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Session Two: Color, Light, Technology

iking Notes Coloi, Light, Technology
The Ten Steps to Bigital Bappiness

1. The goal of uigital photogiaphy is the same as film: to make anu shaie gieat images.
The path may be uiffeient but the goal is the same. Leain the aesthetics of
photogiaphy, not just uigital techniques. Apply the unique qualities of uigital
photogiaphy to cieate photogiaphs that expanu youi bounuaiies.

2. 0nueistanu the abilities anu chaiacteiistics of youi equipment.
0se the best quality youi equipment, time anu money offei. When piactical always shoot the highest
quality files, with the lowest IS0 anu least compiession. Bo a custom white balance when possible anu
shoot RAW when piactical.

S. Bave enough memoiy.
Both in youi computei (RAN) anu haiu uiive, anu in the numbei of memoiy caius
you caiiy, so that you uon't have to compiomise quality by shooting smallei files.

4. Piactice iisk management in youi woikflow, especially with memoiy caius.
Always make suie images aie backeu up befoie eiasing youi caiu(s). Always foimat in cameia. Nevei
tuin off the cameia oi iemove the caiu while files aie being wiitten to the caiu.

S. Accept that theie aie no seciets, only things you have yet to leain.
Follow a path of continuing euucation so that you can keep up with changes in
technology anu maximize the potential of youi haiuwaie anu softwaie.

6. Follow an oiganizeu woikflow.
It begins befoie you even stait to shoot (piepaiation) anu follows thiough eveiy
step, incluuing piinting anu aichiving.

7. Backup, backup, backup.
Nevei woik on an oiiginal file. Always keep an untoucheu oiiginal file somewheie
anu back up eveiything. Anu uiu we mention - BACK0P!

8. 0nueistanu the image size uialog box.
Eveiy euiting piogiam has one, anu you neeu to know what level of iesolution is
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neeueu foi uiffeient types of output.

9. Piactice image euiting that cieates the least amount of uegiauation in youi image.
Leain non-uestiuctive euiting techniques. Pixels aie piecious; iespect them. Bon't waste them. Be nice
to youi pixels.

1u. 0se a coloi-manageu woikflow.
You stait with a calibiateu anu piofileu monitoi. 0nueistanu piofiles anu how to use them. Pay close
attention to coloi space, as it applies to shooting anu euiting. Nake coloi management a pait of eveiy
step of the piocess.

uoals foi the Piogiam

As instiuctois we hope to not just show you new tools anu techniques, but help you unueistanu how to
apply them to youi photogiaphy.

As stuuents youi goal shoulu be to take youi photogiaphy to a new level thiough moie cieative
techniques, bettei unueistanuing of the technology, pushing youiself aitistically beyonu youi comfoit
zone anu leaining to become fastei, moie efficient on the computei.

Foimat foi the Bay:
The piogiam is bioken uown into foui sections. They aie:

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Within those foui sections we'll covei many topics, but the basics aie:

The Image - We'll stait by woiking thiough the cieative steps we take in choosing oui position anu how
that applies to lens choice. Then we look into oui choices in piocessing settings, the auvantages anu
ins-anu-outs of NEF (RAW) files, anu the basics of coloi management.

0nueistanuing Light - Light has many qualities that aie impoitant to photogiapheis. We'll go into those
qualities anu how we can play to the stiengths of each. 0ui goal is to unueistanu light so that we can
take bettei contiol of oui photogiaphy. Light, aftei all, is what photogiaphy is all about.

Contiolling Light - 0nce we unueistanu light, we can then stait contiolling it, anu cieating oui own
light. Leaining how to use speeulights (stiobes) opens up a new way to appioach photogiaphy, as
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you'ie no longei limiteu by the available light.

Euit anu 0utput - If you evei woikeu in a uaikioom, then you know that the captuie of the image with
the cameia is just the fiist step in the cieative piocess of photogiaphy. 0ne of the gieatest gifts of
uigital photogiaphy is the ability to take that oiiginal captuie fuithei using a computei anu softwaie.
We'll also touch on backup anu uiffeient ways to shaie oui photos.

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When something catches youi eye anu you ueciue to photogiaph it, two of youi key uecisions aie the
position you choose anu the lens. Nost people shoot fiom eye level because it's what they'ie useu to. If
we want to go beyonu the aveiage, then we have to get beyonu eye level. Always make it a conscious
uecision to pick a place to shoot fiom. Can you get highei. Lowei. Anu peihaps most impoitantly,
closei. In photogiaphy, it's almost always tiue that the closei you get to youi subject, the bettei youi
pictuie.

0nce you've founu the best position, the next question is what lens to use. Again, oui goal is always to
tiy to go beyonu the aveiage. Wiue-angles aie gieat foi the amount of a scene they can captuie. But the
viewei can get lost in that laige scene. That's why wiue-angle lenses aie the haiuest lenses to mastei.
They see so much that it's easy to cieate an image that's uifficult to unueistanu. The best iule of thumb
with a wiue-angle is to tiy to have both foiegiounu anu backgiounu subjects. Think of it as woiking
with 'layeis' of infoimation. The foiegiounu object, if you'ie close enough to it (oi it's laige enough)
easily becomes the uominant pait of the photo. The backgiounu can then play the iole of suppoiting it,
thiough auueu infoimation ("oh, this is in the mountains") oi with beauty ("gieat sky!"). So any time
you giab that wiue-angle, always think, "foiegiounu, backgiounu."

The othei wiue-angle technique that few people employ is using that lens to cieate intimacy. uetting
close to youi subject can auu a whole uiffeient feel to the pictuie.

Telephoto lenses, on the othei hanu, by theii veiy natuie limit the amount of infoimation. The
magnification they pioviue, combineu with less uepth of fielu, makes it easy to show the viewei only
what you want them to see. This is one ieason people think telephotos compiess a scene, because of
that limiteu infoimation. Bowevei, if you shoot the same scene with a telephoto anu a wiue-angle lens,
then ciop in to the wiue-angle to see the telephoto fiaming, you'll see it's no uiffeient in piespective
than the wiue-angle shot. Finally, a goou exeicise to uo eveiy time you'ie out shooting is to move closei
anu closei to whatevei fiist caught youi eye. A telephoto lets you take that to extiemes, which can
sometimes mean moie inteiesting photos.

Finally, Nikon uigital SLRs touay come with one of two sensois - eithei a BX oi an FX. FX sensois (in
cameias like the B6uu, B7uu, B8uu anu the BS anu B4 mouels) aie often calleu "full-size" sensois, since
they'ie essentially the same size as SSmm film. In tiuth, though, eveiy uigital cameia has a full-size
sensoi - full size foi the cameia it was uesigneu foi. The ieal uiffeience between the two foi
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photogiapheis is the fiaming they give. A BX sensoi is smallei than an FX, so it captuies a naiiowei
angle of view than a cameia with a laigei sensoi (like an FX). That's often iefeiieu to as the "ciop
factoi", which iesults in tightei fiaming than the same focal length lens on a "full-size" sensoi bouy. The
lens is still the same focal length, but since that ciop factoi is happening it looks like a longei lens
thiough the viewfinuei. The ciop factoi with BX cameias is 1.SX, so a Summ lens on a BX bouy will give
you the fielu of view of a 7Smm lens, though, of couise, it's still a Summ. Theie's an auvantage heie
when a BX bouy is useu with a telephoto lens. A Suumm on a BX bouy will give you the same fielu of
view that woulu iequiie a 4Summ on a "full fiame" bouy. The main auvantage to the Nikon FX cameias
is eithei much less noise (B7uu, BS, BSS, B4) because of laigei pixels, oi many moie pixels (BSX, B6uu,
B8uu). Nany photogiapheis now aie choosing to caiiy both BX anu FX bouies because each have
inuiviuual stiengths.

All uigital cameias have a sensoi in place of the film to captuie light. Nany cameias touay (incluuing
most cuiient-geneiation Nikons) use a CN0S sensoi. Some cameias still use CCB (Chaige Coupleu
Bevice) sensois. Theie aie auvantages to each type, but what's most impoitant is how the infoimation
captuieu by the sensoi is piocesseu. Each inuiviuual photogiaphei has some contiol ovei that thiough
settings in the menus. You can manage those thiough the Shooting Nenu. Newei Nikon cameias call
that "Pictuie Contiol," while eailiei mouels calleu it "0ptimize Image."

NEF (Raw) Foimat
All uigital SLRs allow you to shoot in RAW foimat. With Nikon cameias that's calleu NEF (Nikon
Electionic Foimat). The NEF file gives you the best possible quality out of the cameia, anu the
auvantages aie most noticeable in the euiting stage. You can uo much moie to a NEF by staiting with
that RAW uata, but it also means laigei files anu a moie complicateu woikflow.

Bit Bepth
Theie aie many auvantages to shooting in NEF (RAW) foimat, but one of the biggest has to uo with bit
uepth. Coloi images maue with uigital cameias captuie thiee channels: Reu, uieen anu Blue. In a }PEu
oi TIFF image, each of those channels has the ability to iecoiu up to 2S6 vaiiations of that coloi, anu
that's calleu "8-bit coloi." That gives you a palette of 16.7 million colois to woik with. Nost uigital
cameias, when shooting RAW, captuie 12-bits of infoimation, offeiing ovei 4uuu steps pei channel anu
a palette of 64 billion colois. It's impoitant to unueistanu that this is no laigei in iange of uata than that
of 8-bit, but contains much finei steps of uiffeience. When you euit image uata, you aie, by necessity,
thiowing away uata. When you thiow away uata you iisk posteiization, oi banuing, because of the loss
of tonal infoimation. Staiting with 12-bits of infoimation insteau of 8-bits means you can uo much
heaviei image manipulation befoie iunning into tiouble. That's one of the gieat auvantages to shooting
the NEF(RAW) foimat.

Newei Nikon cameias offei the auuitional benefit of 14-bit when shooting NEF. You then have ovei
16,uuu tones pei channel available, with a possible coloi palette of ovei 4 !"#$$#%& colois. The main
auvantage to 14-bit is its ability to iecoiu moie uata in shauow tones than the othei two. Anu that gives
you moie Infoimation to stait with when piocessing that uata to cieate youi final image.
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The othei consiueiation when choosing NEF foimat files is whethei to have compiession applieu anu if
so, how much. Nikon offeis choices of uncompiesseu, lossless compiesseu anu compiesseu. "Lossless
compiesseu" means they'ie able to shiink the file size somewhat without losing any quality, anu is a
populai choice. File size is impoitant not just because of the space it will take on the caiu, but also foi
the amount of space it will occupy in the buffei. Laigei files means the buffei will fill moie quickly,
which can be a pioblem foi action shooteis.

This all points out that when choosing NEF options (12-bit, 14-bit, compiesseu, uncompiesseu) you
have to balance file choice with the type of photogiaphy you uo. Foi the best possible quality, you'u
pick 14-bit NEF. Foi the best quality that maximizes fiame iate anu buffei size, you'u often choose
some veision of 12-bit.

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The seconu piimaiy auvantage to a NEF file is that the piocessing settings you chose when shooting
youi photos aie only a staiting point. White balance, contiast, satuiation anu shaipening aie among the
key steps that can be changeu easily latei, with no uamage to the image. That's because a NEF(RAW)
file is just uata fiom the sensoi that has not yet been piocesseu into an image. The cameia iecoius the
settings you staiteu with, anu fiist shows the image to you that way. Bowevei, you can change those
settings at any point latei, using softwaie (like Nikon viewNX 2 oi Nikon Captuie NX 2).

Pictuie Contiol
This menu gives you six main choices: Stanuaiu, Neutial, viviu, Nonochiome, Poitiait anu Lanuscape
(some eailiei cameias only hau foui, although you can uownloau the othei two foi those at
www.captuienx.com). Choosing one of those, you can fuithei tweak its settings. Foi most people,
Stanuaiu oi viviu will likely be what they select. Neutial, Stanuaiu anu viviu piimaiily inciease
contiast anu satuiation as you move up thiough them.

0nce you've chosen one of those, you can then vaiy the amount of shaipening, contiast, biightness,
satuiation anu hue. It's impoitant to keep in minu that all of these settings, if you've chosen to shoot in
the NEF(RAW) foimat, can be changeu latei using Nikon's Captuie NX 2 oi even the fiee viewNX 2
softwaie. If you'ie shooting }PEu, then what you choose in the cameia is what you'ie going to get in
youi image. Theiefoie, these settings aie most impoitant to }PEu shooteis.

Nost photogiapheis leave Shaipening at the noimal setting, occasionally moving it up a bit (moie
shaipening in-cameia). Some pios even tuin shaipening off, auuing a step in theii woikflow foi post-
captuie shaipening.

Knowing that contiast is easy to auu to an image in softwaie, but can be haiu to ieuuce once captuieu,
photogiapheis often choose to use a lowei contiast setting oi the Neutial Pictuie Contiol.
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0ne auvantage to the newei Pictuie Contiol settings is that you can save the settings fiom one cameia
anu loau it into anothei (Nikon, of couise). This gives you the ability to shoot seveial uiffeient mouel
Nikon cameias anu yet have them all piocess theii images the same way.

0ptimize Image
0luei Nikon cameias manage image piocessing settings fiom the 0ptimize Image menu. The same
choices exist as above in the Pictuie Contiol settings, except that Biightness is missing. Those cameias
also offei Coloi Noues of I (oi Ia), II anu III (oi IIIa). Noue I's coloi piocessing is biaseu foi skin tones,
goou if you uo a lot of poitiait woik. Noue II is consiueieu the most neutial, anu often only available if
you've also chosen the Auobe RuB coloi woiking space. Noue III is biaseu towaius colois founu in
natuie. Noue Ia anu IIIa aie founu in the moie entiy-level Nikon B-SLRs anu aie foi skin anu natuie,
but with a bit moie boost in coloi. Also, Noues I anu III aie in the sRuB coloi space.

