DSLR Nikon D70

dSLR Nikon D70 DSLR: NIKON™ D70 BY PETER INOVA WITH UWE STEINMUELLER i dSLR: Nikon D70 iNova, Peter, 1944– dSLR: Ni...

Author: Peter iNova

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dSLR Nikon D70

DSLR: NIKON™ D70 BY PETER INOVA WITH UWE STEINMUELLER

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dSLR: Nikon D70

iNova, Peter, 1944– dSLR: Nikon D70 By Peter iNova with Uwe Steinmueller Includes CD with software programs for image manipulation, demonstration, and eBook display for both Macintosh and Windows computer platforms.

Text proofing Marian Inova, Anita Dorich Contributing Gallery photographers Adam Skillings, Artem Kamshilin, Marilu Bishop, Snook, John Desanto, Keith McKane, Cassandra Greashaber, Todd Bennett, Uncle Frank, Vince Crisler, Scott Smith ISBN 1-882383-54-0 dSLR: Nikon D70 © Copyright 2004 by Peter iNova. All rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, file duplication, or by other electronic, logical, or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the author and Graphics Management Press, except for brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

Graphics Management, Inc. P.O. Box 241811 Los Angeles, CA 90024 (310) 475-2988 E-Mail: [email protected]

Book design, layout, and CD preparation by Peter iNova & Uwe Steinmueller.

All photographs, diagrams, and artwork within the text by Peter iNova unless noted otherwise. Additional photographs in the Gallery by the photographers cited. Copyrights belong to the participating photographers. Both publisher and author assume neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any direct or indirect loss or damage caused, or alleged to be caused, by the information, data, software, or computer files contained herein, or for errors, omissions, inaccuracies, or any other inconsistencies within these documents, pages, programs, or files, or for unintentional slights against people or organizations.

Published in the USA Digital photography eBooks from Peter iNova: Nikon Coolpix eBook, Sony Advanced Cyber-shot eBook Digital photography books and eBooks from Uwe Steinmueller: Digital Photography Workflow Handbook, Digital Photography Workflow Sessions #1, Die digitale Dunkelkammer (in German).

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dSLR Nikon D70

FOREWORD/FORWARD Why this eBook? Paper books are handy. You can throw them in a suitcase and travel to China and they need no viewing apparatus to read them other than good light and a lap, so why an eBook? In a way, thatʼs like asking, why digital photography? It isnʼt the same thing as film photography. Its digital nature binds it to a computer, and learning the ins and outs of digital photography without a computer is not practical. If your sense of photography does not involve the computer connection—quick: close this volume and step away from the computer with your hands in the air. Nobody will get hurt. But if you are like most people today, the computer you are viewing this on gives you access to the Internet, facilitates writing letters, keeping records and having fun, and it is part of the reason you became interested in digital photography in the first place. When I started writing about digital photography, neither the world of publishers nor art directors understood the D word. Digital was not yet a part of their horizon, but now they canʼt get enough of it. A picture is worth a thousand words, but today itʼs worth three million bytes. By reading this book on your computer, it wonʼt easily become lap material, but it will be just a click away from trying ideas and viewing things in a new way. Weʼve all seen publications that show you photographic examples where the detail in the images pretty much failed the authorʼs intent to reveal some pithy reality. The author may have seen the texture, detail or subtlety in the image he handed the printer, but by the time it became paper, the point was lost underneath all the printing dots. Not here. Photos in this eBook are far higher resolution than those delivered in print, and since the subject is photography, we understand that you might wish to “drill in” and see them the way you might with a slide projector or enlarger.

Be my guest. Shots in this volume can stand a 400% blow-up, filling your computer screen without ever bumping into the pixels that made them. Itʼs as though you could view a printed book a few inches from your nose without losing photographic image quality. Throughout this volume, images arenʼt just sitting there on the page, either. Many of them are interactive. Roll your on-screen cursor over and image and the image changes to reveal a next-level truth, a direct comparison between shot A and shot B, or if the image allows, click the mouse and see shot C. Meaning that some images are worth at least three thousand words. If you wish, print out pages that interest you. On a laser printer you can print them on US letter paper at full size in black and white or if you wish, use an ink jet printer to run them out in full color. If you have a laptop computer, note that the Adobe Readers that play the eBookʼs files can actually turn the image sideways to make a portrait-oriented page display. Your laptop now reads in your lap just like a book. Throughout the text, you will see words highlighted in color. These are interactive, too. Click on one and it will take you to the page that contains whatever is being referenced. Some will instantly try to connect you to the Internet and bring up a listing that fits the reference. Of course, you need to be connected to the Internet to do that, but with wireless connections and the continuous stimulations from Starbucks, it just might work better for you than you would predict. The CD that you now own has more to it than just this volume. Our associate, Uwe Steinmueller has added the equivalent of a full second volume of information about the exciting world of RAW photography that allows your Nikon D70 to achieve ultimate image quality and refinement. On the CD you will find several interesting demo and utility programs, as well.

Since so much of this volume deals with the single most-apt editing program—the only one that matches the technical zenith that your D70 represents, Adobe Photoshop—we have provided the complete library of iNovaFX Photoshop Actions for you to use with your images. Everything in this package is designed to do one thing: make your photos better, more fun, more satisfying and more valuable. Some might call that four things, but I digress. The D70 combines such a well-coordinated series of features and abilities that it deserved to have its many secrets revealed. The eBook is not a manual, exactly, but it digs into the secrets that lie behind each feature, knob, button and menu item. Secrets lurk there. Secrets that can help you make better images while making your images better. Other books exist to give you the “improved manual” experience; this oneʼs about improved picture taking. Packed in here are lessons, questions, hot topics, practical guidance and custom software for users of Photoshop. If Iʼve done my job here, you will be taking better pictures, and you will know why they are better. Youʼll be printing, correcting, improving, and finessing your shots through a greater experience base, and you will be enjoying Photoshop instead of thinking itʼs just too hard to learn. That camera in your hand is a fabulous instrument that beckons you to create images. It has a lot to teach you and you have a lot to teach it. Bon aperture... -Peter iNova, Summer, 2004

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GETTING THE MOST FROM THIS EBOOK This eBook is a text, a number of computer elements on CD, and an extended experience on the Internet. ACROBAT VIEWING

Two main file types are here marked High Res and Ultra Res. Each of them will start up Acrobat for viewing with a double click. In either version one large file contains the whole eBook. The text in each is identical, but the Ultra Res versionʼs files have greater image detail. As you read these pages in Adobe Acrobat™ or Adobe Reader™, the page is taller than your screen, most likely, and the distance from your eyes to the screen is greater than your normal book-reading distance. In order to adjust for that, the page image will likely feel best to you at 125% or 150% scale, as set by Acrobat. With the page at 140% magnification, it works well on a 14- or 15-inch screen such as is found on many portable computers. You can have Acrobat optionally show you one page at a time, or pages laid out like an open book, or as pages following one another in a continuous scroll. You can opt to rotate the image for more paper book-like viewing with a laptop. THUMBNAIL BROWSING

The thumbnails running down the left side of the Acrobat Reader page work well as a quick browser. Acrobat 6.0 tabs this feature under the title “Pages” while previous versions call it “Thumbnails.” They give you a chance to scan the chapter or complete eBook pages fairly quickly and spot any page that looks familiar. Any page you can see is accessible by simply clicking on it. Immediately the new page will appear at the current viewing magnification. The header bar on earlier Acrobats have a control to turn the thumbnail images on and off to conserve screen space, if you wish, and Version 6ʼs Pages tab makes this intuitive. INTERACTIVITY

You will find a certain level of Acrobat interactivity in some places. Generally, clicking on any color-identified text will jump to a referenced topic if an interactive link is in place. Click on a chapter in the Table of Contents and the chapter will immediately appear. In the text, a citing of another chapterʼs information on the subject will also link to it. Interactive images abound. Some reveal secondary or comparison images as you roll your mouse over the picture on the page, and a few reveal a third image with a mouse click/hold on the image. Captions guide you as to what to expect. Note that the Acrobat reader behaves much like an Internet browser and the solid arrow triangles in the header or footer will navigate forward and backward through a string of interactive jumps. ZOOMING IN

Many of the images in this book are made from full-size files from the D70. Some images have been made on other digital cameras where image qualities or specific features of the D70 isnʼt at issue. All can be seen in closer detail. In general, the High Resolution file can be viewed up to 200% before your monitor shows the pixel image structure. Ultra Resolution files are designed to withstand a 400% enlargement on your monitor without breaking into

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discrete pixels. Not all images will do this. The High-Resolution file is faster to move through, simply because the images contain less data. If you are inspecting images closely, the selection box on the thumbnail image will show you the portion of the page you are currently viewing. Clicking the cursor on any other image in the stream of thumbnails will jump to it instantly while maintaining the current magnification. This makes it easy to compare similar-sized images and peer into their details unusually quickly. Without printing dots to break up the pixel structure, the details stay more photographic. PRINTING OUT

You can print out ranges of pages from this book in black and white, as with a laser printer, or in color, as with an ink-jet printer, any time you wish for reference. The color charts and test images are on the CD for easy access and may be printed out, too. If you wish to print a single chapter, select the first page, then scroll to the last page and Shift/Click it to highlight all intermediate pages. This should facilitate printing the desired range of pages for you. Adobe Acrobatʼs Help files will give you pointers if you encounter puzzling situations. INOVAFX ACTIONS

Included on the CD are the Photoshop Actions under the iNovaFX brand. These are 100% original procedures, manipulations, and helpful orchestrations of Photoshopʼs myriad features. Look for the iBC barrel distortion Actions, the iCrAb chromatic aberration reduction Actions, the iCC color-repair Actions, the B&W film-look Actions, the JPEG artifact-suppressing Action, the ISO-boosting Actions, the iFF denoise Actions, and several others. Theyʼre all created to work particularly well with the images from the D70 and various lenses. Some, like the iBC and iCC Actions are tuned so specifically to the color space attributes of I, IIa and III. INTRODUCING UWE

A subject like the D70 is deep. Itʼs complexity is rich and the number of things you can do with it is huge. Joining in on this project is renowned fine art and naturalist photographer, Uwe Steinmueller who has more experience and good instruction on Photoshop Layers and RAW files than any photographer I know. What are those things, you may ask? Buckle up, theyʼre heading your way right now. INTERNET UPDATES

It is inevitable. Data in a timely document like this may give way to new information, become obsolete, or acquire new meanings as technology progresses. After reading through this eBook you may wish to visit our special site holding updated information, links, special offers, new techniques, and the latest information about these cameras.

http://www.digitalsecrets.net/D70.html

dSLR Nikon D70

CONTENTS CHAPTER 0 PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-1 CHAPTER 1 BASICS AND NOT SO BASICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1 CHAPTER 2 DIGITAL PHOTO MYTH REDUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1 CHAPTER 3 THE PHOTOSHOP CONNECTION

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1

CHAPTER 3A USING PHOTOSHOP LAYERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3-13 CHAPTER 4 D70 OPERATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1 CHAPTER 4A SB-800 OPERATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4A-1 CHAPTER 5 HOW DO I? THE TOP 40 PHOTOGRAPHIC PROBLEMS . . . . 5-1 CHAPTER 6 LEARNING DIGITOGRAPHY—SELF-HELP COURSE . . . . . . . 6-1 CHAPTER 7 PRINTING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1 CHAPTER 8 SPECIAL EFFECTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-1 CHAPTER 9 VEXING FAQS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-1 CHAPTER 10 INOVAFX ACTION OPERATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10-1 APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AX-1 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I-1 DIGITAL VISIONS D70: A GALLERY OF D70 PHOTOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G-1 RAW MATERIALS (UWE STEINMUELLER) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BONUS VOLUME FOREWORD/FORWARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GETTING THE MOST FROM THIS EBOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NOTE TO FILM PHOTOGRAPHERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MEET THE CAMERA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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A NOTE TO FILM PHOTOGRAPHERS Darn it. Just about the time you got real comfortable with Velvia and Plus-X, somebody came along and connected a battery to the film! What were they thinking? Not to worry, film isnʼt dead. But since youʼre here, it already occured to you to start thinking about digital image capture, and the D70 is just the thing for you to use to get your digital feet wet. Up to your waist. In fact, the camera is so good, youʼre going to be swimming in digital photography from now on, and this eBook may act as a digital life preserver. A growing number of your contemporaries, and probably even you, too, have embraced a large part of the digital photographic revolution. Slide and negative scanners, ink-jet printers, Photoshop manipulation, CD-R storage—these have all become natural parts of the contemporary film photographerʼs world. Itʼs gotten so digitally thick these days, that customers and clients are beginning to feel cheated if there isnʼt that D-word associated with the current project. How much of a jump could it be to digital acquisition? Well, in the case of the cameras about which this eBook is concerned, the price of admission starts at about a thousand dollars, US. The price of accessories will add half-again as much to the bottom line, but by starting with a D70 you will have bought into a multi-optic, unusually configured, highly versatile system that brings new opportunities and experiences— and for many, it inherits your shelf full of Nikkor lenses. Yes, the film is free, but when did the cost of film ever stop you? The big deal here is Time. Instant results. Not Polaroidʼs minute or filmʼs hour: Now! And with a TV hooked to your camera, the whole agency can watch the test shots coming together on the big screen (and wonʼt that be fun). But seriously, you can use a digital camera as the worldʼs most sophisticated light meter for large format work, if you calibrate it to the film you are using. With controls in the D70 that let you adjust contrast, color temperature, ISO, and all the normal numbers of shutter speed and f-stop, you can have a light meter that tells you how to set other equipment or shows you unambiguously how your lighting is performing. A light meter that takes pictures, now thatʼs a new one. In this eBook, you will see images that are obviously studio shots and many that are captured in the field with existing lighting or little extra lighting. That little flash on the camera is a good flash-fill for outdoor images and nearby subjects indoors, but thatʼs about it. Never fear, Nikon has a surprise for you that will redefine your appreciation of on-camera flash. The work process of the D70 may seem odd at first, but it will grow on you. Youʼre going to love the fact that the film cartridge holds not just a few more than the 36 exposures youʼve been using—it holds HUNDREDS of shots, if you let it. In all, the jump into digital is a personal journey that will provoke a whole lot of questions. Questions that you can answer yourself by playing with the camera and trying new ideas. As has happened to more than one film photographer, the experience will be a turning point in your career. Good shooting.

