Nikon D5300 DSLR - Best Auto Settings for Chasing?

[JamesCaruso]

Just picked this camera up about 10 days ago and don't feel I know enough about it to be effective in the field, and am running out of time to figure it out. If anyone has this camera, I am looking for some advice on the automatic modes that you have found to work best for chasing pictures, both stills and video. I am not skilled enough in photography to manually adjust settings so just want to work with the automatic modes. So for example, in what situations is the "sunset" scene setting better than the "landscape" setting? In general, is the same setting conducive to both video and stills in a given situation, or might a different setting be better for video vs stills even under the same conditions? Any advice for using the night mode or whatever it's called?

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Jim Caruso

 

[Todd Rector]

I have a D5300 and it is a LOT of camera if you are new to digital photography. Do yourself a BIG favor and pick up "David Busch's Nikon D5300 Guide to Digital SLR Photography" for about $25 at any major bookstore chain. It expands nicely with colorful examples upon things the camera manual doesn't explain well.

If you are in a real hurry to take decent photos, just leave it in program mode and you should be okay. On the top dial there is a "no flash" setting - learn where this is at, otherwise it will keep popping the flash up when it gets dark, under-exposing your pic. The sunset/landscape/sports/etc settings are simply presets that are optimized for those conditions. For storm photos I generally avoid using them.

Issues you will run into as a beginner with this camera:

1. Autofocus has problems finding focus on non-contrasty things like clouds. You might want to flip your lens over to manual and focus it yourself.
2. Depending on your settings, your lens will try to constantly focus during video. This is very annoying and unnecessary for storm photography, and often you can hear the AF motor hunting in your audio when you play it back. Again, flip your lens over to manual and focus it yourself. For the most part, you only need to focus on a storm once and subsequent pics/video will be in focus.
3. The camera will try to use the flash when it is dark unless you specifically tell it not to. You can't use a flash against something further than about 50 feet away, much less illuminate a whole storm system from miles away. Compensate by using as large an aperture as possible (large aperture = smaller "f" number, like 4.0 or 5.6), and increase your ISO setting.

Practice taking pics of regular clouds on non-chase days so you can see how your camera acts - that way you will know what to expect and spend less time fiddling with settings and scrolling through menus when that awesome wall cloud is in front of you.

Buy that Busch book - it is very helpful.

TR

TR

 

[Matt Hunt]

I'm just learning on the D5100 myself. For me, because lighting changes so often with storms, I feel it's easier to use aperture priority or shutter priority, and let the camera adjust everything else. As for the auto focus issue Todd mentioned, one thing I'll do is set my focus point on the bottom (for me this still isn't low enough to focus on the ground), put that focus point on the horizon and press the shutter halfway so that it focuses, then compose the shot I want before snapping.

 

[Todd Rector]

Hi Matt, I agree with you on using aperture or shutter priority (with auto ISO) but it didn't seem the author of the original post was very familiar setting up his camera. The "focus and hold" trick is pretty cool but doesn't work with all AF settings on the D5300, which is why I didn't mention it. Overall, I think just a little practice with the camera will have him taking awesome pics in no time. Nikon's D5xxx series is fantastic! Not as simple as point-and-shoot, but very forgiving in any of the program modes.

TR

 

[JamesCaruso]

Thanks for the help Todd and Matt. I look forward to putting your tips to good use during my chase trip that begins this Friday.

Quick question, do most of the tips, such as using Program mode, apply equally for video as well as stills?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Matt Hunt]

I haven't experimented too much with video yet, but it seems more automatic than stills. I know that aperture must be set prior to switching to live view. You'll also want to set your auto-ISO how you want it, because the camera will adjust it automatically. I found the exposure lock to be a key function to utilize, otherwise the camera will constantly be changing the exposure. I also do not use the auto focus, I'd rather set the focus by pressing the shutter halfway on the horizon so that it's about at infinity. Or just use manual focus.

 

[Greg Campbell]

Without knowing anything about that specific camera...

For a complete noob, I'd suggest treating it like a big point-and-shoot.
If you can't explain what an 'F ratio' is, it may be best to avoid aperture or shutter priority. Just leave it in P or Landscape mode and be happy. Let it worry about everything else. (You worry about composing a decent shot!)
Shoot in RAW mode, or RAW + Jpeg. Down the road, you can play with the RAW utility and very possibly extract more detail from the image.
Set multi-zone / matrix / whatevertheycallit metering (the likely default) and let the camera work out the best compromise exposure value. Avoid the 'partial' or 'spot' metering patterns.

Optional:
Dial in a touch of negative exposure compensation to better preserve highlights.


For videos, worry about using a tripod or stable base whenever possible. The world has enough vomit-cam storm footage already.

 

[Todd Rector]

I shot video on Wednesday in Progam mode with great results.