Preface

You don’t want good pictures from your new Nikon D3500—you demand outstanding photos. After all, the Nikon D3500 is one of the most versatile entry-level cameras on the market. It boasts 24 megapixels of resolution with excellent low-light capabilities, fast autofocus, and high-definition video capabilities. But your gateway to pixel proficiency is dragged down by the minimalist pamphlet/user guide included in the box as a manual.

You know some of the basics are in there, somewhere, but you don’t know where to start. In addition, the camera manual doesn’t offer much information on photography or digital photography. Nor are you interested in spending hours or days studying a comprehensive book on digital SLR photography that doesn’t necessarily apply directly to your D3500.

What you need is a guide that explains the purpose and function of the D3500’s basic controls, how you should use them, and why. Ideally, there should be information about file formats, resolution, exposure, and special autofocus modes, but you’d prefer to read about those topics only after you’ve had the chance to go out and take a few hundred great pictures with your new camera. Why isn’t there a book that summarizes the most important information in its first two or three chapters, with lots of illustrations showing what your results will look like when you use this setting or that? This is that book.

If you can’t decide on what basic settings to use with your camera because you can’t figure out how changing ISO or white balance or focus defaults will affect your pictures, you need this guide. I won’t talk down to you, either; this book isn’t padded with dozens of pages of checklists telling you how to take a travel picture, a sports photo, or how to take a snapshot of your kids in overly simplistic terms. There are no special sections devoted to “real world” recipes here. All of us do 100 percent of our shooting in the real world! So, I give you all the information you need to cook up great photos on your own!