA
Frozen landscape
Q&A
Shot with a 16mm lens on

a full-frame camera, the
minimum textbook shutter
speed for this shot would be
around 1/15 sec. However, the
fast-moving snowboarder
means we need a much faster
speed to freeze the movement.
GEAR CRAFT
SHUTTER SPEED: 1/1000 sec

Its the speed relative to you that
matters, not your subjects actual
speed. If its moving across the frame
you need a faster shutter speed than
if its heading towards you.

You can get away with a shutter
speed thats two stops slower (four
times as long) if the car is heading
towards you, but be warned, the
autofocus is more likely to fail!

You can get away with slower
shutter speeds by keeping the car in
your sights and tracking its
movement. These panning shots
artistically blur the surroundings.
ASSAULT
COURSE
PLOTTING A
SUBJECTS
TRAJECTORY
CAMERA SKILLS
NIKOPEDIA
Q&A
GEAR CRAFT
CAMERA SKILLS
DAY 5 TRAVEL
CA
P
PUSH UP SKILLS
TA
IN
A.
NI
CH
OL
S
ON
To be effective in the dark you need to

lose any fear of pushing up the ISO
and take the grain with the gain!
oo many photographers
have an irrational fear of
pushing up the ISO. Years
ago, changing ISO meant changing
your lm, but nowadays you can
tweak your Nikons all-important
sensitivity control for every shot.
The fear today is of noise digital
grain that creeps in gradually as
you turn up the ISO.
However, there are two good
reasons you should learn to love
the big-number ISO settings. The
rst is to remember the rst rule
of Boot Camp (see page 16)...
Boosting the cameras electronic

gain is a very simple and effective
way of beating unintentional blur
created by camera shake or
subject movement. Remember, its
always better to have a grainy shot
than a blurry one.
Second, high ISO settings are
liberating. They let you take
pictures in situations where you
simply wouldnt otherwise get a
shot: in places where you just cant
use a tripod, or even in places that
are so dark you cant even see
whats front of your eyes.
KIT INSPECTION
MUST-HAVE ADD-ONS FOR A TOUR OF DUTY
TARGET
Love The NOISE!
Tripod
Superzoom
A tripod is a
necessity, not a
luxury. If you
shoot a static
subject, you should
use one unless theres an
operational reason not to! It
frees you up to use low ISOs even
in low light, and gives you a freer
choice of aperture and speed.
To travel light
but leave as
many photo
opportunities
open as possible,
consider using an all-in-one
superzoom lens with built-in
optical stabilisation, such as the
DX Nikon 18-200mm, or FX Nikon
28-300mm.
ASSAULT
COURSE
IMPROVE
YOUR
BALANCE
WHY YOU NEED WHITE BALANCE

On the parade ground we like our
whites to look white! The auto white
balance (AWB) system can usually
do this for you, but in some
situations, colours can look wrong
ISO follows a scale where

each time you double the
number you get a one-stop
increase in sensitivity.
So, going from ISO100 to
ISO1600 is a four-stop
improvement, allowing you
to increase the shutter speed
from 1/8 sec to 1/125 sec (if
the aperture and overall
exposure stay the same).
TWEAKING THE COLOURS

In articial lighting, images can look
a touch orange or green. To correct
for this cast, switch the white
balance to manual and play with the
different preset options.
LOW NOISE
100
LOW
ISO
400
HIGH NOISE
1600
6400
HIGH
ISO
NEUTRALISE THE ORANGE

The Incandescent setting
(represented by a light bulb) is the
one to use to tweak images that look
too orange. To beat a green tinge, try
the Fluorescent strip-light option.
Go to extremes
Investigate the highest ISO
settings your SLR offers (often
labelled H). The grain and
blotchy colour are an artistic
effect in their own right, and
enable you to take pictures in
near total darkness.
CAMERA SKILLS
IMAGE BY TOM MACKIE

Nikon D800,
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED,
1/30 sec, f/5.6, ISO3200
Handheld
helper
NIKOPEDIA
Tom Mackie shot this

picture at the Taj
Mahal just the sort of
place where you wouldnt
be able to use a tripod even if
you had one. His solution was to
whack up the ISO to 3200 so he
could come home with a sharp
handheld interior shot.
Q&A
GEAR CRAFT
If you struggle to switch the ISO

early enough or at the right
time, try setting your Nikon SLR
to Auto ISO. Its surprisingly
good, and you can even set up
the maximum ISO and minimum
shutter speed youre prepared
to put up with.
Switch to automatic

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2 GREAT WAYS TO LEARN!

Take amazing photos

Click the links to

elcome to the new Ultimate

Chris George, Series Editor

Future Publishing Limited

Chris George chris.george@futurenet.com

FUTURE PUBLISHING LIMITED

Tel: +44 (0)1225 788186

CIRCULATION & MARKETING

PRINT & PRODUCTION

Printed in the UK by William Gibbons on behalf of Future.

Future produces carefully targeted magazines,

Future Publishing Limited 2015. All rights reserved. No

4 The Ultimate Nikon SLR Handbook: Volume 3 2015

The A-Z of Nikon lenses .............................194

Lenses: part 1 ............................................80

Boot camp .....................................................8

Environmental portraits ..........................156

Magnifying your subject ..........................150

Our resident expert answers your Nikon

Boot camp ..................................................................8

2015 The Ultimate Nikon SLR Handbook: Volume 3 7

8 The Ultimate Nikon SLR Handbook: Volume 3 2015

Our course runs over ve days, which are split up by

ILLUSTRATIONS BY PAUL STERRY

WHAT YOULL LEARN

2015 The Ultimate Nikon SLR Handbook: Volume 3 9

Every action has consequences

The secret to exposure is learning

dark shadow areas in the same

D-SLRs dont cope

Use a third leg!

TECHNICAL BRIEFING #01

10 The Ultimate Nikon SLR Handbook: Volume 3 2015

Give the meter a nudge

Set the Image Quality of your Nikon to RAW or

Anything but NEF is naff

Seeing in the dark

UNLOCK THE HISTOGRAM

EYES TO THE RIGHT

TURN ON THE BLINKIES

2015 The Ultimate Nikon SLR Handbook: Volume 3 11

Your camera can see things that you just

eld to control whats blurred.

The fastest lens

Just because something is out of focus,

TECHNICAL BRIEFING #02

12 The Ultimate Nikon SLR Handbook: Volume 3 2015

Minimising the amount of your shot thats

2015 The Ultimate Nikon SLR Handbook: Volume 3 13

With some subjects its

DAY 3 STILL LIFE

ocusing is easy to master

TECHNICAL BRIEFING #03

The faster the

THE SINGLE LIFE

14 The Ultimate Nikon SLR Handbook: Volume 3 2015

The autofocus mechanism is one of

Different Nikons have different

WAIT FOR THE GREEN LIGHT

Dont just assume

Wait for support

How close you can go