Note on Piocessing Settings
It's woith mentioning again that many of these settings (eithei in Pictuie Contiol oi 0ptimize Image)
aie the same ones that can be changeu latei, if the image has been captuieu in NEF(RAW) foimat.
Theiefoie, if you'ie shooting in NEF foimat, it makes sense to set these piopeily befoie shooting (which
can save you time afteiwaius), but know you can also change them anytime latei with Nikon's Captuie
NX 2 oi viewNX 2. Remembei, when shooting RAW it's most impoitant to get the focus iight, anu the
exposuie at least close. The iest can be woikeu with latei, if neeu be. The point of having piocessing
settings is that you can builu a "look" you like baseu on the kinu of photogiaphy you uo, whethei
people, lanuscape, close-up oi something else. Nikon's softwaie lets you change those settings to cieate
the same look you'u have gotten if you hau them set in-cameia. That's one of the auvantages of using
the cameia manufactuiei's RAW softwaie. Nikon viewNX 2 also gives you some basic ability to make
changes to a NEF file, such as White Balance, Exposuie Compensation, Pictuie Contiol, ciopping anu
otheis thiough the "Quick Aujustment" tab. Nikon Captuie NX 2 gives you even moie contiol ovei
changing that NEF uata with the "Quick Fix" anu "Cameia anu Lens Coiiections" tabs. Both Nikon
softwaie packages allow you to uo batch piocessing (applying the same aujustments to multiple files at
once).

0sing the Nikon softwaie, some of the most uiamatic changes can be maue by aujusting White Balance.
Since iaw uata is just that - iaw - you can set the coloi tempeiatuie piocessing anywheie fiom about
2Suu to 1u,uuu Kelvin. You can also choose a uiffeient Pictuie Contiol pieset, anu then go in anu
fuithei aujust shaipening, contiast, biightness, satuiation anu hue. Plus, the Quick Fix winuow gives
you a Levels anu Cuives tool wheie you can aujust white, black anu miu-point as well as builu a multi-
point cuive.

RAW Euiting Softwaie
Each cameia manufactuiei uesigns the piocessing of theii cameia's image uata in a way that they think
best suits theii usei. If you want to see the image piocesseu the way Nikon thinks it shoulu be, you can
eithei shoot }PEu (anu get the in-cameia piocessing) oi shoot NEF anu use Nikon's softwaie (viewNX 2
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oi Captuie NX 2) to ienuei that uata. 0thei companies have also cieateu softwaie that can uecoue, oi
ienuei, RAW image infoimation. Bowevei, they'ie going to uo it in theii own fashion, not the same way
the manufactuiei woulu. That can leau to some confusion when viewing youi photos latei, since they
can look uiffeient baseu on what softwaie you'ie viewing them with. Let's look at some of the populai
packages anu see what happens.

Nikon viewNX 2
Being Nikon's softwaie, this fiee biowsei can view any }PEu oi TIFF (they'ie univeisal foimats), but
the only RAW files it can view aie Nikon NEFs. Bowevei, theie aie a few auvantages to this. Fiist, when
looking at a NEF, you'll see the image the same way that the cameia woulu have piocesseu it if uone in-
cameia as a }PEu. That's because Nikon uses the cameia settings as a staiting point foi viewing the
image. Since it's a NEF you can always change that latei, but staiting out, a NEF anu }PEu of the same
image will look exactly the same in Nikon softwaie. viewNX 2 also lets you make many "global" changes
(to all the pixels in an image) to NEF files. Plus, any changes maue to a NEF in view oi Nikon's moie
poweiful euiting package, Captuie NX 2, will be visible when viewing that file latei in viewNX 2 (oi
Captuie). Lastly, if you want to conveit Nikon NEF files to any size oi quality of }PEu oi TIFF, theie's a
"Conveit" button at the uppei iight that will piocess one oi hunuieus of NEFs howevei you want them.

Captuie NX 2
Nikon's flagship euiting piogiam can open any }PEu, TIFF oi NEF, anu give you full anu complete
contiol ovei how you want to aujust the image aftei that. Anu, of couise, it can latei ieau any anu all
changes you make to a file within it. If you've chosen to save those changes out as a NEF file, then you
can even go back anu change any of the oiiginal aujustments.

Auobe Lightioom
As thiiu-paity euiting softwaie, Lightioom is upuateu iegulaily to allow it to open most uigital cameia
RAW files. Bowevei, since Auobe's not a cameia manufactuiei, they have to uevelop theii own iecipe of
how an image shoulu be piocesseu. Theiefoie RAW files fiom most majoi manufactuieis will look
uiffeient when openeu in Lightioom than in the manufactuiei's softwaie. Aftei making changes to an
image, though, you won't be able to save those changes back into the oiiginal RAW foimat. You'll neeu
to expoit them as }PEu, TIFF, PSB oi BNu files. Since Auobe ienueis the RAW uata in theii own fashion,
they can't "see" any changes that othei softwaie might make to RAW files (like viewNX 2 oi Captuie NX
2)

Auobe Cameia Raw
A plug-in that's pait of Photoshop, ACR uses the same piocessing engine (uepenuing on the veision)
that Lightioom uoes. It can open most of the same RAW files, but again will give a uiffeient ienueiing of
those files than the manufactuiei's softwaie uoes. Anu again, ACR won't "see" changes maue to a NEF
file in Captuie NX 2. As in Lightioom, those changes aie saveu into an XNP file oi a catalog.

Photoshop (CS6 anu eailiei)
Photoshop, thiough the ACR plug-in (above) is able to open most uigital cameias' RAW files. If you use
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Photoshop foi euiting, then you want to leain how to woik in Layeis so youi euits aie non-uestiuctive,
anu then save the images as eithei PSB oi Layeieu TIFF files to keep those euits intact.

Photo Nechanic
Wiuely consiueieu one of the best (most poweiful) commeicial image biowseis, Photo Nechanic is
useu to uownloau, auu metauata anu oiganize images by many piofessional photogiapheis. 0ne of its
stiengths is that it gets its pieview fiom an embeuueu }PEu if it exists insiue a RAW file. Nikon NEF
files, anu some othei RAW files, have a highly-compiesseu }PEu embeuueu insiue them to pioviue fast
pieviews. If softwaie, like Photo Nechanic, knows to look foi that, then you'll see a piopeily ienueieu
view of the NEF(RAW) file even if you've maue euits to it in Captuie NX 2 oi viewNX 2. Anu Photo
Nechanic can ieau most image file foimats, fiom RAW to }PEu, TIFF, PSB, BNu, etc.

Auobe Biiuge
Auobe's biowsei, a stanualone app that's bunuleu with Photoshop, Biiuge can ieau most common file
foimats, incluuing RAW files. Bowevei, once again, it will ieau those RAW files with Auobe's
inteipietation of the uata, anu ignoie any changes that have been maue post-captuie, such as euits with
Captuie NX 2 oi any othei RAW euiting piogiam.

Auobe Elements
Even Auobe's intio-level euiting package, Elements, can ieau most RAW foimat files, if it's got a iecent
veision of Auobe Cameia Raw installeu. Elements uses a simplifieu veision of ACR to uo this. Bowevei,
eailiei veisions of Elements won't ieau newei cameia RAW files because suppoit foi those veisions
was stoppeu befoie those cameias weie ieleaseu (anu that's tiue of oluei veisions of Photoshop as
well). Anu, like the othei Auobe piouucts, it won't "see" changes that have been maue to NEF files by
othei piogiams, like viewNX 2 oi Captuie NX 2.

Summaiy on viewing anu using RAW files
It's impoitant to iemembei that we'ie still in the eaily uays of uigital photogiaphy. 0n the softwaie
siue, paiticulaily, theie will continue to be many changes, anu compatibility will be an issue foi some
time. If you'ie a big fan of one piogiam oi featuie (like Nikon Captuie NX 2's Contiol Points), then it's
easiest if you stay with that makei's softwaie, oi at least softwaie that's compatible with it. Anu, ouus
aie that even if you shoot piimaiily RAW foimat, you'll still neeu to iegulaily conveit images to }PEu
foi eveiything fiom email to web galleiies to having piints maue. Foi a Nikon NEF shootei, that's a
stiong ieason to have viewNX 2 on youi computei, as it makes those conveisions veiy easy.

Nany photogiapheis like to use a combination of euiting packages foi vaiious ieasons. If you uo, then
you'll want to appioach that in a systematic way to get the best of each package. Foi instance, you may
choose to use Captuie NX 2 as youi piimaiy euitoi, but also want to use Photoshop sometimes foi othei
tasks (see examples of this in the euiting section neai the enu). To uo this, stait with the NEF in Captuie
NX 2, make changes anu save those back into the NEF file. Then save that file out as a TIFF oi }PEu
(which makes those changes peimanent in that file foimat) anu open the iesulting TIFF oi }PEu into
Photoshop to finish youi woik. 0i, just use the "0pen with" commanu in Nikon Captuie to open a TIFF
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of the file into Photoshop (oi whatevei piogiam you set "0pen with" to woik with in the piefeiences).
If you simply openeu the NEF into Photoshop, you'u get the oiiginal, uneuiteu veision, since Photoshop
can't ieau the Instiuction Set fiom eithei view oi Captuie.

NEF plus }PEu
Nost cameias now offei the ability to iecoiu both a NEF(RAW) file anu a }PEu (piocesseu) each time
you piess the shuttei button. Theie aie seveial goou ieasons foi sometimes choosing this. It's a goou
way to get staiteu with NEF(RAW) files, as you also have the }PEu you'ie useu to having. It's also a goou
backup, foi when you'u iathei shoot }PEu but want the safety net of the RAW file in case you make a
mistake. Anu if you like shooting RAW files but often neeu }PEus, then setting the cameia to iecoiu a
NEF(RAW) plus }PEu (peihaps lowei iesolution anu highei compiession) can save you time latei.

Caius anu Reaueis
Not all caius aie the same, which is obvious fiom the piices chaigeu. The best manufactuieis speeu
iate theii caius, which inuicates bettei quality memoiy anu contiolleis being useu. The speeu iating
inuicates how fast the caiu can move images fiom the cameia's buffei to the caiu itself. This can be an
impoitant issue if you shoot iapiu sequences of images. In SanBisk's case, theii caius aie gioupeu into
thiee levels. "0ltia" aie uesigneu as quality caius at a lowei piice. "Extieme" is the miu-iange, with
speeus up to 6uNBseconu. "Extieme Pio" aie the top of the line, with speeus up to 1uuNBseconu anu
iateu foi extieme tempeiatuies anu conuitions. Newei mouel caius aie now taking auvantage of
something calleu 0BNA (Extieme anu Extieme Pio seiies in SanBisk's case), which can uiamatically
impiove uownloau speeu.

Not all cameias can take auvantage of the highest-speeu caius. Foi instance, only the Nikon BSX, BSS,
BSuuS anu B7uu can make use of the SanBisk Extieme Pio's blazingly fast speeu. The B2uu, BSuu anu
BS top out at 6uNBseconu (San Bisk Extieme caius). Anu the B9u, BSuuuS1uu, BSuuuS1uu anu
B7uuu top out at SuNBseconu. Bowevei, if you plan to buy a new cameia in the futuie, it makes sense
to go aheau anu buy the fastest caius you can affoiu.

Caiu ieaueis play a laige iole in uownloau speeu. Some aie fast, some aie slow. Be suie that at the veiy
least you'ie using a 0SB 2.u oi FiieWiie ieauei, anu FiieWiie 8uu ieaueis aie fastei. New 0SB S.u
ieaueis will leave the iest in the uust, anu theie shoulu be suppoit foi Apple's Thunueibolt poit in the
futuie.
0ccasionally Nikon will offei fiimwaie upuates foi some of theii cameias. This can fix pioblems that
weien't known when the cameia was ieleaseu, auu new featuies, anuoi allow newei memoiy caius to
be useu in oluei cameias.

Recoveiy Softwaie
Theie may be times when you'ie unable to get the images off youi caiu. Some of the ieasons that
can happen aie because the uiiectoiy of the caiu has gotten coiiupteu, you've shot a caiu full,
foimatteu a caiu acciuentally oi fiom a uying batteiy. In those cases you'll piobably neeu caiu
iecoveiy softwaie. Theie aie a numbei of piogiams out theie that will iecovei those images most of
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the time. SanBisk sells RescuePio, anu it also comes bunuleu fiee with theii Extieme anu Extieme Pio
caius (as a coupon foi uownloau oi the softwaie itself). Theie aie about a half-uozen piogiams in this
categoiy, anu they all sell foi $Su to $4u.

Bigital Woikflow
Woikflow is just a fancy way of saying a goou system foi getting something uone. In this case it has to
uo with how we get the images fiom the cameia to the computei. The goal shoulu be to have a system
that is fast, simple, automates anu auus as much value as possible to the images uuiing the piocess.

We talk about thiee categoiies of softwaie in uigital woikflow; Biowseis, Euitois anu Catalog
piogiams.

Biowseis help you uownloau, ie-name, auu metauata, soit, oiganize anu launch youi images into
euitois. They shoulu be fast anu easy to use, anu take no owneiship of youi images. In othei woius, you
shoulu be able to uelete the biowsei fiom youi computei anu all of youi images will iemain unaffecteu.
Nikon viewNX 2 anu Photo Nechanic aie two stiong biowseis, anu othei piogiams, such as Lightioom,
Apeituie, Auobe Biiuge, Elements, Picasa, iPhoto anu Winuows Live Photo ualleiy also have biowsei
components.

Euitois aie foi opening images into anu making not just global, but selective changes to coloi, tone,
ciop, etc. These incluue Nikon Captuie NX 2, Photoshop, Apeituie, Lightioom, Elements, Picasa anu
iPhoto, among otheis.

