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Photography Help... Anonymous
My mom got a Nikon D40 (pictured) for Christmas and loves taking pictures with it. The only thing is, she refuses to elarn how to use the lense and blames me for pictures being blurry or focused on the wrong subject. She thinks this happens somehow when I move the images from her memory stick to a CD (her 4gig stick is too big for places like Rite-Aid to read, so I have to burn things to CD).

Can someone give me advise on how to convince her to actually learn to use this camera/lenses correctly? It's too expensive to be used like a piece of crap camera she takes it for.

Oh, and she thinks that buying a new lense automatically makes the picture better, but she flubbs that majorly as well.
>> Anonymous
>>206847

I've heard that there are very few differences between the two, so your advise sounds on par.

>Automatic seems like a good start. Blurry images can be the result of many different factors. From shakey hands to improper ISO settings.

I've made sure that her camera is always set to 'automatic'. Not sure what ISO setting are, but I'll try toggling them and messing with the camera today. Most of the blur is from her randomly 'zooming' in an out between pictures.

> 2.) OR you can just get her a smaller memory card. They're cheap these days and I'm sure once she sees her prints from Rite-Aid that it is indeed her own fault. The LCD on the camera is often times misleading unless she's shooting with resolution of 480x600, the larger the resolution the more room for mistakes.

She just bought a 2gig, which works in the pharmacy print shops, so she can see the mistakes are her own (finally).

> 3.) Get her a tripod, it's good for reducing camera movement when shooting.

I might give her mine, but is it good for getting active shots, like in sports? Its what she mainly uses the camera for.
>> Butterfly !xlgRMYva6s
>>206849
>I might give her mine, but is it good for getting active shots, like in sports? Its what she mainly uses the camera for.

Not really, correct posture and tracking will help the most there but that seems to be her biggest problem. Id recomend a prime so she cant zoom in but she'd probably hate that and refuse to use it and primes with a d40 arnt exactly widespread.
>> Anonymous
>>206849
Zooming between shots won't make anything blurry.

If she is shooting fast moving sports, set her ISO high, at least until she can keep the camera still. Maybe set up her program mode for her, or put her on shutter priority with at least 1/60th or faster.

You could also buy her a cheap, fast prime lens for her to learn on. I'm not familiar with what Nikon makes, but I'm sure there's something.
>> Anonymous
>>206851
>>206850
>>206847


Thanks alot. I'll try all this out later. Hopefully this may be still active by the time I get out of work so I can update you guys with the results.
>> Anonymous
>>206849
I'm by no means an expert, I think most D40,D40X users are beginners. That's why the camera is so cheap(compared to other DSLRs'). It's a pretty decent beginners camera.

The tripod probably won't help much if the subject is sports, but I've never tried, you can give it a shot. I usually use tripods for still shots to make sure they are stable.

I believe D40 has a sports shooting mode. It might help.

If she's already on Automatic mode, I think image stabilization should already kick in. After she sees her own shots being blurry, you might want to sign her up for photography 101 classes or get her a book. It seems she's not using her camera to the fullest potential and it would be difficult to really determine her problem just via your description.

ISO settings should probably be best left at automatic if your not sure. Because changing it will affect shutter speeds. And if shutter speed is changed to slower, the camera will need to be especially stable.

I suggest you have her take a ton of photos to see where her problem lies. I started with about 100 shots when I began and only found 6 shots to be truly good. DSLRs are a hobby for most, and it takes a lot of time and practice to get the camera to shoot the way you want it to.

Again, good luck
>> Anonymous
>>206850
Plus bloody expensive... If she's going to use poor technique, then explain and show her simply and concisely the correct manner of holding the camera so she can see for herself.
>> Anonymous
>>206851
Sheap prime lenses for Nikon = body-based AF .: D40 can't AF, and she'll complain even more, especially given the general looseness of the focus rings on those type of lenses
>> Butterfly !xlgRMYva6s
>>206858
Yes that is the problem, otherwise she can just go fuck herself and op can move out of his basement.
>> Anonymous
>>206855

I tried messing around with the camera: moving around while taking a shot, having my subjects move and I still don't get the shitty pix my mom gets. It must be her technique. If it is, I might just be inheriting this camera shortly.

Thanks to the /p/hotographers who didn't give me too much grief about this.