Nikon D3300 Digital Field Guide
Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com
Copyright 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 978-1-118-14321-6
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEB SITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OF WEB SITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEB SITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.
For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at (877) 762-2974, outside the U.S. at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.
Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013936839
Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Nikon and D3300 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nikon Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
Credits
Acquisitions Editor
Aaron Black
Project Editor
Cricket Krengel
Technical Editor
George Maginnis
Copy Editor
Marylouise Wiack
Senior Content Development & Assembly Manager
Mary Corder
Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Richard Swadley
Project Coordinator
Patrick Redmond
Quality Control Technician
Shannon Ramsey
Proofreading and Indexing
BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services
About the Author
J. Dennis Thomas is an Austin, Texas-based photographer and the author of 20 Nikon Digital Field Guides by Wiley Publishing, as well as the author of Concert and Live Music Photography: Pro Tips from the Pit and Urban and Rural Decay Photography: Finding the Beauty in the Blight, published by Focal Press. He is also a frequent author of articles on photographic theory and technique for Digital Photo Magazine, MasteringPhoto.com, and his own website, the Nikon Digital Field Guide Online (http://NikonDFG.com).
He is represented by Corbis Images and has done freelance photography for Rolling Stone, SPIN, and Veri.Live magazines. His photographs have been featured in many notable publications including Rolling Stone, SPIN, People, Us Weekly, Elle, W magazine, Thrasher, Ebony, New York Post, Veri.Live, and many more.
When not out photographing or in front of his computer writing about photography, he can be found gracing the stages of the Live Music Capital of the World and popping up randomly in films and television shows.
As always, to my girls Henrietta and Maddie
Acknowledgments
Id like to thank all of the people behind the scenes at Wiley that help make these books as good as they are. My name is on the front, but I couldnt do it without the Wiley team behind me. Id specifically like to thank Cricket for being a kind and patient Project Editor and lending a helping hand whenever needed.
Id also like to thank Precision Camera in Austin TX owner Jerry Sullivan and staff members Sarah, Robert, Noel, and everyone else there.
Appendix A: General Composition Tips
Photography is an art form, and so follows the same rules of composition as every other form of visual art, such as painting, drawing, and collage. Although they are called rules, they are really more like guidelines because, obviously, you arent required to follow them.
Different subjects often require different approaches, and many of the rules of composition often overlap as well, resulting in images that have more than one of these rules in effect.
As I said, you arent bound to the rules of composition, but when youre just growing accustomed to any visual art, learning these rules and following them will help you learn to create images that are above and beyond general snapshots so you can make professional-looking photographs. Eventually, as you thoughtfully apply the concepts to your photography over and over, you will find yourself intuitively applying them to your compositions.
Keep It Simple
Simplicity is one of the great keys to making a strong image. An image that has a succinctly defined subject commands more attention than a composition in which the viewer must scan the image to determine which part is most important. Images that contain a variety of competing elements can be distracting and cause the viewer to lose interest.
One technique professional photographers use to create simplicity in an image, especially in a busy environment, is to use a wide aperture to create a shallow depth of field, isolating the subject from the background. A shallow depth of field creates blurry, out-of-focus areas in the background that allow the sharp subject to pop from the nebulous background.
You can also isolate your subject by changing your angle of approach. For example, you can photograph the subject from down low, aiming up to incorporate the sky as a background. On the opposite side, you can come at your subject from a higher angle and use the ground as the background of your composition.
Next page