How to Use Every Nikon Digital SLR

Edited by Lewis Collard, Monica, Caidoz, Krystle and 4 others

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If you are bewildered by your Nikon digital SLR's numerous buttons, modes, and
settings, and don't feel like reading through hundreds of pages of camera manual, don't
worry, you're not alone. The following steps will guide you through the few settings you
should care about and the basics of using every Nikon digital SLR ever made, [1] from
1999 right up to today.

EditSteps

A note on nomenclature

There are a lot of similarities between all Nikon digital SLRs, but there are also some
significant differences between classes of camera. These categorisations are used here
for convenience's sake and have nothing to do with image quality (a D3000 is miles
ahead of 1999's professional D1 on this count):

High-end cameras are the more expensive cameras with instant adjustments to
nearly every setting, important and unimportant, on the camera. This includes all
the single-digit (D1/D1H/D1X, D2H and descendants, D3) professional cameras,
as well as the D300 and D700.
 Mid-range cameras typically have a mode dial on the top plate to the left of the
viewfinder, rather than a drive-mode selector. They have direct buttons for white
balance, ISO, shooting mode, and so on.

Entry-level cameras include the D40, D60, and the current D3000 and D5000
models. These require you to dig through menus to set drive mode, ISO, white
balance and other things, as they don't have buttons for immediate access to
these things.

The very basics

1. 1

Familiarise yourself with the basic controls common to all Nikon digital SLRs.
We'll be referring to these by name later, so familiarise yourself with them now:

The main command dial.

The main command dial is on the rear of the camera, on the top right.

o
 The secondary command dial, indicated, is on the front of the camera, near the
power switch and shutter button.

The secondary command dial is on the front of the camera, right in front of the
shutter button. (The very cheapest cameras omit this.)

The multi-selector on a Nikon D200.

The multi selector on the rear switches between autofocus points (which we'll
get to later). You also use this to navigate the camera's menus.

Setting up

There are a bunch of settings that you will want to set up once, and only once, with your
Nikon digital SLR. As with everything else in this article, we'll make some enormous
generalisations that will get you out there and shooting but don't hold true for everyone
all the time. You can play with these things later, but for now, you want the basics out of
the way.

1. 1

Set your camera to continuous shooting. By default, your camera might be set up for
single-frame shooting, which meaning that you get one shot (and only one shot) for
each press of the shutter button. You don't want this. Continuous shooting will let your
camera shoot at its fastest frame rate for as long as you hold the shutter button. Doing
this is more-or-less free on digital cameras, and even if you're not shooting things that
move quickly (for which continuous shooting is mandatory), there's a good reason to
use this: it results in sharper photos. Shooting a sequence of two or three shots rather
than a single one means that it's more likely that one of them will be sharp, whereas if
you take just one you might get unlucky. You're also less likely to get camera shake
directly caused by you jabbing the shutter button repeatedly.
Don't worry about this shortening your shutter life; many Nikon SLRs are still working
after hundreds of thousands of shutter actuations.[2]

Drive mode dial on a D2H set to Ch (Continuous/High speed).

High end cameras: you have a dedicated dial for this on the top-left of the
camera, with a C position, which is what you want. Push the button next to the
dial to unlock it and turn the dial. Your camera might have a Ch and Cl position;
this is continuous/high-speed and continuous/low-speed. This is more or less
self-explanatory, so pick the one that works best for you.

The drive mode button on a Nikon D70.

Mid-range cameras: hold down the drive mode button and spin the main
command dial. Look at the top LCD and wait until you see the three rectangles
(rather than a single-rectangle, or a timer icon) indicating that continuous
shooting is on.

o Entry-level cameras: you'll have to dig through the menus to find this.
You're on your own here, because this differs from camera to camera.

2. 2
 Turn VR on, and leave it on if you're not using a tripod.

Turn on vibration reduction (VR) if your lens has it, and leave it on. If you're
shooting in low light, or if you don't have very steady hands, this will ensure that you can
get sharp shots without camera shake in all but the most unfavourable lighting. You'll
need to turn this off only if you're shooting from a tripod (and the whole point of VR is
that you don't need to use a tripod in most conditions).[3]

3. 3

The dedicated metering switch on a D2H; the symbol indicated is used on all cameras
to mean matrix metering.

