Guide to NIKON D60 photography

DAVID BUSCH’S NIKON D60 GUIDE TO DIGITAL SLR PHOTOGRAPHY David D. Busch Course Technology PTR A part of Cengage Learning Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, United States ™

© 2009 Course Technology, a part of Cengage Learning. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Cengage Learning Customer & Sales Support Center, 1-800-354-9706 For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all requests online at cengage.com/permissions Further permissions questions can be emailed to permissionrequest@cengage.com Nikon is a trademark of Nikon Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Library of Congress Control Number: 2008902419 ISBN-13: 978-1-59863-577-5 ISBN-10: 1-59863-577-8 Course Technology 25 Thomson Place Boston, MA 02210 USA Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customized learning solutions with office locations around the globe, including Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan. Locate your local office at: international.cengage.com/region Cengage Learning products are represented in Canada by Nelson Education, Ltd. For your lifelong learning solutions, visit courseptr.com Visit our corporate website at cengage.com David Busch’s Nikon D60 Guide to Digital SLR Photography David D. Busch Publisher and General Manager, Course Technology PTR: Stacy L. Hiquet Associate Director of Marketing: Sarah Panella Manager of Editorial Services: Heather Talbot Marketing Manager: Jordan Casey Executive Editor: Kevin Harreld Project Editor: Jenny Davidson Technical Reviewer: Michael D. Sullivan PTR Editorial Services Coordinator: Erin Johnson Interior Layout Tech: Bill Hartman Cover Designer: Mike Tanamachi Indexer: Larry Sweazy Proofreader: Sara Gullion Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 11 10 09 eISBN-10: 1-59863-824-6

For Charlie Cervenak. Charlie, I didn’t know you for very long, but it was long enough to appreciate how enthusiasm for photography can energize a soul.

Acknowledgments Once again thanks to the folks at Course Technology PTR, who recognized that a camera as popular as the Nikon D60 deserves in-depth full-color coverage at a price any- one can afford. Special thanks to executive editor Kevin Harreld, who always gives me the freedom to let my imagination run free with a topic, as well as my veteran produc- tion team including project editor Jenny Davidson and technical editor Mike Sullivan. Also thanks to Bill Hartman, layout; Larry Sweazy, indexing; Sara Gullion, proofread- ing; Mike Tanamachi, cover design; and my agent, Carole McClendon, who has the amazing ability to keep both publishers and authors happy. About the Author With more than a million books in print, David D. Busch is one of the best-selling authors of books on digital photography and imaging technology, and the originator of popular series like David Busch’s Pro Secrets and David Busch’s Quick Snap Guides. He has written six hugely successful guidebooks for Nikon digital SLR models, and five additional user guides for other camera models, as well as many popular books devoted to dSLRs, including Mastering Digital SLR Photography, Second Edition and Digital SLR Pro Secrets. As a roving photojournalist for more than 20 years, he illustrated his books, magazine articles, and newspaper reports with award-winning images. He’s operated his own commercial studio, suffocated in formal dress while shooting weddings-for-hire, and shot sports for a daily newspaper and upstate New York college. His photos have been published in magazines as diverse as Scientific American and Petersen’s PhotoGraphic, and his articles have appeared in Popular Photography & Imaging, The Rangefinder, The Professional Photographer, and hundreds of other publications. He’s also reviewed dozens of digital cameras for CNet and Computer Shopper. When About.com named its top five books on Beginning Digital Photography, debut- ing at the #1 and #2 slots were Busch’s Digital Photography All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies and Mastering Digital Photography. During the past year, he’s had as many as five of his books listed in the Top 20 of Amazon.com’s Digital Photography Bestseller list—simultaneously! Busch’s 100-plus other books published since 1983 include best- sellers like David Busch’s Quick Snap Guide to Digital SLR Lenses. Busch earned top category honors in the Computer Press Awards the first two years they were given (for Sorry About The Explosion and Secrets of MacWrite, MacPaint and MacDraw), and he later served as Master of Ceremonies for the awards. Visit his website at http://www.nikonguides.com.

