Nikon D7100 tips and tricks Learn how to take control of your new Nikon D7100 and set it

up to capture great images. Published by Douglas j. Klostermann on June 12th, 2013. Last updated on July 5th, 2013.

by Douglas Klostermann

Whether you are already shooting with a Nikon D7100 or still contemplating the

purchase of one, you are likely well aware that it is a highly customizable and

versatile camera. There are numerous Menu options and Custom Settings that you

can make use of in order to fine-tune the camera to perfectly fit your needs, your

shooting style, and the type of scene you are photographing.

The autofocus system and its modes can be adjusted and used to best capture the

situation, the exposure metering system can be tweaked to achieve the exposures

you desire, and the camera controls can be customized to work more seamlessly

with how you photograph. In addition, the camera’s displays, white balance and ISO

settings, and several other camera functions can all be adjusted according to your

preferences.

I’ve spent a considerable amount of time with the Nikon D7100 as I researched and

wrote my latest e-book, a user’s guide to the D7100 called Nikon D7100 Experience,

and below are some of the top “tips and tricks” I’ve discovered for setting up and

photographing with this powerful dSLR. For more in-depth explanations of these tips

as well as all of the other features of the D7100, be sure and have a look at Nikon

D7100 Experience.

Detail of the Nikon D7100 dSLR camera.

1. Take Control of the D7100 Autofocus System Before making use of some of the powerful features and functions specific to the

D7100, one needs to first take control of the basic functions, including the autofocus

system and exposure metering settings. This will help you to consistently capture

sharp, well-exposed images. The D7100 boasts a 51 point autofocus system,

upgraded from the 39 point system of the D7000. The large number of focus points

and their positions in the viewfinder will allow you to focus exactly where you wish

with minimal recomposing when working in Single-Servo AF-S mode, plus will better

enable you to lock onto and track moving subjects throughout the frame when

working in Continuous-Servo AF-C mode. The various Autofocus Modes (AF-S, AF-

C, AF-A) and the autofocus AF-Area Modes (Single Point, Dynamic-Area, 3D-

Tracking, etc.) may be intimidating at first, but once they are understood, it is easy to

determine which combinations fit your shooting needs. If you have not previously

used the D7000 or D600 you may also at first be confused by the autofocus controls

with the AF switch and button near the base of the lens (used in conjunction with the

Command Dials), but you should soon find that it is a quick and convenient way to

change to your desired AF Mode and AF-Area Mode.

Autofocusing Modes - Making use of AF-C Autofocus Mode and 9-Point Dynamic-

Area AF Area Mode to track and capture a moving subject. (Simulated view of the

Nikon D7100 viewfinder - note that only the single, selected AF point will be visible in

the viewfinder.)

In addition, the D7100 offers several Custom Settings to customize various aspect of

the autofocus system - namely Custom Settings a1-a6. You can use these to tell the

camera if achieving exact focus takes priority over maintaining the fastest continuous

frame rate, how long the AF system continues to track a specific subject even if the

subject momentarily moves away from the active AF point, and if the active AF

points are illuminated in the viewfinder. You can even limit the number of selectable

AF points to 11 if that helps you to more quickly or easily select your desired AF

point.

2. Take Advantage of the new [i] Button The D7100 adds the [i] Button, located on the rear of the camera, which gives you

immediate access to the Information Display screen where many shooting settings

and functions can be viewed and changed. You can press this [i] button to turn on

the Information Display on the rear monitor and immediately access these settings

with the use of the Multi Selector and OK Button. Press the [i] Button a second time

or the INFO button to “de-activate” the settings and simply view the camera settings

on the Information Display Screen. Or, after the INFO Button is pushed to display the

camera settings of the Information Display screen on the rear monitor, this [i] Button

is then pressed to “activate” the screen to enable changing the settings. In addition

to the readily accessible camera buttons on the body of the D7100, this [i] Button

and Information Display screen can be a quick and easy way to change many of the

camera settings without having to navigate into the menus, such as Image Area,

Active D-Lighting, High ISO Noise Reduction, and Long Exposure Noise Reduction.

Plus you can use this screen to quickly customize the function of the Depth of Field

Preview Button, AE-L/AF-L Button, and Fn Button.

Detail of the Nikon D7100 with [i] Button shown at lower-left.

The [i] Button can also be used during Live View shooting, Movie shooting, and

Image Playback to readily access and change a number of applicable functions.