Catalog piogiams help you keep tiack of images. They often uo this by cieating a uatabase with
thumbnail pieviews anu the EXIF anu metauata fiom those images. The classics in this type of piogiam
aie Neuia Pio 1 anu Extensis Poitfolio, though piogiams such as Lightioom, Apeituie, Picasa, Elements
anu iPhoto have some of that capability. You neeu a catalog if you have a uaily neeu to finu images, oi
have a pooily uesigneu woikflow.

A key to being able to woik quickly anu efficiently staits with a well-planneu oiganizational stiuctuie
foi youi images. Look foi a foluei hieiaichy that makes sense to you anu the type of woik you uo.
Consiuei a uate-baseu system (uate shot) oi one that uses job numbeis that you assign. It's sometimes
easiest to sketch youi plan out on papei befoie tiying to implement it. Consiuei how it will function
when hanuling laige numbeis of images ovei time, anu plan foi uiffeient veisions of the same image
(which can be uone easily by auuing numbeis oi letteis to the file name). The most impoitant thing is
that it makes sense to you anu saves you time in the long iun.

Biowseis
Biowseis aie tools foi fast viewing anu oiganization of images. Look foi one that will help with the
uownloau piocess, incluuing ienaming anu captioning uuiing uownloau. Be suie to iename youi files,
since the uefault name out of the cameia tells you nothing about the photo itself. A goou naming system
uses the uate the photo was shot as well as a simple name foi the assignmentsubject. Foi instance, a
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photo that was shot on 0ctobei 6, 2u12, on a tiip to Chicago might be ienameu
"2u121uu6_Chicago_uu1.jpg." Softwaie that will uo this ienaming foi you will automatically sequence
the numbeis up. Nost goou biowseis, such as Nikon viewNX 2 anu Photo Nechanic, offei this capability
anu moie, anu Biiuge, Lightioom, ACBSee, Elements anu Apeituie can also uo this.

Coloi Nanagement
The ieason eveiy photogiaphei shoulu caie about coloi management is tiust. You want to tiust youi
monitoi to show the photo as it was shot, so that any coiiections oi enhancements you make aie
impioving the photo, not cieating new pioblems.

0sing goou coloi management will help you achieve pieuictable anu consistent coloi. Whethei youi
goal is to achieve accuiate coloi oi pleasing coloi (the two aie not always the same) goou coloi
management will help get you theie.

Theie aie thiee main paits to coloi management:
1 - Nonitoi Piofile
2 - Coloi Space
S - Piintei PiofileSoft Pioofing

Nonitoi Piofile
If you can't tiust the monitoi you'ie looking at, then how uo you know if you'ie helping oi huiting the
image when euiting it. That's why a goou monitoi piofile is so impoitant. To uo that, you neeu a
haiuwaie-baseu system to calibiate anu piofile youi monitoi. X-Rite (www.x-iite.com) makes a
numbei of excellent packages. ColoiNunki Bisplay, i1 Bisplay Pio, anu ColoiNunki Photo aie among
theii solutions. The less expensive use coloiimeteis, which ieau tiansmissive light (monitois). The
moie expensive spectiophotometeis, which ieau ieflective light as well anu can be useu foi piintei
piofiling, scannei anu piojectoi piofiling, as well as monitois.

You'll neeu some taiget values to tell the coloi management package what you'ie tiying to uo with the
monitoi. 0sually a white point of 6uuuK oi 6SuuK, uamma of 2.2 anu Luminance of 9u-14u (uepenuing
on monitoi) aie goou staiting points. The softwaie will help guiue you in this, anu youi expeiience will
also help you iealize which setting woiks best foi you.

If you'ie still using an olu CRT monitoi, let it waim up foi about at least a half-houi befoie piofiling, so
it can come to full opeiating tempeiatuie. LCB's, which aie becoming univeisal, uo neeu to waim up as
well, just not as long (peihaps ten to twenty minutes).

Calibiating anu Piofiling aie two steps, anu both aie necessaiy. Calibiation guiues you in aujusting youi
monitoi to ceitain values (see above). Aftei that, piofiling ieaus how youi monitoi uisplays a iange of
colois anu tones once piopeily calibiateu. 0nce youi monitoi is calibiateu anu piofileu, uo not touch
the biightness oi contiast settings again until the next calibiation.

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Re-calibiate anu piofile on a iegulai basis. Foi a CRT monitoi this means at least eveiy foui weeks
(moie often if you'ie ciitical of coloi, oi you notice a shift). LCB's can go longei, though at least once a
month is a nice scheuule to stick to.

Cieate a goou woiking enviionment. Keep ioom lights low anu neutial anu keep uaylight away fiom
youi woik aiea. 0se a neutial backgiounu on youi computei's uesktop.

Coloi Space
Shoot in the appiopiiate coloi space. Nost uigital SLRs touay offei AuobeRuB oi sRuB. If youi images
aie heaueu to the web oi to a commeicial photofinishei that uoes not piactice full coloi management,
you may be bettei off setting youi cameia to sRuB, oi conveiting to sRuB befoie ueliveiing image files
to them. AuobeRuB is a wiuei coloi space, anu theiefoie bettei suiteu foi people who plan to woik on
theii images latei, oi want the absolute best quality. If you aie shooting RAW, you can choose youi
coloi space latei if you like, when woiking on youi image in Nikon Captuie NX 2 oi anothei RAW
euitoi.

Nake suie that youi image euiting piogiam's coloi settings aie coiiectly set foi youi woikflow. If
you'ie using a softwaie package that has coloi management (such as Captuie NX 2 oi Photoshop) you
can choose a woikspace of sRuB oi Auobe RuB (among otheis). In most cases you'll want to set it foi
whatevei coloi space youi cameia is set foi.

With Captuie NX 2, simply go to the Piefeiences, Coloi Nanagement tab anu set the Befault ICC
piofile to what you piefei (AuobeRuB oi sRuB).

With Photoshop theie aie two main ways to set up its Coloi settings (Contiol-Shift-K, oi
Commanu-Shift-K foi Nac).

Feel fiee to use Aujust - Coloi Piofile in Captuie NX 2 to whatevei coloi space makes youi image look
best, pioviuing that look can be caiiieu thiough to output (not all spaces aie uesigneu foi piinting). In
Photoshop you uo that thiough Euit >Assign Piofile. In most cases you'll want to stay in the space that
you shot in. Bint: Tiy toggling between sRuB, AuobeRuB anu ColoiNatch RuB to see the uiffeient looks
they give.

If youi euiting space is uiffeient fiom what youi output space neeus to be, you'll neeu to
Conveit youi image to that output space. If youi image is heaueu to the web, a non coloi-manageu
application oi a non coloi-manageu photofinishei, youi image piobably neeus to be in sRuB. You'll
neeu to conveit it (Captuie NX 2 - Aujust - Coloi Piofile, Conveit, oi with Photoshop, Euit - Conveit to
Piofile) to the appiopiiate piofile befoie saving. A goou staiting point in the Conveision 0ptions is
Relative Coloiimetiic, 0se Black Point (anu Bithei with Photoshop). 0ccasionally you may see a coloi
shift uuiing the conveision, in which case you shoulu tiy changing the Intent to Peiceptual.

If you aie piinting using an inkjet piintei you uo not neeu to conveit out of youi woiking
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Coloi Space, as that will be uone uuiing the piinting step without you.

The most impoitant thing to iemembei is that youi image neeus to be taggeu piopeily so that
Captuie NX 2, Photoshop, oi othei coloi-management savvy piogiams know with ceitainty what
Coloi Space the image is in. You can accomplish this in Photoshop by being suie the "Coloi: ICC
Piofile" is checkeu in the Save As uialog when saving the image. With Captuie NX 2 the piofile is
automatically embeuueu in the saveu file.

Remembei that "Apply" oi "Assign" uoes not change the file. It changes the way the file is
inteipieteu by youi softwaie anu theiefoie changes the way it looks. "Conveit" B0ES change the
file, but in a way that tiies to ietain that same coloi look in a uiffeient coloi space.

Piintei PiofileSoft Pioofing
Nake suie that all of youi coloi management settings aie piopeily set when piinting. If using
Captuie NX 2 to piint to a photo-quality inkjet piintei, tuin on Captuie's "Soft Pioof" option. Then
choose the iight piinteipapei piofile, Relative Coloiimetiic anu Blackpoint Compensation, anu then
that infoimation will be caiiieu on to the Coloi Nanagement tab in Captuie's Piint uialog.

Soft Pioofing is an incieuibly valuable tool foi photogiapheis. It foices the computei anu
softwaie to simulate how the image will look once piinteu on the chosen papei. 0nce you see
that, you can leave it tuineu on while making fuithei aujustments to the image, to get it back to how
you want it to look. Not taking auvantage of Soft Pioofing is thiowing away time anu money.

In Photoshop, use the Piint (oi in some veisions the Piint with Pieview) winuow. Be suie to have
"Coloi Nanagement" selecteu in the pull-uown, anu choose "Photoshop Nanages Colois." If you uon't uo
that, the image will be uouble coloi-manageu, which will cause pioblems.

To Soft Pioof in Photoshop, use the view- Pioof Setup menu.

sRuB anu Auobe RuB woikflows

sRuB
1. Leave the cameia set to sRuB as the coloi space (oi foi oluei Nikon cameias Noue 1, foi skin tones oi
Noue III, foi colois founu in natuie).
2. Bon't change the coloi space in softwaie.
S. When senuing an image off to be piinteu, uon't change the coloi space settings (no conveision
iequiieu). If piinting at home, let the piintei manage the coloi (which is what it will want to
uo anyway).

Auobe RuB
1. Set the cameia to Auobe RuB (oi choose Noue II in oluei Nikon cameias).
2. 0se coloi management "smait" softwaie (like Nikon Captuie NX 2 oi Photoshop) set to ieau the coloi
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space piopeily (moie complicateu with Photoshop than NX 2).
S. Conveit to sRuB if going to webemail oi to a piintei that uoesn't hanule coloi management.
4. When piinting, make suie to tuin off piintei coloi management, since you'ie alieauy managing
coloi thiough softwaie. Baving the piintei softwaie tiy to help at this point will only
cause pioblems. Anu be suie to take auvantage of soft pioofing befoie piinting.

Techy Tiubits
Twice uuiing the couise of the uay we'll take a few minutes to covei some cool, fun things you can uo
with uigital photogiaphy. In the fiist of these we'll talk about:

Panoiamas
Some compact (point-anu-shoot) cameias uo this automatically foi you, but they'ie easy anu fun to
shoot manually. The keys aie you neeu to have plenty of oveilap between fiames (to help the stitching
softwaie avoiu pioblems), a set exposuie (eithei Nanual oi use Exposuie Lock, a set white balance so
you uon't get coloi shifts, anu softwaie to put them togethei. Remembei, you can shoot veitical
panoiamas, anu tileu shots as well.

uPS
Being able to pinpoint exactly wheie anu when a photo was taken can be veiy nice. uPS loggeis aie
common, but a bit of a hassle to use. Nikon makes the uPS-1 uevice that woiks with many of theii SLRs,
anu automatically embeus uPS uata into eveiy photo taken. 0sing Nikon's viewNX 2 softwaie (oi many
othei piogiams as well) you can then pinpoint on a map exactly wheie the photo was taken.

Peispective Contiol Lenses
If you have to tilt the cameia back to photogiaphy a veitical subject, then you'ie going to have a
peispective pioblem - the subject will appeai to be leaning back fiom you. Peispective Contiol (oi PC)
lenses can help avoiu this pioblem by having the ability to tilt anu shift, just like olu view cameias. Anu
in the last few yeais, they've become populai way to cieate an inteiesting pictuie by aujusting them
not to coiiect peispective, but to show only a small aiea in focus.



Small cameias, big sensois
The best cameia is sometimes whatevei cameia you've got on you. Nost people have cell phones with
cameias now, but theii quality leaves a lot to be uesiieu. Foi not much moie in the way of size, you
coulu caiiy a Nikon 0ne (}1 oi v1) oi C00LPIX compact cameia. While not as veisatile as an SLR, they
can make gieat pictuies. You can also finu unueiwatei housings foi many of them, anu Nikon now has
the AW-1uu, a iuggeuizeu, shock-pioof, fieeze-pioof anu wateipioof small cameia.

2 - 0nueistanuing Light

Photogiapheis aie always tolu to "look foi the light," oi "shoot in the goluen houis". Photogiaphy anu
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light go togethei. Without light, theie is no photogiaphy. Anu being awaie of light - looking foi it - is a
gieat way to go in seaich of photos. Light has ceitain qualities, though, anu unueistanuing what they
aie, how they woik anu how to play to theii stiengths will pay off in bettei pictuies.

The foui key qualities of light (anu they often oveilap) aie:

RangeQuantity
Biiection
Size
Coloi

RangeQuantity - This is impoitant foi us in teims of both exposuie anu aesthetics. Biight light can
cieate shauows anu highlights so fai apait in exposuie that the cameia can't captuie it all. This space is
calleu "iange of light", anu what we often expeiience on sunny uays, wheie contiast can be a ieal
pioblem foi photogiapheis. Biffeient times of uay have uiffeient ianges of light, fiom gieat (biight) to
naiiow (flat) to almost non-existent (night time). Each piesents ceitain auvantages anu uisauvantages
to us as photogiapheis. 0ui fiist challenge is to unueistanu that iange, anu then how to woik with it.

Nost uigital cameias offei a Bistogiam ieauout, which is a giaphic iepiesentation of the exposuie of
the captuieu image. The biightest whites live at the fai iight siue anu the uaikest blacks at the fai left.
In the miuule is the miutones. The height of the giaphs simply inuicate how many pixels theie aie of
that paiticulai tone (uensity). What's ieally impoitant to us, then, is what's happening at the euges.
That's wheie we can lose impoitant infoimation (eithei highlight oi shauow uetail). A piopeily
exposeu image in light that's not too contiasty woulu show a giaph that staiteu befoie the left euge anu
stoppeu befoie the iight, with all the uata containeu between the left anu iight walls. If the iange of
light is too gieat (oi a pooi exposuie has been maue), then the giaph will be "clippeu," meaning it hits
one oi both of those walls befoie ieaching the euge. In that case the infoimation beyonu theie wasn't
iecoiueu, eithei in the highlights (iight siue) oi shauows (left siue). Leaining to ieau anu unueistanu
the histogiam is one big step towaiu having a bettei unueistanuing of how to piopeily expose youi
images.

