Just Got A D40

[Adz The Rat]

My lovely girlfriend just bought me a Nikon D40 with memory card.
Really want to learn how to take some great photo's so what else do I need?
Reccomend me some lenses please and will I need a flash bit?
Its my first SLR so sorry if I seem a bit thick

[RobDickinson]

You have a kit lens alerady?

Get used to it and the camera, dont buy anything else for a few months.

[Simpo Two]

If you want to take nice soft photos of people indoors I'd defo recommend a proper flashgun, eg Nikon SB600, not only because it's far more powerful than the built-in one, but very importantly you can bounce it (the light, not the flashgun!).

[NewNameNeeded]

RobDickinson said:

You have a kit lens alerady?

Get used to it and the camera, dont buy anything else for a few months.

Agree with this - especially if new to photography. You'll learn over time if you'd rather spend money on the wide end or on a telephoto zoom. I could have sworn when I bought my first DSLR that I'd have wanted a 70-300mm zoom .... 18 months later and 90% of my time is spent at the 10-20mm end of things.

[Fordo]

NewNameNeeded said:

RobDickinson said:

You have a kit lens alerady?

Get used to it and the camera, dont buy anything else for a few months.

Agree with this - especially if new to photography. You'll learn over time if you'd rather spend money on the wide end or on a telephoto zoom. I could have sworn when I bought my first DSLR that I'd have wanted a 70-300mm zoom .... 18 months later and 90% of my time is spent at the 10-20mm end of things.

agreed- ive only just bought a 200mm lens after a year of owning a D40, and its only really for the odd occasion. The stock D40 lens goes impressively wide, and this is really useful.

Best advice is ploght the internet for tips, and take lots of photos.

Do you know the basics? If not, learn the relationship between the iris, depth of field, and shutter speed. Understand what iso is, and read about what shooting raw is all about. - have a read about the 'rule of 3rds' too

Also, get a tripod, its an essential, especially if you want to take good night shots

Learning to use and control the camera in the fully manual mode will come in time. I mainly use the aperture priority modes- I descide what kind of dof I want, and let the camera sort out the exposure. 80% of the time, it exposes right. I check my images staight away, and if its under or over exposed, i use expose compensation, or if im in a hurry, i'll get the camera to meter on something else, then snap my subject.

Most people just whip out their cameras and just snap away. To me, the key to a good photo is looking with your eyes, not your lens. When I go somewhere, the first thing i do is look around, talk to people and think of interesting situations or spot interesting people.
I dont want to get caught up snapping away at the obvious things, when there could be something more interesting going on, which i haven't noticed because my head is buried in the viewfinder.

Really think about framing too. Look at photos youve already taken, and think how could improve them. That holiday snap of your friend- why did you frame him in the middle of the shot? Maybe it would look better if you were closer, and he was to the left of the frame, showing the background to the right. And maybe it would look better if he was turned at an angle laughing at something you said, instead of standing flat on to the camera, doing a pose and trying to smile.

hope that helps!

[Adz The Rat]

Thank you all helpful replies.
Will try to do my best getting used to it for a few months (dont get it til xmas) and see how Im getting on before I buy anything else.

[beano500]

Adz The Rat said:

...what else do I need?

How long is a piece of string?

Well, you've made a good choice - I'd consider just going out and taking pictures. When you/we know what you're enjoying taking pictures of we can all get together again and spend £££s of your money for you!!!

Let's see some results, first!