DAVID BUSCH’S 100 5 NIKON D ® GUIDE TO DIGITAL SLR PHOTOGRAPHY David D. Busch Course Technology PTR A part of Cengage Learning Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, United States David Busch’s Nikon® D5100 Guide to © 2012 David D. Busch Digital SLR Photography ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright David D. Busch herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to Publisher and General Manager, Course photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, Technology PTR: information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, Stacy L. Hiquet except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 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Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 13 12 11 For Cathy Acknowledgments Once again thanks to the folks at Course Technology PTR, who recognized that a cam- era as popular as the Nikon D5100 deserves in-depth full-color coverage at a price any- one can afford. Special thanks to executive editor Kevin Harreld, who always gives me the freedom to let my imagination run free with a topic, as well as my veteran produc- tion team including project editor Jenny Davidson and technical editor Mike Sullivan. Also thanks to Bill Hartman, layout; Katherine Stimson, indexing; Sara Gullion, proof- reading; Mike Tanamachi, cover design; and my agent, Carole Jelen, who has the amaz- ing ability to keep both publishers and authors happy. About the Author With more than a million books in print, David D. Buschis the world’s #1 selling dig- ital camera guide author, and the originator of popular digital photography series like David Busch’s Pro Secrets and David Busch’s Quick Snap Guides. He has written nearly two dozen hugely successful guidebooks and compact guides for Nikon digital SLR models, and several dozen additional user guides for other camera models, as well as many popular books devoted to dSLRs, including Mastering Digital SLR Photography, Third Edition andDigital SLR Pro Secrets. As a roving photojournalist for more than 20 years, he illustrated his books, magazine articles, and newspaper reports with award- winning images. He’s operated his own commercial studio, suffocated in formal dress while shooting weddings-for-hire, and shot sports for a daily newspaper and upstate New York college. His photos have been published in magazines as diverse as Scientific American and Petersen’s PhotoGraphic, and his articles have appeared in Popular Photography & Imaging, The Rangefinder, The Professional Photographer, and hundreds of other publications. He’s also reviewed dozens of digital cameras for CNet and Computer Shopper. His advice has been featured on National Public Radio’s All Tech Considered. When About.com named its top five books on Beginning Digital Photography, debut- ing at the #1 and #2 slots were Busch’s Digital Photography All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies and Mastering Digital Photography.During the past year, he’s had as many as five of his books listed in the Top 20 of Amazon.com’s Digital Photography Bestseller list—simultaneously! Busch’s 100-plus other books published since 1983 include best- sellers like David Busch’s Quick Snap Guide to Using Digital SLR Lenses. Busch earned top category honors in the Computer Press Awards the first two years they were given (for Sorry About The Explosion and Secrets of MacWrite, MacPaint and MacDraw), and he later served as Master of Ceremonies for the awards. Visit his web- site at http://www.dslrguides.com/blog. Contents Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii PART I: GETTING STARTED WITH YOUR NIKON D5100 Chapter 1 Nikon D5100: Thinking Outside of the Box 5 First Things First. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Initial Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Mastering the Multi Selector and Command Dials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Setting the Clock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Battery Included . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Final Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter 2 Nikon D5100 Quick Start 23 Choosing a Release Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Selecting an Exposure Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Choosing an Auto/Scene or Effects Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Choosing an Advanced Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Choosing a Metering Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Choosing a Focus Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Choosing the Focus Area Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Other Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Adjusting White Balance and ISO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 vi David Busch’s Nikon D5100 Guide to Digital SLR Photography Reviewing the Images You’ve Taken. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Using the Built-in Flash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Transferring Photos to Your Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Changing Default Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Resetting the Nikon D5100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Recommended Default Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Chapter 3 Nikon D5100 Roadmap 45 Nikon D5100: Full Frontal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 The Nikon D5100’s Business End. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Playing Back Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Zooming the Nikon D5100 Playback Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Viewing Thumbnails. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Working with Calendar View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Working with the Shooting Information/Photo Data Displays . . . . . . . . . 59 Using the Shooting Information Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Using the Photo Data Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Going Topside. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Lens Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Looking Inside the Viewfinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Underneath Your Nikon D5100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 PART II: BEYOND THE BASICS Chapter 4 Getting the Right Exposure 81 Getting a Handle on Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 How the D5100 Calculates Exposure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Correctly Exposed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Overexposed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Underexposed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Choosing a Metering Method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Matrix Metering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Center-Weighted Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Spot Metering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Contents vii Choosing an Exposure Method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Aperture-Priority. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Shutter-Priority. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Program Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Manual Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Using Scene Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Adjusting Exposure with ISO Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Dealing with Noise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Fixing Exposures with Histograms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Bracketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 White Balance Bracketing/ADL Bracketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 HDR Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Traditional HDR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Using the D5100’s In-Camera HDR Feature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Chapter 5 Mastering Autofocus Options 121 How Focus Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Phase Detection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Contrast Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Adding Circles of Confusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Using Autofocus with the Nikon D5100. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Autofocus Simplifies Our Lives… Doesn’t It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Bringing the Multi-CAM 1000 AF System into Focus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Autofocus Point Selection Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Choosing Autofocus Point Selection Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Autofocus Mode and Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Autofocus Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Chapter 6 Live View and D-Movies 137 The New Perspective of Live View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Beginning Live View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Viewing Live View Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Shooting in Live View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Shooting Movies with the D5100. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Viewing Your Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Editing Your Movies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 viii David Busch’s Nikon D5100 Guide to Digital SLR Photography Tips for Shooting Better Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Make a Shooting Script. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Use Storyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Storytelling in Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Lighting for Video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Chapter 7 Advanced Techniques 161 Continuous Shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 A Tiny Slice of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Working with Short Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Three Ways to Take Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Working with Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Delayed Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Self-Timer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Time-Lapse/Interval Photography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Geotagging with the Nikon GP-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 WiFi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Focus Stacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 PART III: ADVANCED TOOLS Chapter 8 Setup: Playback and Shooting Menus 185 Anatomy of the Nikon D5100’s Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Playback Menu Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Playback Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Playback Display Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Image Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Rotate Tall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Slide Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 DPOF Print Order. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Contents ix Shooting Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Reset Shooting Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Storage Folder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Image Quality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Image Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 White Balance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Set Picture Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Manage Picture Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Auto Distortion Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Color Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Active D-Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 HDR (High Dynamic Range) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Long Exp. NR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 High ISO NR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 ISO Sensitivity Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Release Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 Multiple Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Movie Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Interval Timer Shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Chapter 9 Setup: The Custom Settings Menu 231 Custom Settings Menu Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 Reset Custom Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 a. Autofocus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 a1 AF-C Priority Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 a2 Built-in AF-Assist Illuminator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 a3 Rangefinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 b. Metering/Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 b1 EV Steps for Exposure Cntrl.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 c. Timers/AE Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 c1 Shutter Release Button AE-L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 c2 Auto Off Timers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 c3 Self-Timer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 c4 Remote on Duration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 d. Shooting/Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 d1 Beep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 d2 ISO Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240