Hey RSS readers! Der be a vid-ey-oh down below!!
Photography Tips from Ryan Detzel on Vimeo.
This is my camera. It’s a Nikon D60. Click here for an in-depth assessment of this camera. I bought this camera as an inexpensive replacement to my old Nikon D100 that I was shooting with for years. The D100 was wearing out and while the new D60 isn’t built nearly as strong…it’s still a great little camera.
If I had my druthers, which by the way is just a shortening of the phrase “would rathers”, I’d have me either a Nikon D90 or a Nikon D700. But those are just druthers. This camera would be an excellent starter camera for someone looking to dive deeper into photography. It’s got many professional features and it’s also small and lightweight for someone new to the D-SLR game.
SLR stands for Single-Lens-Reflex. D-SLR stands for Digital-Single-Lens-Reflex. Read more about what that means —–> here.
This would be my favorite lens for portraits. It’s a Sigma 30mm f/1.4. Here is a good, honest review about this lens’ capabilities and downfalls. Ken Rockwell is a great person to learn from. This lens is used primarily for candid shots of people. This is an awesome lens to have on the camera when you’re having people over and you don’t want to use flash to annoy everyone. It will create a great natural light photograph with a super shallow depth of field…this is awesome for photos of one person, but can be trouble for group shots as one person will be focused while another is blurry.
Here’s a few shots I took with this lens:
See what I mean about the shallow depth of field? The background is very blurred out and the subject stands out…all of these shots are without flash.
This lens provides for some extremely wide-angle shots. It distorts things quite a bit, but I don’t mind distorted…some people hate it. A good review of this lens can be found here.
This lens is really fun. You can fit a ton of stuff into the frame and it always makes people wonder how the heck you did it.
Here are some shots from this lens:
And this is the flash I’m using now. A Nikon SB-800. A good review can be found here. I don’t have a whole lot to say about this flash just yet as I just got it a couple weeks ago…it’s a good one. One of the best Nikon has ever had. It’s powerful enough to throw a lot of light a long way and balanced enough to not wash things out. It meters very well with the camera. I hate any flash that is built in to the camera…these are always terrible. My recommendation would be to use no flash at all or an external flash like this one.
An external flash gives you the ability to control a lot more…such as where the light is coming from. This flash allows me to tilt the flash head up, down, backwards, sideways to the point where I can bounce the flash off of a ceiling or wall for a much nicer effect. It diffuses the flash and gives a much more natural look than flash usually offers.
Photos in this post <—click) are all using the SB-800 bounced off the ceiling.
GOT QUESTIONS? ASK AWAY!! I’ll be honest and tell you if I don’t know the answer. Who knows…you might learn something.
After you leave a comment containing a question, I’ll respond to it as soon as I get a chance. Just check back to your comment and there might be an answer waiting for you.
I gotta say that I love your photos. Do you shoot in RAW? and also what do you do the photos…example post processing?
{reply}
I’ve recently started stealing/borrowing my husbands D200 camera w/ 18-200 mm lens. I’m stubborn. And am still trying to figure out ON MY OWN how to take pictures without the flash and without everything being blurry in the outcome of this experiment…WITHOUT any help from my husband. How childish can you get?
{reply}
Ok Ryan THANK YOU a million. Not only for the photography tips but for making me laugh out loud several times. Did you know you were that funny?
Anyway here are my questions: I use a Canon 30D and have had it for about 3 years now. I take a TON and I mean a TON of sports pics for my boys ball teams and I mean the WHOLE team. Every kid out there. So I have noticed lately that my pictures are not looking as “good/sharp” as they did when I first got the camera. Can a camera wear out?
Second question: I use my Canon 28-135 IS lense for everything except for “ballfield Shots” in which I use my telephoto (100-400) Would my pics really benefit from a portrait lense or is the 28-135 good enough.
Last question: What creative suggestions do yo have for convincing our spouses to allow us to go out and get more lenses. Cause I gots to have more lenses now.
