5 Things To Learn About Your Nikon Camera

Whether you've received a Nikon camera for Christmas, or treated yourself to one for the new year, it can benefit you greatly to learn about your camera before you attempt to go out on a long shoot for the first time. Here are 5 top things you can learn about your camera to make the process easier and help you to take better photos, quicker. 

Controls - To be able to quickly and effectively take images whilst out in the field, it can pay off to learn the layout of your camera and what each dial and wheel does. Experimenting with holding the camera and playing with the dials to build up muscle memory of where does what is a great way to increase your productivity when you do head out. 

Settings - This is an especially prevalent learning curve if you are new to photography, or new to the world of DSLRs, which can be quite different to that of the compact camera. Some settings will be self-explanatory, but others, such as the macro mode, aperture priority and shutter priority might be daunting for beginners. Putting the camera in each mode and seeing what can be achieved is something best done in the field with a variety of moving and stationary objects to shoot. This will allow you to learn which modes produce the best results in specific situations, meaning you can switch to them quicker in the future. 

In-camera image adjustments - Many Nikon DSLRs now feature in-camera image adjustments, allowing you to change things like brightness, contrast and hue of an image right there on the screen. Exposure compensation can also make a difference to how the image turns out. Learning about what is realistically acheivable from using this built in software can save you time and effort when working on post production back at home. 

Manual focus - Getting to grips with manual focus and also focal points is something that can widen the use of your camera vastly. When the camera struggles to focus on what you want it to, learning to use manual focus and setting the camera to the correct focus setting can allow you to take images as you like, not just how the camera wants to. Things like recognising how dampened the manual focus ring of the lens is and learning how much to turn it to get the desired effect can help in quickly achieving the look you want. 

Get to grips with the exposure triangle - This one isn't really directly related to your Nikon, but learning a little about the factors of the exposure triangle and how adjustments made on the camera will effect the image can save you time flicking through apertures and shutter speeds to make the image work. Even a brief understanding of how aperture, shutter speed and ISO work together to produce a good looking image can help you to acheive images that are 10 times better, without having to rely on auto mode all the time.