What lens shall I buy for my Nikon D3100?
I have Nikon D3100 and I currently use the 18-55mm lens that came with the camera when I first got it.
I like to take many different photographs. I take a lot of long exposure shots at night time, I like to capture fog and snow, i like bokeh pictures and nature shots. I do take pictures of people but not a great amount.
I would also love to be able to capture the moon and stars better if possible.
I also find with the current lens i have (18-55mm) when I take a picture of someone, the background isn't blurred enough.
I take my pictures in natural light 90% of the time.
These are the photographers I'm inspired by and would love my pictures to look more like
http://www.facebook.com/...tos_albums
I'd appreciate it if someone could give me a list of lenses that are compatible with my camera and give me a reason for each lens and what it's specifically good for.
I hope this makes sense and is enough information
I bought the 55-200mm VR.
I notice just before I attempted to answer your question that someone had suggested a 50 or 55mm-to-200mm. As it happens, I purchased a 50-200mm lens for my Pentax Kx camera. It certainly is the perfect compliment for the way I shoot. I also called Tiffen and asked what they would recommend so I could use the long end (200mm) of my zoom to soften skin tones. It seems the samples you referred us to are examples of softened skin tones. The lens Tiffen recommended was a warm soft/FX #3. Now I specified that I'm older (70) and end up photographing older people. However I noticed baby shots in the mix you gave up and they all have a soft effect or blur throughout the entire frame. So you might give Tiffen a call/email for their recommendaton. The best "portrait" lens at least specified by by Pentax is just a little too rich for my blood at this time. So I call my set up "a poor man's portrait lens!"… I also try and use a relatively high IS0 and as large an f/stop as I can get. In your case you might even consider a neutral density filter to being down your ISO sensitivity.
B&H Photo
Capturing the moon will require the same exposure as you would use during the day on earth. The same sun shines on the moon as the earth. Use the sunny 16 rule to set the lens aperture and shutter speed. I use ISO 500, f/11 at 1/1000th second for my moon shots
Out of focus backgrounds are the result of three things. * long lenses (50 mm or longer), large apertures (f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2 and f/2.8) and with the subject being close to the lens.
With the right skills, shooting in available light can be done with just about any lens
To shoot the moon, you will need a very long lens. The moon with my 1000 mm lens just about fills the frame on my D300. The cost of lenses that long may be prohibitive. If you buy the right adapters, you can mount your camera on a rather inexpensive computerized altazimuth mount Newtonian telescope. (less than $500)