Hey, so recently i got myself a Nikon D5200 with kit lens 18-55mm
And i went through alot of tutorials and tips on how to use it.
But, even then. I still don't really know how to set the aperture , shutter speed and even the iso.
And i would like to ask, normally when you're travelling. While walking through places what mode do you set your camera to?
Because it would be difficult if its set to Manual mode then you gotta stop and set the settings then capture it.
Lastly, is the 18-55mm kit lens enough for just normal shooting for sceneries? Mainly for travelling, and capturing buildings


This post has been edited by ruitian97: Apr 14 2014, 09:34 PM

Hai, I am also new in photography. For me I use manual mode only when capturing the scenery. For traveling, I normally use shutter mode or aperture mode, shutter mode to capture fast moving object. I think 18-55mm is enough for me. Not sure if my opinion help...

Welcome welcome~
Perhaps you could just drop by the Nikon thread? Noneed to open a new one

Ohhh.. Sorry! Didn't notice.

1. 18-55 is the most versatile range and covers most photography types.

2. just go out and shoot. A / Av mode is great to get things going. Manual isn't that difficult but priority modes are still best when you're out to capture moments, saves a lot of time.

P mode whn I'm on the go. Manual whn I hv the time to fiddle around on that spot for the right shot.

Manual when I'm trying to shoot landscape or backlit, normally Av, Tv or P should do

Can anyone teach me how to use the modes? Even after i read thru many guides and tutorials i still cant really understand. What if i wanna take a pic outside? normally what aperture should i use? and what shutter speed?

The image on the lower right is taken with a wider aperture.
Basically if you use a wider aperture then you will get a shallow depth of field, means that only your subject will be in focus while everything else (a certain distance front/back of your subject) will be blurred.
You can use this to make your audience focus on the things you want them to see.
Smaller aperture will give you a deeper depth of field, this means that if the aperture is small enough, everything within the image will be (somewhat [depending on the lens]) clear.

Shutter speed means how long you want your sensor exposed.
A longer shutter speed creates a sense of movement, but if you want to catch a fast moving object, you need a fast shutter speed to freeze them in place.


ISO, aperture and shutter speed go together but it's best to leave this part for later till you get a better grasp of how things work.

Go out and experiment, you'll understand better.

*Images are taken off google images and belong to their respective owners.

This post has been edited by Jackie-Cham: Apr 16 2014, 10:29 PM

I will go for A mode most of the time. I can easily capture wat i wan with the DOF that i wanted.

3 best tips for any beginner:

- Compose, compose, compose
- Know your Aperature, Shutter Speed, ISO
- Get used to Aperature priority, Shutter priority and Manual

Not a whole lot of stuff to get under your finger tips really. Once you have them, they'll stay with you forever and it's all the foundation you need to improve in whatever ways you want in the future.

I only use A and M mode. Never used S, never used P, never used Auto.

Below link might help u:
http://digital-photography-school.com/digi...-for-beginners/

i also use A mode

HAhahaha....honestly, A mode is much more easy to catch up compare to S mode. For indoor shooting, i use M modeling shooting, i use M mode all the time but never use S mode.

I tried using the other modes than Auto. But then, picture would be under-exposed or over-exposed.

Just read up on aperture, ISO and shutter speed and how they affect your photos and exposure.
Won't take long/complicated. A few minutes is enough to get the basic grasp.

For me, I am currently using Tamron 18-200.
I did some research on my lens before i start travelling.
For my lens, i found it to be the sharpest at f8.0, thus i often set to AV mode and make my aperture 8.0.
For bright day, with Low iso and f8.0, you can easily get 1/1000.
For night, i will up my iso to max 800 because this is the max iso my 550D can reach before it starts getting noisy. If i still lack of light, then i will turn my apersture to less than 8.0.

For me, manual all the way. Only switch to P for street photography. Never touched anything else other than these 2.

The main reason for buying DSLR for me is i can use the Manual mode. Which means i am the boss and the camera have to serve my commands.. haha.

Here some webpages that will help you :

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/fotot...utter/index.htm

http://silverlight.co.uk/tutorials/toc.html

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm

Go manual bcoz the future is manual.. haha