Set your camera to use matrix metering. An explanation of this is beyond the scope
of this article; it's enough to say that matrix metering is very clever and works well
enough most of the time under most conditions. On high-end cameras, you have a
dedicated switch for this. On mid-range cameras, hold down the button while turning the
main command wheel until the matrix metering symbol is displayed. Again, on the
cheaper ones, you're going to have to dig through the menus to find it (though you may
be able to skip this; they probably use the matrix meter by default).

4. 4
 Continuous-servo AF is best for moving subjects, as it tracks and predicts motion, and
works fine for still subjects, too. (Nikon D2H + Nikon 55-200mm VR.)

Set your camera to continuous servo autofocus (C). In this mode, the camera will
focus continuously for as long as you half-press your shutter button, and can predict
subject movement, too. It's fine for still subjects as well.

(You don't need to worry too much about the other focus modes. Single-servo (S) is
useless for photographing anything that moves, because it locks focus as soon as it is
achieved. And manual focusing is almost never necessary; it's rare for the camera to get
so upset that it won't be able to focus at all, and in the very rare cases that it does, that'll
mean that you won't get focus confirmation in the viewfinder, either.)

Set your lens to A, or M/A, if you have one of these switches.

On all cameras: if you have an A-M switch (or A/M-M, A/M meaning autofocus
with immediate manual override), set this to A, or A/M.

The C-S-M switch on a higher-end camera; set this to "C".

 On high end cameras: there's a focus mode switch on the front of the camera
on the right (if you're looking at it from the front) of the lens mount, with three
positions: C, S, and M. Set this to "C".

If you have an AF-M switch, switch to AF, then dig through the menus to find
the setting for continuous-servo AF

On all other cameras: you might have a similar switch in the same place, with
AF (autofocus) and M (manual focus) positions. Set this to "AF", if you have it.
You'll have to dig through your menus (again, different from camera to camera) in
order to find the setting for continuous-servo AF.

Shooting

1. 1

Turn your camera on and leave it on. Like all film and digital SLR cameras, your
camera will go to sleep when it is not used, and it will consume almost no battery power
at all when it is turned-on-but-asleep. Having to turn your camera on when something
happens is a sure way to miss shots, potentially great ones.

2. 2

Get out there and look for things to shoot. This is beyond the scope of this article,
but the basics of getting great photos are covered in How to Develop Your Photography
Skills.
 3. 3

Don't use "live view" even if your camera has it. The whole point of an SLR is to use
the instant optical reflex viewfinder (the "SLR" in "digital SLR"), rather than the slow
LCD of a point-and-shoot. What's more, this means ditching the intelligent, fast phase-
detection autofocus that Nikon have perfected over two decades and replacing it with a
slow, inaccurate contrast-detection autofocus system from a cheap camcorder. If you're
not sure you want guaranteed missed shots and/or poor focus, use the viewfinder rather
than the LCD.

4. 4

Pick an exposure mode. If your camera has a "MODE" button, you change the
exposure mode by holding this down and spinning the main command dial until the
desired mode appears in your top LCD and in your viewfinder. Other (cheaper) cameras
will have a big friendly mode dial on the top of the camera to the left of the viewfinder.
The basic modes are the same on all cameras, and there are only three that you should
care about:

Programmed automatic, as used in this shot, works for most shots most of the
time.

Programmed automatic (P). This will select both an aperture and shutter speed
for you. Most of the time, and especially in normal lighting, this is the mode you
want to use. Yes, it's a fully-automatic mode and you've been told that this will
hinder your creativity. This is nonsense on stilts, especially given that you can
shift the program using the main command dial on the rear of the camera. So if
the camera picks a shutter speed of 1/125 at an aperture of f/5.6, you can shift
this to 1/80 at f/7.1, or 1/200 at f/4.2, etc etc, right up to the limitations of your
aperture and shutter.
o

Aperture priority mode is useful to force a shallow depth of field, and to throw
the background far out of focus (or the complete opposite).

