Camera Settings

Most of you have no idea what camera or lens to use or what settings to put the camera on for different environments. The auto setting is always nice when in doubt, which most of you are. We need to change that. Where am I at or where am I going? This is an important question when you take a camera and lens out of the bag.

There are two cameras with choices of four lenses. We have a Nikon D70 and D80. For most of your photo opportunities there is no difference. The exception is if you are taking a picture that will end up as the background of a layout. You must use the D80 as it is a 10 megapixel camera and it will produce a digital image good enough to cover a complete yearbook spread. The D70 (6.6 mp) won’t do.

We have two telephoto lenses: A Nikon 70-200 mm F2.8 and a Sigma 55-200mm F4-5.6. These are our sports lenses. The Nikon is the best in low light at trying to capture action. The Nikon lense can also be used quite well around the school to capture candids because you can be far away. In good light outside either one will do. The sigma is working well at the moment in the gym. However, it is set manually:

Manual Gym Settings



If you have no clue how to change these settings you should make it a point to learn.

Here are some basic manual settings for ISO.

Sunny 100
Overcast 400
Indoors 800

For shots around the school take the Sigma 18-50mm F3.5-5.6 on auto for now. For wild looking shots you can try the wide angle Tokina 12-24 F4. However it is really for landscape type shots. For now I am going to stop with this post to be updated later. There are a lot of variables. You need to start experimenting.