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dSLR Nikon D70

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS An eBook like this is the product of many hands, many hours, many re-thoughts, and many misteaks. I speak with typographical errors, sometimes, so it comes as no great surprise to me that I write that way. Among the many hands are the ones of the models and actors who participated in the photos throughout these pages. Thanks go to actors Molly Kiley (right), Austin Vulich and models Lisa Dennis, Tim Wilder, Todd Chaney and the people of California, New York, Japan, Italy and China who appear in many of my images. Thanks, too, to friends who have suffered enough hearing about this project, appearing in images, and yet, were encouraging throughout. Then there is a special thanks to Marian iNova who helped by serving as fresh eyes and valued editor while my rants took shape. Extra points go to Uwe Steinmueller for his contributions that teach Photoshop Layers and RAW image processing. Nikon gets a unique nod here. Not only have they created an extraordinary camera and subject, but Nikon USA has gone the extra mile to help this project along. A particular badge of courage should be extended to William Dorich, the publisher who took a deep breath, rolled his eyes, and decided to embrace this new publishing medium with an open mind. Your counsel and fearlessness are appreciated.

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dSLR: Nikon D70

Meet the Camera System

Nikon D70 (2004- )

AF-S Nikkor 18-70mm Zoom (A. K. A. Kit Lens) Petal Lens Shade Shade Bayonet Index Mark Zoom Collar, clockwise to tele Manual Focus Collar Distance Markings (internal) Pop up Flash Viewfinder Mirror Housing Focus Assist/Signal Light Sub Command Dial On/Off Switch Shutter Release Meter Type Select EV +/– Select LCD Data Panel Data Panel Light

Camera Strap Attach Point Image Plane Mark Main Command Dial Intelligent Hot Shoe Viewfinder Eyepiece Flash Adjust/Release Button Lens Release Button Exposure Mode Dial Left Camera Strap Attach Point

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dSLR Nikon D70

Nikon D70

Momentary Depth of Field Button Lens Serial number

Battery Compartment Door Textured Base Plate

Camera Body Focus Mode Switch

Camera Serial Number Metal Tripod Socket

Viewfinder Focus Slider

Viewfinder

Auto Exposure/Auto Focus Lock Single / Continuous / Self-Timer / Remote / Timed Remote Selector

Monitor Protective Cover

Bracket Mode Selector

CF Card Eject Button

Color Monitor

Multi-Selector Switch

Review Button

Focus Zone Lock Toggle

Menu Button

CF Card Door

ISO / Multi Thumbnail Button

CF Card Activity Light

White Balance / Protect Button

Delete Button

Image Size/Compression / Zoom Button

Rollover

Auto-Focus / Manual Switch (on Lens) Power / Video Compartment Cover DC Power In Video Out USB Port Cover USB Port

Rollover

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dSLR: Nikon D70

Nikon SB-800 Speedlight (2004- ) Small Bounce Reflector (Pop-Out) Wide-Flash Optical Spreader (Pop-Out) Detachable Diffusion Dome Zoom Flash Window Adjustable Angle Flash Head Serial Number Horizontal Angle Pivot

Vertical Angle Pivot Flash Head Twist/Tilt Lock Button Removable Extra Battery Housing Battery Chamber Door (Detachable)

Red Focus Assist Projectors PC-Type Flash Trigger Cord Sockets

Wireless Remote Flash Sensor

Light Sensor for Non-TTL Modes External Power Input Plug Locking Hot Shoe Base

Rollover / Click Detachable Extra Battery Housing Tilt Angle Marks

Data Screen

Modeling Light Button

Exposure Increase Button

Zoom Out Button

Zoom In Button

Sync Cord Terminals

On/Off & Illuminator Button

Mode Button

Ready Light

Test Flash Button

Mode Selector Button

Flash Mount Lock

Exposure Decrease Button

Rollover

x

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dSLR NIKON D70 EBOOK 0-1

Preface

Preface

Chapter 0

Before you begin... Welcome to the world of photography minus the film. Say hello to the ones and zeros that give the idea of “digital” its meaning. That term comes from the notion of counting on your fingers (your personal digits), but these days we have computers to do the finger counting for us. By reading this, you’re already using a computer so we can largely skip over that part— except where the device that makes these pages readable becomes the gateway to greater photographic achievement. And this book is all about digital photographic achievement.

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InfoBite

ou purchased the Nikon D70 camera and bought this eBook to get the most out of that camera. Or maybe you are just considering it and want to know more before spending so much of your hard-earned money. No matter what your agenda, the reason you chose this eBook was for information and assistance. No doubt of it, the D70 is a complex instrument worth studying. This eBook is the product of two authors who each own and use the D70 to capture images of many sorts. Peter iNova shoots as Creative Director of Metavision. Uwe Steinmueller shoots fine art naturalist photography and is an expert in RAW image format gathering, processing and printing. Between the two of them, you are largely covered, but there are branches of photography that these writers donʼt often encounter. Since much of digital photography parallels other photographic skills, practices, shooting techniques and photographer/client transactions, many existing titles that originally were intended for film photographers are relevant to digital photographers. I refer you to books that specialize in the art and craft of lighting, portraiture and studio operations. This eBook concentrates on the general use of digital photography including the transition to digital procedures if you are previously experienced in film photography. Here, too, you will find pointers that help most photographers both as the image is being captured and after it ends up on your computer. Thereʼs a chapter that sends you on assignments to improve your photographic skills in many different ways by limiting your goals to specific objectives. Each assignment there is designed to heighten particular types of digital photographic awareness and give you specific skills in observation, composition, practice and experience. Two eBook chapters deal with easy and complex problem solving for common and difficult photographic puzzles. One chapter takes you into digital printing, another presents basic and not-so basic special effects. Chapters elevate your editing expertise. If you edit with Photoshop—todayʼs premiere digital photographic image manipulator—then you will be able to use the included iNovaFX Photoshop Actions that are on this CD. These are original coded macro routines created from scratch

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0-2 CHAPTER 0

dSLR: Nikon D70

by Peter iNova for use with his own images while addressing six types of image manipulation: 1. Errors. Things like small degrees of native barrel distortion, chromatic aberration, shots made at the wrong white balance and optical vignetting can largely be eliminated from images by applying the correct one of these with a single press of your computerʼs Return key. 2. Limitations. Aerial shots can have their haze removed. Low contrast images can be delicately improved by applying a localized contrast effect. Slightly miss-focused shots can be sharpness enhanced. Higher ISO sensitivities than those available in the camera can be implemented. Grain, noise Picture of a flower. Rather and color noise can be reduced in special ways that preserve ordinary, but roll your mouse detail. over it to see how it might be improved by being manipulated. 3. Filters. Grad filters, cross star filters, color tint filters, color filtration for B&W shots, In this case, the effect of an polarizing filters and controllable diffusion filters may not need to be physically present on exposure one stop dark. your lens to get the effect you wish, because you used these in your digital darkroom. 4. Conversions. Many of the advanced darkroom techniques of the past—plus many new ones that exist only in digital form—can be applied to your images and tuned to your taste. Photos become oil paintings, watercolors, bold graphics and subtle artistic interpretations. 5. Special Effects. The digital darkroom offers more control and a greater range of basic image alteration and manipulation opportunities than anything previous. Skies can be completely replaced, lighting apparently altered, and Photoshopʼs own plug-in special effects filters can be used in alternate ways to achieve a wide range of new image treatments. 6. Print Preparations. You can have printer-ready duotones, tints, sepia effects, storyboard sequences, contrast enhancements and color tweaks. You may wish to add graphic borders that make your shots look like frames of 35mm film, 4 x 5 sheet film images or roll film frames that display edge fog. If you prepare an exhibition of photos, these Actions will be at your elbow. There are even iNovaFX Actions that defy neat categorization. The iRetNar series emulates image enhancement techniques developed by NASA. Others convert your image A portrait seen through a nostalgic iNovaFX Action. Rollover to see the into a more film-like result. Some let you incrementally warm or cool images by tiny original. steps. Many prepare your image for further interactive modification and let you alter the results to your taste. The one at the right, here, seeks to create a nostalgic feeling without resorting to outright sepia treatment. Before you started reading this you probably had a basic understanding of photography and perhaps SLR and/or digital photographic experience. We can only guess how much you already know, so if some of this seems basic, you may wish to jump ahead. Since you can jump from page to page faster here than you can browse a physical book, I encourage you to scan this document at your own pace for a while before trying to absorb it in a linear fashion.

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Preface

eBook pages print directly on 8.5 x 11 inch paper.

Image chip, sensor chip or sensor array? What’s your favorite term?

RGBG Bayer pattern. Rollover and click for others.

People who wish to seriously improve their compositional and photo-awareness skills may want to print out the Photo Assignments chapter, to take it with them as they fulfill its challenges, so the entire eBook is printer-ready, producing printed pages on convenient 8.5 x 11 inch standard letter paper. This eBook has the goal of bringing you a special type of photographic accessory, one that elevates your knowledge and brings you in-depth understanding of the features of your D70 camera and how each one of them applies to making pictures. Here also are skill-enhancing software elements that work with Photoshop, arguably the single editing program working at the D70ʼs performance level. A demo program of Photoshop 6 is included to help you play with some of the functions it offers. The current Photoshop is Photoshop CS, the eighth version of that program. If you feel that Photoshop is beyond your needs or budget, many of the skills, techniques and special effects explored here are available via Photoshop Elements, and while that program wonʼt achieve the higher realms of manipulation and refinement its big brother accomplishes, Photoshop Elements presents you with a bonus of sorts; every moment you use it, you are gaining skills that translate directly to Big Photoshop at some future date when you move up.

VERBIAGE Nomenclature in the digital photography age is a bit on the evolving side of things. Some people refer to the same ideas with several words. A good example is the noun “image chip” which is alternately called a “sensor chip” or merely the cameraʼs “sensor.” This gets murky when the individual photosensitive units on its surface are being discussed, since each of them is a sensor of sorts and it just would not do to speak of the “sensors on the sensor,” although one might be tempted. Wherever possible, we have endeavored to speak of things like this by using several of the nomenclature options that apply to a subject in ways that let you know two things: that several terms may be used to describe the same item or process, and secondly that itʼs how you use a term that gives its meaning clarity. Iʼm reminded that a couch, settee and sofa are all the same thing, but it is possible to confuse them. Hereʼs a list of possible confusion terms and how they may be understood. Aperture: The hole in the center of a lensʼs iris. When the iris blades are fully retracted, the hole is perfectly round and the lens is performing at maximum photon flow, commensurate with its fastest f-stop. Big numbers mean smaller apertures, since they refer to the relationship between aperture size as a fraction of the focal length of the lens. E.g. f/8 describes an iris diameter 1/8th of the lensʼ focal length. Bayer Pattern: A Color Filter Array (CFA) with two green and one each red and blue color filters affixed to camera pixels for use in separating the color values of an image with a single chip electronic color camera. This RGBG version is the most common. Many other patterns exist. Dr. Bryce E. Bayer of Kodak patented the idea in 1976.

