35mm lense for Nikon D5000

[Breny]

Thank you so much for helping me! I so appreciate that your going out of your way!!!

OK here is the pic...portriat mode and I help down the button to keep the flash off

[browniesmom622]

Put it on Manual Mode. This is how i taught my cousin. Turn the button to the Left For Brighter To the Right for darker Do it a little at a time Take a test picture Til you get it the Brightness you want. I don't touch the Blurryness Unless your Doing a Group picture or something like that.

[lisaly]

Thanks for doing that test shot. Basically the Portrait mode mimics what you are trying to do with using a large aperture (setting the lens on 1.8 or 2.2). Since that isn't dark, it tells me that it will allow the camera to drop to a lower shutter speed. I can tell that the lens is either wide open or close to it by looking at how little depth of field you have. It looks good with the blurry background. It completely isolated the subject, which is what you want to do. You've narrowed down some of the problems that I am trying to look into.

I've downloaded the manual and also have been looking at Nikon's troubleshooting sites. I'll keep looking, but just give me a little time. Usually if I have the camera in my hand, I can figure things out very quickly by looking at the settings. It's more difficult this way, but I'll try. I have a friend who has the D3000, and it has a similar set-up to your camera. I'll ask her tomorrow morning if she can think of anything. I've had my Nikon D300 for over 2 years, and I'm still learning how to use it. I've used Nikons for 20 years, but this is my first digital camera and the learning curve was huge.

I don't know if I'll figure this out tonight. If not, I'll get in touch tomorrow.

[Breny]

Oh gosh I don't want you to take that much time looking!!!! Thats ok!!! You have already been a huge help already

Ok I just played a bit and put it on A and then I pushed in a button by the on/off button that has a +/- on it and then I turned the dial and it took a pic with light! I will post it

[Breny]

Originally Posted by browniesmom622

Put it on Manual Mode. This is how i taught my cousin. Turn the button to the Left For Brighter To the Right for darker Do it a little at a time Take a test picture Til you get it the Brightness you want. I don't touch the Blurryness Unless your Doing a Group picture or something like that.

Thank you!!!! I will try this too!!!

[Breny]

Ok here is what happeend when I pushed in the button while I turned the dial

[lisaly]

That button is the exposure compensation button. What that does is either allow the camera to bring in more light or let it bring in less light. I use those buttons all the time. If I forget that I have used it and don't check, it will stay on in the camera. If I told the camera I wanted the exposure a little darker by using the minus button, it will stay on that setting the next time I use the camera. I usually check it before I take pictures, but sometimes I forget. That could account for some of your problem. It's easy to push those buttons without realizing it. It should be set at 0 unless you want to add or subtract light. The first picture you showed me was very dark, and this wouldn't have caused it to be that dark, especially since the flash picture looked okay. At least with all of this you are learning to use your camera. I love exposure compensation!

You can get an idea of the exposure of your picture by looking at the LCD, but it's not accurate for really checking exposure. The Live View mode is the only thing that's accurate. I just learned how to use the Live View mode less than two weeks ago when my husband wanted to take a picture of Ashley sleeping. He couldn't move to get the right angle, so he asked me how to use it and I had no idea. Of course, he had to figure it out. He almost never uses the camera and need my help when he does. I wanted him just to take the picture so that I could move onto something else. Now I'm glad that I know how to use it, though.

[lisaly]

Just a correction of my last post. I learned how to use Live View about two months ago, not two weeks ago. Since he was taking a picture of Ashley, it had to be before two weeks ago.

[lisaly]

Originally Posted by Breny

Ok here is what happeend when I pushed in the button while I turned the dial

When you took the image of the soda bottle, what exposure compensation value did you use? Was it closer to 0 or closer to +1 or more?

I didn't mention it before because I was distracted by all of this, but I love your bird!

[BonBon]

Wow, I've learned a lot reading the updates on this thread. Thanks guys!

