A S o u r S e nikon D300 PhotogrAPhy - · PDF fileFor more on digital photography, visit i A S h o r t C o u r S e i n nikon D300 PhotogrAPhy DenniS P. Curtin S h o r t C o u r

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  • For more on digital photography, visit http://www.shortcourses.com i

    A S h o r t C o u r S e i n

    nikon D300 PhotogrAPhy

    De n n i S P. Cu r t i n

    S h o r t C o u r S e S . C o m httP://www.ShortCourSeS.Com

    AA30470C

    Cover

    Cover

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  • ii For more on digital photography, visit http://www.shortcourses.com

    http://www.photocourse.com/itext/pdf/PDFguide.pdf

    http://www.photocourse.com/itext/copyright/circ01.pdf

    Short CourSeS BookS And WeB Site

    Short Courses is the leading publisher of digital photography books, textbooks, and guides to specific cameras from Canon, Sony, Nikon, Olympus and others. All of these books are available on-line from the Short Courses bookstore at:

    http://www.shortcourses.com/store/

    All recent books are available in both black & white printed and full-color eBook (PDF) versions available on CDs or as instant downloads. The list of books weve published is always expanding so be sure to visit the store to see if there is a book on your camera, or another topic that interests you.

    If you find any errors in this book, would like to make suggestions for im-provements, or just want to let me know what you think, I welcome your feedback.

    ShortCourses.com 16 Preston Beach Road Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.shortcourses.com

    To learn more about digital photography, visit our two Web sites:

    http://www.shortcourses.com is our consumer site. http://www.photocourse.com is our instructor/student site.

    Copyright 2008 by Dennis P. Curtin. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copy-right Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distrib-uted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

    note on the ShortCourSeS.Com WeB SiteThis book is designed to work with the many of the free on-line books avail-able at the authors Web site at www.shortcourses.com. Of special interest may be the on-line books on displaying & sharing your digital photos, digital photography workflow, image sensors and digital desktop lighting.

    Discussion Forum is the place to discuss whats exciting or bothering you as long as its related to digital photography. Click to visit

    Bookstore is the home of printed copies, ebooks on CDs, and instant down-loads of digital photography books published by Short Courses. Click to visit

    Curtins Guide to Digital Cameras and Other Photographic Equipment is a guide to choosing a digital camera and understanding its features. Includes coverage of camera bags, tripods, lighting equipment and much more. Click to visit

    Using Your Digital Camera clearly explains everything you need to know about using your cameras controls to capture great photos. Click to visit

    Displaying & Sharing Your Digital Photos discusses what digital photogra-phy is all about including printing your images as prints or books, displaying them on-screen, and moving beyond the still image into exciting new areas. Click to visit

    Click to view a PDF document describing how to use this eBook.

    short courses publishing company

    ISBN 1-928873-83-9

    Click to view a PDF document on how copyright law protects photographers and other artists.

    http://www.shortcourses.com/storehttp://www.photocourse.com/itext/pdf/PDFguide.pdfmailto:[email protected]://www.shortcourses.comhttp://www.shortcourses.comhttp://www.photocourse.comhttp://www.shortcourses.comhttp://www.photocourse.com/itext/copyright/circ01.pdfhttp://www.shortcourses.comhttp://www.shortcourses.com/forum/http://www.shortcourses.com/store/http://www.shortcourses.com/guide/http://www.shortcourses.com/use/http://www.shortcourses.com/display/

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    shortcourses books and web site

    Digital Photography Workflow covers everything from getting ready to take photos to storing, organizing, managing and editing your images. Click to visit

    Image Sensors, Pixels and Image Sizes describes key concepts such as resolutions, aspect ratios and color depths that have a huge impact on your photographs. Click to visit

    Digital Desktop Lighting is a guide to low-cost tabletop photography equipment and the techniques used to photograph products and other small objects for eBay, Web sites, catalogs, ads and the like. Click to visit

    Hot Topics/About Us points you to some of the newer or more interesting parts of the site, explains how to navigate the site, recommends other sites, and tells you a little about who we are and how to contact us. Click to visit

    This is the home page of the ShortCourses Web site at www.shortcourses.com

    EDUCATORSShort Courses books have always been popular as textbooks in digital photogra-phy courses. If you are an instructor, you should know that special pricing is available for class-room use.

    For details on using this and other texts in the classroom, please call us at 781-631-8520, Boston, Massachusetts USA time.

    Tip When you visit our site be sure to sign up for our newsletter. Its only used by us, and only occasional-ly. Its also very easy to unsubscribe.

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    PrefACe

    A great photograph begins when you recognize a great scene or subject. But recognizing a great opportunity isnt enough to capture it; you also have to be prepared. A large part of being prepared in-volves understanding your camera well enough to capture what you see. Get-ting you prepared to see and capture great photographs is what this book is all about. It doesnt matter if you are taking pictures for business or pleasure, theres a lot here to help you get better results and more satisfaction from your photography.

    To get better, and possibly even great photographs, you need to understand both concepts and procedures; the whys and hows of photography.

    Concepts of photography are the underlying principles that apply regard-less of the camera you are using. They include such things as how sharpness and exposure affect your images and the way they are perceived by viewers. Understanding concepts answers the why kinds of questions you might have about photography.

    Procedures are those things specific to one kind of camera, and explain step-by-step how you set your cameras controls to capture an image just the way you want to. Understanding procedures gives you the answers to the how kinds of questions you might have.

    This book is organized around the concepts of digital photography because thats how photographers think. You think about scenes and subjects, high-lights and shadows, softness and sharpness, color and tone. The procedures you use with the Nikon D300 camera are integrated throughout the concepts, appearing as text discussions and QuickSteps boxes in those places where they apply. This integrated approach lets you first understand the concepts of photography and then see step by step how to use the D300 to capture scenes and subjects exactly the way you want to.

    To get more effective, interesting, and creative photographs, you only need to understand how and when to use a few simple features on your camera such as focus, exposure controls, and flash. If youve previously avoided understanding these features and the profound impact they can have on your images, youll be pleased to know that you can learn them over a weekend. You can then spend the rest of your life marveling at how the infinite vari-ety of combinations make it possible to convey your own personal view of the world. Youll be ready to keep everything in a scene sharp for maximum detail or to blur it all for an impressionistic portrayal. Youll be able to get dramatic close-ups, freeze fast action, and capture the beauty and wonder of close-ups, rainbows, sunsets, fireworks, and nighttime scenes.

    As you explore your camera, be sure to have fun. There are no rules or best way to make a picture. Great photographs come from using what you know to experiment and try new approaches. Digital cameras make this espe-cially easy because there are no film costs or delays. Every experiment is free and you see the results immediately so you can learn step by step.

    This book assumes youve mastered the mechanics of your camera. Its about getting great pictures, not about connecting your camera to your computer and using software. That information is presented in the user guide that came with your camera. Be sure to visit our Web site at www.shortcourses.com for even more digital photography information.

    The Nikon D300 is an exciting professional-quality digital camera with many creative controls.

    PrefACe

    The only Nikon lenses that fully work with the D300 are those in the D and G series including DX lenses (page 103). Other lenses work to a limited extent. For example, none will autofocus, or work with aperture-priority (A) or programmed (P) auto modes, or let you use 3D metering. To explain all of these incompatibilities would make this book unnecessarily complicated for the majority of readers. To keep things simple, we assume you are using a D or G lens.

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    ContentS

    ContentS

    Cover...iShort CourSeS BookS And WeB Site.