Nikon D5100 Experience - My Menu; Camera Operation

Nikon D5100 Experience
23
Firmware Version
Be sure to go to the D5100 product page of the Nikon website to update your firmware. Look
under Resources in the Support tab:
http://www.nikonusa.com/Nikon-Products/Product/Digital-SLR-
Cameras/25478/D5100.html#tab-ProductDetail.ProductTabs.Support
At time of publication, there are no firmware updates.
My Menu
You can turn the Recent Settings tab into your own customized My Menu. Use this to create
your own custom menu with some of the settings you use most often. You can add items from
most all of the Menus and Custom Settings Menus. Set up My Menu by selecting Choose Tab in
the Recent Settings menu, and select My Menu. Then Add Items and Rank Items in the order you
desire.
Determine what settings you are digging into the menus to look for and change most often, and
put them in My Menu, such as maybe White Balance (for more WB options and fine-tuning),
Auto Bracketing, or HDR.
CAMERA OPERATION
Now that you have everything set up, you can finally start taking some photos! Since the D5100
is a tool to take the images you want to take, you shouldn’t allow the camera to make decisions
for you. You have to take control of the camera to ensure that you capture exactly the image you
intend – by having the camera focus where you want, setting the aperture and/ or shutter speed
that you want, and obtaining the exposure you want. While the Nikon D5100 is an intelligent
camera, it cannot read your mind and your intentions and does not know that you wish to focus
on and properly expose the small blossoms in the foreground, while making background appear
out of focus, and the branches to be caught still and not be blurred from the motion of the wind,
on this bright, sunny day (see Figure 14). You have to tell the camera to do all of this, through
the various controls and settings, such as the autofocus AF Point (focus on the blossoms), the
Exposure Metering Mode (properly expose the blossoms), the Aperture setting (the out-of-focus
background), the Shutter Speed (freezing the motion of the branches), the ISO (bright day) and
the White Balance (sunny day).
One has to think about all this stuff for every photo? Well, yes, that is what advanced digital
SLR photography is all about. At least if you wish to consistently create the dramatic and
compelling images you envision. That is why the D5100 has all these controls for you to make
use of, right there at your fingertips. You’re not in the realm of point-and-shoots anymore!