During Live View shooting it can be pressed to access settings including Image

Area, Image Quality, Image Size, Picture Control, Active D-Lighting, Remote Control

Mode, and Monitor Brightness. During Movie shooting, the [i] Button will access

additional movie settings such as Frame Size and Frame Rate, Movie

Quality, Microphone sensitivity, Destination for which SD card slot movies will be

saved to, and Headphone Volume. Plus, when reviewing your still images or movies

during playback, the [i] Button is used to access the image Retouch Menu or to

display movie edit options.

Information Display shown on the rear LCD Monitor (left). Press the [i] Button to

“activate” the screen and access/ change various settings (right). Select and change

the settings along the bottom of the screen, such as the Picture Controls shown

highlighted here.

3. Beware of Menu Conflicts As with most current dSLR cameras, the D7100 has a couple menu settings and

function “quirks” or conflicts that may drive you crazy if you are not aware why they

are occurring. Most notably, some settings will be greyed-out or inaccessible in the

menus and you will not be able to select them when working in one of the auto

shooting modes, if not using an optional accessory, or if a “conflicting” setting is

enabled. An example includes HDR shooting, which is not accessible when the

camera is set to capture files in the (NEF)RAW or (NEF)RAW+JPEG image formats.

You must be working in JPEG only. Or, since White Balance Bracketing and RAW

format are incompatible, if the camera is set for White Balance Bracketing and

(NEF)RAW or (NEF)RAW+JPEG image formats, the BKT Button will not actually

allow you to access bracketing. These are generally not arbitrary quirks, but are

typically logical conflicts.

Another set of conflicts involves the customization of some buttons (Fn Button,

Preview Button, and AE-L/AF-L Button) where you have the option to set a

separate Press function (where you simply press the button) and

a Press+Dial function (where you press the button and turn a dial in order to change

a setting). While it at first seems handy that the D7100 menus separated the Press

from the Press+Dial functions thus allowing you more options, you will soon find that

most of them conflict with each other, and in reality you will likely only be able to set

either a Pressfunction or a Press+Dial function.

Custom Setting f2: Assign Function (Fn) Button, with the “Press” and

“Press+Command Dials” options. Some of the “Press” options shown at right.

4. Extend Your Reach with the 1.3x Crop Mode The D7100 allows you to shoot in DX mode, making full use of the camera’s APS-C

sized image sensor, and also offers a new 1.3x crop mode that uses a smaller part

of the sensor but provides some added benefits. This can be set in the Image

Area item of the Shooting Menu, and by enabling the 1.3x crop setting you will

change the aspect ratio (very slightly) and angle of view (dramatically) of your

resulting images – basically cropping your photos from what you see in the full

viewfinder to what you see inside the 1.3x outline that is shown in the viewfinder

when this feature is enabled.

The first advantage of the 1.3x crop is that it will allow you to “get closer” to the

action by virtually extending the reach of your lenses. This can be particularly helpful

when using a telephoto lens to capture sports, wildlife, or bird images where the

subject is at a significant distance from you. It will allow, for example, your 200mm

focal length lens to act as nearly a 400mm focal length. (Since the DX frame is

already a 1.5x crop sensor in relation to a full-frame 35mm sized sensor, the

additional 1.3x crop effectively doubles the focal length of the lens: 200mm x 1.5 x

1.3 = 390mm.)

Simulated D7100 viewfinder view, showing the full size DX Image Area and the

approximate size of the cropped 1.3x image indicated by the black rectangle

surrounding the AF brackets. Location of all the Focus Points shown for reference.

The 1.3x crop will, in effect, allow you to extend the reach of your lens and get closer

to the action, as well as nearly fill the width of the active frame with the Focus Points.

The second advantage is that with the 1.3x crop, the area of the autofocus points as

seen in the viewfinder reaches nearly to the sides of the effective frame. This will

allow you to track and capture a moving subject throughout almost the entire width of

the active frame (when using continuous AF-C Focus Mode), or enable you to focus

on and capture a still subject most anywhere in the frame without having to lock

focus and reframe (when using single-shot AF-SFocus Mode).

A third advantage of working in 1.3x crop mode is that the Continuous High shooting

speed increases from 6 frames per second to 7 fps (when shooting in JPEG or in 12-

bit NEF-RAW), allowing you to capture slightly more images in a quick burst.