Aperture priority (A). This will allow you to select an aperture for the lens (you
usually do this by turning the secondary command dial on the front of the
camera; if you don't have one of these, use the main command dial on the rear),
and the camera will select a shutter speed for a correct exposure. The primary
reason to use this is for control over your depth of field. Large apertures (smaller
numbers, like f/1.8) will give you a shallower depth of field (less of your photo in
focus[4] and faster shutter speeds, useful for blurring the background of a portrait,
for example. Smaller apertures (larger numbers, such as f/16) will give you more
depth of field, and also force longer shutter speeds.

o Shutter priority (S) will allow you to set a shutter speed with the main
command dial (which will appear in your viewfinder) and the camera will choose
an aperture on the lens to match. Use this if you want to freeze motion (like
sports, or anything else that moves), or if you're using a telephoto lens that
mandates using a faster shutter speed to avoid camera shake.

o The rest. On the entry-level and mid-range cameras, the mode dial has an
"Auto" position. Don't use this; it's much like programmed automatic, but
inflexible (you can't shift the program, for example) and ruder (it pops the flash
without asking). The various "scene modes" on the cheaper cameras should be
ignored for the same reason. If you want to party like it's 1976, there's also a fully
manual (M) mode on all cameras; there's almost no reason to ever use this. [5]

5. 5
Set your white balance. This is more important than any other setting on your camera.
The human eye automatically compensates for different kinds of lighting; white looks
white to us in almost any kind of lighting, whether that's in the shade (in which case it's
slightly bluer), or under incandescent lighting (where it's shifted towards orange), or
under some weird artificial light sources (which can change several times a second!). A
digital camera sees colours as they really are, and the white balance setting shifts the
colours so that they look natural in the finished photo. [6]

On most cameras you have a "WB" button; hold this down while spinning the main
command dial. These are the settings you care about:

Even in sunlight, shade (used here) white balance can be used to warm your
scene nicely. (Nikon D2H and 50mm f/1.8D wide-open.)

Cloudy and shade, marked with a cloud symbol and a picture of a house casting
a shadow respectively, are where you want to be most of the time when you are
outdoors, even when under direct sunlight. "Shade" is slightly warmer than
"cloudy"; experiment with this to find the one that's right for you.

o Auto, marked with an A, will attempt to set the white balance automatically.
This sometimes results in colours that are too cool; as it has been said,
"engineers are interested in copying color test charts, not making a good photo".
[6]
On the other hand, this might be a good option for shooting under really weird
artificial lighting like mercury vapour lamps, or under mixed lighting sources.

o Daylight, marked with a sun symbol, is supposed to be best for direct

sunlight. Again, the colours sometimes come out a bit too cool.
 o

Tungsten white balance is meant to balance out incandescent lighting, but it

can also be used towards artistic ends. (Nikon D2H and cheap 18-55mm lens.)

Tungsten and fluorescent, marked with a light bulb and a fluorescent strip-light
respectively, are for shooting under artificial lighting indoors. This can be safely
ignored for real photography; indoor lighting is boring and you should be outside
shooting things. On the other hand, you can use these outdoors to great effect;
for example, you can use tungsten to make skies turn blue.

6. 6

Use your flash judiciously. If you want better than boring washed-out party snapshots,
don't get stuck with indoor lighting that forces you to nuke your subject with direct flash.
Get outside, where the fun light happens. On the other hand, Nikon's excellent flash
system (and the insanely fast 1/500 flash sync on many cameras) is great for filling
shadows in bright outdoor lighting, to avoid (for example) dark shadows under eyes in
daylight.

7. 7

Set your ISO. The ISO is a measure of the sensor's sensitivity to light; lower ISOs
mean less sensitivity to light, giving less noise but slower shutter speeds (making
camera shake more likely), and higher ISOs do the opposite. If you're shooting in bright
daylight, leave this at the slowest speed (usually 200, and sometimes 100).

Otherwise, there's a quick and easy way to work out what your ISO should be. Take the
focal length of your lens (e.g. 200mm), and multiply it by 1.5 (on all cameras but the D3
and D700, giving you 300 in our example). If you're using a VR lens (you should) and
have VR turned on (you should), divide this figure by four (e.g. 75). As a general rule,
you want to choose a shutter speed at least as fast as your resulting number (e.g.
roughly 1/80th of a second, or 1/300th without VR). Kick up your ISO until you're able to
shoot at shutter speeds at least this fast.