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0-4 CHAPTER 0

dSLR: Nikon D70

CFA: Color Filter array. Such as the RGBG version in the Bayer Pattern. Other CFA patterns use RGBE (E for Emerald, a more cyan-like green) and CMYG for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Green (also known as a secondary color CFA). There is no technical reason why CFAʼs couldnʼt be six or seven different colors using hexagonal pixel arrangements in a hexagonal honeycomb map. But thatʼs for the future to reveal. Color: The sensation of detecting different frequency or wavelength photons. Camera sensors define it by intercepting red, green and blue overlapping statistical populations of photons that agree with human photon response characteristics through their Bayer Pattern CFAs. Much electronic and digital processing ensues. Computer: Sure, itʼs that thing you are touching right now, but it also is an electronic device that swiftly manipulates symbolic or numerical data. Every digital camera requires at least one computer that works intimately with the data generated by the image chip and one or more DSP chips. Digital: Pertaining to being numerically interpreted. Your fingers are digits and counting with them is the most basic digital number system. In computers, the numbers comprising digital photography can be passed around blindingly fast. Digital Photography: Images of real world subjects and events that are captured via a lens focused on a light-sensitive semiconductor array that immediately reports its multiple observations as an array of numbers. DSP Chip: A Digital Signal Processing integrated circuit that is optimized for fast interpretation and manipulation of a stream or array of digital data. In digital photography, these chips work with the cameraʼs computer to take basic numerical information that originates on the image chip and processes it into a useful image formats. Each DSP is usually optimized to a specific type of task and performs its functions at hyper speed. Exposure: A graphic collection of photon activities through an f-stop hole of determined size, over a duration of a specific time by a receiving medium of exacting sensitivity. Any combination of these three qualities can be changed if the others are altered equally to compensate and the exposure is said to be equivalent. That way, f/4.0 @ 1 second with ISO 200 is equivalent in exposure to f/8.0 @ 2 seconds with ISO 400. Exposure is very critical for digital images since they have little exposure latitude. RAW image format has greater tonal range and can be used for more precise exposures. F-Stop: The numerical relationship between the physical diameter of the lensʼs aperture and its focal length. An f-stop of f/2 is saying “focal length divided by two” meaning that a 50mm lens at f/2 will have an iris diameter of exactly 25 mm. In a zoom lens, the f-stop mechanism may need to alter its diameter as the lens changes focal length in order to maintain a given numerical relationship. Most zoom lenses these days are lower in maximum aperture at longer focal lengths. The figure at the right shows circles that each are half the surface area of the one above. If the top one were f/2.0, the bottom one would be f/32 and it only lets in 1/256th as many photons as the top one.

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Preface

Einstein Restaurant, Koblenz, Germany.

Image Chip: The semiconductor that intercepts photons via an array of discrete light sensitive areas and reports these multiple observations to a circuit that turns them into numbers. The image chip in the D70 has 3008 by 2000 photosites, each covered with a color filter in a Bayer array. Since each photosite is also a memory location as well as a photosensitive area, a micro lens caps it and gathers more photons, steering them down the throat of the active region. Above this tiny structure an anti-alias filter slightly diffuses the image to prevent harsh edges of small, well-focused detail. Photon: The smallest particle of light. But it isnʼt a particle at all, more like a wave that behaves sort of like a particle. A wavicle? Scientists are fascinated by their interesting and unique idiosyncrasies. Photons are so weird that no ultimate model of their structure, behavior or physics exists in final form, yet much is known about moving them around, using them for photography and selling them to you disguised as flashlights and laser pointers. You will be using them by the quadrillions with every shot you capture at ISO 200. Technically they are an electric field of specific size and commensurate energy. More energy = shorter wave length. Each photon has a magnetic field 90° from its electric field. Such is the nature of electro-magnetic energy. Photoelectric Effect: Back in the mid to late 1800s the pieces of a tough science puzzle came together in experiments with basic electricity that showed how photons help electrons to flow. Electricity flows better in certain circumstances when light pours down on the apparatus. Various theories of photon structure evolved from this curiosity that provided essential clues to the nature of matter and energy. Who finally figured it out? Einstein in 1905. The guy was hot. Photosite: A single, isolated point of light sensitivity. Rather like a microscopic light meter in function, each photosite registers how many photons it witnesses during an exposure. Produced in arrays of rows and columns on an Imaging Chip. Your D70 has exactly 6,016,000 working photosites that read light and report their findings, but there are hidden sensors on the chip surrounding these and they lie underneath opaque filters reporting what black looks like under current temperature and electrical conditions. Sometimes called a pixel or camera pixel. The photosites on the image chip of the D70 are each complex structures that work with CCD technologies (charge coupled devices), which detect photons through their photoelectric interaction with electrons inside specially prepared semi-conductor regions that are part of each photosite. The number of photons directly relates to the number of electrons that get shoved around. Each photosite is about 7.6 micrometers square—similar in size to the resolving power of many color films—and the lens on top of it is square, too. Pixel: The smallest element of a digital image. In a digital photo, it is one tiny color tile that describes the tonality and hue of the smallest unit of image and is memorized as having a numerical value in each of the digital memory channels it may occupy. At left, one extra-large purple pixel gives you very little information, but at least itʼs something. Pixels this size on a highway billboard could look quite detailed in context.

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0-6 CHAPTER 0

dSLR: Nikon D70

RGB images, for instance have three value numbers associated with every single pixel. You could also say that one pixel is the reported bit of detail from one photosite. RAW: An image format that collects and stores the imagerʼs data prior to processing it into a color image. Sensor: Something that senses light and color. It could be an individual photosite or a complex image chip that actually contains many photosites. Or it could be a separate light-sensitive element for estimating the color temperature of light. Or even just the light sensitive part of a light meter. TTL: Through the lens. A meter method that observes the lighting for an exposure by viewing what the camera sees through its own lens. Compact digital cameras do this in live viewing mode. The D70 does this by observing the scene with a special double mirror and 1005-sensor array of matrix meter elements.

TTL. Viewing diverts light to the focus screen and your eye. Flash TTL starts with a test flash (Rollover) seen by sensors in the camera base. Exposure flash (click & hold) follows a straight path to the image chip.

ADDING IT UP Digital photography elements. An image is made up of three primary color channels. Red, Green and Blue (top row). The cameraʼs pixel-based photosites see different colors at different places in the image via its Bayer Pattern of filters (lower left). This strange image—also what RAW files contain—is digitally processed with extreme DSP chip speed and space age computational algorithms into the final color picture. If you had to do all the math involved for each pixel of a single D70 Large frame image on a pocket calculator, you wouldnʼt finish the shot in this lifetime.

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Digital Photography Basics

Chapter 1

Digital Photography Basics and not-so basics

The steps that have piled up along the road to digital photography pass through the entire history of the world. No single invention was the big breakthrough—they all were. If you had to do them all yourself, here would be your schedule. License has been taken with some of the descriptions, but the ideas are as they happened.

PREHISTORY At sunrise, a hole in a rock wall casts an image of the sun, clouds and exterior landscape onto the dark interior wall of a cave. Early hominids stand (or more properly hunch) in amazement that the world outside makes an image of sorts inside their magic cave, but they quickly dismiss the idea as being a technical flop. The picture, it seems is upside down. ANCIENT CLASSICAL GREECE Aristotle goes to a party and the host shows him a kamara (a darkened chamber with an arched ceiling) that has a finger size hole in one wall. On the opposite wall, Mr. A views a living scene of the world outdoors in full color and perfect motion. He is impressed with everything but the upside-down-ness of it all. He describes the entertainment value of the idea “Obscure.” 1500S With the advent of mirrors and lenses, the notion of the camera obscura as a crowd-pleaser becomes a reality. A lens in the rotating roof of a small room reflects downward off a mirror and casts its living view of the outside onto a circular table directly below. Leonardo da Vinci loves it. 1700S Coat a sheet of paper with interesting chemicals and place the paper into an old camera obscura. Allow the focused light to reach the paper for a while. Under dim lighting, notice how the light from the camera has bleached away the dark chemicals and an image from life can be observed. Then sigh as the image fades away with every viewing. Light maketh the image; light taketh away the image. 1820S Take a sheet of paper and soak it in a novel chemical bath. Place the coated paper in one of those camera devices. Point the camera out the window and let a focused image intercept the paper all day. Note how areas affected by light become harder and resist being rinsed away? Start looking for financiers. Introduce yourself to Louis Daguerre. 1840S Travel the world with heavy cameras and dangerous chemicals. Make exposures everywhere you go. Call this high technology process “photography.” Notice that ladies like you more than before. Practice the phrase, “Now hold still for two minutes…”

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1-2 CHAPTER 1

dSLR: Nikon D70

1880S Take a sheet of cellulose nitrate and coat it with chemistry in the dark. Roll 20 feet of it up and place it in a camera. Advance the roll one hundred times, exposing fresh areas of the roll to a focused image, then return the camera to its maker. Treat the roll with chemicals to fix a negative image. Print the negatives onto paper sheets. Return prints and a fresh camera to its owner. Get rich doing so. 1890S Notice that electric sparks work better in the light. Coin the term, “Photoelectric Effect.” Chalk it up to curiosity. 1900S Make a long roll of cellulose acetate and punch holes in it to pull it through a repeating camera. Project the image and watch the illusion of motion. Note that the picture is right side up. Charge admission. Make a camera with a mirror behind the lens that can divert the light to a separate focus screen. Flip the mirror up just before making the shot. Call it a Graflex. 1930S Coat several chemical layers onto acetate. Make each sensitive to different bandwidths of light. Process the material in more exotic chemistry incorporating color dyes that selectively attach to individual layers and observe the full color result. Bring the mirror flip idea into 35mm cameras. Call it a Single Lens Reflex. Now interchange its lens. 1940S Complex idea: Coat a glass surface with a microscopically thin layer of metal then add a thin layer of insulating material. Now coat that with another layer of metal treated to reticulate, forming microscopic islands with gaps between them. Focus an image on this surface and spray a narrow electron beam onto it at the same time. Observe the passage of electrons by using an electronic circuit. Itʼs that old photoelectric effect again. Amplify the results, fold in synchronizing signals and distribute it via high frequency radio waves. A live-motion television image is produced for instantaneous display.

Images from 35mm film look like this, but this is not a 35mm film image. It’s a graphic frame made for digital images. And variations of this and other pseudo film frames are on this CD.

E NI AC

1960S Take a sheet of purified sand and vaporize materials onto its surface in a vacuum, then coat it with light sensitive chemistry in the dark, turning it temporarily into a film of sorts. Expose small-scale linear details onto the chemical layer and process away areas that didnʼt receive light. Repeat several times until a structure

U. S.ARMY

1950S Begin the process of creating and storing numbers as digital data. Sell memory by the bit.

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NASA

BELL LA BS / LU C EN T T EC H N O LO G IES

of laminated materials builds up, forming miniature circuit elements. Connect the complex structure to electrical power as you focus an image onto it. An image can be electronically reconstructed from signals that flow out of the silicon chip.

MODERN TIMES At this moment, we enter the “modern era” because the basic underlying principles of digital photography have been touched, if not refined. Decades would pass before it all became wrapped up in a box, but the stories along the way show a rapidly quickening pace of development. In late 1969 two Bell Labs researchers, George Smith and Willard Boyle, were tinkering with a novel method of storing digital data on a memory chip when they realized that each memory site might be combined with a tiny photo diode. An hour later they had sketched out the basic plan for the first CCD—Charge Coupled Device—but within two years Bell Labs gave up on trying to commercialize the idea. Sony picked up the ball, and within five years they were able to deliver decent live video images. It would be many more years before the support technologies would process, store and memorize images at still-image resolution. Cameras sat around as an artistʼs tool for four hundred years before Niépce fixed the first camera image and went looking for Daguerre. Without George Eastmanʼs color films, the value of multi-layer image construction might not have become so obvious to integrated circuit makers, and without digital processes, images might never have become so easy to memorialize and transport. SOME OF IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE Although it seems like a linear process of development, the history of almost anything is really a cluster of parallel processes. Take the case for electronic image enhancement, for instance. As NASA probed into space, tube-type video cameras went along for the ride. These were extremely refined, higher resolution versions of the cameras that brought low resolution television pictures into peoples homes, but they made color images with filter wheels that allowed separate exposures of infrared, red, green, blue and ultraviolet light. In the slowly changing perspectives of interplanetary travel, they showed us slow-scan images of asteroids, Jupiter, Io, Europa, and eventually Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. But their ability to refine these pictures depended on NASAʼs own image processing theoretical work done in the 1960s that mathematically improved resolution, allowed image compression and enabled recording of electronic photography. In 1981 Sony made a video camera that recorded still images on a small two-inch (49mm) disk of magnetic material. It was Sonyʼs first Mavica. No digital technologies made the picture or the recording, but it foretold the commercial desirability of shooting pictures without film. Back then, the idea of requiring a whole full-color video camera (think: expensive!!) just to capture low-resolution still images was not a crowd pleaser. But as a baby step, it had left its footprint.