When the iange of light is too gieat foi the cameia to hanule, we have vaiious tools we can use, fiom
filteis to flash to euiting, as well as some in-cameia options such as Active B-Lighting.

Theie aie times, though, that we aie simply unable to expose foi all of the impoitant aieas in a scene.
0ne solution to that is giauuateu neutial uensity filteis. They uaiken one euge of the scene (top,
bottom, siue - wheievei you place it) to ieuuce the light coming in fiom theie.

Theie aie two othei solutions, often useu when photogiaphing the sun oi moon. The sun, shining
biightly in the sky, will oveiwhelm eveiything else in the scene. If you'ie able to block it with
something (tiee, clouus, peison) oi wait foi it to get neai the hoiizon, you've ieuuceu that uiastic iange
anu now can make a goou exposuie. The same is tiue of the moon. A full moon at night will foice you to
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expose foi it, leaving eveiything else black, oi expose foi the iest of the scene anu have the moon a
white hole in the sky. Shooting it at uawn oi uusk, though, when theie's some available light aiounu
you, ieuuces that iange into a woikable exposuie.

Biiection - This is the quality of light that gets talkeu about the most. Fiont light (that coming fiom
behinu the cameia) tenus to be flat. It can give you lots of infoimation, but no feeling of uepth oi moou.
Backlight is the opposite, wheie you'ie going to have no infoimation in the subject, oi if you expose foi
that, no uetail in the backgiounu. Siuelight, howevei, is often consiueieu most pleasing. That's because
the shauows auu a feeling of uepth anu make the image look less two-uimensional.

Size - Bow laige oi small youi light souice is becomes impoitant, both in its uistance fiom the subject
anu theii ielative sizes. A clouuy sky, oi the peiiou befoie suniise oi aftei sunset, gives you a veiy laige,
soft light souice - the entiie sky. 0nce the sun is out, you now have a much smallei light souice that
gives an euge to the light anu moie uefinition to the scene. With haish oveiheau light you can use
uiffusion, putting something between the subject anu the light souice, to soften the light, oi again, auu
flash.

Coloi - All light has Coloi. It may look white to us, but all light souices have coloi. Fiom uiffeient times
of uay (moining, miu-uay, evening) to aitificial lights, it's simply a question of what we uo with that
coloi. Bo we iemove it, accentuate it, oi change it. All aie possible once we unueistanu how to contiol
the white balance settings on oui uigital cameias.

Those settings let us captuie light natuially, without coloi, oi with coloi that uiun't exist in the actual
scene. By uefault, uigital cameias aie set to "Auto" white balance. That means they make an euucateu
guess as to what coloi the light is, anu coiiect foi that. Foi most people that's enough, anu looks fine.
Foi a seiious photogiaphei, though, the ability to change white balance settings is an incieuibly
poweiful tool. You have two choices - to eithei captuie the coloi as it is, oi to change it, peihaps
iauically.

The fiist step in going beyonu auto white balance is to tell the cameia what light you'ie woiking in. If
you know, why not tell it. The piimaiy choices aie Baylight, Flash, Incanuescent anu Fluoiescent. Theie
aie multiple choices of Baylight (Sunlight, Clouuy, Shauy) anu with some cameias multiple Fluoiescent
settings. Baylight anu Flash aie veiy close, anu can sometimes be useu inteichangeably. Clouuy anu
Shauy aie waimei vaiiations of Baylight, anu some people like them to piouuce a waimei, moie yellow
tone to theii images.

The most poweiful of the choices you can make in cameia is the White Balance Pieset. By using the
cameia to take a white balance ieauing off of a "neutial taiget" (best is a giay caiu, though a white
sheet of papei can woik okay), you can get neutial coloi piocessing of youi images in almost any type
of light. That means whites will look white, skin tones will look natuial anu youi coloi will geneially be
veiy goou. This is a gieat tool to use in any mixeu-light (vaiious light souices in the scene) oi aitificial
light situation. Biffeient mouels of Nikon cameias can vaiy slightly in how this is uone, so check youi
17
manual foi the uetails.

The one time to avoiu eithei Auto White Balance oi Pieset White Balance is if you'ie woiking in light
that has coloi anu you want that coloi to show. A goou example woulu be while shooting in waim,
eaily-evening light. In that case the Baylight white balance setting woulu uo a goou job of showing the
waimth of that light, wheie a White Balance Pieset woulu actually iemove it, neutializing that waimth.

Lastly, you can set the Kelvin tempeiatuie manually on some of the cameias. To use that piopeily you
usually neeu eithei a well-calibiateu coloi tempeiatuie metei oi caieful testing with euiting softwaie.
Bowevei, you can also simply use the feeuback fiom the LCB on the back of the cameia to guiue you, as
long as you'ie not tiying to be extiemely accuiate.

Contiolling Natuial Light
0nce you begin consciously thinking about light, theie aie times you'll want to stait contiolling it. The
most common tool to uo that is a ieflectoi. The job of a ieflectoi, not suipiisingly, is to ieflect light
wheie you want it. Nost of the ones you can buy aie iounu anu collapse into a smallei iing. Bowevei, a
sheet of white cloth oi even aluminum foil wiappeu on a piece of caiuboaiu can be useu as a ieflectoi.

Whatevei ieflectoi you use, it can seive thiee jobs: auuing light, softening light oi iemoving light. To
auu light, ieflectois aie best when it's sunny. You simply use the ieflectoi to shine light onto youi
subject. You'll finu ieflectois with uiffeient suifaces, fiom white cloth to golu, silvei oi a mix of colois.
The moie ieflective the suiface, the biightei the light it shines. What makes ieflectois gieat is theii
ability to pioviue a constant (as long as the sun's out) light souice foi veiy little bulk anu weight. You'u
also be suipiiseu how fai they can ieflect light. Youi subject can be lit in the shaue by a ieflectoi uozens
of feet away in the sun. Think about how the sun stiiking winuows high up on a builuing can shine into
youi eyes on the stieet below.

Reflectois aie also gieat at shauing a subject fiom the sun oi othei light souices. In this way they'ie
much like Sciims anu uobos. Sciims aie placeu between the light souice anu the subject to ieuuce the
intensity of the light. uobos aie useu to block light oi cieate patteins with it.

Reflectois, sciims anu gobos all aie effective tools foi photogiapheis because they help manage the
iange of light.

Filteis
With film, theie weie many effects that coulu be achieveu by auuing filteis to the fiont of the lens. The
ability to uo much of that touay in softwaie has lesseneu the numbei of filteis we might use. Theie aie
two types, though, that many of us still consiuei essential: polaiizeis anu giauuateu neutial uensity.

The two main uses of polaiizing filteis aie to uaiken the sky oi ieuuceiemove ieflections fiom a
scene. A polaiizei uoes both of those things by uoing the same thing - only allowing light of a specific
angle to pass thiough the filtei. To get that effect on the sky, it's most effective if the sun is to the left oi
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iight of the scene. With it behinu oi in fiont, theie's little if any effect to be hau. Be cautious when using
them with extieme wiue-angles, though, as the effect can be heaviei at one siue than the othei. Also,
with wiue-angles, be suie the filtei is uesigneu foi that type of lens (often iefeiieu to as a "slim" filtei),
to avoiu vignetting (uaikening at the euges).

Neutial Bensity filteis ieuuce the amount of light coming thiough the lens without changing the coloi
(thus the "neutial" monikei). Theii piimaiy use is to allow photogiapheis to shoot at lowei shuttei
speeus than otheiwise possible. This is one way to uo long exposuies uuiing uaylight anu have extieme
blui (shooting a wateifall oi ciashing waves is a classic use). uiauuateu neutial uensity filteis stait
uaik at one euge anu eithei giauually go cleai oi uo that at a miu-point in the filtei. Theii use is to help
manage the iange of light, foi example when a sky is much biightei than the aiea unueineath it. Some
giauuateu filteis also have coloi in one half, to foice a uiffeient look on the sky.

Auuing Light - Flash
Reflectois aie one way to auu light to a scene, but they'ie limiteu by the neeu foi a biight light souice
anu lack of fine contiol. Theie's anothei tool we have that can be useu to uo that too - the flash. It's
impoitant to unueistanu the basics of flash to make sense of how the uiffeient flash moues opeiate. All
cameias have a maximum "sync" speeu while being useu with flash. That simply means the fastest
shuttei speeu that can be useu wheie the entiie aiea of the sensoi (oi film) is exposeu to light at the
same moment. In touay's Nikon cameias, that's usually 12uu oi 12Su seconu. Shuttei mechanisms
aie uesigneu with two cuitains. The fiont cuitain is the fiist to open, exposing the sensoi, anu the
seconu (oi "ieai") cuitain follows it to close anu finish the exposuie. At speeus above maximum "sync"
speeu, the seconu cuitain staits to follow the fiist cuitain befoie it's finisheu ciossing the sensoi. That
means that at no point in time is the entiie sensoi exposeu to light at the same moment. A flash fiieu
above sync woulu thus expose only a pait of the fiame, leaving a black stiip wheie the seconu cuitain
was in the way.

Theie aie thiee main flash moues, anu they involve the shuttei speeu anu when the flash fiies.

Fiont-cuitain sync - This is the stanuaiu moue, anu if you haven't changeu youi flash sync setting, this
is how it's going to woik. The flash will fiie as soon as the sensoi is fully exposeu, anu if using
Automatic, Piogiam oi Apeituie Piioiity, the automatic exposuie system won't allow the shuttei to fiie
below 16u seconu (to help you avoiu blui). The maximum shuttei speeu is whatevei youi cameia's
sync speeu is (usually 12uu oi 12Su).

Slow sync - Again, the flash will fiie as soon as the sensoi's fully exposeu, but when using Automatic,
Piogiam oi Apeituie, you'ie alloweu to let the shuttei speeu go as low as the meteiing system wants it
to. Again, maximum shuttei speeu is whatevei youi cameia's sync speeu is (usually 12uu oi 12Su).

Reai-cuitain sync - In this moue, the flash fiies at the last possible instant in the exposuie, just befoie
the seconu cuitain ("ieai" cuitain) staits to covei the sensoi. Anu that also means it can woik with
slow shuttei speeus. But the maximum shuttei speeu is still whatevei youi cameia's sync speeu is
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(usually 12uu oi 12Su).

Nost photogiapheis choose to use eithei Slow sync oi Reai-cuitain sync foi how it captuies action. In
Slow sync, if theie's action, the flash can "fieeze" the moment, but then the action continues, anu at a
slow exposuie, blui can appeai to come out of the subject, in the uiiection the subject's moving. Reai-
cuitain sync, on the othei hanu, by fiiing at the enu of the exposuie, shows blui behinu the subject, a
moie natuial look.

What makes this woik is the fact that the flash is fiiing anywheie fiom aiounu 11uuu seconu uuiation
at full powei to as fast as 14u,uuu at minimum powei (baseu on the mouel of flash useu). Theiefoie if
theie's not much ambient light, anu a fast shuttei speeu is useu, the shoitness of the flash uuiation can
fieeze action well beyonu what the shuttei speeu might.

Finally, many of Nikon's cameias offei an Auto FP Bigh-Speeu Sync option in the menus. This allows
you to use shuttei speeus above the maximum sync speeu with compatible Nikon Speeulights. If you
unueistanu how the two shuttei cuitains woik, anu that above sync speeu theie's actually a slit moving
acioss the sensoi, this woulun't seem possible. Nikon achieves this by having the flash fiie multiple
buists (like a stioboscope) so quickly that it appeais to be one continuous light, anu is then able to
essentially "paint" the subject as the slit ciosses. The uownsiue to this is that because it's fiiing multiple
buists, it won't have as much powei, oi "ieach," as a single buist. Bowevei, if the shuttei speeu is at oi
below maximum sync, the flash ieveits to one single buist. This is a veiy effective way to use flash
outuoois anu use fast apeituies to thiow the backgiounu out of focus.

The most common use of uiiect flash (in goou photos) is "fill" flash. The goal heie is to auu some light
into the haish shauows cieateu by haiu light (i.e. the sun at noon). It's often most effective when tuineu
uown in powei, as the goal is to have a natuial-looking pictuie. If it looks flasheu, then too much flash
was useu. 0nly anothei photogiaphei shoulu be able to tell when goou fill flash was useu.

0ne gieat auvantage to an accessoiy flash (not the pop-up type) is that it can be pointeu in uiffeient
uiiections. When we talkeu about uiiection of light above, we uiscusseu how flat anu un-inteiesting
light is when it comes fiom the same uiiection as the cameia (fiont light). We lose uepth anu uetail, anu
often get haish shauows behinu the subject. Bowevei, by angling the flash heau to bounce the light off
the ceiling oi a neaiby wall, we just changeu wheie the light is coming fiom. Plus, we also changeu the
size of it, fiom a small light souice (the flash) to a laige light souice (the ceiling oi wall), making it
softei anu helping it to spieau out anu covei a laigei aiea. You just neeu a ceiling that's not too high
(the light has to get up to it anu back uown with enough powei), anu a ceiling that's not black oi a coloi
that will auu an unpleasant coloi to youi photos.

