Nikon D5100 Experience Manual
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Nikon D5100 Experience Manual

The still photographer’s guide to operation and image creation
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  • Page 1 Nikon D5100 Experience...
  • Page 2 Nikon D5100 Experience Nikon D5100 Experience The Still Photographer’s Guide to Operation and Image Creation with the Nikon D5100 Douglas J. Klostermann Full Stop. good writing for better photography...
  • Page 3 All contents including cover design, text, and photographs Copyright 2011 Douglas J. Klostermann Nikon D5100 Experience The Still Photographer’s Guide to Operation and Image Creation with the Nikon D5100 by: Douglas J. Klostermann Version 1.1 May 2011 www.dojoklo.com...

  • Page 4: Table Of Contents

    Nikon D5100 Experience CONTENTS CONTENTS......................3 INTRODUCTION....................4 MENUS and CUSTOM SETTINGS............... 8 Menu Settings ....................9 Custom Settings....................15 My Menu ......................23 CAMERA OPERATION..................23 JPEG vs. NEF (RAW) ..................24 Focusing......................26 Using Autofocus.................... 26 Focus Modes ....................30 Autofocus Area Modes .................

  • Page 5: Introduction

    Nikon D5100 into an image capturing tool that works best for you.
  • Page 6 Nikon D5100 Experience that I believe are the most practical, useful, and effective. The settings and techniques I discuss apply to general photography, which includes most travel photography. I will point out other options for users who might wish to work differently and I encourage you to experiment and find the techniques that work best and are most comfortable or intuitive for you.
  • Page 7 Explore the options and find the ways that work most quickly and intuitively for you. Any time I capitalize something in the text, it is a proper term that can be looked up in the Nikon D5100 manuals. I will capitalize the names of actual buttons, controls, camera parts, and menu items, such as Delete Button, Command Dial, Monitor, and Format.
  • Page 8 Nikon D5100 Experience Figure 3 - i Button and Information Display Generally the menu settings and instructions I discuss involve taking full control of the camera for yourself, which means taking it off Auto, off Programmed Auto, off automatically selected autofocus points, off Auto ISO.

  • Page 9: Menus And Custom Settings

    Below are brief explanations and recommended settings for the Menus and Custom Settings of the Nikon D5100. Please note that this guide will go into further detail about many of these settings and functions later, so don’t get overwhelmed if you don’t yet understand the settings or terminology used to describe the Menu and Custom...

  • Page 10: Menu Settings

    Nikon D5100 Experience Place your Mode Dial on A before you go through these settings because they may not all appear in the Menus if your camera is set on one of the Auto or Scene Modes. Some of these items are self-explanatory or are discussed later in the text, and thus I won’t go into detail about them here.
  • Page 11 Nikon D5100 Experience Overview will display essential shooting information plus a histogram, so it may be the most useful view. This guide will go into more detail about all of these items later in the Exposure and Histogram sections, and why they are important to review for determining that you obtained the proper or desired exposure of an image.
  • Page 12 Note that JPEG Normal is the default setting and should be changed to JPEG Fine. (NEF is the file extension used by Nikon for images in the RAW file format. I will typically use just the term “RAW” when discussing the “NEF (RAW)” format.) The Image Quality setting can also be changed using the i Button and Information Display.
  • Page 13 Nikon D5100 Experience Set Picture Control User preference for those shooting JPEGs. Not needed if you shoot in RAW because the selected style applies to JPEG files only, although please note that the Picture Control you set applies to the images and histograms you see on the rear LCD Monitor even if you are shooting in only RAW.
  • Page 14 Nikon D5100 Experience contrast situations with a wide range of lighting. Some differences, however, are that you need to hold your camera still for both shots so that the two frames line up and are not cropped when combined, and that it is not recommended for moving subjects. Use Active D-Lighting for action situations.
  • Page 15 Nikon D5100 Experience where the lighting may change dramatically without you realizing it or responding fast enough. But if you want complete control of your settings and exposures, you will need to turn this Off. If you do set Auto ISO Sensitivity Control to be On (see Figure 7), then you also set the Maximum Sensitivity or maximum ISO that the camera will use in these situations.