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1-4 CHAPTER 1

NON-FILM PHOTOGRAPHY It wasnʼt until the early 1980s that a consumer video camera with a solid-state sensor became available. At $2,500, the Hitachi CMOS sensor equipped VK-C1000 teamed up with early portable VHS machines and showed how a solid-state image could look far more film-like than the tube video cameras of its day. Where image tubes suffered from electron beam phenomena that produced a decidedly “video” look to images, individual sensors merely reported what they saw. In 1991, Kodak brought out a 1.3-megapixel digital camera, the DCS, based on a modified Nikon F3 SLR body, but the price was around $30,000 with a lens, and the market for it was tiny. At just about 2¢ per pixel, it raised a lot of eyebrows. Image storage came in the convenient form of a small, light weight, battery powered portable computer that could fit right into your backpack. Only 400 were produced. Consumer digital photography appeared from Apple Computer with an all-digital camera fabricated for them by Kodak in the mid 1990s called the QuickTake 100. It weighed a pound, ran off of three AA batteries and viewed through a fixed-focus lens capturing a VGA image (TV frame quality with only 640 x 480 pixels). Too bad it didnʼt have any way for the photographer to see what the picture looked like. No monitor, not even an electronic viewfinder. And the picture was crude. You had to wait until you downloaded them into your Apple Computer to see what you shot. Rather like the experience of shooting with film. Within eight months on-camera monitor screens got stuck to the back of digital cameras like the Casio QV-10 and the beginning of the digital photo revolution started to take off. That camera only took a 340 x 240 pixel image, but its usefulness found a niche. An early adopter was my auto insurance department at the AAA. As a new car showed up to be insured, the salesman took pictures of it from several angles as proof of what the carʼs condition was at the moment of first coverage. Models quickly appeared with 800 x 600 pixels then 1024 x 768 pixels as the desire for greater detail grew. By 1998 several compact, affordable digital models crossed the “megapixel barrier” and photographers began to feel like millionaires. With 1280 by 960 pixels, 1,228,800 total photosites contributing to the image, the shots looked great when reduced to Internet scale. Within their circuits digital image processing techniques borrowed from NASA improved the look of these single layer, full color image chips. Generally, the cameras cost less than a thousand dollars, making each pixel worth under 1/10th of a penny, and those who adopted them were in for everlasting joy. Or were they? Their digital photographs could look fairly good at modest sizes on an ink-jet printer. But digital photography quickly became Digital Heroin. Photographers were being hooked on a pixel jag that continues to this day. Universally the cry became, “More Pixels!” and there was no “Please,” attached to the sentiment. Placing more pixels on the page was the most self-evident issue that would make or break digital photography.

C o u rtesy o f Ko d a k

dSLR: Nikon D70

Here’s where it all started. The Kodak DCS.

Small size and large prints. If these had been produced via film and a lab, they would not be as similar in tonality and color. An ink-jet printer will portray them identically.

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In 1994 Kodak revealed a camera that forecast the future. Its next-generation digital SLR, again on a Nikon body, had an image chip with nearly 1.6 million sensors and a price tag that could buy a car. Kodakʼs DCS 420 sold for around $11,000 and only photographers who could benefit from instant results would find them appropriate capital investments. The technology of the day imposed some very un-ergonomic limitations on the system. No fast memory cards existed, so it used expensive Type III PCMCIA cards with up to 260 megabytes of storage to hold up to 64 exposures. The complete system weighed over four pounds and every shot took over 12 seconds to store, but bursts of five shots could be gathered in around two seconds. Computers in 1994 worked with the large image files very slowly, and nobody could afford multi-gigabyte storage back then. Kodakʼs next significant camera, 1998ʼs DCS 560, was more highly evolved while based on a Canon EOS frame. Clearly, Mr. K was hedging his bets. And while alliances were forged, both Canon and Nikon were working on digital SLRs of their own. In 1999, Nikon showed their D1 prototype. Unlike the Kodak-converted bodies that preceded it, the ergonomic package was a tight, comfortable design that resembled their film cameras. It produced images with 2000 x 1312 pixels that easily passed review in magazine-size prints. Its feature set was amazingly deep. Image storage was on the new “CompactFlash” card system and for the first time, a digital camera could process images into JPEGcompressed format that promised greater numbers of shots per megabyte. One could set its self-timer for any period from two to ten seconds. Film photographers appreciated that it worked quickly and could support up to 21 images captured at 4.5 exposures per second. Meter selection included three types: spot, center weighted and a Matrix meter with 256 areas of light evaluation in a 16 x 16 matrix. Its focus screens were interchangeable with those made for the F100 film SLR. Shutter speeds up to 1/16,000 sec were available. Clearly this camera was a capital investment for its owners at $5,500 US, but a large number of them are still earning money today. Art directors and photo editors realized that this camera was entirely compatible with their magazine display photography, and Sports Illustrated used a D1 image spread out over two pages shortly after the camera became available. Nikonʼs following models included the D1x with a novel sensor pattern that put twice as many pixels into the same area by squeezing them into vertical rectangles. Resolution and performance at high sensitivity were enhanced. Price of this model was lower than the original D1 at a mere $3,900 US. A special high-speed D1H model appeared in 2001 offering up to 40 shots at 5 frames per second. Image resolution was the same as the D1 but by this model, the price of the body had settled into $4,500 US. The next Nikon broke the rules. It targeted a wider market consisting of professional consumers, or prosumers in the industry jargon. Its image chip is the 6.1 megapixel Sony ICX413AQ, which went into mass production in late 2002. Nikonʼs new The ICX413AQ imaging chip camera was called the D100 and it targeted $2,000 US without a lens. Success of this camera used in the D100 and D70 still cameras.

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1-6 CHAPTER 1

dSLR: Nikon D70

showed Nikon that if they could lower the price while delivering performance, a huge, responsive market of photographers would beat a path to their door. For top professionals, Nikon realized that fast shooting and magazine-quality images defined the sweet spot of a specific market. The D2H camera brought a 4.1-megapixel sensor into the 8 frame per second arena for a string of up to 40 shots—five full seconds of action—and sports photographers all over the world added the $3,500 US body to their kit of digital cameras. One of its most interesting accessories is the WT-1, a wireless transmitter that lets the photographer shoot while the camera forwards the shots over a local WiFi network using the 802.11b protocol. As shots are captured, theyʼre recorded onto the CF card, then forwarded at WiFi speed to a server, printer or the Internet, if desired. Nikonʼs latest dSLR is the subject of this eBook, of course. It draws upon the long experience base of Nikon while putting much of the D100 camera into a newer, more selectively evolved package. In many ways it is a re-thinking of the dSLR concept that concentrates on the features and performance choices that will serve the widest audience of serious photographers. With a 3008 x 2000 pixel image, advanced image processing support, optimized speed and the best features from preceding cameras, it is a tool for todayʼs digitographer. It packs more features and image quality into a single affordable package than any other current dSLR camera. As each generation of digital SLRs have appeared over the last few years, features and operating systems have become more and more refined, but the biggest trend has been the growth of their image sensors in pixels.

IMAGE CHIPS AND LENS TRIPS From the outset image chips used in dSLRs have a “magnification factor” that describes the relationship between lens and image sensor dimensions. Since standard 35mm camera lenses cover a full frame of 35mm film (36 x 24 mm) any smaller surface area only intercepts part of the whole picture, cropping a piece right out of the center. Kodakʼs first dSLR cropped a chunk that was 27.7 x 18.5 mm, so lenses that made pictures on it seemed a bit on the telephoto side. A 50mm lens behaved like a 65mm lens. This gave rise to the magnification factor term, which meant that to estimate a lenses performance on a dSLR, you would have to multiply its focal length by some number, in this case 1.3. Nikon has decided to settle on a standard digital image chip measurement of 23.7 x 15.6 mm generating a magnification factor of 1.5 and it is found on all of their digital camera bodies from the first D1 to the present D70 and newer D2X. There is good reasoning behind settling into a standard magnification factor. Special lenses can be made to work optimally with that size image, and

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Digital Photography Basics indeed, Nikon has produced several DX-series lenses that accommodate the special needs of their digital cameras by creating wider angles of view for the smaller image chip. The mount is identical to those on the preexisting Nikkor optics, but the lens covers a smaller area than a full 35mm film frame. At this moment only three camera bodies cover a full frame surface area, one by Canon (the 1Ds) and two by Kodak which are based on a Nikon and Canon bodies, the DCS-Pro SLR/n and DCS Pro SLR/c which each capture a 13.9 megapixel image with Nikon or Canon lenses. If you become tempted to purchase a full frame camera, those camera bodies will set you back about $4,900.

THE MOTION PICTURE CONNECTION Motion pictures shoot frames that are less than half the size of 35mm still frames. Yet you view them spread across your field of view by around 28 to 35 degrees from center-of-theater seats. As you peer into these images, you are not offended by their lack of detail unless the projection system is bad. They seem quite photographic to you. Much of this is helped by the fact that they are in motion, but other factors are there before your eye without your realizing it. The way lenses are used for selective depth of field, wide horizontal compositions (typically 1.85 times as wide as the screen is tall) and the moody color quality of every scene are all the product of master image makers working with the limitations of the equipment in their hands. Actually, most cinematographers donʼt think of the features of their equipment as limitations at all, just realities that they work with and opportunities for a broad range of visual treatments. A half-frame 35mm camera shoots an image 24 x 18 mm, and film cameras shoot frames at a maximum of this size. Sound familiar? The image patch behind the lens of a highly paid master cinematographer and the lens of your D70 are very close in physical size, meaning that the images you see up on the motion picture screen can be coincidentally instructive. Your D70 is able to get that same depth of field effect, if you use the same focal length of optic that the cinematographer used. Every composition of people, places and things that you see in the movies can fit into pictures you take with the D70. You can even treat the pictures you shoot to emulate the moody color interpretations and exaggerations that dramatic films deliver. Some help for this is to be found in Chapter 10. My overriding theory is this; if the most appreciated image-makers in the most expensive, most carefully crafted medium, can get the big bucks for putting photographic elements together, and your camera closely emulates theirs, then you owe their work more than a passing glance. Practically any movie—no matter how good or bad—will teach you volumes about framing, composing images and solving photographic problems. The bad ones may show you things to avoid, and the good ones will show you things to absorb. Anything they can do, you can do. Except the very most expensive shots. Pay attention to how they treat a photo of someoneʼs face. Look how they frame a shot of people at play. Observe how they place elements on the screen. See how they treat shadow areas. Notice how they use gradated filters to cut down on overly bright skies. Not every instant in a movie would make a good still shot, but you can run a mental click or beep in your head when the image on the screen becomes better composed. Thereʼs a certain satisfaction in knowing that you can catch a large number of better images in your head by playing with the movie this way.

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dSLR: Nikon D70

If you find yourself viewing a film that isnʼt your cup of tea, start playing the Composition Game with the images on the screen. The simple act of being so observantly focused away from the story and into the image will become a form of photographic experience in itself. Of course, you canʼt do this for two hours straight, so save it for the boring parts. Often, cinematographers are especially careful during dramatically slow scenes. As you translate this sort of vicarious photographic experience into your own pictures, challenge your ability to work with your own camera and lenses. How do I get that degree of out of focus bokeh in my shots?

THE IMAGE SURFACE A number of photographers shoot on film and finish their images in the digital darkroom for manipulation and refinement. Two huge interpretive generations of image quality loss have already occurred. Film, by its very nature, is chemistry that undergoes a change due to the presence of photons. That change is subject to a large number of phenomena between exposure and final form as either a negative or positive result. Taking a chemical image and re-interpreting it as a digital image may do a good job of inspecting each detail and analyzing it into numbers, but any process like this is completely dependent on the assumptions that were made through the original chemistry. Chemistry sees the world through molecules that can absorb the energy from photons (lightʼs smallest bits), eventually changing into new molecular forms that either become opaque to light or which trigger the binding of color dye molecules in a proportional relationship. More light = more dye, for instance. Photosites on the D70’s image chip (For transparency film, the collected dye molecules are inversely proportional to photon are 7.8 µm (micrometers) square. exposure meaning more light = less dye.) Twelve of them would fit across the diameter of the average human hair. Film and digital processes attempt to isolate areas of the spectrum into useful areas of color that are appropriately matched to display colors. In a film transparency, the color that was intercepted is later represented with a mixture of dye colors that take the place of the colors of the exposure photons. In a digital image the most common display is a computer monitor, which interprets numbers as relative brightness of red, green and blue glowing phosphors or as filters over tiny liquid crystal sites that are back-lit. Perfect matches from the initial stimulation of color in the original subject to the final display are virtually impossible. But a digital sensor reading colors from the original photons performs a potentially more accurate estimation of reality than a chemical responding to the original photon color, then becoming replaced by a dye that approximates that color—and then becoming the subject of a digital interpretation after all of that. Paraphrasing Shakespeare, It is not in the chemicals to hold our destiny but in the direct reading of our photons.