The disadvantage of the 1.3x crop is that you will only be using 15 megapixels of

your 24.1 megapixel sensor, so you will have slightly reduced image resolution. The

end result will be as if you cropped the image in post-processing. However, 15 MP is

still a very high resolution, and for many shooting situations and image needs this

may be more than sufficient.

5. Interval Timer and Time-Lapse Shooting The Interval Timer Shooting function can be used to take a continuous series of

photographs at each specified time interval, for a set number of intervals, with the

intervals to begin either immediately or at a set time. It can be used to take these

multiple series of shots over several minutes or hours – for example, 3 photos in a

row every 10 minutes, for 12 intervals. This will result in a total of 36 photos, as the

camera will calculate and show you. This Interval Timer Shooting menu can also be

used for time-lapse photography by taking a series of individual photos over an

extended period of minutes or hours, with just one photo per interval, which can then

be combined into a time-lapse movie (using software designed for this such as

Photoshop).

Interval Timer Shooting menus - Left: Setting the Interval time period between shots,

here set for 10 minutes. Right: Setting the number of intervals and the number of

shots to be taken at the start of each interval. Here, 12 intervals are set, with 3 shots

to be taken each interval, for a total of 36 shots. The intervals are to start

immediately, with the time between intervals as 10 minutes. The current time is

16:17 (which is shown in case you wish to set the Start Time).

Use the Interval Timer Shooting menu to choose all of your desired settings. Ideally,

set up your camera on a tripod for the duration of Interval Timer Shooting, and use

the included Eyepiece Cap to cover the viewfinder and prevent stray light from

altering the exposure. The camera will need to focus before taking the shots, so it

may be best to pre-focus the camera and then set the camera and lens to manual

focus.

For time-lapse photography you will need to take images at short intervals, with just

one image per interval, for numerous intervals, in order to create a long and effective

movie. For example, a photo every 30 seconds, for 8 hours. Be sure to have a large

memory card or cards in the camera, and set the Role Played by Card in Slot

2 for Overflow if necessary. In the optional time-lapse software you will set the movie

frame rate, and that setting (24fps, 30fps, etc.) will determine to total length of the

movie. There are time-lapse formulas and apps, which you can use to plug-in your

variables and determine either the settings you will need to use, or the resulting

length of the final movie.

6. Set up your Dual SD Memory Card Slots The two memory card slots of the D7100 can function in a couple different ways,

including using one for saving RAW files and the other for JPEG files, saving all your

images to both cards simultaneously, using the second card as overflow when the

first one fills up, or saving still images to one and movies to the other. You can set

this up in the Shooting Menu under Role played by card in slot 2. To set how the

cards function for saving videos, use the Shooting Menu > Movie Settings >

Destination.

7. Use Picture Controls for your JPEG Images If you are capturing your images as (NEF) RAW or JPEG files and will be post-

processing your images in software such as Photoshop or Lightroom, then you don’t

necessarily need to worry about Picture Controls. If that is the case, set the Picture

Control for Standard or Neutral so that the images that you view on the camera’s

rear LCD screen will be close to how they will appear in the actual RAW image file

that you open on your computer. However if you are not post-processing, you will

want the images to come out of the camera looking as you want them to, so you will

need to set, customize, or create a Picture Control that best creates your desired

look. Adjust the sharpening, contrast, brightness, and saturation to achieve the look

you are after. Save the Picture Controls you have created to access them later. You

can even create your own styles using the included software, or find them online and

download them. There are Picture Controls to be found online that recreate the look

of various traditional types of film including Kodachrome and Velvia.

Picture Controls - If shooting in JPEG, choose a Picture Control (left), and adjust its

parameters (right) to achieve the final look you desire for your images.

8. Customize the Exposure Compensation Controls Exposure Compensation (EC) can be used to adjust the camera’s exposure settings

in order to achieve the final exposure that you desire. Explore the various options

of Custom Setting b3: Easy Exposure Compensation to customize exactly how the

exposure compensation controls works. You can set the camera so that you press

the Exposure Compensation Button first before turning a dial to change EC, or have

it set so that you can simply turn a dial to quickly and directly change EC. You can

even select which dial you use with Custom Setting f5. And you can set it so that the

EC amount that you dialed-in stays set for the subsequent shots, or that it is

automatically reset to zero, depending on which controls you choose to use to set

EC.