S - Flash

viueo - While viueo is not the main puipose of Nikon School, since newei cameias have this featuie,
heie aie some helpful tips that you'll finu useful in shooting viueo with uigital SLRs.
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Fiist, you neeu to unueistanu the choices you have in the "Novie Settings" menu. The fiist of those is
Novie Quality:
Resolution -
192u X 1u8u - 0sually iefeiieu to as "1u8u," this is also calleu "Full BB."
128u X 72u - Calleu "72u," this is BBTv iesolution.
64u X 424 - This is consiueieu SBTv, oi "Stanuaiu" Tv iesolution.
FPS - Fiames pei Seconu -
24 - often useu in movies, often iefeiieu to as "cinematic."
Su - the stanuaiu foi viueo.
6u - bettei foi fast action, oi when you know you'll want to iun the scene in slow-motion. 0sing
6u fps usually means you can't shoot at 1u8u.
NoimalBigh - the amount of compiession, "Bigh Quality" has the least compiession.

Then choose what Niciophone setting you want.
Auto - means the level will change baseu on the volume aiounu you.
BighNeuiumLow - set baseu on how fai oi close you aie to youi subject.
Niciophone off - if you uon't want to iecoiu any sounu.
Nanual contiol - some Nikon cameias now let you set the volume manually, anu give you a
metei to help uo that.

"Bestination" lets you choose which caiu slot to wiite to.

Nanual movie settings - lets you use Nanual moue to set IS0 anu shuttei speeu.

To be successful with it, theie aie some things to keep in minu. In auuition to paying attention to
subject, light anu backgiounu, you also neeu to iemembei the foui S's:

Stability
Sounu
Stoiy
Softwaie

Stability - with viueo, you can't count on a fast shuttei speeu to fieeze the moment. You neeu steauy
shots, which means a goou tiipou, monopou, oi veiy smooth technique.

Sounu - makes oi bieaks viueo. Sometimes the sounu is even moie impoitant than the visuals. Think
about the sounu, anu uon't be suipiiseu to finu youiself investing in moie geai - miciophones (like the
Nikon NE-1, maue specifically foi this) anu uigital iecoiueis - to get bettei quality.

Stoiy - with still photos, you can go foi one shot oi multiple, anu then put them togethei in a package
latei in any oiuei you want. With viueo, though, you ieally neeu to think thiough the stoiy you'ie
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telling befoiehanu, to make suie you plan foi the shots you neeu.

Softwaie - the softwaie you've been using foi youi photogiaphy piobably won't hanule viueo, anu
ceitainly won't let you euit it with the tools you'll want. So moie than the monetaiy investment in new
softwaie, you'll neeu to invest time in leaining how to use it. Bowevei, Nikon's fiee view NX2 biowsei
uoes have a basic movie euitoi built in, to help you get staiteu.

Anu, viueo isn't foi eveiyone. If youi love is foi still photogiaphy - gieat - it's a wonueiful meuium.
Bowevei, viueo anu auuio let you tell stoiies anu piesent visuals in a whole new way, anu will be an
entiiely new cieative outlet foi some photogiapheis.

Back to Flash
0nce you unueistanu anu stait using off-cameia flash, a whole new woilu of photogiaphy opens up.
Since you now contiol the light souice, you can make photos that simply weien't possible befoie.
Baving anu using that poitable sun makes all the uiffeience in the woilu.

Basics of Light - (in iegaius to flash)
To fully unueistanu how to use flash, you fiist have to accept that it's simply anothei light souice. Suie,
it's not the sun oi a stieetlight, but it shaies ceitain qualities with all othei lights. Some of this ielates
uiiectly to the eailiei uiscussion of light.

PioximityIntensity - 0ne quality of all light souices is that the closei they aie, the moie intense they
aie. That's tiue of a flash just as it's tiue of the sun. The uiffeience is uistance. The sun is so fai away
that the intensity of its light on eaith is the same, one foot in fiont of you, as it is Su miles away. With
most othei light souices that's not tiue, so you have to take into consiueiation how fai the light is fiom
the subject.

Size of Light Souice - Eailiei we talkeu about how the sun is a small light souice, because it's so fai
away. But put a clouu in fiont of it anu now you have a laige light souice (because the clouu becomes
the souice). This is tiue when you'ie woiking with flash units as well. The fuithei the flash is fiom the
subject, the smallei it becomes as a souice. The closei, the laigei. This is especially tiue when you stait
using light mouifieis, like soft boxes.

Inveise Squaie Law - This comes fiom Physics, anu states that the quantity of light is inveisely
piopoitional to the squaie of the uistance fiom the souice. What it means foi us is that the closei youi
light souice is to youi subject, the fastei it falls off (gets uimmei) behinu youi subject. This is why the
quantity of light on a sunny uay is the same whethei two feet oi two-thousanu feet fiom you (because
the sun's so fai away), but theie's a big uiffeience between stanuing two feet oi ten feet fiom a uesk
lamp. Wheie it applies most to photogiapheis is when using aitificial lights (in oui case Speeulights).
The fuithei they aie fiom the subject the laigei the aiea aiounu youi subject that will be similai in light
quantity. The closei the light souice to the subject, the fastei it falls off behinu them. That's why
bouncing a light off a ceiling helps not only to soften the light but spieau it out ovei a laigei aiea.
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Shuttei anu Apeituie with Flash - The uuiation of the flash is almost always shoitei than the shuttei
speeu being useu. That means that shuttei speeu becomes most impoitant in iegaius to the available
light. The flash exposuie on the subject has moie to uo with the apeituie setting. This is why many pios
put theii cameias into Nanual exposuie moue when woiking with flash. They set the apeituie foi the
flash, then aujust the shuttei speeu to make the backgiounu appeai the way they want it. It's much
haiuei to uo that in an Auto exposuie moue.

Nikon i-TTL - Nikon's cameias anu Speeulights use a foim of thiough-the-lens flash meteiing calleu i-
TTL (Intelligent Thiough the Lens meteiing). It takes much of the guesswoik out of woiking with flash,
anu combineu with othei components of Nikon's Cieative Lighting System makes it easy to uo off-
cameia flash.

Nikon Wiieless Flash - To take auvantage of Nikon's wiieless flash contiol you neeu a tiiggei anu a
flash that can ieceive the signal. Any of Nikon's uigital SLR's that have Commanuei moue with theii
pop-up flash can woik as a tiiggei foi SB-R2uu, SB-4uu, SB-7uu, SB-8uu anu SB-9uu anu SB-91u
Speeulights. You can also use the SB-7uu, SB-8uu, SB-9uu, SB-91u oi S0-8uu as a wiieless tiiggei foi
othei Nikon Speeulights when paiieu with a Nikon uigital SLR. 0sing any of these combinations allows
you to get the flash away fiom the cameia, to be useu as a siuelight oi backlight, anu you can use many
units at the same time. 0nce you stait playing with these you'll unueistanu why Nikon calls it the
"Cieative Lighting System."

Filteis - Nikon's SB-7uu, SB-8uu, SB-9uu anu SB-91u Speeulights come with a set of coloi coiiection
filteis (anu Nikon sells filteis as well). The ieason foi this is that mixing light souices can leau to
unuesiiable coloi casts. Nost incanuescent light souices will photogiaph waim (yellow oi oiange) with
the cameia set to the Flash white balance setting. Fluoiescent lights can often show a gieen cast. By
matching the filtei to the light souice (oiange foi incanuescent, gieen foi fluoiescent) anu then setting
the cameia's white balance piopeily (to incanuescent oi fluoiescent), you can avoiu those coloi
pioblems. 0sing Nikon's SB-91u (oi SB-9uu oi SB-7uu) with its filteis anu special holuei, the cameia
will actually know the filtei is theie anu aujust accoiuingly. Theie aie also thiiu-paity filteis that can be
bought fiom both Lee anu Rosco, anu photogiaphei Baviu Bonl has cieateu a nice set you can buy fiom
www.expouisc.com.

Light Nouifieis - 0nce you get into lighting, you'll finu theie aie a lot of gaugets out theie that
can make it much easiei. At the veiy least you'll neeu a light stanu anu biacket to mount the flash
to the light stanu (oi use the foot that comes with the SB-6uu, SB-7uu, SB-8uu, SB-9uu anu
SB-91u Speeulights). Eventually you'll piobably want to auu tools that change the chaiactei of the light,
calleu light mouifieis. Those incluue soft boxes, giius, gobos, sciims anu othei geai. Some of the ones
useu in the uemo aie Baviu Bonl's uesigns (like the gels, above), oi by companies like Lumiquest,
Lightwaie, oi Westcott. Some of the geai useu in the live lighting uemo incluues:

- SB-91uSB-7uu Speeulights
23
- Lowepio PioRollei case
- Bogen 7' stanus
- Photoflex flash biacket
- Photoflex Su oi S6" satin umbiella oi White Lightning S1-inch paiabolic umbiellas.
- Photoflex aim (foi the backuiop)
- uels anu snoots (Bonl)

Batteiies - Please consiuei using iechaigeable batteiies, anu NiNB (Nickel-metal hyuiiue) aie the best
in that categoiy iight now. Theie aie fast chaigeis anu slow chaigeis. Fast chaigeis buin out batteiies
fastei, so set the chaige foi slow unless you'ie in a huiiy.

4 - Euit anu 0utput

Techy Tiubits

BBR
Foi yeais now, anothei way photogiapheis have uealt with iange of light issues is to shoot multiple
exposuies anu combine them in softwaie. That's iefeiieu to as "Bigh Bynamic Range" imaging, anu has
been simplifieu in the last few yeais by softwaie packages uesigneu just to uo this. At the veiy least
you'll want thiee exposuies that covei the impoitant highlights (an unueiexposeu shot), the miutones
(piopeily exposeu) anu shauows (oveiexposeu). Biinging those thiee (anu some photogiapheis like to
shoot moie than thiee) into this softwaie, you can then get the best of all woilus as the softwaie
combines them to cieate one single BBR image. It's best to use a tiipou when making these exposuies
(though hanu-helu often will woik), anu If theie's movement in the scene that can iuin the final pictuie.

Infiaieu
Infiaieu photogiaphy can cieate otheiwoiluly scenes, but uoing it with film was extiemely uifficult. It's
much easiei with uigital. You can get an infiaieu effect using special filteis, but they just emulate
infiaieu, anu iequiie long exposuies on a tiipou. 0i, you can have a cameia conveiteu to infiaieu. That
usually costs $2uu-$Suu, anu makes it so the cameia is now only iecoiuing infiaieu light. It's a gieat
use foi an oluei uigital cameia, anu a nice change of pace.

Nultiple Exposuies
Nany Nikon uigital cameias offei an Inteival Timei function in theii menus, which means you can uo
time lapse photogiaphy. You set the stait time, the inteival between fiames, often a lowei-iesolution
(these aie uone to show on scieen, so uon't neeu a lot of pixels) anu high compiession, anu then let it
iun. The most common piogiam to assemble the hunuieus of images into a fast sliueshow is QuickTime
Pio fiom Apple (yes, theie's a Winuows veision). Some Nikon cameias touay also offei a Time Lapse
function, wheie you set the inteival anu numbei of fiames, anu then aftei shooting the photos the
cameia goes aheau anu cieates the Time Lapse movie foi you. Anu, some Nikon cameias also offei the
ability to shoot Nultiple Exposuies, wheie you shoot a seiies of photos anu the cameia combines them
24
into one final image.

4+/. '*+ 56.76.
Foi most people theie aie two gieat joys to photogiaphy - captuiing the image, anu then shaiing that
image. Foi the last section of the uay we'll focus on soiting photos, piepaiing them (often iefeiieu to as
"euiting") anu then outputting, oi shaiing them.

Soit
It useu to be saiu that a goou photogiaphei has a veiy laige tiash can. What that meant was that
pait of being a goou photogiaphei has to uo with the ability to choose the best pictuies anu not
show the iest. Beie aie a few suggestions:

- Be iuthless in picking photos. Choose only the best to show, anu immeuiately ieject any that
suffei fiom pioblems like focus, pooi composition, lack of emotion, etc.
- You may have ieally likeu that hoise you just photogiapheu, anu woikeu it with all the tools you
hau. That's gieat, just what you shoulu be uoing. Bowevei, few people will want to see eveiy one of
those shots. Pick the single best one anu show only that. Nake them think you'ie so goou that it only
takes one photo foi you to get it iight!
- Avoiu the clich shots. That means if you'ie showing a photo of a kitty oi a sunset, it bettei be
an exceptional photo. Eveiyone's seen thousanus of those. Look foi the unusual oi unique.
- Tiy to tell a stoiy with youi photos, especially if theie's a natuial stoiy to tell. If you'ie showing
photos of youi vacation, they'll be moie poweiful if you combine uiffeient types of shots, using
uiffeient angles anu shapes, than to show a collection of all the catheuials you visiteu. Show some of
the people theie, homes anu stieets, suiiounuing countiysiue (oi cityscape) at uiffeient times of uay.
Anu iemembei the iules above - make anu show pictuies that go beyonu the oiuinaiy.
- Finally, iemembei who you'ie tiying to please. If you neeu to satisfy a client, then make suie
you shoot what they want. If you'ie shooting photos foi youiself, then make suie you shoot
pictuies you want. That's all that ieally matteis.

Piepaiing to Euit
When you fiist open an image, take a moment to figuie out exactly what you want to accomplish. Bave
a plan. Then ueciue which tools will uo that in the best way with the least amount of image uegiauation,
pieseiving as much of the image infoimation as possible, anu always allows you to go back to the
oiiginal file. When we useu Photoshop oui woikflow was always to woik on a copy (nevei the oiiginal)
anu uo eveiything in Layeis. The intiouuction of Nikon Captuie NX (anu now NX2) has changeu that
woikflow.

Nikon Captuie NX 2 lets you woik on }PEu, TIFF oi NEF(RAW) files, anu neaily all of its tools can be
useu on each of those file foimats. Theie aie only a few aujustments, in Cameia Settings anu Cameia
anu Lens Coiiection, that can only be useu on NEF files. All of the othei tools can be useu with both
}PEu anu TIFF files.
25

0ne of the gieat auvantages to Captuie NX 2 is how it keeps tiack of changes, thiough the Euit List, anu
makes those changes always available foi ie-woiking if the file is saveu as a NEF. In othei woius, even a
}PEu oi TIFF file can be saveu as a NEF fiom within Captuie NX 2, anu any aujustments uone in NX2 aie
then saveu with that NEF in a foim that lets them be changeu again anu again in the futuie. This also
means that file sizes, even with all of the changes, iemain faiily small.