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PHOTON SOUP Photons are individually the definition of pure color. Each one is only one wavelength long, and the length of the wave exactly and precisely defines a single pure color. There are no gray photons. Anything that you sense as gray is due to a statistical population of all colors of photons adding up to your sensation of colorlessness. There are no magenta photons, either, but one of the dye molecules attaching to photosensitive silver salt molecules is exactly that; a nice, middle value magenta. How so? Rollover this square In nature photons span from infrared to red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue and ultra violet and click. Each action in ways that we can observe as a continuous visible spectrum. Actually photons extend down below delivers a pure primary color to your computer infra-red to microwaves and above ultra violet into x-rays and beyond, but thatʼs another story. The screen. Which seems sensation of magenta is caused by a mixture of blue and red photons returning from, or bouncing off, lightest in your eye? a material that absorbs the green middle part of the visible spectrum. Another way to think about Darkest? magenta is “white, minus green” since the very center of the visible spectrum is dominated by shades of green. Interestingly, the violet image our eyes perceive at the inner arc of a rainbow is a phenomenon of vision at the retina level, not a direct characteristic of photons. That violet color stems from our eyes producing red and blue sensations together when those trans-blue photons resonate with our own red and blue retinal cone cells in a harmonic that reads two blue wavelengths as one red one. An optical illusion in color. Our eyes react to blue with less sensitivity than we register green and red. As a consequence, deep blue has earned the added word, “deep.” True blue is a dark color the way our eyes respond to it. Maximum saturated red appears brighter than deep saturated blue, and fully saturated green is sensed as fairly bright. Prove it to yourself on your computer. Hereʼs an image placing 100% red, green and blue onto your computer screen, and notice how relatively bright or dark they seem. Where they are all Pure color has different luminance values. piled on top of each other, they add up to white and the exact proportions of Rollover to read the values and click to brightness each contributes to white follows a well-known formula. Green accounts see luminance without color. for about 59% of white, red is 30% and blue is only 11%, so green is nearly six times “brighter” than blue. Yellow seems to be the brightest of fully saturated colors. The mixing of pure red and green causes that brilliant yellow, so adding blue only needs to add the amount of extra brightness that makes up the difference between yellow and white. Rollover / click the. RETINAS There are a number of approaches to divining color, but no matter which model is chosen, one thing is common; your eyes are the last referee of what various theoretical models explain. In most human eyes an expanded sense of full color is produced. About 10% of men and 0.4% of women experience a sub-set of full color vision. Retinal sensors in these people are mixed differently so they see the world of colors in a different way. The term for this, color blindness, is something of a misnomer since they do see colors and often can even differentiate among shades of specific colors like green with greater distinction

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1-10 CHAPTER 1

than people with full color vision, but overall they can identify and label fewer colors than most under differing lighting conditions. Certain color combinations can strike them as optical illusions in ways that most people donʼt experience. If your vision falls into this category, color photography may not appeal to you as much as black and white where your appreciation of luminance discrimination is heightened and your sense of control is specialized. Our eyes are not simple, straightforward or easy to analyze in how they make sense of color. Early models of color vision proposed that retinal cells called rods saw only luminance (relative brightness without Blow this up on your monitor screen. See those elusive gray color discrimination) and cone cells responded to either red, green or blue depending on spots at the intersections? Your their subtle orientation, sending their information on to the brain where the combination eye/brain system made them up. of luminance and color were sorted out as a full color mental movie. Current theories are They’re not really there and they more tangled. Our retinas (and those of most primates, birds and other animals with full color only appear where you’re not vision) are a multi-layer snarl of rod and cone cells all right, but how these cells sort out color looking. Proof that you can see has less to do with neat categories of color separation and more to do with spacing, geometry what isn’t really there. and interaction with each other. Interactions between certain rod cells and nearby cone cells produce the distinct sensation of blue, for instance, and previous theories assumed that rod cells played no part in color vision. Interestingly, many other animals have eyes without cone cells, but they may have a form of color vision we have assumed they were missing. Signals running from the eyes to the brain do, however, fall into general areas of three-color separations, but this is only the result of massive cellular color processing inside the retina. When people started playing with color imagery, they simplified things down to the minimum, which coincides with the eyeʼs need for at least three stimulation bands to trigger the sensation of full color. By picking the right frequencies of color in dyes, inks and video phosphors, we can generate a fairly satisfying approximation of color imagery. Color models all seek to show the relationship between primary colors, secondary colors, color saturation and brightness in an effort to explain or exploit mixtures of light, ink, pigment and sensation that ultimately make up our visual response. Video has used an electronic disk-shaped color wheel model since Video engineers depend on a the beginning of color video in the 1950s to monitor colors graphic vectorscope color wheel. as vectors (angles) in a circle. Not surprisingly, this exotic, real-time display is called a The zig-zag figure is what they vectorscope and it uses those supersaturated color bars you sometimes see on your TV to require from color bars. They see index the exact positions and mixtures of red, magenta, blue, cyan, green and yellow into this as only a black and white line display, but you can see how it specific target boxes drawn on the face of the scope. corresponds to color. Rollover to When video evolved into the pro component formats, designers achieved superior results see how color depth and the video by layering two compromised color images on top of a superbly detailed luminance image. color gamut relate to this type of display. The hexagon (click) defines They cut color information in half and let the luminance image do the work of defining maximum saturation. the picture. And it worked wonderfully. DV video in consumer hands is a variation of this

TE KTRONIX

dSLR: Nikon D70

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plan, and it cuts color information down to 25% of full resolution but keeps that luminance channel at full detail. Luminance channel dominion over our color image perception is a lesson that was not lost on the development and refinements leading to digital still photography and the compression techniques that make it so immediately useful, but here there is a greater emphasis on controlling color. What you can get away with on a moving, low-resolution TV image is greater than what you can get away with in a static print.

COLOR = MC2 Painters have used a color wheel model for years as they sought to understand color and its relationships, but the wheel was far from an explanation of everything visible. Artists were the first to realize that color depends on its surroundings for its apparent brightness and saturation. The same blob of paint against one background color or shade produces a very different effect against a different background. Color appears to be relative. Various refinements of color theory have come into popular distribution over recent decades and an extraordinary breakthrough by Edwin Land—the Polaroid instant image inventor—kicked the issue into a new universe when he showed that human perception Shades of pink alone? Reality says could make out an apparently full color image from two yes, but your eye disagrees. The superimposed, projected images lit only by white incandescent and saturated red light! When closer you look, the more colors he showed the results of his experiments in 1971, there was a major bout of jaw dropping. appear. It really is an illusion made from a pure red channel (rollover) Two images were exposed through red or blue-green filters—sort of a rude color double exposed with a gray channel separation—and the blue-green positive image was illuminated by white incandescent light (click) shot through a blue-green while the red exposure was illuminated by deep red light as the images were superimposed filter. Notice (arrows) how the car in by projecting them on top of each other. You would expect visible results made out of shades the back looks slightly dark green? Or is the foliage behind it green? of pink, right? But that isnʼt the case. A seemingly full color result appears to the eye. Land The spectator’s blue jeans indeed called that color technology the Retinex process because he knew that human vision, and appear faded blue. And that wheel in particular, the way we process our retinal stimulation, is intrinsic to how we make sense hub is definitely gold. The car in of color, even when exact color wavelengths were not the stimulating source. The color the middle looks very pink, though. Edwin Land’s projected version of he found was in our retinas and our relative appreciation of color cues, not in the absolute this plays much richer in human values of color sources. With less than perfect color input our brains fill in the missing eyes, but even here the effect chroma while riding an internal gain control on the contrast of an image. It even works to a comes through. limited degree with the image seen here. Another way of seeing what really isnʼt there. We see with a huge tolerance that accounts for how our perception of images in photography, printing and computer display can be so enjoyable. You can turn from the image of a familiar face on your computer screen to the incandescent-lit face of the actual person without feeling that the extremely blue image on the computer is wrong compared with reality. Digital cameras on the other hand, need to have more solid footing to make sense of color. They deal with absolute digital appraisals of color in terms of proportional mixtures of specific bands of color, most often red, blue and green. In most color wheel models, the RGB points are distributed around a color circle equally at 120° from each other. Instantly the image chip captures a “color sepa-

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1-12 CHAPTER 1

dSLR: Nikon D70

ration”–like record of the image, and digital manipulations convert this information into displayable pictures. Computer screen colors are also red, green and blue, but color accuracy is not assured unless the mixture of colors is precisely controlled to agree with the proportions that the camera experienced. Accuracy is inevitably tunable only within some range of tolerance.

RGB versus L*a*b. Adding red, blue and green gives full color. Covering a Luminance channel with hues that only affect gray areas produces exactly the same result in your computer.

COLOR L*A*B One way to construct a color image is the L*a*b model. It parallels the way your eye works by starting with a luminance channel (L), which is just another way of saying a continuous tone, black and white image, and overlaying it with two color channels that are magenta-green opposites (a) and yellow-blue opposites (b) each portrayed as a gray scale image with magenta and yellow showing at the white end of the tonal range. Middle gray in these odd channels stands for absence of color, while black represents the extreme of green or blue, respectively. Open up Photoshop and study its “Lab” image mode channel by channel, and the sense of it begins to seep in. The color channels donʼt look very informative, but L*a*b color can represent far more than its color channels suggest to your eyes. To say the L*a*b model is counter-intuitive is an understatement, but it is a robust, powerful and definitive way to manipulate and control color in digital images. L*A*B TIPS i Since the color channels in L*a*b mode are separate from the luminance channel, you can alter the apparent image brightness without touching the relative color depth. Use the Curves mode outlined previously on the L (lightness) channel only and color wonʼt be affected the way it would be if the whole image were Curves adjusted at once. i Sharpening adjustments applied to the L channel similarly donʼt affect aspects of color, producing a slightly gentler result.

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i If a high ISO image has chroma noise, slightly blurring the color channel that shows the most grainy effect will help reduce the noise without affecting much image sharpness and detail. i Some of the iNovaFX Photoshop Actions take advantage of L*a*b mode in their treatment of noise reduction, exposure adjustment and sharpening. i An image saved in L*a*b mode is at the maximum gamut it ever can be. Itʼs immune to being interpreted differently by different editing programs, printers, compression engines or image management software.

CHARTING COLOR One of the most useful ways of describing color relationships is with a chart that shows the theoretical limits and practical realities of any given color system in one easy to read graphic. This odd-looking figure describes several things at once. Developed as a way to express the total color output of any film, print or imaging system, the CIE Color Gamut chart graphically delineates the limits of color from the deepest visible red to the lower right up through oranges and yellows to green arching counter clockwise, dropping to pure blue on the lower left side. CIE stands for the standards committee, the Commission Internationalle dʼEclairage. The large green node relates somewhat to greenʼs 59% of the luminance formula, red sits higher at mid right than low brightness blue at low left and all the colors of the rainbow blend along its perimeter. Notice that a straight line connects red and blue, producing the artificial The most common gamut chart from CIE shows the limit of human color perception. colors of purple, magenta and cerise. The reason this leg of the chart is a straight Rollover to see the display limits of typical line is that it can only express the extremes of pure red transitioning to pure blue as a RGB Monitor displays. Click to see the change of proportions adding up to unity. gamut of the finest CMYK pigment print. Against the horseshoe shape that represents human optimum color vision and relative strength of eye sensitivity to color, a triangular figure will represent the red, green and blue anchor points of a three-color system such as the RGB limitations of a color computer monitor. Like the red to blue leg of the master chart, the lines connecting these are straight. If you have a film, CRT, ink or dye that pegs its primary colors at specific points in color space, you can only mix them proportionally with other colors to achieve a boundary representing colors between the two points. The area enclosed by the triangle represents the total color gamut of that particular trio of color sources If a fourth color were introduced, then the gamut figure would have four corners, et cetera. Nature has a continuous set of pure colors, so the arc from blue through green to red is curved. Natureʼs gamut defines the limits of “perfect.”

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1-14 CHAPTER 1

dSLR: Nikon D70

As you look at this sort of chart on your computer screen, keep in mind that the color space being represented here would only be visually correct if it were displayed by pure laser light with infinite frequency divisions, not by a printed or monitored display. The triangular gamut representations always seem to be a crude, much lower area of colors than the edges of the full chart promise. The whole chart shows what maximum vision could see, the triangular gamuts only show what can be achieved by a specific display or capture system. The red, green and blue color points on your color computer monitor are a good example. If those glowing spots represent the maximum color that monitor can deliver in each extreme, brighter, more saturated pure light can still be appreciated by your eye if the source were a purer source such as an LED or laser. Since color filters ride above the sensors in digital cameras, those sensors Colors on top of colors. Additive color are limited in their color response to the purity of the filtering material. And produces new sensations from primary that material may only be a few molecules thick. Color pass-through allowed by those colors. Up close, your computer screen is glowing with small discreet zones of filters describe the cameraʼs gamut. Later, the image is displayed on your computer where the colors of the phosphors describe the display gamut. Because of what you see on red, green and blue. Other colors add up inside your eye. Rollover / click. screen, you make changes, now limiting the image file to a slightly altered and inevitably smaller color gamut. After that, you print the picture using inks or dyes that posses their own gamut. Finally you view the picture and hold it up in front of you as you face the original scene and darned if that picture simply lacks the intensity and subtlety of the real world. Each stage has lowered the total maximum color and saturation range and in the final step, the print was compared to the original scene which hasnʼt been changed. You should expect photography to never capture reality directly with perfect fidelity. But that doesnʼt mean you canʼt manipulate the image to look a great deal MORE like the original scene. Edwin Landʼs lesson takes on new significance. He described the Retinex experiment in terms of our retina and cortex working together to achieve constancy of visual discrimination. The recognition that our eye/brain system is working very hard all the time to derive meaning from visible sensation extends into our ability to derive the feeling of fidelity from images that are displayed with a limited gamut of color and tonality. Itʼs a wonder that we can look at a flat, low fidelity graphic and transport the experience in our mind into an interpretation of distant realities at all, but we can thank the eye/brain system for filling in the missing links. I find it useful to consider that artificial alteration of tones, hues and chrominance in an image can be understood as assisting the human visual process rather than degrading the image by destroying its pristine original tonal relationships. Photography of all types is an interpretive process that restructures the pristine condition of the tonalities and color aspects of the original scene from the outset. Editing an image allows you to improve the look of a photographic image by elevating its appearance to a new level—one that makes the image feel more like the original impression that reality conveyed or one that expresses the way you, the photographer, intend the image to convey. Every photograph is a graphic—a piece of flat interpretive art of sorts—and the camera is not an artist. Only you can bring a degree of artistic intervention to the image for purposes of sharing the

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picture with your fellow humans through their vision system, and the more experience you gain in editing images, the better your photography will seem to viewers. Gaining a sense of how far to take alterations and knowing when youʼve crossed into the twilight zone will come with experience. To gain experience you have to embrace the idea that itʼs your job to make a number of mistakes. The biggest mistake you could make it trying to shoot everything perfect all the time, and the king of all mistakes is to expect the camera to do everything, so you donʼt have to. That may be fine for forensic photography, but unless you are covering a crime scene where your images may be challenged under cross-examination during a trial, consider developing some retouching skills. Museums donʼt hang pictures based on how “straight out of the camera” they are. Yet in forums on the Internet itʼs not hard to find a posse of photographers who seem to use this standard as the apex of achievement their camera could aspire to. In my world, the camera is a starting place and not every image should be gathered to look as sweet in its original form as it will become after being edited. The good news is that when you capture an image to become a starting place for the final result, a whole universe of control and interpretation awaits you. The bad news is that by capturing an image that way, you become responsible for finishing what you have started.