This last option is the most sophisticated and most flexible, and may be the best one

to learn and take advantage of. Using this option, On (Auto reset), you can choose to

turn a dial to directly adjust EC, but your EC setting will be reset when the camera or

exposure meter turns off. This is because you can still continue to use the Exposure

Compensation Button with a Command Dial to set EC, but by setting it this way, EC

will not be reset when the camera or meter turns off. Exposure Compensation will

only be automatically reset if you set it directly using the dial without the button. So if

you wish to use EC for just one shot, you can adjust EC with just the dial. But if you

wish to take a series of shots with the same adjusted EC, you can use the button/

dial combination to set it more “permanently.” Pretty powerful stuff! This is why you

got the D7100, right? So that you can take advantage of these sophisticated

controls!

9. Fine-Tune the Exposure Metering Modes While the Matrix Metering Mode will do an excellent job of determining the proper

exposure for your images the majority of the time, there are some situations where

you may wish to use the other exposure modes - Center-Weighted Metering and

Spot Metering. This includes dramatically backlit situations, subjects with a

dramatically dark background, scenes that contain a wide range of highlights and

shadow areas, or other dramatic lighting situations.

Metering Modes - A simulated view of the D7100 Viewfinder showing the area of the

3.5mm Spot Metering circle and the larger Center-Weighted circle (which can be

changed in the Custom Settings). AF points and 1.3x crop lines shown for reference.

If you find that you are consistently not quite happy with how the camera’s meter is

determining the exposure settings when making use of any of these modes, you can

make fine-tune adjustments to the metering system using Custom Setting b5: Fine-

tune optimal exposure. This is not an exposure compensation adjustment, but rather

a “behind the scenes” fine-tuning of how the camera’s meter will determine the

exposure settings, independently for each of the different Exposure Metering Modes

(Matrix, Center-Weighted Average, Spot). If you find that your images are always

typically being slightly underexposed or overexposed when using a specific metering

mode, adjust this accordingly so that you don’t have to use exposure compensation

every time you use that metering mode. For example, you may find that Center-

Weighted Metering delivers great exposures, but you would prefer that the images

taken with Spot Metering were 1/3 EV (1/3 step) underexposed all the time. If that is

the case, you would adjust Spot metering to -2/6 using this menu. If you make use of

this fine-tune adjustment, you can still use exposure compensation in any situation in

addition to this fine-tune adjustment.

Custom Setting b5: Fine-Tune Optimal Exposure, used to adjust the exposures of

each metering mode to your preference, “behind the scenes,” so that exposure

compensation is not needed each time you use that metering mode (left). Fine-

tuning Spot Metering to underexpose by -1/3 EV (right) - not recommended, just an

example!

10. Put Your Most Used Settings in My Menu Instead of navigating into the Menus and Custom Settings all the time to find your

most used settings, you can create your own custom menu called My Menu, which is

then quickly and easily accessed with the Menu Button. You can even decide what

order to list the items in. Set up My Menu by selecting Choose Tab in the Recent

Settings menu, and select My Menu. Then Add Itemsand Rank Items in the order

you desire. You can add items from most all of the Menus and Custom Settings

Menus, such as maybe Movie Settings, some of the Flash Control settings, or White

Balancefor easier access to additional white balance options and fine-tuning. If you

frequently make use of a feature such as changing the Image Area from DX to 1.3x,

use Interval Timer Shooting, orMultiple Exposures add these to your My Menu.

There are numerous other settings you can customize, as well as many other

important features to learn and take advantage of with the Nikon D7100, such as

making use of the Auto ISO settings, the built-in HDR and Multiple Exposure

features, verifying your exposures with the histogram display, temporarily Spot

Metering with the touch of a button, and tweaking the white balance settings. You

have a powerful camera in your hands, so why not learn to take advantage of its

advanced features?! Have a look at my guide Nikon D7100 Experience to learn more

about the settings, features, and controls mentioned here, and much more. This

book not only explains the features, functions, and controls of the camera, but more

importantly explains when and whyyou will want to use them in your

photography. Take control of your D7100 and the images you create!

About the author

Douglas Klostermann is a travel, culture, and humanitarian photographer, as well as

the best-selling author of Full Stop photography guides including andCanon 5D Mark

III Experience and Nikon D7100 Experience. His images have been published in

magazines and books including Conde Nast Traveler, Sherman's Travel, South

American Explorer, and Viva Travel Guides.

You can preview and purchase his guides on his Full Stop website, learn more about

photography techniques and equipment on his blog Picturing Change, and view his

photography at dojoklo.com.