Nikon D5100 Experience - Composition

Nikon D5100 Experience
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Medium Rocket Blower by Giottos (see Photography Accessories below) to swiftly blow air at
the sensor, while holding the camera with the opening facing down so that dust can fall out and
no dust can fall in. Put the Body Cap or a lens back on when done cleaning and turn the camera
off. Do not turn it off while you are cleaning because the mirror will come back down and be
damaged if it hits anything.
IMPORTANT: Never touch the sensor with anything. Do not touch it with the tip of the Rocket
Blower, do not touch it with your finger, do not touch it with anything. Do not touch or bump
the mirror or other parts in there with anything. Do not blow into the camera with your mouth
because spittle will inevitably fly out and land on the sensor. Do not use compressed canned air
to clean your sensor or the inside of your camera because it will damage it. If you choose to use
one of the products made for cleaning sensors where you swab or touch the sensor, follow their
instructions very carefully. For best and safest results have an authorized Nikon service person
clean it.
COMPOSITION
Since this is a book about the Nikon D5100, I won’t go into great detail about composition.
There are several photography composition books that can help to explain the basics. An
excellent book to read and study once you have a solid grasp of the basics is The Photographer's
Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos by Michael Freeman. Advanced
composition is a difficult concept to teach, and that is one of the few books that really takes it
beyond the basics and to the next level. But here are some composition starting points:
Depth of Field
First and foremost make use of depth of field (dof) to create interesting, dynamic images, and to
call attention to your intended subject. By using Aperture-Priority Auto (A) Mode, setting an
aperture with a large opening (f/2.8 or f/4) and focusing on your subject, that subject will be in
sharp focus and the background and other elements in the scene will be softly out of focus. This
helps to separate your subject from the background and tells the viewer exactly where to look in
your image. Plus it makes your images look more professional! Or use smaller aperture
openings (f/5.6 or f/8) so that more is in focus if your subjects are at various distances from you.
Note that dof varies not only depending on your aperture setting but also on your lens focal
length and your distance from the subject. Look at an online dof calculator or experiment to see
and learn exactly how much is going to be in focus with your chosen aperture, focal length, and
distance. For example, position yourself so that you are looking down a row of something –
bricks on a wall, a row of porch rail posts, a line of flowers. Focus on an area, post, or flower
that is a few feet in front of you, put that in the center of your frame, and take photos with
various apertures. Then view the results and look at the image metadata to see the aperture
settings. Notice that the area in focus extends both in front of and behind the point where you
focused. A standard rule of thumb is that the in-focus area will extend 1/3 of the way in front of
your focus distance and 2/3 behind it, though you will see with a dof calculator that it is more
often closer to 1/2 in front and 1/2 behind (see Figures 38, 39, 40). To put this into practice, if
you are taking a photo of a three people in a row, each at an increased distance from each other,