EDITING Editing digital images in a computer is far more flexible, effective and creative than editing images with chemical processes. Film and digital processes achieve marvelous results, but computer manipulation offers advantages. It doesnʼt deposit dust and fingerprints on your image masters, doesnʼt stain your clothes, doesnʼt require you to work in a cave—just a room dim enough to see the screen, doesnʼt smell bad and plows through the mechanics of image adjustment twenty times faster. Itʼs not completely free of difficulties, however, since it denies you the ability to touch the image directly. Film photography is diminishing in prominence while digital photography is evolving upward. There are people traveling with Civil War buffs shooting tin type photographs that employ 150-year old technologies these days, suggesting that film will not die completely, but eventually film photography will be regarded as an interesting, but quaint, form of image capture. In some circles, that day was three weeks ago. Parallel anecdotes arrive from other professions. Motion pictures these days are often edited on computers little more exotic than the one youʼre likely reading this on, but the past saw complex mechanical devices called Movieolas that assisted movie editing up into the late 1990s. They ran physical strips of work-print and separate sound track film in synchronized lock-step, facilitating creative edit decisions. Other editing devices also were based on film strip edit functions. As computerized editing became more common, there were the hold-out editors who spoke in rapturous tones about the “feel” of the physical film and how superior it was to this new-fangled digital thing. Eventually this sort of talk faded well into the background as producers, directors and editors realized they could string shots together, perform transitions and do basic image manipulation on their laptops. The digital advantages are simply too big to ignore.

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1-16 CHAPTER 1

dSLR: Nikon D70

DAZED AND CONFUSTICATED Nobody likes to feel confused and disoriented, and jumping from a well-known or professional set of rules into an unknown and seemingly mystifying world of new rules and principles of behavior can do that. Digital images canʼt be touched directly, the way film and darkroom technologies feel tangible. Computers can seem like a barrier between mind and result, but after the initial clouds of bewilderment have passed over, digital manipulation brings you to a vastly larger universe of creative control and opportunity. One way to get interested in change is through oneʼs wallet. A working photographer who fills his or her schedule with several appointments a day can burn through many thousands of dollars worth of film, processing and darkroom supplies in a matter of months. Film cameras that permit this rapid consumption of expendable supplies are less initially expensive than their digital equivalents, but over time, digital image capture, printing and distribution put more black ink on the ledger.

Your darkroom can fit inside a briefcase.

Film via pro service bureau

Digital in studio

Capture 36 images

Velvia film roll in professional quantity purchase $ 5.50

Amortized recycled memory $0.50

Process 36 images

$ 9.00

$ 0.00

Storage

$ 2.00 / 5 years

$ 0.20 / CD / 5 years

Print 36 proofs

$ 9 - $18 Type R 4 x 6 HQ

$ 5.00 HQ Ink Jet or $10.50 service

Print 4 images 8x10

$ 15 – 30 each. (custom service)

$ 4.00 — 6.00 HQ Ink Jet (all 4)

Total

$80 (lowest of ranges)

$ 17.20 (highest of ranges)

One can run various models of this sort making far more detailed assumptions that account for time, mileage, in-house wet darkrooming and so on, but the trend is not in favor of better imaging through chemistry. In the heyday of chemical photography which peaked in about 2000, the darkroom equipment involved color enlargers, precision film and paper processing tools, light tables and a skill that is fading from the world; color print retouching. Nearly every color print that is churned out in a small private darkroom has a dust spot somewhere on its face and photographers everywhere used to have a mug with several very fine point camel hair brushes to paint the dust spots away. Today, most of the photographic industry has converted to a semi-digital or full digital work path. In just five years the wave of digital imaging has upended an industry that had a nice, solid status quo going for over a century. Other industries have been similarly converted due to rapid change. Donʼt invest in VHS duplication facilities just now. If you hadnʼt noticed, DVD has taken over your local Blockbuster.

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Basic essentials. Camera, computer, and printer.

Lists of required contemporary professional digital image editing equipment include a fast computer, a calibrated monitor, an optional top quality film digitizer, software programs including Photoshop CS, high quality printers such as the leading Epson, Canon and HP models, flat work surfaces and a skill set that is growing in popularity, the ability to adjust an image in the computer while preserving those alterations in the print. All of these items force the digital photographer to spend much more money up front, not to mention the cost of the digital camera gear, which itself might double or triple the cost of the image gathering hardware. For the non-professional or semi-professional photographer shooting pictures today, the requirements are kinder. We all have computers. We all have printers, even if they are not the top-end, seven-ink variety. Windows and Macintosh computers are far more digital image aware in their operating systems and included software. Macintosh, for instance, includes a digital photographic capture, storage and basic retouching software installed on every computer sold (iPhoto). And their entire operating system (OS X) seems to be designed for photographers in the way it dominates pictures and handles large numbers and sizes of image files.

THE PHOTOSHOP CONNECTION Photoshop CS is an image editing, manipulation and printing program that defies categorization. Many of its features can be found in other software, but no other program is as complete, consistent and professional. PS CS is the eighth evolutionary version of Photoshop to appear in the last 12 years, and whole careers are built on knowing how to make it sit up and speak. Its baby brother, Photoshop Elements, is geared toward non-professionals, and although that program doesnʼt include many of the features of the full program, it goes a long way toward improving and styling images. One can learn with PSE and move to Big PS CS as experience grows. Other programs exist for photographic editing, and some of them have individual features that arenʼt found in Photoshopʼs selection of tools and processes, but Iʼve never heard of someone losing out in a job interview because they werenʼt experienced in Paint Shop Pro (although an excellent image editing program in its own right). In the image manipulation industry and graphic arts, Photoshop is the core application just as Microsoft Excel is the core spreadsheet. Photoshop may be the standard by which all others are judged, but many people see it as a daunting program with a very large learning curve. True, it can take a long time to master, but it doesnʼt take long to learn to drive it and produce useful, predictable results. If you can learn the seven basic photographic manipulations (it will take you less than two hours) then most of its other functions will feel like interesting added ideas. A basic course in Photoshop appears in Chapter 3. By the end of it, you will be ready to strike out into new areas of discovery. In particular, Chapter 3A, where the next group of layering techniques will add to your skill set. Just to preview that idea a bit, Photoshop in either form, CS or Elements, has the ability to alter image tonalities by lifting (to brighten) or dropping (to darken) local values, intensifying or draining

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1-18 CHAPTER 1

dSLR: Nikon D70

color and changing the hues in an image globally or selectively. These programs can also alter the apparent contrast around the edges of objects, creating the impression of greater sharpness. Each pixel is the smallest spot or tile of tonality and/or color making the image, and when you look into these operations, they all depend on fundamentally raising or lowering the brightness value of pixels according to various rules and algorithmic conditions. Any given pixel can be lifted or dropped in its numerical (digital) value, but what happens when surrounding pixels become part of the formula that influences an operation? The short answer is “all sorts of interesting things.”

BRIGHTNESS CHARTING One very interesting thing that Photoshop can do is shared among nearly all editing programs. It can lighten the middle values of an image while leaving the brightest and darkest values anchored at their starting points. Technically, this is called a “gamma” adjustment after the Greek As shot, it looks too dark, but that bright alphabetʼs third letter, since it defines a fender highlight drove the exposure. third point of adjustment on a tonality curve. In a surprise to the eyes, lifting the Rollover to see only gamma changed. middle values of an image most often looks like an increase in exposure, since it Oh, I see the crowd now. makes the image appear brighter, but it isnʼt really as simple as that. A brightness graph can be drawn as a straight line rising upward at a 45° angle showing the relationship of image tonalities independent of the contents of the image. A graph like this is simply saying each one unit of input equals one unit of output. Numerically, the lower left is 0,0 while the upper right is 255, 255 for images with 8-bits per channel. One unit of horizontal distance describes an input brightness value while each unit of vertical distance describes an output brightness value. The line is straight since it describes the initial conditions of an image before anything is ever done to alter it. But if the top and bottom ends of the line stay put while the center is moved around, (rollover the chart) the line can be drawn as a smooth curve through that center point as it travels from low values to high. When the center point is lifted, everything below the middle of the original tones will be lifted into a steeper angle, and everything above the original middle tones will adopt a shallower angle while also being lifted overall. Every part of the graph will be Curves. Rollover higher than it was originally except the end points, so brightness overall will be and click. greater, but some tonal areas will be higher or lower in contrast than before. In a continuously gradual way, darker values are stretched apart while light values are pressed together. Dark values gain in contrast while light values appear less contrasty, and this is lesson number one. Any section of the graph that is steeper than 45° will be more contrasty, and any portion of the graph that is less than 45° describes tonality distributions that are lower in contrast than the original image. Imagine what happens when you make complex alterations (click).

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If that original 45° line is grabbed by its top right end and pulled horizontally back toward the middle of the top of the graph area (illustrated next), the angle of the line will become steeper than 45° and the image contrast will go up. In doing so, a smaller portion of the original tonal values will be forced into the full vertical output range, and some of the top values will have been lost. Of course, if the picture were low contrast to begin with, it might be beneficial overall. A scenic shot made on a cloudy day can be quite low contrast to begin with, and some scenes can have almost no deep shadows and no bright highlights. By pulling the bottom, shadow end of the line a bit closer horizontally to the center of the graph (rollover), this will cause shadow values to become even deeper shadows. The angle of the line will now be considerably steeper than 45° and the image will show more contrast overall. The steeper the input/output relationship, the more contrast is experienced in the image. The reverse is true, too. Shallow angles produce lower contrast (click). Photoshop has a tool that will accomplish this sort of adjustment directly. Youʼve been looking at it. The abstract notion of an input/ output graphic has been turned into an interactive adjustment called Curves that you can use to re-configure the tonal display of your image. A simpler control called Levels is available in Photoshop Elements as well. Either Levels or Curves could accomplish the variable contrast and gamma adjustments, but as you will find, only Curves can completely alter the detailed shape of the input/output curve at many points, and in doing so, improve several zones of an Compare these images to the default image on the previous page. The image at once. Photoshop Curves control is one of its most versatile tools.

LOCAL EVENTS What if you had an image that was quite good looking in most of its area but one tonal area would be better if only it were brighter or darker? Photoshop can tackle images in that way, too. Wet darkroom technicians call these ideas Burning and Dodging and Photoshop calls them that, too. Burning involves darkening portions of the image while Dodging involves selectively lightening parts of the image. Youʼll get more about this in Chapter 3. i You can think of Burning as if it meant sunburn. The heat of burning applies more tonal tan, so to speak, while Dodging is like a parasol that prevents tanning by dodging the rays of the sun. i Actually these terms come from working with negatives in a wet darkroom where burning allows extra light to fall on the printing paper, thus darkening it more, and dodging holds back light from the printing paper, thus keeping it from becoming dark when it is developed. Wet darkrooms didnʼt show you the effect of burning and dodging as you manipulated the light reaching the printing paper, so it often took several attempts to make an image just the way you wanted, but your computer presents you with an interactive image surface as you work, so you can instantly see the result of your manipulations. With a top-quality monitor and color management system, the results you see on screen will be quite close to the results you achieve in your prints. Hereʼs the bad news: Computer monitors make color by pouring glowing points of light into your eyes while prints create color by absorbing light and reflecting the surviving points of color. The two techniques are almost as different as night and day, so itʼs hard to achieve perfect representations of a color print on a computer monitor. Until electronic paper becomes a reality, you will have to regard

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1-20 CHAPTER 1

dSLR: Nikon D70

your computerʼs monitor with a grain of salt—or a pound of experience—as you judge images on it. Monitor images are a guide, not a completely accurate proof of what printed results will look like. The good news is that over all, monitors are becoming more accurate and trustworthy as a group. With basic steps of color display tweaking, you can probably achieve good levels of judgment from CRT and LCD display screens. Color display management programs from Monaco and others allow you to place a sensor on your computer screen while the software tests its output over a range of brightnesses one color at a Burning and dodging can alter tonalities time, then adjusts the monitor display driver and improve the mood and experience of software inside the computer, making the displayed image the best that it can be. an image. The big trick is knowing when to stop manipulating. What was burned? Technology has advanced to the point that portable computers—laptops—can be What was dodged? Rollover to see the obtained with quite decent displays. Portable digital darkrooms are rapidly becoming image in its camera original form. THE format of computer to use in digital photography. Whether Windows or Macintosh, having a computer that is just as portable as your camera is a huge benefit. I canʼt imagine traveling without one. I also take blank CDR disks with me to archive shots on the go. Consider purchasing a laptop with a built-in CD burner. i Traveling without a portable computer may be more your style. Check out the crop of portable hard-drive based image bank devices available. Some store up to 60 gigabytes of images while allowing you to review shots on built-in display screens.