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Chapter 1 Setting Up Your Nikon D60 1 First Things First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Initial Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Mastering the Multi-Selector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Setting the Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Battery Included . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Final Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Release Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Using the Quick Settings Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Selecting a Shooting Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Choosing a “Scene” Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Choosing an Advanced Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Choosing a Metering Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Choosing Focus Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Choosing Autofocus Area Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Choosing Focus Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Adjusting White Balance and ISO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Reviewing the Images You’ve Taken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Using the Built-in Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Transferring Photos to Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Contents

Chapter 2 Nikon D60 Roadmap 33 Nikon D60: Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 The Nikon D60’s Business End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Playing Back Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Zooming the Nikon D60 Playback Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Viewing Thumbnails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Working with Photo Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Going Topside. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Lens Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Underneath Your Nikon D60 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Looking Inside the Viewfinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 LCD Readouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Chapter 3 Setting Up Your Nikon D60 65 Anatomy of the Nikon D60’s Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Playback Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Playback Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Rotate Tall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Slide Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Print Set (DPOF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Stop-Motion Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Shooting Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Optimize Image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Image Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Image Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 White Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 ISO Sensitivity Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Noise Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Active D-Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 David Busch's Nikon D60 Guide to Digital SLR Photography vi

The Custom Setting Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 01: Beep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 02: Focus Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 03: AF Area Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 04: Release Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 05: Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 06: No Memory Card? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 07: Image Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 08: Flash Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 09: AF-Assist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 10: ISO Auto. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 11: Assign FUNC. Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 12: AE-L/AF-L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 13: AE Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 14: Built-In Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 15: Auto Off Timers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 16: Self-Timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 17: Remote On Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 18: Date Imprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 19: Rangefinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Setup Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 CSM/Setup Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Using My Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Format Memory Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Info Display Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Auto Shooting Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Shooting Info Auto Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 World Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 LCD Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Video Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Image Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 File Number Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Clean Image Sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Mirror Lockup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Firmware Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Dust Off Ref Photo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Auto Image Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Contents vii

Retouch Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Quick Retouch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 D-Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Red-Eye Correction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Trim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Monochrome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Filter Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Small Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Image Overlay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 NEF (RAW) Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Stop-Motion Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Before and After . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Chapter 4 Getting the Right Exposure 149 Getting a Handle on Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 How the D60 Calculates Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Choosing a Metering Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Matrix Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Center-Weighted Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Spot Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Choosing an Exposure Method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Aperture Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Shutter Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Program Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Manual Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Adjusting Exposure with ISO Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Fixing Exposures with Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Chapter 5 Advanced Shooting Tips for Your Nikon D60 171 A Tiny Slice of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Working with Short Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Three Ways to Take Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Working with Long Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 David Busch's Nikon D60 Guide to Digital SLR Photography viii

How Focus Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Adding Circles of Confusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Using Autofocus with the Nikon D60 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Choosing Autofocus Area Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Autofocus Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Continuous Shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Chapter 6 Working with Lenses 191 But First, a Word from Our Sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Your First Lens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Buy Now, Expand Later . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 What Lenses Can You Use?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Ingredients of Nikon’s Alphanumeric Soup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 What Lenses Can Do for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 Zoom or Prime? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Categories of Lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Using Wide-Angle and Wide-Zoom Lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Avoiding Potential Wide-Angle Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Using Telephoto and Tele-Zoom Lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Avoiding Telephoto Lens Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Telephotos and Bokeh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Add-ons and Special Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Lens Hoods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Telephoto Converters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Macro Focusing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Vibration Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Chapter 7 Making Light Work for You 223 Continuous Illumination versus Electronic Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Continuous Lighting Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Daylight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Incandescent/Tungsten Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Fluorescent Light/Other Light Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Contents ix

Guide to NIKON D60 photography

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