I got home late last night and didn't have a chance to play with the replacement lens much. I did put it on the camera to at least make sure that this one did autofocus (the first one wouldn't). I had the opposite problem from you, Breny. The pictures I took with the first lens all turned out white...not black. Anyway, the lens last night seemed to work on the test shots I took. Hopefully they'll look as good as yours once I upload them to the computer. Do you have any more to share?

I love the shot of that bottle! That really blurry background is exactly the effect I want in my pictures. How far away from the bottle were you when you took those pics?

[Breny]

No I don't have more pics yet but hopefully I will get time to play!! The bottle I was probably about 2 ft from it maybe? its sitting on my desk. I know I liked that blurred look too, now to see if I am able to even get that again! LOL

[lisaly]

I'm sorry I haven't been able to come up with anything more for you. If you are still having problems, I think if you tell me the settings on the camera from that picture, I might be able to tell. On your LCD, it will tell you the shutter speed, aperture, and probably ISO of the picture. It will also tell you if you used exposure compensation. You can also get this information when you load the picture onto your computer. I use Capture NX2 to process my pictures, but I'm sure whatever you are using also gives you that information. If I know the settings that the picture was taken on, I'm sure that will give me the information I need to see if any of the settings are off.

You got a nice effect with the soda bottle. When I was testing out my 50mm 1.4g lens, I took pictures of a water bottle to see how the bokeh (the out of focus, smooth area) was. The closer you are to something, the more out of focus the background (and also the foreground) will be, especially when you have your lens wide open or close to it. It's a beautiful effect, and it really does help your subject stand out. You can get all of the distracting things in the background blurred out, which is great. When you have a light source coming from behind, you can get really nice effects, almost like donuts with light. I think you'll enjoy using the lens once you are more comfortable with it. It's not as convenient as a zoom, but if you learn to zoom with your feet (if you can), you'll start to see things from different angles and get much better at taking pictures. It's also really nice to use just natural light some of the time, and I love walking around with a small lens on my camera. My camera is I think twice the weight of yours, and when I put some of my better zooms on it, they have so much glass that it gets very heavy after a while. Sometimes that prevents me from bringing my camera with me, but not if I use a lens like that. I started photography about 35 years ago, and I learned using a 50 mm lens. All of my film cameras are full frame, so a 50mm lens is approximately the same angle of view as your 35mm lens (on a crop camera, a 35mm lens has the same focal length of a 52mm lens on a full frame camera). That focal lens is how your eyes really see things, so it's a perfect walk-around lens.

I know this is a lot of information that you may not need, so just disregard whatever is irrelevant for you. Please let me know if you are still having trouble, and then we can look at the settings. Don't ever hesitate to ask for help. Have fun taking pictures, especially of your adorable little babies.

[lisaly]

Originally Posted by Wylie's Mom

Oooo, fun with Primes! My primes are my favorite lenses, hands down. I have the Nikkor 1.8 and the Sigma 1.4 (HSM).

Those are great lenses, and I, too, love my primes. Have you been using your Sigma more? I like that focal length. I deliberated for such a long time about getting the Sigma 50mm 1.4 instead of the Nikon 50mm 1.4g AF-S. The Sigma has nicer bokeh than the Nikon, but it is so large and heavy, and it defeated one of the reasons why I wanted to have a prime at that focal length. I was also worried about the quality control of the Sigmas. I ended up going with the Nikon, but I'm still not sure I made the right decision. I definitely would consider buying a Sigma, because when they are good, they're great. I have considered getting your Sigma, because I've heard great things about it if you get a good copy. The new Nikon 35mm 1.8g is really nice, and the price is great. I've heard it can be used on a full frame camera with little or no vignetting, but it really is a DX lens. I think in the future, if I do get another camera, I probably will go full frame, though, so I hesitate to buy any more DX lenses. I love my Nikon D300, so I don't see any reason why I would want to get a new camera anytime soon, but I'm just looking ahead. All of my lenses, except for the Nikon 18-200 lens, are full frame lenses. I've gotten them slowly over the years, and I've used Nikons for about 20 years. They work fine on my camera, but the focal lengths are really optimized on a full frame camera. The full frame cameras also get better bokeh, so that's the only reason why I would consider getting one in the distant future. I am so thrilled with my camera, so I think it would be a waste of money now to change. I think when I do spend more money on photography, I'd prefer to get a good tripod or maybe another wider prime.