A WORLD OF CHOICES In the history of digital photography several milestones marked the course of events. Early dSLR models whetted photographerʼs appetites. How logical to take the leading camera design of the day and replace the film with a large digital sensor. But their prices were off the scale. Compact digital cameras have grown from single-megapixel designs to cameras that offer as many as eight megapixels per shot. Models are available from Canon, Epson, Olympus, Minolta, Panasonic, Pentax, Sony and Nikon that are worth investigating. When one considers a digital camera for the first time, the path splits down two main branches. Compact digital cameras are sealed, self-contained cameras with a built-in lens, most often a zoom lens. Some people call these “point-and-shoot” cameras, as if there were cameras that didnʼt have to be pointed before they shoot. Generally these provide a live image on a dedicated monitor. The lens and image chip act rather like a video camera in viewfinder mode, so you can frame the shot and find the view by studying that living moving image on the camera back. Optics in these are physically smaller than dSLR lenses because they work with smaller CCDs. External converters are required to alter the zoom range. More exotic models allow the monitor to twist to other convenient viewing angles so you donʼt have to. Some of them have an optical viewfinder so you can put the camera up to your eye when the monitor isnʼt active.

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The other branch follows a path that proved to be the most successful, most desired form of camera plan, the SLR now referenced as the dSLR in its digital form. Today dSLR cameras are selling for the prices all-in-one units commanded in the year 2000. Predictable milestones for the future include cameras at lower prices with greater image characteristics, higher frame rates and of course, more pixels. Since dSLR cameras permit interchangeable lenses, both zoom and prime, one can purchase a digital body for lenses already owned, or if no prior purchasing history is involved in the decision, one can choose a camera based solely on its features.

DSLR LENS PERFORMANCE Lenses are sharpest in the center of their coverage area. As the image is inspected off the optical center, decreasing performance is the rule. Itʼs a physics thing, not a manufacturer thing. Photographers know that optical performance decreases toward the corners of images and that means a combination of lower radial and tangential definition, lessened contrast and dimmer light coverage. Itʼs not unusual to read corner performance from 35mm camera lenses that are 1/2 the contrast and sharpness of the center while registering less the light. Smaller image chips in most dSLRs intercept only the center area of the image circle produced by lenses designed for 35mm cameras, so their corners are not as far from the optical center. A lens that is marginal in its corners on 35mm film may be quite a bit sharper on a dSLR body simply because the corners of the image chip are only two-thirds of the distance from the middle. Flatness of field, lower vignetting and greater corner sharpness all combine to improve image quality. Of course the imager is smaller than a frame of film, but many lenses surpass the imagerʼs Virtually all lens “issues” are banished to the corners of ability to distinguish fine detail. With a the frame as lens designers optimize performance. Tinted digital camera, the photons of the real world are being more directly corners show the areas most likely to show vignetting, loss of captured into an image. sharpness, aberrations, distortion effects or focus drift. The D70 image chip (gold) avoids most of these effects, especially The RGB filters of the color filter array (CFA) make an instant with lenses designed for full-frame coverage. color separation from life that is immediately memorialized as a numeric record of what the camera observes and with the Nikon D70 a superior rendition of reality is achieved. No camera, image chip, lens or film is perfect, but with these cameras a well-tempered balance between light and image quality has been struck. DIGITAL FILM The image plane of a digital camera is a glass plate. Itʼs as flat as manufacturing processes can make a material. Glass used to be considered the best surface to carry photosensitive emulsions, because it makes a perfectly flat image plane whereas film canʼt. Flexible roll films lie only approximately flat. Their deviations from perfect flatness are measured in hundredths of a millimeter. With digital image

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1-22 CHAPTER 1

dSLR: Nikon D70

chips, deviation from perfect flatness is measured in sub microns—thousandths of a millimeter. Of course, to appreciate maximum benefit from this, a lens forming an image would need to project a perfectly flat field onto the image medium, and that is almost never the case. Nearly all lenses form a plane of focus that is not a perfect plane, but a shallow curve, usually with the off-axis portion of the image focusing slightly closer to the lens back. Corners of an image can be slightly out of focus while the center of the image is sharp. Optical engineers try to compensate for this and sometimes are able to bend the focus plane back into place in interesting, if discontinuous, ways. As aperture shrinks, depth of field increases, helping to achieve a sharp image overall.

ICU Integrated circuits such as computer and memory chips are primarily made of silicon, the chief ingredient in sand. The D70ʼs CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) acts as an array of fast-acting light meters also made primarily out of silicon. This physically large semiconductor chip is anatomically complex. Its meters are arranged like tiles in a checkerboard in neat rows and columns equally spaced 7.8 µm apart (µm = micrometers or millionths of a meter). Each small light meter is a single, limited photosensitive area that reads the brightness of light falling at that spot. It does so by allowing electrons to accumulate inside of it in proportion to the number of photons that slam into its top. After the exposure, the quantity of electrons in each photosite is measured and assigned a number by other circuitry—a custom high speed analog to digital Flat field? Yes, within tolerances. Most (A to D) converter. lenses have some degree of focal plane curvature (exaggerated here). Aspheric Not all of the area of each tiny photosite responds to light. Thin conduits form elements help steer focus more nearly additional circuitry above, below and next to the light sensitive part, so only the center flat (rollover). of each tile measures actual photons. Were it not for several physical layers laminated above the photosite, it would behave like a monochromatic film with extended sensitivity into the infrared, and only a portion of the light intercepting the chipʼs surface would make it into the sensitive area of each individual sensor because of all the surrounding circuitry. Atop each photosite a thin color filter is laminated, forcing that meter to measure only red, green or blue light, and above that, a micro lens gathers light from the whole surface of the photosite and concentrates it on the central light-sensitive part. In this regard, the image chip works rather like the eye of a fly in that each area of light sensitivity has its own separate lens. Each of these individual sensor structures is amazingly small—some exceeding the resolving power of popular film emulsions. Thatʼs a bold statement, and certainly there are exceptionally fine-grained film emulsions in the world that resolve greater detail than digital image sensors, but manufacturing tiny light metering circuits is nowhere near as fine a process as forming memory sites on silicon—something that is routinely done by the multi-billions in your CompactFlash card.

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CCD photosite. Rollover to see how light accumulates electrons. Click for labels.

Laminated above the micro lenses are several layers that perform essential additional functions. One diffuses the incoming light slightly to reduce the phenomenon called “aliasing”—the stair step effect that may be seen along hardedged contours that pixels produce if not controlled, and another layer reflects and/or absorbs infrared light, keeping it away from the silicon light meters that respond to it too well. Atop this entire, complex stack of layers a protective sheet of material supports an anti-reflective coating similar to that used on the surface of lenses. Nobody can accuse the designers of image chips of being lazy. Their products are microscopically exacting, high-precision devices culminating from decades of experience in the engineering and construction of integrated circuits, micro-optic fabrication, materials evolution, logic theory and filtration technologies—all this science and technology in the service of creating highly organized bits of sand that can see.

STUFF HAPPENS Building a CCD chip can take over thirty steps, and at each stage in the fabrication a microscopic error might occur. A shard of molecular debris could contaminate the construction of a conduit, for instance, and when the chip was finished, the associated photosite might behave slightly differently from its brethren. With over six million individual photosites, each containing several circuit elements, what are the chances that every single one of them will behave identically? Nearly zero. In fact, minor errors creep into every sensorʼs construction process. That chip has more parts than a fleet of cars, so one of the major design goals centers on compensating for flaws. Some manufacturing errors are fatal, and any chip that has one of those is tossed in the garbage right off the assembly line. But if an individual pixel under-performs or fails, the designers have found ways of compensating for

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1-24 CHAPTER 1

dSLR: Nikon D70

it after manufacture. Here are some of the likely “issues” these pixels might produce and how the rest of the camera would deal with them. If a pixel fails outright and doesnʼt read light, the surrounding pixels reading that particular color probably work just fine. Tests are applied to every chip insuring that failed pixels can be identified, mapped and kept track of during exposures. The D70 contains analytical circuitry that can perform this function right inside the camera, and in the rare instance that an individual sensor fails later in the cameraʼs life, the map can be updated. In the event of a known failed, under-performing or errant pixel, the cameraʼs computer can estimate its missing value Pixel flaws are extremely rare with the D70. In by considering the values from surrounding photosites. the center of this shot (ISO 1600 @ 1/8 sec) When a pixel under-performs, say when long exposures are made at high ISO, it it showed up for five exposures then stayed can appear inconsistent with its surrounding brethren and stand out. It might look away. It can be reproduced only with very long exposures of 30 sec or longer. Rollover/click. like the normal grainy texture of high ISO images or it could become disruptive and overtly obvious. The NR (noise reduction) feature of the camera can be used to suppress excessive instances like this by capturing an extra exposure in darkness—one that reveals flawed pixels only—and using it to trigger corrective measures to the image. A white pixel against a field of black signals the camera that an error is occurring at that spot on the image sensor. A special technique found in Chapter 5, How Do I… gives details in ironing out individual pixel flaws by having you gather special blank “flaw frames” with your camera and applying them later to pictures that were captured containing flaws. Itʼs a controllable and often superior means of achieving what the cameraʼs NR function performs. Photoshop is needed for this technique since the key element is a series of special iNovaFX Actions included on this CD. If a color filter that overlays each photosite were to go missing, then that photosite would overestimate the exposure its neighbors experienced because it would let in more photons. Mathematical steps can be taken to diminish its contribution to the image at that spot. Performance errors are relatively easy to mask if surrounding pixels are performing nominally. Numerical operations are easy for the cameraʼs central computer to implement. Film errors at the micro scale arise from similar processes. A bit of dust makes its way into the emulsion or, more frequently, the processing fluids or drying strip of film. A bubble of air might stick to the film while it was wet, or a tiny flaw in one color layer might occur during manufacturing. Itʼs rare to make a large blow-up from a film negative or transparency that is completely free of dark spots, light spots, emulsion flaws, scratches, stress marks and processing errors. These things canʼt affect digital images unless they arise from events that happen before the exposure is made.

LORE AND MORE With these tidbits of basic photographic lore under your belt, a general overview of the processes, principles and interesting side details of digital photography will be forming in your mind. Photography has only been around about 175 years, but in that time—wouldnʼt you know it—people have decorated their understanding of it in all sorts of inappropriate ways. Iʼm sure digital myths will arise soon, but for now we can at least attempt to expose some old f-stoppers.

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Digital Photo Myth Reduction

Chapter 2

DigitalPhoto Myth Reduction The Truth is Around Here Somewhere

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InfoBite

Some people believe in things that are not true. In fact, I know of nobody on Earth that this doesn’t describe including me, but in photography, myths and superstitions can get in the way of successful images. We shoot our pictures and often look at other people’s shots only to conclude that they are better than ours. “Oh, I’ll never be a photographer like those folks,” we may say, but that’s just an excuse. If you can learn the errors that lead to poor images, your photos will automatically benefit.

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hen something is not understood, our brains make up comforting stories to rationalize the subject matter into tidy compartments of “feel good” explanation. To some degree, we are all victims of the irresistible pull of self-delusion. At the instantaneous level, we can all see how optical illusions do this to our heads so completely that they to force us to admit that seeing and believing are two completely different endeavors. Thus it is with rules of thumb, myths and superstitions that swirl around the general subject of photography. Some are true, others halftrue and still others outright mythology. Here are some old photographic chestnuts and their exceptions. • If you shoot exposures 1/30 sec or longer, you need a tripod. • When you shoot indoors, you need a flash. • Keep both hands on the camera for steadiness. • Photographic talent is something you are born with. • The best images have the sun at the photographerʼs back. • When shooting outdoors, you donʼt need a flash. • The best shutter speed for flash is 1/60 sec. Combined with these are the superstitions about photography. • The way to get the best image is to tell everybody, “say cheese.” • Put your subjectʼs nose in the center of the shot. • Digital cameras are poorer at taking pictures than film cameras. • Everything looks worse in black and white. • If the image isnʼt perfect in the camera, it never will be. • Shadows have no color of their own. Rules are made to be broken, right? And we all know where superstitions belong. While each of these may contain a kernel of truth, they are far from the whole story. Letʼs take a look at how they may be transcended.