When woiking on an image with euiting softwaie, a goou woikflow woulu be to:

Ciop
FixEnhance Tone globally
FixEnhance Coloi globally
Selective tone anu coloi changes
Save file as a veision, peihaps "Nastei" (Captuie NX 2), oi layeieu TIFF oi PSB with Photoshop.
Size foi output methou
Shaipen appiopiiately baseu on size
Soft pioof if piinting

Piepaiing foi 0utput
If you'ie going to shaie a pictuie, you want to make suie that not only uoes it look iight (coloi
management), but that it is also the coiiect size anu shaipness. That means you neeu a cleai
unueistanuing of both PPI anu BPI, anu how they uiffei. PPI stanus foi "Pixels Pei Inch," anu iefeis to
image iesolution. In othei woius, how many pixels an image has in a specific aiea. Eveiy image has a
ceitain numbei of pixels to stait with. Foi instance, a 16-megapixel cameia piouuces an image with
sixteen-million pixels. If it's an SLR with a S:2 aspect iatio, then those pixels will be uistiibuteu as 4992
pixels acioss anu S28u pixels ueep. That's its iesolution. PPI simply answeis the question of how many
pixels fit in a one-squaie inch aiea. Foi the 16NP cameia, that coulu be SuuPPI oi 72PPI anu you'u still
have 4992 pixels by S28u pixels. What woulu change, though, is the aiea those pixels woulu covei. At
Suu PPI, they woulu fill a space of appioximately 16.S-inches by 11 inches. At 72 PPI those same pixels
woulu fill a space of 68 by 4S inches. PPI is all about pixel uensity.

When piinting you neeu a faiily high iesolution. Nost people want somewheie between 2uu anu S6u
PPI, although otheis go as low as 16u anu see no uiffeience in the final piint. The impoitant thing is
having enough pixels to stait with. If you want to piint Su-inches by 2u-inches at Suu PPI, then you'll
piobably have to iesample youi image up (auu pixels). Remembei that while most softwaie will let you
uo this, it accomplishes it by auuing pixels of similai tone anu coloihue. It can't auu uetail. That means
the image will soften somewhat, anu you'll neeu to auu moie shaipening uuiing the output piocess to
tiy to coiiect foi that.

If piepaiing an image foi scieen, you shoulu know that most monitois uisplay anywheie fiom 8u to
12u PPI, meaning you neeu fai fewei pixels to look goou on scieen. In that case pay attention to the
pixel uimensions (how many wiue by how many tall), since inches anu PPI ieally have no meaning on a
26
scieen.

Aftei setting the iesolution foi youi neeus, iemembei that when piinting you'll lose some shaipness
uue to the slight spieau of ink when it hits the papei. To iecovei fiom that softening effect, auu a little
shaipening in softwaie. That's noimally uone with 0nshaip Nask (0SN). Tiy a low Rauius, anu
moueiate Amount, then use the Thiesholu sliue to ieuuce the effect in smooth aieas (like sky
anu skin). If you like using Captuie NX 2, then you may also want to tiy the Bigh Pass shaipening
methou In it, which some piefei to the stanuaiu 0nshaip Nask.

Anu uon't foiget to take auvantage of soft pioofing. By using Soft Pioofing you can simulate how
the image will change once you move fiom a backlit RuB monitoi to ink on papei. With glossy papei
you'll usually see little change, but as you move to ioughei-suiface papeis, you'll lose moie contiast
anu coloi. 0nce you've tuineu it on anu seen how the image changes, you can then uo moie euiting
steps if neeueu to coiiect foi what changeu. In NX 2 simply click the "Soft Pioof" button at the bottom
left of the image winuow, anu then choose the papei piofile you'ie going to piint to anu stait with
Relative Coloiimetiic anu 0se Black Point Compensation as the ienueiing intents.

4+/./*( "/7-
The fiist thing to ask youiself as you stait woiking on images is, "Is theie anything I neeu to uo to
all of the images, oi some of them that can be uone as a batch piocess." If so, then that shoulu be youi
fiist step.

Nikon viewNX 2 has a winuow at the lowei left calleu "Quick Aujustment" that will let you apply one oi
seveial changes to eithei one oi many photos. Simply select all the ones you want the change maue to
anu then make it. If you like it, choose the "Save" button at the bottom of the winuow.

Captuie NX 2 also offeis batch piocessing, in, not suipiisingly, a moie poweiful fashion. To uo
that you fiist neeu to make changes to one image anu save those changes using the small button
that looks like two geais at the uppei iight of the Euit List. Clicking it, you can then choose "Save
Aujustments" anu in the following uialog select any oi all of the changes you maue, then save those with
a name of youi choosing. To apply that same set to anothei image, just open the image anu go back to
the geais icon anu choose "Loau Aujustments", then choose the one you maue. If you want to apply that
aujustment to many images, then open the "Biowsei" winuow in NX2 anu choose all the photos you
want to change. Then, at the bottom of the biowsei winuow (lowei left this time) you'll see that same
geais icon. Click on it anu choose "Loau Aujustments" to stait the batch piocess foi those images. You'll
see that this opens the "Piocessing Queue", which lets you not only apply that aujustment, but also
choose a new uestination foi the piocesseu images, change the name anu even change file foimats
(}PEu oi TIFF anyone.).

Nost people using Captuie NX 2 on inuiviuual images will uo the majoiity of theii woik using the
options founu in the Aujust menu oi with Contiol Points. The Aujust menu is home to familiai tools like
Levels anu Cuives, LCB, Coloi Balance, ContiastBiightness, SatuiationWaimth anu some unique
27
tools like B-Lighting. They can be accesseu uiiectly fiom the Aujust menu, oi fiom a New Step in the
Euit List.

A goou staiting point foi many pictuies, especially if they'ie a bit flat oi lacking in contiast, woulu be to
use the Bouble Thiesholu featuie of the Bistogiam. Tuin that on, then pull the iight sliuei (white) in
until you see small white aieas stait to block up. Bo the same with the black sliuei on the left. Then put
a White Contiol Point in one of the small white aieas anu a Black Contiol Point in one of the small black
aieas. Now tuin off Bouble Thiesholu. This will change the uynamic iange foi the image (geneially
auuing some contiast) while also cleaiing some coloi casts that may exist in the highlights anu
shauows. In auuition, if theie's an objectionable coloi cast to the image (as opposeu to one that's uue to
a natuial conuition like waim late-uay light) use the Neutial Contiol Point to click a neutial aiea (an
aiea that shoulun't have any coloi) to coiiect the coloi cast foi the entiie photo.

What ieally sets Captuie NX 2 apait fiom othei euiting applications, though, is the 0-Point inteiface.
With the 0-Point technology, making changes to a file is as easy as clicking the aiea you want to affect
anu then uiagging a sliuei to make that change. While theie aie seveial uiffeient types of Contiol
Points, the Coloi Contiol Points will get the most use. When you uiop a Coloi Contiol Point onto an
aiea, it takes into account coloi, textuie, tone anu uetail among othei things, anu gives you a numbei of
ways of changing that. To see what the Coloi Contiol Point is affecting, check the "Show Selection" box
in the Euit List. Aieas that show white aie what will be most affecteu, uaikei aieas less, black aieas not
at all. With that tuineu on you can fine tune both the placement of the Point anu the size of the aiea you
want it to contiol. You can then aujust the tone, coloi, waimth, satuiation anu othei vaiiables. Captuie
NX 2 also offeis a numbei of othei tools foi making selections to let you fuithei iefine the aiea you
want to aujust anu the amount of that aujustment.

Whethei using one of the aujustment tools oi a Contiol Point, when you have it open you can use
the Biush to selectively iemove that effect, oi even to selectively paint it in. Theie aie othei selection
tools (giauient, lasso, maiquee) to help you get just the look you want fiom youi photos. Anu to take
that look fuithei along, Captuie NX 2 has complete coloi management built in.

New in the ielease of NX 2 (fiom the NX veision) weie impioveu selection tools, foi those who piefei to
make a selection fiist anu then woik on that paiticulai pait of the image. Also new is the Auto-Retouch
Biush, foi cleaning up an image.

Applying piofiles, conveiting piofiles (coveieu in the Coloi Nanagement section), Soft Pioofing
(mentioneu eailiei) 0nshaip Nask - Captuie NX 2 has all of the high-enu tools to help you make the
most of piinting youi images. You can ie-size fiom within the piogiam as a New Step in the Euit List
anu then go back anu change it anytime you like. Set youi shaipening baseu on size, but feel fiee to go
back at any time anu ie-woik that shaipening step in the Euit List.

Bow fai you choose to go with Captuie NX 2 is up to you. To help you on that tiip, theie's infoimation
foi Nikon Captuie NX 2 available at www.captuienx.com. Also, well-known uigital imaging authoi Ben
28
Long has wiitten a book, Real Woilu Captuie NX 2. In auuition theie's an ebook available, by }ason
0uell, calleu "The Photogiapheis uuiue to Captuie NX 2."

Auobe Photoshop has been a poweiful tool foi photogiapheis since the eaily uays, anu while it's not
useu as much as befoie, theie aie still a few things it can't be beat at. As mentioneu eailiei in the notes,
if you want to woik on a NEF that we've maue changes to with view oi NX2, you fiist neeu to save that
file out as a TIFF oi }PEu befoie biinging it into the othei euitoi, such as Photoshop.

Neiging Images - Theie aie times wheie you'll want to combine two (oi moie) photos. If you have a
RAW file, you can acquiie it with uiffeient white balance anu exposuie options (among otheis). Foi
instance, you can acquiie anu save one image as a TIFF with noimal white balance, then a seconu time
with a uiffeient white balance. 0pen both photos into Photoshop, then choose the Nove tool (v) anu
holu uown the shift key while uiagging one photo on top of the othei. The Shift key foices the image to
align to the fiist one. Now choose the Eiasei tool anu white oi black as the foiegiounu tool to paint the
coloi fiom the one layei onto the othei.

To combine two uiffeient photos, you fiist neeu to cieate a selection in one photo. 0pen the seconu
image anu select all (Contiol-A) anu Copy (Contiol-C). uo back to the fiist image anu choose Euit -
Paste Into. The fiist selection will be pasteu into the seconu selection.

A bettei (anu fastei) choice foi meiging multiple images to cieate a Bigh Bynamic Range image
(BBR) thiough softwaie such as "BBR Expose" oi "Photomatix." Besigneu just foi this, these piogiams
tenu to uo a bettei job than Photoshop.

Cosmetic Suigeiy - Whethei you'ie tiying to smooth out wiinkle lines, help 0ncle Teu sheu a few
pounus oi just tiying to clean up a photo with some uust, Photoshop has tools to help you uo that.
Captuie NX 2 now has the Auto Retouch Biush which woiks well, but Photoshop offeis a laigei vaiiety
of these types of tools. The Clone tool is the oluest of the bunch in Photoshop, anu samples pixels fiom
one aiea anu puts them in anothei. It's goou foi cleaning uust out of the sky.

Theie aie bettei tools foi woiking on skin pioblems like blemishes, wiinkles anu scais than the clone
tool. The fiist step shoulu be to make a copy of the Backgiounu Layei (Contiol-}) so that all of youi fixes
aie taking place on a Layei, not the oiiginal image. Intiouuceu in CS2, the Spot Bealing Biush tiies to
automatically figuie out wheie to sample fiom. While it noimally woiks well, it sometimes picks an
aiea too close to wheie the fix is being maue, anu so is noticeable. If that happens, tiy the iegulai
Bealing Biush insteau. 0se these options -- Noue: Noimal, Souice: Sampleu anu Aligneu. Now choose a
biush slightly laigei than the size of the blemish you'ie fixing, then holu uown the Alt key (0ption, Nac)
anu sample a clean spot away fiom the blemish. Remembei that what's being taken fiom the aiea
you'ie sampling is the textuie, not the coloi. Now click anu biush ovei the blemish. Foi wiinkles oi
scais, the Patch tool is sometimes bettei. Set its options foi Souice, then make a selection of the wiinkle
oi scai. 0nce you have the selection, uiag it to a cleanei aiea neaiby, anu see how that woiks. The
pioblem with these fixes is that you can enu up with a face that's almost too smooth. 0se the Layeis
29
palette 0pacity sliuei to back off the effect so the peison looks noimal, but with softeneu wiinkles anu
blemishes. Foi slimming (oi having a bit of fun) tiy the Liquify tool (Filtei - Liquify). "Foiwaiu Waip"
can be useu to iemove a spaie tiie oi slim uown a neck oi cheeks.

Boiueis anu Text - An auueu touch foi a special photo is to auu a fiaming line to it anu a title, oi cieuit.
It's easily uone, again using layeis in Photoshop oi Elements. To cieate a white euge, fiist select the
image (Contiol-A, oi Commanu-A). Then choose Euit - Stioke anu set foi 6 pixels, coloi white, Insiue.
Now cieate a New Layei (Layei - New - Layei) anu go to Image - Canvas Size anu check Relative anu
change the Wiuth anu Beight boxes to 2-inches each. Nake the Canvas Extension Coloi black, anu click
0K. Now youi photo will have a white euge aiounu it, with a black boiuei. Anothei way of uoing this
woulu be to fiist cieate a Buplicate Backgiounu Layei ("Layei - Buplicate Layei."), then go to Image -
Canvas Size, then make suie "Relative" is checkeu anu auu a set amount in the Wiuth anu Beight boxes.
Then set the "Canvas extension coloi" to whatevei you want the boiuei to be. 0sing this technique
allows you to auu multiple boiueis anu uoes so without ciopping in slightly on the euges of youi image.