  • Page 16: Custom Settings

    Nikon D5100 Experience Custom Settings Figure 8 – Custom Settings Menu Autofocus a1: AF-C priority selection – This setting determines if attaining focus is top priority when you are in Continuous-servo AF mode (AF-C autofocus mode), or if you just want the shots to be taken even if exact focus is not attained for each shot.
  • Page 17 Nikon D5100 Experience Metering/Exposure b1: EV steps for exposure control – This is for setting 1/3 stop or 1/2 stop increments (stops=steps, EV=Exposure Value) for shutter speeds, apertures, exposure compensation, flash compensation, and bracketing (more on “stops” in the Full Stops section). 1/3 Step is a standard photography setting and is more precise, but 1/2 Step may be quicker and easier for making selections.
  • Page 18 Nikon D5100 Experience Figure 9 – Custom Setting c2 Auto Off Timers Menu c3: Self-timer – These are the self-timer settings. Use this to set the Self-timer delay between when you press the Shutter-Release Button and when the shot is taken, and the Number of shots taken each time with the self-timer.
  • Page 19 Nikon D5100 Experience time, but there may be situations where you will want to use it, such as when you are handholding in low light and want to prevent camera shake when the picture is taken, or when you are working on a tripod and do not have the optional remote shutter release.
  • Page 20 Nikon D5100 Experience Figure 10 – Custom Setting f1: Assign Self-Timer/ Fn Button f2: Assign AE-L/AF-L button – This is to assign the function of the AE-L/AF-L Button. Since focus is locked with a half-press of the Shutter-Release Button, you may wish to set this to lock the exposure setting.
  • Page 21 Nikon D5100 Experience Figure 11 – Setup Menu Setup Menu Format Memory Card You should use this to format a new memory card, and then use this to erase all the images on your memory card. You should do this every time you need to clear your card, rather than deleting the images one by one or using Erase All.
  • Page 22 Nikon D5100 Experience Figure 12 - Graphic Info Display format option Figure 13 – Classic Info Display format option Auto Info Display If this is turned On, the Information Display will automatically appear on the Monitor when the Shutter-Release Button is pressed half-way and after shooting if image review is turned off.
  • Page 23 You can use this to add a comment to a new photo or to all subsequent photos. The comment will be visible in the metadata of the image when viewed in Nikon’s ViewNX 2 software or optional Capture NX 2 software. Turn on Attach Comment to attach it to all the following photos, or turn it off to stop.

  • Page 24: My Menu

    Nikon D5100 Experience Firmware Version Be sure to go to the D5100 product page of the Nikon website to update your firmware. Look under Resources in the Support tab: http://www.nikonusa.com/Nikon-Products/Product/Digital-SLR- Cameras/25478/D5100.html#tab-ProductDetail.ProductTabs.Support At time of publication, there are no firmware updates.

  • Page 25: Jpeg Vs. Nef (Raw)

    NEF (RAW) setting if you shoot RAW, or both combined if you need both types of files (see Figure 15). (NEF is the file extension used by Nikon for images in the RAW file format. I will typically use the term “RAW” when discussing the “NEF (RAW)” format.)
  • Page 26 Nikon D5100 Experience loss of image quality in the adjusted image. JPEG files are also compressed which makes them smaller in size but as a result some image information and a little bit of image quality is lost. Now JPEG is not a terrible thing. I am using extreme examples in order to better explain how it works.

  • Page 27: Focusing

    Nikon D5100 Experience File Sizes and Maximum Burst Rate An additional important consideration with file format choice – JPEG or NEF (RAW) – is the size of the files and the maximum burst rate when using Continuous Shooting Mode. Using JPEG format, the image files are going to be around 7 or 8 MB, which will allow for a lot more images on your 8 GB or 16 GB memory card.
  • Page 28 Nikon D5100 Experience the setting below that, the AF Area Mode setting, and change the AF-Area Mode to Single-point Figure 16 – Focus Mode Setting (circled) on Information Display Figure 17 – Focus Mode Setting • Set the Mode Dial to P (Program).
  • Page 29 Nikon D5100 Experience very quickly done and will become instinctive. You may even start to set your Focus Point as you approach a scene before even bringing your camera to your eye (you can even use the Information Display to see which Focus Point is selected – the Focus Point Indicator shown in Figure 18).
  • Page 30 Nikon D5100 Experience Figure 19 – Selected AF Point (shown in red) positioned over subject’s eye and focus locked with half-press of Shutter-Release Button. Figure 20 – Framing of image recomposed (notice hand at lower right now visible) as focus is still locked by holding Shutter-Release Button half pressed.

