Hess - Nikon D3200 Digital Field Guide

Nikon D3200 Digital Field Guide

Alan Hess

Nikon D3200 Digital Field Guide

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com

Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-118-43822-0

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: 2012942060

Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Nikon and D3200 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nikon, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Publishing, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

About the Author

Alan Hess is a San Diego-based commercial photographer specializing in concert and live-event photography. He is the author of ten books, including Exposure Digital Field Guide, Composition Digital Field Guide, iPad Fully Loaded, All Access: Your Backstage Pass to Concert Photography, and Night and Low-Light Photography Photo Workshop, all of which are also available from Wiley.

Alan has also been part of the Photoshop World Instructor Dream Team since 2009, where he teaches about concert photography. You can find Alan at www.alanhessphotography.com, where he writes a semi-regular blog, or on Twitter at ShotLivePhoto.

Credits

Acquisitions Editor

Courtney Allen

Project Editor

Amanda Gambill

Technical Editor

George Maginnis

Senior Copy Editor

Kim Heusel

Editorial Director

Robyn Siesky

Business Manager

Amy Knies

Senior Marketing Manager

Sandy Smith

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Senior Project Coordinator

Kristie Rees

Graphics and Production Specialists

Andrea Hornberger

Christin Swinford

Quality Control Technician

John Greenough

Proofreading

Susan Hobbs

Indexing

Potomac Indexing, LLC

For Nadra.

Acknowledgments

I must thank my family and friends for putting up with me during the crazy writing schedule, and for always letting me point a camera at them, usually at an inconvenient time. Your patience is greatly appreciated.

Thank you to everyone at Wiley for your hard work and dedication to this project. Writing a book is more of a team effort than many people realize, and I have been lucky enough to have a great team: Courtney, Amanda, George, and everyone at Wiley, I could not do this without you.

Thanks to Rodney, Kasey, and Kaitlin for being such great subjects.

All of the dogs photographed in this book were rescued from animal shelters, and some of them are still looking for their forever homes. Thanks to Boxers N Birds Animal Rescue for all that it does.

To my wife, who supports my crazy writing schedule, and doesnt mind when I turn the living room or kitchen into a makeshift studio to photograph a candle or two; I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I could not do this without your love and encouragement.

Introduction

The Nikon D3200 is amazing. Its a camera designed for the photographer who is just starting out with a digital single-lens reflex camera (dSLR). But Nikon has packed this camera with the latest, greatest technology. It packs a huge new, Nikon-designed 24.2 megapixel sensor that shoots both great stills, and full HD video into a compact camera body.

The Nikon D3200 is a major update to the D3100 with a brand-new image-processing engine, the EXPEED 3. This is the same image-processing engine that comes in the Nikon D4, the top-end Nikon professional camera. This processing engine creates photos with great color, and produces low-noise images at high resolutions. The D3200 can photograph using ISO settings ranging from 100 to 6400, and can be pushed to Hi-1 (ISO 12800 equivalent), which allows great images to be taken in low light without a flash.

The purpose of this Digital Field Guide is to help you get the most out of this camera. It starts with a Quick Tour, which is designed to get you out and about capturing images without too much reading. Chapter 1 covers all of the external controls on the D3200 (and there are quite few of them). Many of the buttons and dials have different functions depending on which mode the camera is in. Chapter 1 also covers what is displayed when you look through the viewfinder, the information display, and the Guide mode. Chapter 2 covers the exposure, scene, and focus modes, as well as other important settings on the D3200, including the ISO and white balance settings.

The camera has a full menu system that allows you to set everything on it. Chapter 3 covers the Playback, Shooting, Custom Setting, and Setup menus. This is a great chapter to refer to when setting up your camera for the first time, or when you want to change any of the settings.