First steps for photographing

Shuttershy

Hi Moose, I just purchased the Nikon D3200. I love photography but haven't been serious since film. My D3200 came with 2 kit lenses, the 18-55mm and 55-200mm. I would like to get started right away but don't know where to start as I have forgotten everything I had learned. I have 2 willing subjects, grandchildren, that I want to photograph. I wanted to know what results could I expect with the kit lenses using your cheat sheet tips.
Thank you, ShutterShy

bruto

Both those lenses are nice and sharp, and the D3200 is comfortable with them. Used well they will give you good results.

Manufacturers can't afford to equip a camera with an optically crummy lens because people will conclude that it's a crummy camera. For the D3200, with such a sharp, high definition sensor, they had to make some pretty decent lenses. Corners are cut on ergonomics, materials and speed, but not on basic optical performance.

There's not that much difference here from the film era except for a feast of choices we never got back in the day. ISO 6400 with the flick of a switch? Holy Cow! You can still shoot as manually as you like, or point and shoot, or whatever suits you in between.

sunildamle

How can I get best out of both the lenses for outdoor shoots, landscapes, birds etc?
I like wild photography. Which lenses do you suggest for that?

bruto

For landscapes, the 18-55mm is a good starting place. Here one usually wants a good bit of depth of field which this lens delivers well.

For a landscape, you're best off with a tripod if possible. Get a relatively small aperture like f/8 or so, a low ISO, and focus not quite all the way out to the horizon. On a tripod shutter speed is unimportant. Optimize everything else first. For best results on a tripod turn off the VR and if shutter speed is very low, use the self timer to avoid jiggling. Matrix metering usually works fine for this. Watch out for stray elements that distract in the foreground, try to avoid dull foregrounds, and keep your horizon level. Although rules are often better broken, a general rule is to try to avoid having your horizon at the middle of a picture. Put it either 1/3 of the way up (emphasize the upper end and avoid dull foreground) or 1/3 down (interesting foreground, dull sky).

Beware of branches, grasses, etc. that are too close for clear focus. It's easy to miss when you're concentrating on the big picture, but a blurry clump of grass or weed will ruin a landscape. The wider the lens angle, the deeper the depth of field, but even so, don't expect sharpness in the near foreground, so try to avoid near objects when you're aiming at the hills. Aperture priority and manual ISO work pretty well here, letting shutter speed go as slow as it needs to be.

For birds, books could be written. Try for dynamic area or 3D focus, practice panning on moving birds, keep your shutter speed high. Birds in flight will usually come out as silhouettes unless you compensate (+) or spot meter on the bird, or both. If possible, shoot in Raw mode so that you can do post-shot compensation too. Depth of field is not usually an issue when you're after distant birds, so you can keep it on shutter priority, assuring a proper shutter speed, and let the aperture wander.

If you get serious about birding, start saving your pocket money and boxtops now because the best lenses for birding are fast, long, and breathtakingly expensive, and probably so heavy they will need a hefty tripod and gimbal mount. There are people out there spending more to shoot birds than most of us spend on our cars. For now, just use whatever is the best telephoto you can get your hands on, and get as good with that as you can.

The D3200 with its very dense sensor has some advantage because you can crop quite a bit to get "digital zoom" in post processing, but good results require good input and that includes precise focus and decent exposure.

It's digital, and practice makes perfect, so get out and shoot at everything that moves. Erase with abandon. If you're going to go after birds, practice panning a lot. It's hard initially even to get the bird in the viewfinder, and it takes some practice once it's in to follow its movement. If you have problems at first, start your zoom a bit wider, and zoom in once your quarry is centered.