  • Page 31: Focus Modes

    Nikon D5100 Experience Focus Modes The D5100 has three different Focus Modes to choose from, typically depending if your subject is still or moving. It also has four different Autofocus Area Modes (see below) to specify how many of the AF points are active and how they track a moving object. You can set these two functions in various combinations.

  • Page 32: Autofocus Area Modes

    Nikon D5100 Experience Focus Mode to MF (Manual Focus). Just remember to switch them back when you are finished. You may also wish to do this if you want to precisely manually focus with the focus ring on your lens. (Note that for lenses with “full time manual focus” you don’t need to switch to M in order to manually override when slightly tweaking the autofocus with the lens focus ring.

  • Page 33: Locking Focus

    Nikon D5100 Experience only track the subject as long as it is positioned at the selected AF point, and it will not be tracked laterally to the other, surrounding points. As noted above, the single AF point you select will track a subject if it moves closer or farther away, but the AF system will not track the subject if it moves left, right, up, or down and away from your selected AF point.
  • Page 34 Nikon D5100 Experience differently than how the camera is currently set up. This is a more advanced shooting method that can be returned to later if the need arises. Figure 22 – Shutter-Release Button and AE-L/AF-L Button To take advantage of this, use Custom Settings f2 to set the AE-L/AF-L Button to AF Lock Only (Autofocus Lock).

  • Page 35: Live View And Movie Focusing

    Nikon D5100 Experience no reason to use it. It is something you may wish to return to later if you run into a difficult exposure and focus situation and discover the need to sometimes work this way. Live View and Movie Focusing...
  • Page 36 Nikon D5100 Experience already full from a previous burst, the camera may not take photos at this rate. Also note that if you often use this rate, you may quickly accumulate a large number of photos that you will need to transfer, save, view, and edit, and it thus has a real cost in terms of time and storage.

  • Page 37: Exposure

    Nikon D5100 Experience Exposure To consistently make successful images you need a basic understanding of what is sometimes called the “exposure triangle,” which is the function of and relationship between the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO settings. While you may find this subject to be confusing, intimidating, and sometimes counter-intuitive, it lies at the core of dSLR camera use and image making, so it is essential that you understand it.
  • Page 38 Nikon D5100 Experience Shutter Speed is the amount of time that the shutter, which is the curtain in front of the sensor, is open. If it is open a long time, a lot of light hits the sensor and if it is open a short time less light hits the sensor.
  • Page 39 Nikon D5100 Experience Aperture also controls the depth of field, which is the distance range that objects will be rendered acceptably sharp. A deep depth of field means that everything from a few feet in front of you to very, very far away is all in focus. This is often desirable in photos of landscapes. A...

  • Page 40: Aperture-Priority Auto Mode (A) And Shutter-Priority Auto Mode (S)

    Nikon D5100 Experience Shutter Speed controls your ability to freeze a moving subject or to let it become a blur across your frame. A fast shutter speed will freeze the action and a slow shutter speed will cause any motion to become a blur (see Figure 26).
  • Page 41 Nikon D5100 Experience which will make the background blurry, call attention to your subject, and generally result in a more dramatic or interesting photo. Use A mode most of the time, to control the range of your dof and the amount of background blur.

  • Page 42: Full Stops

    As a brief aside, if you recall from above some of the Custom Settings involved full stops, 1/2 stops and 1/3 stops (or steps as the Nikon manuals identify them). Books about exposure will also talk about stops. That was probably the point where your head started to hurt and you put down the book.

