Hellobee Boards

ooh following! I have a Nikon D3100, with kit lens. Everyone says to get a better lens but I can't afford a $200 lens right now So looking for any tips to get some good shots with what I've got!

digital photography school is really good to look into and I loved pioneer woman photography website when I was learning how to use my camera. honestly, I checked out a bunch of bboks from the library and read up on understanding concepts and then practicing them. learning aperture, shutter speed, iso, white balance and how they work together (understanding the concepts and hten applying them by practicing helped me a lot. I started shooting in tv or aperture priority and then when I felt comfortable started shooting in manual. just take the camera off auto! read up and practice are the two best things I could recommend.
also, if you have an 100 lying around invest in the 50 1.8 lens. its great for low light and pretty bokah and is a good deal for the price. kit lenses that come with the cameras (unless you just bought the body without the lens) are not that great, buttttt when I first got my camera that's all I had to work with and I made it work. just work with what you got Also read your manual from cover to cover, that will help you a lot.
also congrats on the dslr, your gonna love it!

This is a good book to read (check your library first before buying!!)
http://www.textbooks.com/BooksDescription.php?BKN=1012082&SBC=HCE&kpid=9780817439392N&network=GoogleShopping&tracking_id=9780817439392N&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=9780817439392N&utm_source=googleshopping&kenshu=4fd4a9b1-b765-c928-7aac-00007d832fda&gclid=CO3BobGQyboCFYee4AodZ1oArQ

How exciting!!! I really liked Mrs. Chocolate's post "Camera Basics", I was semi familiar with my camera but I was having a hard time putting it all together and that post helped me a lot.

http://www.hellobee.com/2013/04/16/camera-basics/

Yay on your gift!

So, lenses. The thing to know about your camera is that it has a 1.3 crop factor. What that means is that when you get a lens, the length of that lens will be processed as 1.3x what it would be if it was on a full frame camera. So a 50mm lens will act like a 65mm lens.

Now, I love my 50mm 1.4 lens (love it!) and even that 50mm 1.8 does very well (the "nifty fifty") but because of the crop factor with your camera, I think it might get a little closer to things than you'd otherwise want. If you're mostly just taking pictures of your kid or smaller stuff like flowers, that's great! But if you want to do landscapes or group photos the 50mm is going to leave you high and dry.

I'd recommend looking into a mid-range zoom lens like the 24-85mm or 28-70. The downside of these is they don't allow you to step down your aperture as much (i.e. you cant get as much good "blur" behind the subject of your photo), but they give you a lot more range (everything from landscape photos to close-ups).

So, lots to consider! Have fun learning and shopping