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Sunrise and Sunset Beach Settings

CKLLCKLL
edited April 2012 Posted in » Nikon D5100 Forum
Hello @Moose! I just bought the Nikon D5100 and I must say I am absolutely and completely LOST! I have never owned a camera above a basic digital camera and honestly have used my camera phone for the majority of the pictures I have taken over the past couple of years.

I bought the D5100 in preparation for me and my girlfriend's upcoming vacation to Cabo. After reading all of the posts in this forum and doing extensive research on the capabilities of this new camera, I am very excited about getting started with my new hobby...with that being said, I am going to attempt my first "photo-shoot" this coming Saturday.

I want to take some pictures of the beautiful sunrises here in Southern California and end the day with some sunset pictures. I will be taking these pictures from the beach as well as a pier. I have a tripod and the following lenses:

- Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm
- Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm

Could you please point me in the right direction as far as settings and any tips and hints. Thanks so much for taking the time to establish this forum and keeping the jargon at a "beginner's" level for people like me.

Regards,
Chris

PS...In the event that you receive this post in the next couple of hours, I am also using the camera today to photograph a wresting tournament at work today. The event will be held inside. What are your recommended settings for this scenario?

Comments

  • MooseMoose
  • rhinorhino
    edited May 2012
    Although I haven't tried this yet, I'm curious as to why you recommend turning vibration reduction off. Why does that matter when manually bracketing exposures for HDR blending? Thanks!
  • dinodino
    edited May 2012
    If you use vibration reduction when the camera is mounted to a tripod, the VR will try and compensate for movement when there is none and you may end up with a blurred picture.
  • rhinorhino
    That seems strange since one would think the lens would only activate the stabilizing motors when it senses motion, but it appears that the VR motors may actually cause camera shake when mounted on a tripod. It sounds like Nikon recommends turning VR off when using a tripod, but only for certain lenses.
  • MooseMoose
    @rhino - It does seem strange, but that's how Nikon's VR system works. It continuously tries to compensate for your hand movements, which can result in blurry shots when the shutter speed falls below say 1/60.

    In addition to that, if the VR is compensating (moving) side to side, your photos won't exactly line up when blending the shots together using an HDR program. Hope that makes sense. Happy shooting! :)
  • cinnamon0415cinnamon0415
    I've tried the steps above but I am wondering why I can't turn the HDR settings on in the camera menu? I've tried moving the dials to different settings but the HDR in the menu is still grayed out. What am I doing wrong?

    Thanks.
  • nurseerocnurseeroc
    edited July 2012
    @cinnamon0415
    I believe you have to be in either P,S,A, or M mode in order for HDR to work.
  • LimitedSpectrumLimitedSpectrum
    @cinnamon0415

    For the built-in HDR mode, you need to be shooting JPEG, not RAW. Took me an entire day to figure that one out.
  • cinnamon0415cinnamon0415
    Thanks for the advice, will try.
  • HebviewHebview
    edited February 2014
    Having a look at this thread, and I cannot find the HDR mode.
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