D800 Books

snoop85

So I just brought myself a D800 and SB910 few weeks ago (a christmas for myself I guess you could call it). With the aim to start photography for weddings and events with my old uni friend who has been shooting weddings for 2-3 years now, last year he moved to DSLR. 

I am relative new to DSLR photography, did it back at school for a while, when they stilled used a dark room to develop photos.  Is there any good books people can recommend for both camera and speedlight. I know nothing about now to use a speedlight, total beginner. 

Any tips/suggestions/advice welcome

D5100_Owner

My tip is to not buy the books.  The books are basically restated manuals.  Read the manuals over a day or two (I read my d5100 manual while the battery was charging) and see if you have less trouble.  Also, look at website like ken rockwell.  While they are not perfect, and have many flaws, they get you thinking, and that is what matters.  Most of all experiment.  I had no idea what ISO was until I moved out of auto, and had to figure it out on my old camera (Panasonic FZ-100).  They more you get out and shoot the easier it gets.  Also talk to your friend who is a wedding photographer, he will have lots of advice I am sure.  You are also part of NR forum.  If there is any group of people who know a lot about camera its us.

Have fun shooting and enjoy your camera.

-D5100 owner

MightyY

Get yourself Thom Hogan's book.  I purchased and read through it recently.  It's very thorough and he has a section dedicated to speedlights towards the end of the book.  I highly recommend it.

Fraucha

I picked up an e-book from Thom Hogan called The D800 Guide.... thankfully it is not a restate of the Nikon manual which I had read (in Russian), and found to be "lacking". Thom's e-book cleared up many things and made using my D800 much easier. I came from a D300s and it is clearly a horse of a different color. There is also a section devoted to the digital sensor and it's physics, which is most likely a "must read" for you, it also explains much of why you do not get what you see and feel like you did in film.

The speed light you can master is short order if you ever used a flash in the film days. It is the new digital post processing that will take a bit of getting used to.

sevencrossing

I found Simon Staffords ( Magic latern Guides) book on the D700 very good and not a regurgitated manual
he does one on the D800

kanuck

The Simon Stafford Magic lantern guides used to be excellent especially the one for the D700. I think people complained about the size of them (not pocket sized) so he cuts out a lot of material now to slim them down allowing for backpacking. I bought the D800/D800e copy and was disappointed. The Tom Hogan guides are good, but like the D5100 owner states above, you can't go wrong with just going over the user's manual.

snoop85

Thank you everyone for your comments.
I always find the manuals provided with electronics a bit overwhelming and technical sometimes. For example as a noob to Speedlight I tried to ready the manual but couldn't work it out for the life of me. I needed something to give me the simple basics and kick starter. I know the rest of knowledge is usually based on practice, which I will be doing.
Is there any way to buy/view the Thom Hogan book before purchase? and is it available on Android?
Found a very good discession about Thom's book here
The Thom Hogan one must obviously be quite details with over 800 pgs compared to the Magic lantern guide which is a mere 128 lol.

I will be putting the original manual PDF on to my android devices (Galaxy Tab2 and LG Nexus 4)


Thanks for comments so far

DJBee49

Snoop,

I too would recommend Thom Hogan's manual. It is not expensive, you can just download it from his website and keep it for reference on the computer. It is not really true that everything you need is in the Nikon manual and with my last three Nikons, I have benefitted from his research and good advice.

I say this as a life-long professional photographer who is not too proud to learn from others! There is probably nothing in there that an experienced photographer could not work out for themselves (except, in my case, his knowledge of electronics) but I use him as a short-cut, so that I don't have to do all that research and experimentation myself!

His manual will not teach you photographic basics though- if that is what you would need first, you will need to look elsewhere and then move on to Thom's excellent advice in his manual.

spraynpray

You get to preview books before purchase on Amazon.

donaldejose

Thom Hogan +1. I purchased his D800 book and found it helpful.

snoop85

You get to preview books before purchase on Amazon.

I couldn't find Thom's book on amazon UK website.

Looks like Thom Hogan's book is going to a clear winner.

Thanks everyone for your help. Looking forward to learning from everyone in this forum.