  • Page 43: Manual Exposure Mode (M)

    Shutter-Priority Auto Mode are perfectly acceptable and common ways to use your camera and its intelligent built-in exposure metering system that Nikon spent years developing. But there are times you may wish to use Manual Exposure Mode. For example, if you are taking several photos to stitch together into a panorama, you want them all to be taken with the same exposure so that the lighting is consistent across the entire scene.

  • Page 44: Metering Modes

    0. Metering Modes It is one thing to know that your Nikon D5100 provides you with three different metering modes to choose from (see Figure 29). It’s another thing to know how they differ and when and how to...

  • Page 45: Matrix Metering

    An important feature of this mode is that the Nikon D5100 takes into account the selected or active focus point in its determination of exposure settings. It assumes the active focus point is on your most important subject, so under challenging and critical situations, it is wise to confirm that the camera has chosen the focus point you want (well, this is always wise).

  • Page 46: Spot Metering

    Nikon D5100 Experience worth it to use Center-Weighted Metering mode. Another time to use this is when there is a wide range of light in your scene, such as bright sunlight to deep shadows. Determine the proper exposure by metering on the subject using the center of the viewfinder, and lock in that exposure (see Exposure Lock below).

  • Page 47: Manual Metering

    Nikon D5100 Experience Metering is used to determine the exposure values of several important parts of the scene, and then the desired exposure is determined and then manually set using Manual Exposure Mode. In this way Spot Metering Mode is used to turn your camera into a light meter, as a tool to...
  • Page 48 Nikon D5100 Experience for AE lock (hold) (so that you just have to press it but not hold it – the camera does the hold part) you must take the series of photos before the metering turns off (the numbers disappear in your viewfinder) because when that happens your exposure is no longer locked.

  • Page 49: Histograms

    Nikon D5100 Experience • Set your camera on Center-Weighted Metering, Single-Servo AF (AF-S) and Single- Point AF using the i Button and Information Display screen. • Set your camera on Aperture-Priority Auto mode (A) on the Mode Dial and set the ISO according to your lighting (using the I Button and Information Display Screen).
  • Page 50 Nikon D5100 Experience Playback Menu. These two views will show you a tiny version of your image, plus the histogram and various camera settings (see Figure 32). If you need to view your image larger, you can zoom in with the Magnify Button, then zoom back out to the detailed view.

  • Page 51: Exposure Compensation

    Nikon D5100 Experience details in order to retain more shadow details. And bright lights such as the sun, sun reflections on glass or metal, and other sources of light will always be blown-out. How do you control the exposure so that the peaks do not run off the edges of the histogram graph? With exposure compensation.

  • Page 52: Auto Bracketing For Exposure

    Nikon D5100 Experience To remember how to compensate – which direction to turn the dial – think of the histogram peaks on the graph. If you wish to shift the peaks to the left, to the darker side, to make the image darker, turn the dial so that the exposure compensation level becomes negative (-1, -2, etc.).

  • Page 53: High Dynamic Range (Hdr)

    Nikon D5100 Experience there is a wide range of lighting in your scene from bright areas to dark shadows. It will help to preserve details in the shadows and especially in the highlights, and will help to prevent blown- out highlights. It does this by underexposing the scene slightly and then applying a tone curve (similar to the Curves you can apply in Photoshop) to lift the shadows and mid-tones back up.

  • Page 54: White Balance

    Nikon D5100 Experience White Balance White Balance (WB) is for ensuring that white objects appear as white under any lighting. Our eyes and mind correct what we see so that white always looks white to us. But to the camera, white under fluorescent lighting appears greenish and under incandescent lighting appears orange or reddish.
  • Page 55 Nikon D5100 Experience Figure 34 – Fluorescent White Balance options in the Shooting Menu under White Balance When accessing the WB settings in the Shooting Menu, you can fine-tune your selected setting (such as Incandescent or Fluorescent) along the green-magenta axis and/ or blue-amber axis.