P.S. You HAVE got to do a Photoshop video with you showing us some step by step ways to use the system, becasue I can not READ it try to use it at the same time. I need to be shown. I have problems.
Thanks a mil Ryan.
Sorry this is so long.
{reply}
Thanks for the tips, Ryan! I’ve been wanting to pursue photography for a while now, but the expense of a camera has been keeping me from taking the plunge, which brings me to my question … when I finally do get a camera, I’m going to be able to afford just one lens. I know you mentioned a couple lenses you like for specific shots, but is there a good, all-purpose lens you’d recommend?
{reply}
Okay Here’s my Question … You think maybe you could email my Mom, AKA Santa Claus, and tell her why I need a Nikon for Christmas?
… My convincing isn’t too … well, convincing.
{reply}
Thanks so much for the great tips! I just got my Nikon D80 in June and now (as of last week) have a Nikkor 50mm f1.8. Now I really want the Sigma 30mm! I think you should definitely teach photography on your site! I love your pictures and recently went through your Flicker site…the pictures from inside the moving car are fantastic! As a newbie, I can’t wait to learn more.
{reply}
No questions yet – just wanted to say that was informative and hilarious!!!
{reply}
Love Love LOVE this post. I’ve been debating between a Nikon or Cannon. BTW, I’m officially an Ohio homeowner! Boy is this weather a diversion from Texas, but I’m adjusting. I can’t find a link to your church….could you help me out? We’d really love to come and visit.
{reply}
Hi there
I’m a lurker that’s delurking! I’ve had a Nikon D80 for a year now but am still trying to figure out the manual settings etc… so I was wondering what settings you mainly use to get your exposure and all that right? Thanks for doing a photography post… would love to see more! I’m self-taught in PS but would just like to know more about which settings to use to get good shots in different lighting conditions… that fountain pic is amazing… how did you get a night shot to look so clear??? I think that’s enough questions huh? Have a great week!
{reply}
Loved the photography lesson. I am using a camera like the one you tossed out!
{reply}
I’ve been lurking on your site for a while and love it. I am seriously beyond remedial in my photography knowledge and just hope and wish to one day be able to have a nice camera and take good photos.
My questions 1. Does the $600 on the camera you showed on the video include the extra lens price? If not, what is the approx lens price?
2. Does the flash cost extra?
3. Are there any decent cameras out there you would recommend in the $300 – $500 range?
4. Do I have to have photoshop to accompany this kind of camera so my photos can come out decent?
I’m sure I’ll have more questions later – Thank you!!
{reply}
I’ve been reading your blog for a couple weeks now and feel the need to de-lurk!
Ya know when you buy a new car…. and you notice that everyone around you has YOUR car… or when you (if you are female) are newly pregnant – all you notice are other pregnant people???? Well – I found pioneerwoman.com and your blog (from your recipe posts over there) just a about a month ago now. My husband had been wanting to make the jump from point and shoot to dslr (he used to shoot in 35mm) and he’s retired now – so we’d already made the decision to invest in a camera for our combination b-day and xmas gift to each other. Suddenly I’m finding all this info on PW’s site, and 3 weeks later – we are the proud owners of a Nikon D90
Now you’ve posted this awesome video – with the promise of more posts – I just love it! All this info coming at me so easily! I spent a good half hour last night trying to figure out how to take a decent piccie of my neighbors house – he’s already begun decorating for Xmas – and using a monopod with the camera on the Aperture priority setting (not brave enough to try the totally manual setting yet) can’t keep the camera still enough to not blur the decorations(I ordered the accessory part to make the monopod a tripod today though so that will fix that li’l problemo) – I gave up and shot on the automatic setting which brought up the built in flash! I know I can do better! With you and PW’s help I WILL get better. Have you any advice on a good reference like “DSLR’s for dummies” I could invest in – the D90 is apparently so new that there isn’t a specific book out there yet and I don’t want to wait til next spring to figure out how to get the most out of this camera.