Foi a final step, choose the Type tool anu type in a title, a cieuit (youi name) oi both. Contiol - Retuin
to accept the type, then use the Nove tool (oi hit the v key to make it active) anu put the type wheie
you want it. 0f couise, theie aie many vaiiations on this, wheie you can use uiffeient colois oi auu
moie combinations of fiames, boiueis anu type.

:';<67
0ne of the gieat auvantages of uigital ovei film is the ability to have as many exact uuplicate files as
neeueu. Theie's no image uegiauation in copying a file fiom one foluei oi haiu uiive to anothei. In fact,
foi the fiist time in photogiaphy's histoiy, it's possible foi an oiiginal image to ietain all of its oiiginal
uata intact, inuefinitely, as long as the file is kept on cuiient meuia anu can be openeu. The one
uownsiue is that images can be lost, just as film coulu be lost. That's why a goou uigital woikflow is so
impoitant anu a goou backup stiategy too. If youi image only exists in one place, it's in uangei. Caius
can be lost, haiu uiives can ciash. That's why eveiy uiligent photogiaphei backs up theii images as
soon as possible. Theie aie a numbei of ways to accomplish that, anu some aie veiy easy. Peihaps the
best way to think about youi options is to consiuei what woiks best foi shoit-teim image stoiage anu
what's best foi long-teim.

Shoit-teim backup ielies mainly on haiu uiives anu memoiy caius (CF anu SB). Long-teim uses haiu
uiives too, but also biings in uevices like peisonal seiveis, NAS (Netwoik
Attacheu Stoiage) anu BvBs.

Baiu uiive - This is peihaps the easiest anu least expensive foi beginneis. A teiabyte haiu uiive can
now be bought foi unuei $1uu, anu is plug-anu-play on any cuiient computei opeiating system. In
othei woius, plug it in, connect it to the computei (usually thiough a 0SB poit), tuin it on anu the
computei will "see" it. Then you can simply uiag folueis of images ovei to it anu piesto, now you have a
seconu copy of youi images. You can (anu shoulu foi youi best images) take this one step fuithei, anu
copy those images to a haiu uiive that is then stoieu away fiom youi home. Bave a fiienu keep it, take
30
it to youi office oi use a safe ueposit box. Now youi images aie safe fiom fiie, floou, buiglaiy, etc. If
you'ie tiaveling with a computei, you can get veiy small, poitable haiu uiives that aie poweieu by the
computei's 0SB poit. That means you can backup youi photos to a seconu uevice even when tiaveling.
If you uo that, always keep that haiu uiive anu youi computei in sepaiate bags, in case one is lost oi
stolen.

0SB stick oi memoiy caius - Bigh capacity 0SB sticks, like the SanBisk 64uB 0ltia Backup, aie even
smallei, moie poitable ways to backup images on the ioau. Simply uownloau youi caius to the
computei, then backup those files to the stick. Small anu mostly plastic, you can keep it in youi pocket
while tiaveling, anu even while going thiough aiipoit secuiity. Nemoiy caius, too, can be goou
tempoiaiy backup uevices. You can uownloau the images to youi computei, then just tuck the caius
away someplace safe until you ietuin home. 0nce you've successfully backeu up the images fiom youi
computei, you can then ie-foimat the caius anu use them to shoot to again.

Seiveis - Seiveis, which aie enclosuies with multiple uiives accessible acioss a netwoik, useu to be
just foi businesses. No moie. Theie aie many options in home seiveis touay that can stoie not just youi
images, but youi othei impoitant uata, music anu viueos as well. Anu these seiveis can "seive" up
those music files anu viueos to othei uevices aiounu the house.

NAS uevices (Netwoik Attacheu Stoiage) aie similai to RAIB aiiays in that they can be accesseu acioss
a netwoik, anu often involve multiple uiives as well. With any uevices that communicate acioss a
netwoik, it's impoitant to have a fast netwoik. These uays that means you want to have cable, iouteis
anu computeis that suppoit gigabit speeus.

RAIB aiiays - Reuunuant Aiiay of Inuepenuent Bisks, a collection of haiu uiives in an enclosuie that
can be set up to combine the uiives into one laige uiive (RAIB u), as a "miiioieu" configuiation (RAIB
1, eveiy wiite oi uelete action is peifoimeu to two uiives simultaneously) oi as a combination of the
two stiategies (often calleu RAIB S oi 6). These aie also becoming moie common anu inexpensive, anu
give you fast access of veiy laige amounts of uata oi ieuunuancy wheie a uiive ciashing will mean no
immeuiate uata loss.

0nline backup - Theie aie seveial seivices that allow you to backup youi files online, as anothei
methou of piotecting youi most impoitant files. Nikon offeis such a seivice with my Pictuietown,
with 2uB fiee space, anu you can pay foi moie. 0thei companies offei similai seivices, anu capacities of
up to SuuB anu beyonu aie available. The two uiawbacks to this as a iegulai backup stiategy aie speeu
of uploau anu uownloau, anu secuiity of the uata once uploaueu. If you choose to use one of these
seivices, use one you tiust.

Photogiaphy Tiips
As mentioneu eailiei, a tiip planneu aiounu photogiaphy is a gieat way to push youiself to shoot
moie pictuies. Bowevei, it uoesn't neeu to be a two-week auventuie, oi even leave youi hometown.
Taking an houi to go exploie an unfamiliai paik oi using youi lunch bieak to walk the stieets neaiby
31
can also be iewaiuing. uet to know youi aiea as well as possible. Invest in a local map book anu use it
to keep notes of inteiesting places that may be best visiteu at a uiffeient time of uay oi season.

If you uo choose to take pait in a woikshop, heie's a link to some sponsoieu by Nikon, which means the
teacheis will be up-to-uate on Nikon geai: http:www.nikonusa.comLeain-Anu-ExploieNikon-
Woikshopsinuex.page:


Sliueshows
A gieat way to show anu shaie photos is by cieating a sliueshow anu auuing music. Lots of piogiams uo
this, but if you want to show this to a gioup of people, you'll piobably want to uo it on a Tv. In that case,
foi best quality, you ieally want a piogiam that will help you ienuei the show to BvB, which ieally means
it takes those still photos anu tuins them into viueo. Winuows Live Photo ualleiy (fiee fiom Niciosoft)
uoes that ieally well using the Novie Nakei poition. 0n the Nacintosh, using iPhoto anu iBvB lets you uo
the same. Foi moie featuies anu flexibility, tiy PioShow uolu, by Photouex (Winuows only) oi
FotoNagico, by Boinx (Nac only). With any sliueshow piogiam, two of the key featuies aie the ability to
change tiansitions anu timings, anu being able to auu a music tiack that the piogiam will sync the sliues
to (make the sliues anu music enu at the same time). If you'ie going to use music, check out some of the
excellent selections at Tiiple Scoop Nusic (www.TiipleScoopNusic.com).

Softwaie anu Tools 0seu

We use a lot of uiffeient softwaie packages thioughout the uay with Nikon School. All woik on both
Winuows anu Nac systems, unless noteu below. While most have been listeu above, the key ones we
use anuoi talk about aie below:

Coloi Nanagement
ColoiNunki Bisplay, i1 Bisplay Pio, ColoiNunki Photo - www.x-iite.com
Batacoloi Spyuei - www.spyuei.uatacoloi.com

Light Nouifieis
Photoflex - www.photoflex.com
BonlPhoto - www.BonlPhoto.com
Lumiquest - www.lumiquest.com
Westcott - www.fjwestcott.com

Biowsing anu Euiting softwaie
Nikon viewNX 2 - www.nikonusa.com
Nikon Captuie NX 2- www.nikonusa.com
Photo Nechanic - www.cameiabits.com
Nik Coloi Efex - plugins foi Captuie oi Photoshop - www.nikmultimeuia.com
32
BBR Expose - 0nifieuColoi.com
Photomatix - BBRsoft.com

viueo euiting softwaie
Photoshop Piemieie Elements anu Auobe Piemieie Pio - www.auobe.com
Final Cut Pio X - www.Apple.com
iPhoto - www.Apple.com
Winuows Live Photo ualleiy - www.miciosoft.com

CF anu SB caius
SanBisk - www.sanuisk.com

Lowepio cameia bags, packs anu iolleis - www.Lowepio.com

Image Recoveiy Softwaie
SanBisk RescuePio - www.SanBisk.com

Image Shaipening anu othei Plug-ins
Nik Shaipenei - www.nikmultimeuia.com

Aichiving Softwaie
Neuia Pio 1 - www.Phase0ne.com

Sliueshow cieation softwaie
PioShow uolu (Winuows only) - www.photouex.com
Pictuies to Exe (Winuows 0nly) - www.wnsoft.com
iPhoto, iBvB (Nac only) - www.apple.com

Books we Like

- Real Woilu Captuie NX 2 (Long)
- Speeu of Light, (NcNally)
- The Bot Shoe Biaiies (NcNally)
- Real Woilu Bigital Photogiaphy (Eismann, Buggan, uiey)
- Complete Bigital Photogiaphy (Long)
- Real Woilu Photoshop
- Fiom Still to Notion - BSLR viueo tips
- Coloi Confiuence (uiey)
- Photoshop foi Photogiapheis (Evening)
- Photoshop foi Bigital Photogiapheis (Kelby)
- Photoshop Nastei Class (Caponigio)
- Real Woilu Coloi Nanagement (Fiasei, Nuiphy, Bunting)
33
- Nasteiing Bigital Piinting (}ohnson)
- The Complete uuiue to Bigital Photogiaphy (Fieeman)
- Photoshop Nasking anu Compositing (Eismann)

Auuitional Infoimation

Bue to time limits, theie aie topics we'u love to uiscuss but just can't fit into the uay. While we may
covei them uuiing the Question anu Answei session, they'ie listeu heie as well.

Foimatting caius
0ne of the best ways to avoiu caiu pioblems is to get in the habit of iegulaily ie-foimatting youi
caius. The best way to uo this is with youi cameia, using its built-in foimat function. This ieplaces the
cuiient uiiectoiy on the caiu with a new, clean one, anu can ieally help cut uown on possible caiu
eiiois. }ust iemembei, only foimat a caiu when you no longei caie about any photos that aie on it

Nenus - It seems that eveiy uigital cameia these uays has hunuieus of menus. Let's look at a few of the
key ones:

Active B-Lighting - This option is an attempt to stietch the uynamic iange of the cameia. Eveiy cameia,
whethei film oi uigital, has a limiteu iange of light that it can iecoiu. With touay's uigital cameias that
tenus to be aiounu six stops of light. Anything beyonu that will iecoiu as eithei black oi white (unuei
oi oveiexposeu). Active B-Lighting stietches that iange a bit by unueiexposing the image (thus saving
moie highlight uetail) anu then auuing extia piocessing to pull out uetail in the shauows (that woulu
have been lost uue to the unueiexposuie). Some Nikons offei set levels of B-Lighting, anu the newei
ones also offei "Auto." We've founu Auto to be veiy effective, as it only tuins on in contiasty situations,
applying the amount it feels necessaiy, anu something most people shoulu at least tiy.

White Balance - In oiuei to piocess an image with coloi, the uigital cameia has to come to some
uecision on what coloi (coloi tempeiatuie oi Kelvin) the light is in the scene. All cameias come out of
the box set to Auto, wheie they tiy to figuie that out themselves. This woiks well in many situations,
anu a lot of photogiapheis aie happy with it. Bowevei, if you know what the light is that you'ie
woiking in, go aheau anu set the cameia that way. You'll gain consistency in coloi by uoing that.

White Balance Pieset is especially effective, letting you cieate a custom white balance foi a paiticulai
situation. It's a faiily simple piocess, iequiiing you to set the cameia to iecoiu a WB Pieset (check youi
manual foi how to uo this), then photogiaphing a "neutial taiget" (giay caiu, oi a white sheet of papei
is neaily as goou) in the light you'ie going to shoot in. Nikon cameias will then uisplay "uoou" oi "No
uu" on the top uisplay to let you know whethei the cameia successfully ueteimineu a white balance
ieauing. Fiom then on it will piocess images shot using that ieauing as long as the white balance
contiol is set to "Pie". To change it, simply shoot a new one. 0nce you've cieateu a Pieset white balance
it will be theie until you cieate a new one ovei it. In othei woius, if you cieate a Pieset anu use it, then
34
use othei settings (Auto, Baylight, etc.); if you go back to the "Pie" it will be theie just as befoie.

Exposuie Fine-Tuning - 0vei the yeais we've iegulaily hau people complain that they uon't think theii
cameia meteis piopeily. "The images always come out too light," they might complain, oi "too uaik."
Almost always, upon checking, theie was nothing wiong with the metei. They simply piefeiieu theii
images to be a uiffeient tonal iange than most people. The Exposuie Fine-Tuning menu was maue with
them in minu. 0sing it you can set the cameia to consistently ovei- oi unuei-expose by a set amount,
without seeing that in the metei ieauouts. In othei woius, it changes what might be consiueieu "u" foi
the metei.

Bigh IS0 Noise Reuuction - With any uigital cameia, as you push the IS0 highei, you'll stait to make
uigital "noise" moie visible. This menu auus a piocessing step to the image to help ieuuce that noise.
Some people like it, some uon't. If you shoot a lot of high IS0 images, then you might want to tiy it.

Fiimwaie - The fiimwaie in a cameia is the softwaie that uiives it. 0ccasionally the manufactuiei will
want to auu a featuie (oi featuies, in some cases) to a cameia, auu suppoit foi newei memoiy caius, oi
fix something that they uiun't finu when fiist shipping the cameia. That's why it's a goou iuea to check
the manufactuiei's website (www.Nikon0SA.com) eveiy few months to see if youi cameia has the
cuiient fiimwaie. If a new veision has been ieleaseu, ieau what it uoes anu then if you want, uownloau
anu install it. You can uo it youiself by following the simple instiuctions on the website.