  • Page 56: Picture Controls

    Nikon D5100 Experience work). This information will now be stored as your Preset (PRE) White Balance, and be used whenever WB is set to PRE. The camera can only store one preset WB setting, and it will be replaced the next time a WB value is measured using this method or the Use Photo method.
  • Page 57 Nikon D5100 Experience Figure 36 – Modifying Picture Controls Menu Here are some of the changes to the Standard setting you may wish to experiment with: digital images typically require some Sharpening to look their best, so increase the sharpening but don’t over-do it to where the image looks unusual.

  • Page 58: Flash

    Nikon D5100 Experience Control, edit its settings if you have not yet done that, then hit OK and select which custom Picture Control you wish to save it as: C-1 through C-9. You can then name that custom Picture Control and use the Load/save item of the Manage Picture Control menu to save it to a memory card.

  • Page 59: Sensor Cleaning

    Nikon D5100 Experience Slow Sync is used with slow shutter speeds so that the background is illuminated by the longer exposure and the subject or foreground is illuminated by a burst of the flash. This is typically used for night time portraits or where the background is much darker than the foreground or subject.

  • Page 60: Composition

    COMPOSITION Since this is a book about the Nikon D5100, I won’t go into great detail about composition. There are several photography composition books that can help to explain the basics. An excellent book to read and study once you have a solid grasp of the basics is...
  • Page 61 Nikon D5100 Experience focus on the middle person so that all three are in focus if you use a medium aperture setting such as f/8 (or will vary depending on your lens focal length, distance to subjects, etc.). Figure 38 – Aperture set at f/16, deep depth of field – image in focus from near to far Figure 39 –...
  • Page 62 Nikon D5100 Experience Figure 40 – Aperture set at f/2.8, shallow depth of field – Image in focus at middle distance only and becomes dramatically out of focus closer and further from the plaque. Fill the Frame Determine your subject, what attracted you to the scene, and fill your frame with that subject.
  • Page 63 Nikon D5100 Experience Figure 41 –Figurines, Chichicastenango, Guatemala – Image makes use of dramatic depth of field to emphasize the main subject, subject fills the frame, and a low point of view used to view the subject at its level. Shutter speed 1/80, Aperture f/4.0, ISO 200 Backgrounds Pay attention to the backgrounds of your compositions.
  • Page 64 Nikon D5100 Experience Rule of Thirds You will read about this in every photo book, and that is because it generally works in many types of situations and images. It involves dividing your frame into thirds, with imaginary lines, both horizontally and vertically. You then use those lines and their points of intersection to help determine where to place the subject and other elements in the frame (see Figure 42).
  • Page 65 Nikon D5100 Experience Figure 43 – Brownstones, Brooklyn, NY – Dramatic evening lighting used to emphasize subject. Shutter speed 1/160, Aperture f/6.3, ISO 200...

  • Page 66: The Image Taking Process

    Nikon D5100 Experience THE IMAGE TAKING PROCESS This is a brief step-by-step process of how you may wish to use the controls of your Nikon D5100 to select the settings and photograph a subject or scene, for general or travel photo use: 1.

  • Page 67: Video - An Introduction

    Nikon D5100 Experience VIDEO – AN INTRODUCTION I said this guide was intended for still photographers only, but I know you want to start playing with the HD video capability of your D5100, so I will provide some starting points.

  • Page 68: Photography Accessories

    Here are some accessories that are handy for general photography use as well as when traveling with your camera, plus accessories mentioned in the text that are specific to the Nikon D5100, and some of my favorite photography books. Click on the links to go to the product or category pages on Amazon.com.
  • Page 69 Diffuser: Works great on the optional external flash units (note some Nikon flashes come with a diffuser like this). Do not use this on your flash outdoors because all it will do outside is cause your flash to work harder. I know you see lots of people doing it.
  • Page 70 Shutter-Release Button thus preventing possible camera shake. Nikon SB-900, SB-800, SB-700, or SB-600 Speedlight Flashes: These external flashes will give you greatly increased flash power and control compared to the built-in flash. They also have adjustable and rotating heads so that you can use indirect and bounce flash.

  • Page 71: Conclusion

    It is worth your while to learn them and to take full control of your powerful Nikon D5100. Through use, practice, and experimentation your images will inevitably continue to improve.

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