Welcome to the Nikon D5200 Forum for Beginners

MooseMoose
edited January 2015 Posted in » Nikon D5200 Forum
Howdy dudes and dudettes! Well, it's pretty simple. If you've got questions about your Nikon D5200, you can start a new discussion and get tons of helpful replies from other D5200 owners all across the world, including yours truly. :)

To get started, go ahead and register an account here at Camera Tips.

Next, just click the Start a New Discussion button at the top of the page.

To reply to a current topic, navigate to the Nikon D5200 Forum homepage, click a discussion thread and you'll see a Post Comment button towards the bottom of the discussion.

Happy shooting!

Comments

  • staycelynnestaycelynne
    edited February 2015
    Where can I go to take lessons on using my Nikon D5200? I am going crazy with all the various youtube videos and things available. Is there something or somewhere I can go to learn the camera inside and out? Something that provides sample lessons with instructions? I want to learn Manual Mode in Raw for the best outcomes. I am a total newbie/beginner.
  • brutobruto
    edited February 2015
    Something like the cheat sheets advertised here could be a good start. They give specific settings for specific situations with many of them in manual mode, and others in Aperture priority mode, which allows a great deal of user control while allowing the meter to fine tune exposure. These won't tell you a lot about theory or why things are done, but once you've used some of those settings you can introduce variations and see how they affect your results. By doing so you will begin to understand why various choices have been made. In the meantime, if you follow the advice, you'll get some presentable photographs.

    @ohyeahar here has also posted a number of links to very elementary concepts such as depth of field and shutter speed, and the like, which could be very helpful. I can't quite remember where you'll find them, but look in the general forum. Edit to add: look in the "General Discussion" forum, a few posts down.

    There's also an online photo site that has a lot of useful information, which often seems to be well organized. Take a look at http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/ .

    And of course you can post here, where folks such as myself can do our best to sow chaos and confusion.

  • MooseMoose
    Hi @staycelynne - I honestly believe that the best way to learn is by "hands on" training...kinda like actually riding a bike versus reading how to ride a bike. My cheat sheets are perfect for this type of learning. It will show you the exact settings I use for a variety of different situations so you can go out and start shooting today without having to overwhelm yourself with difficult photographic terms. Over time, you'll begin to understand the relationship of shutter speed, aperture and ISO.

    I'm actually in the process of creating an online course / training program that will walk beginners through a series of steps to get a better understanding of their camera and the settings/modes that are essential to everyday shooting.

    Of course, you're welcome to post questions to the forum anytime and someone will be happy to help point you in the right direction. All the best!
  • brutobruto
    edited February 2015
    I would add what I often do here; remember that this is a digital camera. It's not only that, but it's well made too. The shutter is good for something around a hundred thousand shots, and there's a warrantee on it if it's new. It's highly unlikely you will ever come close to wearing it out. Go out and use it a lot! Nobody but you needs to see all the bad shots you get as you experiment. Aim at something, anything at all, and try different things. You can learn a lot about depth of field, color temperature, lighting and what not just from sitting on the couch and shooting the nearest book case fifty different ways. Among other things, you will also become more familiar with the camera's handling. I've gone on a couple of trips, to the Galapagos and Antarctica, and been amazed at how many people buy a new camera without having become familiar with where the controls are and what they do. Even if your photographs are lousy you will be much better off if you know where the buttons all are and what they do. There were people on the Galapagos trip with hugely expensive cameras and lenses you, I, and probably Moose can ill afford, who never went out of Auto mode. It's painful when someone with a multi thousand dollar zoom aims it at a rainbow or flamingos on the horizon, and the flash pops up!

    Download your pictures to a computer, and look at them in a viewer that provides you with the basic EXIF information that every image carries with it. Every image you take contains a record of what lens you used, what its focal length was set at, your ISO, aperture and shutter speed, camera modes, and much else. You can also get this from the camera's display with some menu options. It's very handy to see what you did.
  • banjomtbanjomt
    edited February 2015
    Hey Moose, Banjo here. I was wondering if the 18-55mm and the 55-200mm cheat sheets are the same? If so I'm having trouble purchasing them. Any thoughts?
    Thanks.

    Edit:
    Never mind I just submitted the purchase twice one for the 18-55mm and the other for 55-200mm. My wife is going to love using these to help her learn settings for different shots.
    Thanks.
  • MooseMoose
    @banjomt - Glad you got it figured out. Feel free to post questions along the way. All the best!
  • roygraphyroygraphy
    edited December 2015
    I used to have the Canon 550D with the 70-300mm, 18-55mm and the 50mm. Now, I have the Nikon D5200 with the 18-55mm and the 55-200mm. I am from India, and I have decided to give up the 18-55mm and 55-200mm to buy the 18-200mm and the 50mm. The 18-200mm would be the Tamron, and I would need to spend a bit to get this rig even after selling my two lenses. Do you think that's a wise move? I am just an amateur right now, but I intend to go into portrait photography soon.

    Thanks in advance!
  • raktimraktim
    edited December 2015
    How can I take a good DOF and Bokeh photo using the kit lens on a Nikon D5200?

    Thanks in advance.
  • brutobruto
    edited December 2015
    Getting good DOF and bokeh from the kit lens is a challenge but not utterly impossible.

    Use the longest focal length, and the widest aperture (55mm and f/5.6), and position your subject as far forward of distracting obstacles as possible. Get your subject as close to you as is practical. This can be hard, but try as much as you can to keep your subject away from walls, posts, trees, and whatnot. If you can, try shooting upward from a low position so as to eliminate foreground distractions and the like, and put the sky and further objects in the background. Move around if you can, to see what angles can do to make unavoidable background objects lose their distinctive shapes. The more abstract they are, the less problematic.

    Making backgrounds melt away is far easier with a longer lens. What's hard to do at 55mm is pretty easy at 85mm and a no brainer at 200mm. You have to work harder here, and you may have to rethink how you want backgrounds to fit in with an image.
  • alohaaloha
    edited January 2016
    Hey Moose, I'm glad I came across your forum. I recently got D5200 for taking apparel photography on mannequins in my home studio. What settings do you suggest on manual mode? Do you have cheat sheets for taking good apparel photography?
    Thanks in advance.
  • MooseMoose
    Hey @aloha - First and foremost, the key ingredient is good light. Does your studio have lots of natural light during the day or is it more dim?

    Secondly, it's critically important that you shoot using a tripod. Not only will it give you sharper results, but it will allow you to shoot at an ISO of 100, which will keep noise/grain at bay.

    I do have a cheat card for "Product" photography, which would work in this instance. You can check them out here: https://www.cameratips.com/nikon/d5200/cheat-cards
  • rui1975rui1975
    edited February 2016
    Hello. Congratulations on your excellent job.

    I am in my quest to take photos of jewelry, and now I'm in Chapter lenses for my Nikon D5200. I found a review whose outcome is surprising and intriguing. In his opinion, it's possible that a Tamron lens 70-300mm (US $ 100.00) is better than the legendary Tamron 90mm (US $ 600).

    The review: http://lenshero.com/lenses/Nikon-D5200-macro-lens-by-Tamron

    Thank you very much.
  • arpanparthaarpanpartha
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