Man – I wrote a book – so sorry – I’m just very excited to see this post and video today!
{reply}
dude..I just got this camera…it should arrive on monday…I got the 18-55 lens and a 55-200 lens.
{reply}
$7 – $8 psssss what a rip off.
{reply}
ryan! your chicken boob recipe post has no pictures but only weird writing.. just so you know i check the food archives regularly! love ya site!
{reply}
do you shoot in Manual/Aperture Prior/shutter prior? and how do you meter for correct exposure? do you meter the face, if you’re shooting a person? i shoot in manual and have been at a guessing game with my exposure. it seems a bit of a guessing game – i keep checking the back to get the right exposure then when i get it right, i shoot away. just wondering what method you use and if there is an easier way. next question: where you do you lock focus? for instance, say you’re taking a pic of your beautiful wife, do you focus on the eye, half press the shutter to lock exposure, then recompose the shot, then shoot?
i shoot with a canon 40D and primarily use my 50mm f/1.4
love the tip about getting on the ground. and thanks for taking our questions.
{reply}
You’ve already helped so much that I’m not sure I should ask another question, but I miraculously managed to create a banner in Photoshop for the first time in the 3 years since I’ve had the software but I don’t know how to size it and get it on my blog. Can you help? Yours looks awesome. I just cannot not seem to figure this one out.
Thanks
{reply}
Hi Ryan, I have a FinePix S7000 and am clueless. Thanks for the information – you explain it so well that I think I may learn something. And thanks for starting at the beginning – some of us are newbies to this. I love the video – as I am a visual learner and I hope you keep teaching us so that we can take pictures as beautiful as yours!
{reply}
I’m so excited to be learning about taking better pictures. I carry my camera with me everywhere. I find that with four kids home all day there’s always something that is needing to be documented as blackmail later.
I’m wondering if my camera falls under the ‘replace it’ category. I have a Canon Powershot S5 IS. I love it but I also don’t play around with lenses. I’m just not there yet. I love your suggestion to get up or down and not to use the same eye level shots.
Thanks for doing this. I love your blog!
{reply}
Yowza! While that wasn’t a lot of info, it still was! Make sense?
Anywho, we’re getting ready to get a Nikon D40, since it’s best for our budget. Would you say it’s still a good starter D-SLR? Or would you recommend saving for the D60? Will the Sigma 30mm lens work on the D40?
Thank you so much for putting yourself out there for us, Ryan! Blessings!
{reply}
I have spots (somewhere) on my camera and I can’t figure out where they are! I can see them through the viewfinder (and they’re not on the viewfinder) but they don’t show up in the photo. I’ve even tried cleaning the sensor. Should I just not worry about it or should I keep trying to figure it out?
{reply}
I love your wide angle shots. It makes me want to get a wide angle lens! Our eternal flash kinda scares me. I have taken some lucky shots with it though. Always a work in progress. Thanks for sharing.
{reply}
That picture of Fountain Square rocks!!!
{reply}
I was just going to shoot you an email with photo questions and to my delight, saw this wonderful post!
I have a Nikon D40 and I envy your warm-toned shots! It looks like I’ll have to look into photoshop!
Ken Rockwell is amazing — I’ve learned SO much from him.
{reply}
I *love* Ken Rockwell’s site- tons of great info! But I also love DpReview. An excellent source of photography info and photo gear review. Definitely worth a look if you haven’t been there yet.
{reply}
I love Ken Rockwell’s site- a ton of great info there. DpReview is another great source of reviews on photo gear too. Definitely worth a look if you haven’t been there.
{reply}
Just bought a Nikon D60 today (two lens kit). I purchased 2 filters and am now wondering if they are the ones I need (or if I just got robbed at the local camera store).
Promaster Digital UV Precision Optical Filters 52mm.
They were $50 each which seemed like a lot, but here I sit with them in hand!
Would you recommend these? Over-kill or a good buy?
{reply}