[dadu]

For the ones with an "L" of photography, i found these driving schools

How to take better photographs (with interactive learning)

Camera basics: Shutter speed, aperture and ISO

[Jomz]

Bought a Nikon D 40....
Now where to I press to get the pics??

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Guys,

This might be a stupid question. But whats bracketing? How is it used?

[mobike008]

I am still experimenting the bunch of features on my Nikon D40x and i wanted some help on how to take a portrait picture and blur the background completely and keep the person in full focus? Imagine i am taking the pic in normal daylight. So some questions are :-

Distance= How far should be good enough?
Aperture= I know that i need to keep a large aperture value to minimize the depth area( F3.5 is largest my DSLR offers)
Mode= Should i use Macro or Aperture?
White Balance= Auto or Daylight?
Ideal Focal length? ( i am on the kit lens) = 18mm or 55mm or anything in between?

gurus, help me take this nice trick photograph?

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by mobike008

I am still experimenting the bunch of features on my Nikon D40x and i wanted some help on how to take a portrait picture and blur the background completely and keep the person in full focus? Imagine i am taking the pic in normal daylight. So some questions are :-

Distance= How far should be good enough?
Aperture= I know that i need to keep a large aperture value to minimize the depth area( F3.5 is largest my DSLR offers)
Mode= Should i use Macro or Aperture?
White Balance= Auto or Daylight?
Ideal Focal length? ( i am on the kit lens) = 18mm or 55mm or anything in between?

gurus, help me take this nice trick photograph?

Only focal length and aperture decides the blur (DOF= depth of field) in your photograph.
Click with a large aperture and distance more or less equal to the minimum focussing distance of your kit lens, you will get shallow DOF meaning blurred background. Experiment with different focal length keeping the aperture maximum and learn.
Happy Clicking!

[rjstyles69]

mobike are you talking of something like this ?



Do you see a toggle switch on the front on the camera towards the bottom left of your lens ? Usually lets you switch between Auto and Manual Mode.

Set that to manual , use portrait on the top dial and manually tune the lens to get the right focus.

[low_bass_makker]

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

Is that the 55-200mm with VR or the non-VR price quote?

AFAIK the VR one sells at about 12k , I could be wrong too. Its costs about 250$'s in the US.

Ensure you buy the VR model : Nikon Imaging | Global Site | News

Quoting Rudra's post here

NON VR 70-300 mm lense sells for 6k in grey here in delhi.

[rjstyles69]

lbm non-VR lens(70-300mm) , there are 2 types.

The G-Type and the ED-Type lens both are from Nikkor.

The G-type is the cheapest, next in line is the ED and the costliest is the ED with VR.
Also the prices of the ED with VR (70-300mm) has dropped further. Any takers ?

[surajs]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Guys,

This might be a stupid question. But whats bracketing? How is it used?

Bracketing allows you to take a series of shots consecutively of the same frame. Most DSLRs have both Exposure bracketing and Whitebalance bracketing as well. The first one lets you take multiple shots of the same object in different exposures (You could then use it for generating a HDR ) . And WB bracketing lets you do it with varying WB.

[surajs]

Originally Posted by mobike008

I am still experimenting the bunch of features on my Nikon D40x and i wanted some help on how to take a portrait picture and blur the background completely and keep the person in full focus? Imagine i am taking the pic in normal daylight. So some questions are :-

Distance= How far should be good enough?
Aperture= I know that i need to keep a large aperture value to minimize the depth area( F3.5 is largest my DSLR offers)
Mode= Should i use Macro or Aperture?
White Balance= Auto or Daylight?
Ideal Focal length? ( i am on the kit lens) = 18mm or 55mm or anything in between?

gurus, help me take this nice trick photograph?

i believe aperture and focal length are the only factors affecting the DOF in images.
For portraits 55mm would be good but, i guess at 55mm your aperture size would drop down to f5.6..

[mobike008]

Rjs, yes thats what i want to do. But, for that why do i have to set it to manual focus? Can't these results be achieved in auto focus?

[kpzen]

Originally Posted by Jomz

Bought a Nikon D 40....
Now where to I press to get the pics??

--------------------

[surajs]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Rjs, yes thats what i want to do. But, for that why do i have to set it to manual focus? Can't these results be achieved in auto focus?

Yes you can also achieve similar results using Auto Focus, but using manual focus puts you in the driver's seat..!!

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by surajs

Yes you can also achieve similar results using Auto Focus, but using manual focus puts you in the driver's seat..!!

I am not too sure what are you saying here... what makes you think using manual focus here would put you into driver's seat or in other words would be better than auto focus.

[gkrishn]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Distance= How far should be good enough?

It depends. On how much of the person you want in picture.

Aperture= I know that i need to keep a large aperture value to minimize the depth area( F3.5 is largest my DSLR offers)

Open up as much as possible in you lens.

Ideal Focal length? ( i am on the kit lens) = 18mm or 55mm or anything in between?

Use the longest focal length you have. ideally 85,100,135 and above is ideal for isolating the background.

Be careful with wide angle. W/A are used to take what they call "environment" portrait. For example if you want to include the person and also his work place. But i guess you are looking at bust/shoulder shot with b/g isolation. Longer focal length preferred. 55 on 1.5 crop sensor should be fine. But not sure how much isolation will be possible.

gurus

Yaay... dont use this word. It makes extremely difficult for us mortals to reply...