Since you love using primes, have you considered Nikon's new 85mm prime? It's supposed to be really nice, and it's a macro lens, which is really fun to use. It is a DX lens, so it's not as heavy as the FX lenses. The Nikon 85mm 1.8 is also a nice lens, and it's reasonably priced, but it's not a macro. I'd love to get the Nikon 85mm 1.4 lens, the cream machine, but I don't want to spend that much money right now. I also have the Nikon 105mm 2.8 macro, which I love, and I wonder if the focal lens is too close. Tamron also has a 90 mm 2.8 macro that is very reasonably priced, and I have heard great things about that on the Nikon board of fredmiranda.com. There are many pros there and very serious photo enthusiasts, so it's a source of great information. I never posted there, but I always enjoyed reading there. The photographs on some of the boards (People, Landscape, Nature, Macro, Nikon) are absolutely amazing. Since I found Yorkie Talk last summer, I prefer to spend my free time here, but I occasionally check back for a source of inspiration and to keep up with the Nikon lenses.

If you ever have a chance, check this very long thread for inspiration. If you go back to the beginning, the photos are probably better, but not all of them are available, since it started a long time ago.
Your Best Nikon shots. - FM Forums

[Wylie's Mom]

Originally Posted by Breny

Ok here is what happeend when I pushed in the button while I turned the dial

Is this w/ or w/out flash? I'm sorta confused. Breny, one key thing to do when things aren't adding up is to hit your "info" key, and write down all of your settings. Are you wanting to use flash or *not* wanting to use flash here?

A-mode should be similar (in theory/results) to Portrait mode - but I like A-mode much more, as you will have more control there.

Originally Posted by lisaly

Those are great lenses, and I, too, love my primes. Have you been using your Sigma more? I like that focal length.

Since you love using primes, have you considered Nikon's new 85mm prime? It's supposed to be really nice, and it's a macro lens, which is really fun to use.

It seems like when I'm at home, I use the 30mm more (bc of wider angle) - but when I go out into the world - I can't help it, the Nikkor 50mm1.8 is my walk-around lens - it's just SO light and small. I LOVE that lens.

I have been this close [] to buying the 85mm a few times. But, I already have a 60mm macro - so I just can't quite bring myself to buy the 85mm at this time. That 85 has quite a cult following for fantastic portrait pics, actually, and that's what attracts me more than anything (bc macro photos just stress me out, to be honest - I hate using tripods). I really do need to pull out my 60 and try some portraits and see if the 85 would be worth it, at some point.

[hartygirl]

Originally Posted by Wylie's Mom

Is this w/ or w/out flash? I'm sorta confused. Breny, one key thing to do when things aren't adding up is to hit your "info" key, and write down all of your settings. Are you wanting to use flash or *not* wanting to use flash here?

A-mode should be similar (in theory/results) to Portrait mode - but I like A-mode much more, as you will have more control there.



It seems like when I'm at home, I use the 30mm more (bc of wider angle) - but when I go out into the world - I can't help it, the Nikkor 50mm1.8 is my walk-around lens - it's just SO light and small. I LOVE that lens.

I have been this close [] to buying the 85mm a few times. But, I already have a 60mm macro - so I just can't quite bring myself to buy the 85mm at this time. That 85 has quite a cult following for fantastic portrait pics, actually, and that's what attracts me more than anything (bc macro photos just stress me out, to be honest - I hate using tripods). I really do need to pull out my 60 and try some portraits and see if the 85 would be worth it, at some point.

I have my eye on that 85!