On most cameras, you can change the ISO by holding down the ISO button and turning
the main command dial; the LCD (or one of them) will show you your ISO as it changes.
You're still left to dig through the menus to find an ISO setting on the D3000, the D40,
and friends.

8. 8

If all goes well, your camera will lock focus onto your subject.

Half press your shutter button to focus. Hopefully, you'll get lucky, and the camera
will pick the right focus point (the little rectangles dotted around your viewfinder) and
lock on to the right thing. When the camera is in focus, a small, green confirmation dot
will appear in the bottom left of your viewfinder. However, there's a few scenarios in
which that doesn't hold true:

o
 The autofocus lock button will allow you to centre something in the frame,
focus, and then recompose while you hold it.

Off-centre subjects. Depending on how far off-centre, and on your camera, it

might pick the wrong focus point. If this is so, centre your subject in your frame,
focus, then hold down your AE-L/AF-L button as you recompose the shot and
shoot. (A trick: use this on portrait shots. Focus on the eyes, lock, then
recompose.)

In this shot, there was a branch closer to the camera than the subject (the
white blurred area at the bottom of the shot); to prevent the autofocus locking on
to this, a single autofocus area was manually selected. (Nikon D2H + 55-200mm
VR.)

Subjects with something closer to them than the subject. On all cameras
some of the time, the camera will try and focus on the closest thing to the
camera. Handy, but that's not what you want all the time. You'll have to set your
camera to single-area AF (not to be confused with single-servo AF), which will
allow you to pick a single focus point rather than letting the camera guess one for
you.

To set this on most cameras, you'll have to dig through the camera's two
thousand menu options for autofocus setup (though you get a dedicated button
for this on the high-end cameras; switch this to the single, small rectangle). Once
you've done this, you can use the multi-selector on the rear to pick an autofocus
point.

o Really low light. You'll have to manually focus. Set your lens to M (or the
switch on your camera, if you're using a tradition screw-type AF or AF-D lens).
Grab the focus ring and turn it. Of course, if your camera is hung up and can't
focus, then you probably won't have much better luck telling whether you're in
focus or not. If your lens has a distance scale you can guess the distance and set
it on your lens, and pretend you're shooting a Voigtlander Vito B from 1954.

o Some combinations of camera and lens when zoomed all the way in just
don't like each other and refuse to find focus in any situation. The D300 and 55-
200mm VR lens do this sometimes.[7] If this happens to you, zoom your lens out,
focus on your subject and zoom back in again once it finds focus.
 9. 9

Take a picture. Actually, take two or three; hold down the shutter button (you did set
your camera to continuous shooting, right?). That way if, by some stroke of bad luck,
one of your shots isn't sharp because of camera shake, at least one of them is likely to
be sharp, even if you're at a shutter speed that's too slow for your lens' focal length.

10. 10

Check your LCD for obvious exposure problems. Like this; notice most of the wing of
the swan completely blown out to white.

Check your LCD. Look for areas that are blown out to pure white which shouldn't be
blown out to pure white, and look for areas that are way too dark, and then...

11. 11

The exposure compensation button: one of the two critical controls on your camera.
 Use your exposure compensation to get your exposure right. This is the button
marked +/- next to your shutter button, and is the other absolutely critical adjustment on
digital cameras. While Nikon's matrix meter is smart, it won't get exposure absolutely
perfect all of the time, and isn't a substitute for artistic judgment. Exposure
compensation simply forces the camera to over- or under-expose by a given amount.

To set exposure compensation, hold the exposure compensation button down while
turning the main command dial; either to the right to underexpose (darker), or to the left
to overexpose (lighter). If in doubt, underexpose it. Blown highlights on digital can never
be recovered short of painting them back in by hand, but you can recover from all but
the most terminal under-exposure (at the cost of bringing out more noise, which isn't
that important).

12. 12

Keep shooting until it looks right. You might have to adjust exposure compensation
and white balance from shot-to-shot as the lighting changes, so regularly review your
images on your LCD.

13. 13

Get your photos off your camera. Learn to do some very basic post-processing in image

editing tools like the GIMP or Photoshop, such as sharpening, adjusting contrast and colour

balance, and so on. Don't rely on post-processing tricks to make your photos interesting