Instiuctoi's Favoiites - Five photogiapheis teach the Nikon School of Photogiaphy, anu heie aie a few
of the othei menus they like to use:

AF Activation - Allows you to change AF "0n" fiom the shuttei button to the ieai AF button only.
Easy exposuie compensation - Nakes it easiei (uuh!) to use exposuie compensation by iemoving the
necessity of holuing uown the +- button on top.
White Balance Slots - Newei Nikon cameias, fiom the miu-iange anu highei, give you foui Pieset
locations wheie you can stoie fiequently useu White Balance Piesets.
Foimat - This is the easiest, best way to help caius live a tiouble-fiee life. Boing an in-cameia foimat
aftei safely uownloauing the images to youi computei puts a new uiiectoiy stiuctuie on the caiu,
iathei than simply auuing moie infoimation to the existing one.
Non-CP0 lens uata - If you have an oluei Nikon lens that uoesn't have the CP0 contacts to communicate
with the cameia, you lose the ability to metei. This menu lets you piogiam the length anu apeituie of
an olu lens (oi moie than one) to again have Apeituie Automatic meteiing. Cool!
viitual hoiizon - Tuins the LCB uisplay on the back of a BSX, BS oi B7uu into a level. veiy neat.
Live view - Foi low oi high-angle shooting (cameia on giounu oi helu above the heau), a gieat featuie
on the cameias that have it.
Assign Function Button - Some of Nikon's cameias have a Function button on the fiont, anu this menu
lets you assign vaiious options to it.
File Numbei Sequencing - Can be set to foice the cameia to always ieset the numbeiing to "uuu1" when
you put in a new caiu, oi keep numbeiing fiom wheie it left off.
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Nultiple ExposuieImage 0veilayInteivalometei - All veiy cool ways to uo even moie with youi
uigital cameia.
Custom Timeis - you can change how long things like the metei oi the ieai LCB stay on.
Woilu Time - Lets you switch time zones iathei than changing youi cameia's
uatetime stamp manually.
Image CommentCopyiight - Allows you to auu infoimation to the EXIF uata being wiitten each time
you piess the shuttei button.
Auto Image Rotation - 0ses the cameia's oiientation sensoi to ueteimine if the image is a veitical oi
hoiizontal, anu passes that info along to smait biowseis (like Nikon viewNX 2).
Flash Sync Speeu (Auto FP) - Some of Nikon's uigital SLRs have this setting which foices the flash into
"Focal Plane" action, which then lets you shoot above the noimal high sync shuttei speeu. veiy hanuy
foi sunny outuoois fill flash.
Ciop Noue - The B2X, BSX, BS, BSS anu B7uu all have this option, which lets you change the image
captuie aiea fiom full fiame to less than that (moie on that below).
Batteiy Info - Since moving to Lithium-Ion batteiies, batteiy life ieauouts have become much
moie accuiate.
0pgiauing
Theie aie many goou ieasons to upgiaue lenses anu cameias. Beie aie some of the bettei ones:

Bouies
- Bo you have a seconu bouy. Nultiple bouies means less lens switching, fewei misseu photo
oppoitunities, anu if one cameia fails, you can still shoot pictuies. This is a must if going on a special oi
unique tiip wheie iepaii oi ieplacement of a bioken cameia woulu be impossible.
- You may want to auu a bouy with FX oi BX capability. BX cameias have the built-in ciop factoi,
which can give telephotos a naiiowei angle of view (gieat foi spoits oi wilulife photogiaphy). The
Nikon B4, BSS, BS anu B7uu have FX sensois that excel in low light, making them gieat foi anyone
who iegulaily shoots in pooi light. Anu the B8uu, B6uu, BS2uu anu BSX, with theii hihg-iesolution
chips (24NP anu above), have unbeatable iesolution foi huge piints oi ciopping.
- Bighei-enu cameias offei moie functions anu menus, toughei builu, moie weathei-sealing anu
shutteis with highei iatings (longei lives).
- Anu sometimes it makes sense to buy one of the smallei, entiy to miu-level cameias to take
auvantage of theii lightei weight.

Lenses
- 0sually people want to auu lenses to theii kit to expanu theii focal length iange, going longei oi
wiuei. Bowevei, often times upgiauing to a fastei lens, one with a wiuei maximum apeituie, is moie
beneficial. That means being able to shoot pictuies in less light, oi to get fastei shuttei speeus in pooi
light.
- Noie expensive lenses, especially paiieu with highei-enu bouies, can iesult in fastei autofocus.
- Anu, moie expensive lenses benefit fiom highei-enu uesigns anu coatings, aie often built toughei to
withstanu moie use, anu oveiall give bettei peifoimance in the long iun.

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Lens Choices
Nikon makes both a 1u.Smm f2.8 full-fiame fisheye BX lens anu a tiauitional 16mm f2.8 full-fiame
fisheye (foi film anu FX bouies). These lenses give 18umm of coveiage, making them a lot of fun to use,
especially when useu close to a subject. Theii use is bioaueneu, though, when paiieu with Nikon's
Captuie NX 2 softwaie. 0sing it, you can click a button calleu "Fisheye Lens" to have the image
"stiaighteneu" into a 1Su-uegiee view without the cuivatuie.

"Fast" is a teim useu to uesciibe lenses that open wiuei than what woulu noimally be founu in a lens of
that size. Nost lenses tenu to iange fiom fS.S to fS.6, but most fast lenses stait at f2.8 anu go wiuei
fiom theie (f1.4 anyone.). Theie aie two big auvantages to "fast" lenses. Fiist, they let you shoot at a
highei shuttei speeu in low light. If you can shoot at 16u seconu, f4 at 16uu IS0, an f2 lens woulu let
you shoot in the same light, at the same IS0, at 12Su seconu. The othei auvantage to a fast lens is that
it has much less uepth of fielu. That means the backgiounu can often be uniecognizable.

Wilulife photogiapheis aie usually familiai with teleconveiteis. These look like small lenses that
mount between a telephoto lens anu the cameia bouy anu extenu the ieach of the lens. In ietuin foi
that extenueu ieach, you lose some light. Nikon builus thiee teleconveiteis. A 1.4X, that, foi instance,
woulu make a Suumm a 42umm, losing one stop of light. A 1.7X, so a Suumm becomes a S1umm anu
loses 1.S stops of light. Anu a 2X that makes that Suumm a 6uumm, at the cost of two stops of light. If
you'ie inteiesteu in a teleconveitei, check fiist to make suie it will woik with youi lens. Nikon's
teleconveiteis aie uesigneu foi theii highei-enu telephotos.

Foi close-ups, nothing beats a Nicio (sometimes calleu Nacio) lens. Nikon makes five, fiom 4umm to
2uumm, anu thiee of those aie f2.8. While most people think of them only as close-focus lenses, it's
woith iemembeiing that they all focus to infinity anu aie pietty fast, so they'ie veiy useful in low light
too.

Tiipous
The best thing you can uo when buying a tiipou is to spenu moie money than you'u like. Tiipous aien't
sexy. Bowevei, piopeily caieu foi a goou one shoulu last many, many yeais. A pooi quality one, on the
othei hanu, will make you leave it behinu.

Tiipous aie all about suppoit. If it's not steauy, it's not woith using. Anu no mattei how stuiuy a tiipou
you have, the highei you make it, the less stable it becomes. Bon't iaise the centei post unless you
absolutely have to. Small, less-expensive tiipous can uo a goou job if they'ie useu low to the giounu.

If you invest in a goou tiipou, you'll also likely be investing in a goou heau to use on it. Spenu some time
ieseaiching the options. The Aica-Swiss type mount is veiy popluai with seiious photogiapheis anu
theie aie a numbei of companies that specialize in plates anu heaus with that uesign.

Bags
If you'ie going to caiiy moie than one cameia anu lens, then you neeu a bag. Anu a goou bag shoulu be
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both comfoitable anu functional. Shouluei bags, backpacks anu waist belts aie peisonal uecisions
photogiapheis make. Foi tiavel, nothing beats a goou backpack. If you'ie tiaveling veiy fai, then you
might want to consiuei one with wheels. If going by plane, ieseaich luggage allowances, numbei,
weight anu size, anu plan accoiuingly. Lowepio has a veiy goou selection of well-maue bags. Lowepio
makes a bag foi almost eveiy use, fiom shouluei to waist to backpack to iollei.

Keeping the sensoi clean
No mattei how caieful you aie, you'll still sometimes get uust in the cameia. That uust can settle on the
low-pass filtei coveiing the sensoi anu iesult in small uefects in the image that look like smuuges. If
youi Nikon cameia offeis a built-in cleaning ioutine ("Clean image sensoi), go into the Setup menu anu
set it to iun that at staitup anu shutuown (eveiy time the cameia's tuineu on oi off). While that can
help, theie may still be times that uust appeais on the sensoi. Because that filtei is uelicate anu easily
uamageu, Nikon iecommenus that any manual cleaning be uone by Nikon-authoiizeu seivice
peisonnel. It is possible to tiy to clean the sensoi youiself, but use extieme caution. Sometimes simply
blowing off the sensoi with a blowei-bulb (not compiesseu aii) can iemove uust. To uo that, you fiist
neeu to use the "Lock miiioi up foi cleaning" option in the menus. Check youi usei manual foi uetails.

Piinting
As gieat as it is to be able to show anu shaie images on computeis, theie's still nothing quite
like holuing a piint in youi hanu. The tiansition to uigital photogiaphy means that anyone with a
computei anu a goou photo piintei has, essentially, a uaikioom in theii home. To make suie those
piints live up to youi expectations, theie aie a few things you neeu to know:

- Inkjet is the most common type of high quality piinting uone at home these uays. With inkjets, you
neeu to unueistanu the uiffeience between uye-baseu inks anu pigment inks. Bye-baseu have in the
past given us the biightest colois anu satuiation, but at the cost of lifespan. Newei ink foimulations
useu with ceitain papeis can now cieate piints that, piopeily caieu foi, will last 2u-to-Su yeais oi
moie. Pigment inks have a longei life, some combinations estimateu to last 2uu yeais oi beyonu. You'll
finu that some of the longest liveu inkpiintei combinations, in both uye anu pigment, aie cuiiently
being piouuceu by Bewlett Packaiu. Foi moie on infoimation piint peimanence, look at the
inuepenuent site www.wilhelm-ieseaich.com.

- Papei choice is a ciitical component to a long lifespan as well as goou piint quality, so the easy
answei is to use the manufactuiei's papei anu ink combinations. That's what theii piintei, ink anu
uiiveis aie uesigneu foi. Thiiu paity papeis can be an option, but uo a little ieseaich on longevity anu
be piepaieu to spenu some time getting the settings iight foi goou-quality piints. Cheap papeis will
equal cheap (pooi quality) piints. Regaiuless of the papei bianu you settle on, be suie to consiuei some
of the uiffeient suiface types. Papeis with semi-gloss oi matte suifaces have become veiy populai.

Ait papeis (such as Bahnemule oi Noab) can be an excellent choice foi theii unique suifaces, anu
theii high quality means longevity shoulun't be an issue. Bowevei, check to see if they offei piintei
uiiveis foi the piintei you have. 0theiwise expect to spenu some time finuing the iight combination of
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settings to get goou iesults. If you have a coloi management package that allows you to make custom
piintei piofiles (such as those by X-Rite) you can cieate youi own.

- The softwaie youi computei uses to contiol the piinting is calleu the "piint uiivei." Eveiy goou
piintei comes with a uiivei foi that piintei, anu it contiols eveiything fiom the speeu to the amount of
ink useu to the shape of the ink uioplet anu how the ink is spiayeu onto the papei. The speeu at which a
piintei outputs images shoulu be youi last concein unless using the piintei in a piouuction
enviionment. In fact, foi the best quality piints you'll often want to slow that piocess uown by tuining
off options like "Bigh Speeu". Peihaps most impoitant is the conveision that the uiivei has to uo to get
goou iesults tiansitioning fiom an RuB image on scieen to essentially a CNYK image on papei. It's
impoitant to be suie that you have the latest uiivei (check youi manufactuiei's website) with the
cuiient ciop of ICC piofiles foi the papei(s) you'ie using.

- The ICC piofile foi a specific papei type coulu be calleu the iecipe foi that piinteiinkpapei
combination. As new papeis aie uevelopeu anu ieleaseu, new piofiles aie cieateu foi them. Anu as time
passes, theie aie often upuateu piofiles foi existing papeis. 0sing the latest piofile is one of the keys to
getting excellent iesults when piinting. Remembei, though, that each piofile is foi a specific
piinteiinkpapei combination. 0sing the wiong piofile almost guaiantees pooi iesults.

Piintei Bialogs
When senuing an image to the piintei, the most impoitant choice you make is telling the piintei
uiivei what specific type of papei you'ie using. Than means you'u select something like "BP B}
Su9u1Su - Photo Satin", which means you'ie piinting on BP's Satin papei on a Besignjet Su oi 9u oi
1Su. Without this infoimation the piintei will piobably expect plain papei, anu you'll be unhappy with
the iesults (anu will have wasteu a sheet of photo papei).

If iunning coloi management, you have to be suie to tuin off coloi management in the uiivei
uialog, because uouble-managing the coloi will mean pooi iesults. Sometimes theie's a button that says
something like "No Coloi Nanagement". In most BP piinteis you simply choose "Application Nanageu
Colois" to tell the uiivei that you'ie managing the coloi fiom the application, not fiom the uiivei.

Neutial Black anu White
Foi best quality black anu white piints fiom an inkjet piintei, be suie to leave coloi inks tuineu on.
The piinteis use a combination of coloi anu black inks to piouuce giayscale output. If the uefault
settings uon't give you the neutiality you'ie looking foi, you can tiy aujusting the ink settings in the
piintei uialog boxes.