Jeff Revell - Nikon D3000: From Snapshots to Great Shots

From Snapshots to Great Shots

Jeff Revell

Nikon D3000: From Snapshots to Great Shots

Jeff Revell

Peachpit Press
1249 Eighth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
510/524-2178
510/524-2221 (fax)

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Peachpit Press is a division of Pearson Education

Copyright 2010 by Peachpit Press

All photography Jeff Revell except where noted

Editor: Ted Waitt
Production Editor: Lisa Brazieal
Interior Design: Riezebos Holzbaur Design Group
Compositor: WolfsonDesign
Indexer: James Minkin
Cover Design: Aren Howell
Cover Image: Jeff Revell
Back Cover Author Photo: Scott Kelby

Notice of Rights

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission reprints and excerpts, contact .

Notice of Liability

The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it.

Trademarks

All Nikon products are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nikon and/or Nikon Corporation. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

ISBN-13 978-0-321-71308-7

ISBN-10 0-321-71308-7

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed and bound in the United States of America

For my nephews and nieces: Sam, Ben, Veronica, and Daphne.

You make your Uncle Jeff proud!

Someone once asked me where I find the time to write all of these books while still managing a full-time career, writing a blog (www.photowalkpro.com), and still having time for family. The truth is that it wouldnt be possible without the latter, my family, who give me the encouragement, time, and inspiration to be able to balance all the things in my life. They truly are a blessing unto me and I am extremely grateful to have them in my life.

I also need to give credit to the great team at Peachpit who help pull all of this together in a fashion that lets me focus on the content and not sweat the small stuff. Everyone from my publisher Nancy Aldrich-Ruenzel to my editor, Ted Waitt, my production editor, Lisa Brazieal, and all the other great folks at Peachpit. You make writing these books a smooth process and really help me roll these books out the door and into the readers hands.

Of course, this book wouldnt exist unless I had a camera to work from and that wouldnt have happened without the help of Anne Cahill from Nikon Professional. She helped me get hooked up with the gear so that I could explore all of the technical aspects of this great camera. Anne and all of my friends at Nikon have been so helpful to me throughout my career as a photographer, and I look forward to more collaboration in the years to come.

Finally, I would like to thank you, the reader, for putting your faith in me by purchasing this book and trusting me to guide you through the camera and also into the world of photography. It is one of my great passions, and I am thankful for the opportunity to share that passion with you. I hope that you find this book useful and that it, in some small way, is able to nurture your passion for this wonderful craft.

Walk into any bookseller, go to the photography section, and you will see countless books on the subject of photography. Look a little further and you will locate the camera-specific books. It is this divide between the camera-specific and instructional photography books that inspired me to write the Snapshots to Great Shots books. What I was seeing in the store was a lot of books that were just sort of missing the markespecially when it came to using a specific brand and model of camera along with actual photographic instruction. So with that, I set about to write this book on the Nikon D3000, not as a rehash of the owners manual but as a resource to teach photography with the wonderful technology present in the D3000. I have put together a short Q&A to help you get a better understanding of just what it is that you can expect from this book.

Q:IS EVERY CAMERA FEATURE GOING TO BE COVERED?

A: Nope, just the ones I felt you need to know about in order to start taking great photos. Believe it or not, you already own a great resource that covers every feature of your camera: the owners manual. Writing a book that just repeats this information would have been a waste of my time and your money. What I did want to write about was how to harness certain camera features to the benefit of your photography. As you read through the book, you will also see callouts that point you to specific pages in your owners manual that are related to the topic being discussed. For example, in might discuss the use of the AE-L button but there is more information available on this feature in the manual. I cover the function that applies to our specific needs, but I also give you the page numbers in the manual to explore this function even further.

Q:SO IF I ALREADY OWN THE MANUAL, WHY DO I NEED THIS BOOK?

A: The manual does a pretty good job of telling you how to use a feature or turn it on in the menus, but it doesnt necessarily tell you why and when you should use it. If you really want to improve your photography, you need to know the whys and whens to put all of those great camera features to use at the right time. To that extent, the manual just isnt going to cut it.
It is, however, a great resource on the cameras features, and it is for that reason that I treat it like a companion to this book. You already own it, so why not get something of value from it?

Q:WHAT CAN I EXPECT TO LEARN FROM THIS BOOK?

A: Hopefully, you will learn how to take great photographs. My goal, and the reason the book is laid out the way it is, is to guide you through the basics of photography as they relate to different situations and scenarios. By using the features of your D3000 and this book, you will learn about aperture, shutter speed, ISO, lens selection, depth of field, and many other photographic concepts. You will also find plenty of large full-page photos that include captions, shooting data, and callouts so you can see how all of the photography fundamentals come together to make great images. All the while, you will be learning how your camera works and how to apply its functions and features to your photography.