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2-2 CHAPTER 2

dSLR: Nikon D70

IF YOU SHOOT EXPOSURES 1/30 SEC OR LONGER, YOU NEED A TRIPOD. Mostly right. The subtle movement of your hand will probably spoil shots that are taken at 1/15, 1/8 and 1/4 sec or longer. Nikonʼs compact cameras have a feature called BSS for Best Shot Selector. It shoots many images and keeps the one that happens by luck to contain the most detail. You can do this by shooting a string of shots and keeping the one that was sharpest. Thereʼs even a quick way to spot the one with the most detail. All images are made at very nearly the same exposure and focus setting, so the major difference among them will be the relatively unavoidable hand movement during a rather long exposure. That movement will destroy edge detail and smear fine textures into motion-blur. As the image is compressed inside the camera for storage, motion-blurred detail is easier to compress so the blurred files will require less storage space. Are you thinking what Iʼm thinking? Iʼm thinking; keep the big one.

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i When you look at the size of each shotʼs file on your computer, there is a very good chance that the largest file—the one with the most kilobytes (KB)—is the one containing the greatest amount of detail and sharpness. Get Info about the string of shots to see if this is true for your images. WHEN YOU SHOOT INDOORS, YOU NEED A FLASH. It is nice to have a flash for most indoor shots, but the D70 has special options. You can shoot at ISO 3200 or higher by setting the EV+/- control to -1.0 or -2.0 EV. The shots will look too dark on the camera LCD, but with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, underexposed images made like this can be resuscitated in your computer. Here one can recover relatively decent tonal values and in some cases, nobody would guess that you had taken the image to extremes. Recovering images made at ISO 3200 (or simply one stop underexposed when shooting at ISO 1600) works very well, but the rescue of ISO 6400 shots is dicey. i iNovaFX Photoshop Actions are provided on this CD for use in rescuing shots intentionally underexposed one or two stops. Familiarize yourself with them to gain a visceral understanding of their benefits and drawbacks before you shoot critical images at these elevated ISOs. The camera flash may cause “red-eye” effects on people in dark areas because our irises open wider in the dark. Nikonʼs SB-800 or SB-600 external flash units permit better control of electronic flash exposures and lighting techniques. They mount on the accessory shoe atop the camera and

...And may the biggest file win. The largest file is often the most detailed.

Pushed over the edge. A severe underexposure can often be “push-processed up to a useful result.

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Bounce flash picks up the color of the room. Straight flash (inset) is flat in comparison, but its color is more accurate.

What’s your slowest hand-held shutter speed? With practice and a good solid stance, you could shoot below 1/25th sec.

their height naturally avoids red-eye. The same flash output adjustments made for controlling the power of the camera speedlight will affect external units, too. i If the cameraʼs own flash is giving you red-eye results, try the anti-red-eye flash setting. If that doesnʼt work for particular images, you will need to retouch the offending shots. i For better looking images indoors, the SB-800 tilts up and rotates for bounce lighting, shooting its photon burst at the ceiling or nearby walls. This creates an even, soft, overhead lighting that avoids the stark look of the camera flash. i You can use any flash unit on the D70 that fires through a single center pin in the flash mount. Inexpensive units can cost as little as $10. Set the camera flash options (CSM #19) to Manual (any power setting works) and adjust exposure with the lens aperture or settings on the flash unit. This opens up a world of possibilities, but third party flash units donʼt understand the power adjustment menu item the way Nikonʼs own flash does. Keep in mind that as ISO increases, so does the range of the flash. If you donʼt mind the extra grain, shots made with the camera flash alone at ISO 1600 can reach over 40 feet (12 meters). A fast lens helps. The Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 is inexpensive and doubles the flash reach of the Kit Lens.

KEEP BOTH HANDS ON THE CAMERA FOR STEADINESS. Mostly true. The number of hands on the camera is not the only thing that determines steadiness. The stability of any camera support is all that counts, however it is achived. The most important thing is to have a secure control of the camera body. With your right hand firmly grasping the right side of the camera, a number of options become available. To give your right hand the greatest leverage, try to consciously adjust the grip into your right palm from time to time as you shoot, rewrapping your fingers, freshening your grip. As your eye connects with the viewfinder eyepiece, your face connects with the back of the camera. Depending on whether you favor viewing with right or left eye, that means you touch the left or right side of the camera back with your nose and brow bone. Your head is usually a very steady platform. After all, itʼs the only thing stabilizing your own biological cameras. The most stable grip on the camera is with one or both hands, arms or elbows in contact with something solid each helping to control the camera. Turn your left palm up and grasp the lens from underneath with your thumb on the left side. Standing alone, your body is the most stable thing you can lock the camera to. But any wall, post, fence, railing, table, pole, knee, chair, window, fender, door or tree can become an impromptu brace for your camera hand.

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2-4 CHAPTER 2

dSLR: Nikon D70

PHOTOGRAPHIC TALENT IS SOMETHING YOU ARE BORN WITH. While some people can have an innate sense of artistic expression close to the surface of their consciousness, there is no photographer gene in our DNA that allows some people to be good at it while preventing others from being photographically aware. Photography is not more complex than speech. We all learned how to speak. Like many things that appear to be dauntingly complex, the elements of photography are a number of things that can be learned, practiced, observed, critiqued and transcended. You can learn a challenging aspect like composition by rote at first, then by habit, then by conscious awareness, then by creative invention. Thatʼs how we learn to speak. Word play begins with our mothers naming things for us, correcting our misconceptions. We add verbs, adjectives and inflection, we play with new combinations, create new sentences and end up composing e-mails, poetry, jokes, slogans, grocery lists, novels and love letters. Doing all that is far more complex than learning how to aim a camera at interesting things, far more intricate than gaining an appreciation of how to zoom and compose the image, move to position the subject matter better in the frame, hold the camera appropriately and trip the shutter.

Ability can be cultivated. Practice helps.

THE BEST IMAGES HAVE THE SUN AT THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S BACK. Not necessarily. While an image is a record of the objects in front of the camera, it isnʼt the object you are capturing at all. Only photons of light bounce off the object and make it into your eye or camera. When the sun is at your back it is on your subjectʼs front. It often looks better if it is coming from slightly to one side. You can hold your hand in front of your face and see how the sun looks on flesh. Make a fist and you will see a complex of surfaces, highlight and shadow areas. Fill light and bounced light are all present in the image of your hand in front of your face. You can begin to predict how the angle of the sunlight on your subject might work to paint the subject for a more effective shot. Later in the book you will find instruction on basic lighting and how Threat or promise? Neither; it’s a lighting test. Hold your fist in the same light that is falling on your subject to you can manipulate inexpensive flash units to give very professional estimate both lighting conditions and potential remedies for lighting results. lighting problems.

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With the sun at a high angle behind your subject, the camera flash won’t look the way it does in indoor shots. Here it adds just a little fill light to the front of the subject reducing the contrast that strong backlight produces.

OUTDOORS YOU DON’T NEED A FLASH. Much of the time this is true. Some of the time you will need to fire your flash into the scene adding a little extra fill to the picture. Not all images need sunlight to touch your subject in the face directly. With camera flash added to a close-up portrait posed with the sun behind your subject, the shadow side can be brightened while sunlight becomes a strong back light. Using the camera flash permits you to fill shadow areas of close objects very effectively. Learn how to make this idea work for you by experimenting liberally with it in the sun. You can force the camera to provide a flash by deploying the flash in PSA or M modes or in any of the Vari-Program modes that permit it. The camera flash will add more or less extra light into the scene depending on the distance from camera to subject. Since the effect is so variable, shoot a test shot before committing to the final effect. i With the camera flash deployed, the EV+/– compensation adjusts flash output. i Trying to use the camera flash compensation on Manual flash is futile. Its power settings are locked to your choice.

THE BEST SHUTTER SPEED FOR FLASH IS 1/60TH SEC. There is no “best” shutter speed for flash. Since most flash shots are made in relatively dark places with some existing light, it is often more natural to have some of that light in the shot. For this reason, a 1/30 or 1/60 sec exposure may be a good compromise. But for outdoor shooting, these speeds may be too slow. For tighter control of existing light, you can set the cameraʼs shutter to very fast speeds. Film cameras often have a shutter that only synchronizes at certain low speeds. Not so with the D70. Here, the entire moment of exposure is closely controlled by very precise computer coordination that synchronizes to the flash trigger at most shutter speeds. i Using a high shutter speed will cause the effect of ambient light to diminish in the resulting exposure. Low shutter speeds allow more ambient light to join the camera flash in the image. Test shots made under the same lighting conditions will guide you. i You can enter Shutter priority mode and set to maximum shutter speed and still sync. The camera will synchronize internal or external flash at any shutter speed all the way up to 1/500 sec. At that speed and low ISO you may be able to dim outdoor lighting, making the flash exposure the brightest feature of the shot. i In Shutter Priority exposure mode selecting shutter The highest shutter speed synchronizes with camera or external flash. speeds higher than 1/500 sec arenʼt accessible when the camera knows that a flash exposure is coming.

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2-6 CHAPTER 2

dSLR: Nikon D70

TO GET THE BEST IMAGE, TELL EVERYBODY, “SAY CHEESE.” What you really want to do is have people smile, look forced and unnatural, right? Oops, that wasnʼt what we wanted. You will have greater success with English speaking subjects if you ask them to say the word, “Nice” instead. Now they donʼt look like over-smiling loons, but have a natural pleasant look to their mouths and eyes. Part of the effect comes from the subject encountering some other thing to say than the standard cheesy line. Some of it comes from the psychology of being asked to say something nice, even if it is only that word. As subjects, we have a hard time saying “nice” while harboring grim thoughts, and it shows on our faces as a more natural expression as the shutter clicks. PUT YOUR SUBJECT’S NOSE IN THE CENTER OF THE SHOT. Nobody really says this, but from the look of things, too many people believe it. In composition class, as the eBook unfolds, we will discover a lot of different ways to shoot a face, a person on vacation, a family group, a kid at play and a straight-on portrait. Some of these will actually have the nose in the middle of the shot, but not because of this old chestnut. The only reason a nose will end up in the middle of the shot is because thatʼs where it happens to land while some other, deeper sense of composition was being exercised. DIGITAL CAMERAS ARE POORER AT TAKING PICTURES THAN FILM CAMERAS. Some believe that film is superior because of the numbers. Lines per millimeter. Dynamic range in f-stops. That sort of thing. Film still wins with some of those numbers, but the D70 dSLR makes extraordinarily good images without film and processing drawbacks. They let you review the images right away, throw the bad ones out right now, and see what the shot is going to look like on a TV screen as you are working. Film cameras donʼt do that. Center the nose? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Eyes are a more important This camera can shoot images with enough detail to be used in major special detail to emphasize. effects shots in motion pictures. As photographic tools, they are capable of things even 35mm and medium-format cameras canʼt achieve. They are pre-digitized live scans right from the photons of the real world, and their images have no dust spots, processing bubbles, fingerprints or water spots. They can deliver an image from subject to print faster than you can develop a color negative, and they can put thousands of images into your computer without needing more physical volume of storage. Film cameras generally capture a wider range of brightnesses but to get the most from film images, photographers and studios are regularly digitizing the film image in order to enjoy the flexibilities of digital image manipulation and printing. What will they call it next? Figital? As you begin to expand the types of images you shoot, you will find that the speed of operation, speed of focus, speed of review and natural ergonomics of the D70 provide you with a great sense of response and security. A 35mm film camera wonʼt give you the security of instant feedback nor will its slightly more detailed image tell you when the exposure was wrong. Digital cameras are better than film in some ways, and film is better in others. These cameras might not be your first choice to shoot the triple page ad for Wired, but that 6 x 7 Mamiya isnʼt your first choice to shoot your experiences on vacation.

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EVERYTHING LOOKS WORSE IN BLACK AND WHITE. Paul Simon wrote that line in the song, Kodachrome, in 1969. He was kidding, but the sad thing is that many people believe it. Later in the book you will find exercises that force you to see and think in monochrome in order to train your eyesʼ awareness of tonalities as composition elements. Black and white is a different art form. Not all images are best seen in natural colors, and techniques will be given that let you turn color pictures into black and white images that maintain the look of film emulsions. Knowing when to shoot in black and white is something you can become sensitive to. But it takes a mental gear shifting operation to do it right. Neither viewfinder nor review file will show you what the shot would have looked like in B&W. .

IF THE IMAGE ISN’T PERFECT IN THE CAMERA, IT NEVER WILL BE. There never has been a camera that got the shot perfect in the camera every time. Itʼs always something. The tonalities arenʼt optimum, the color is a tad too spicy, the background has a distraction in it, the exposure was too bright or dark, the shadows Today black and white photography is considered a special effect. and the highlights were too far apart, a fly landed on the modelʼs ear just as the shutter clicked. And these are the things that have gone wrong with film and digital images since day one. How are issues like this handled in film? Scan the film into the digital realm, then fix it. With the D70, your image starts digitally, so fixing it is a lot more immediate. The next chapter deals with the most common things you can fix with the preferred software, Photoshop™. Most editing programs will achieve basic changes like crops, color adjustments and tweaks of various kinds. Photoshop Elements is a great first tool and allows you to do a lot. It has that desirable balance between simplicity and sophistication. Everything you learn with it applies to the next step, the full version of Photoshop. Full Photoshop is, at this writing, in Version 8.0 called Photoshop CS for Creative Suite. It allows use of actions, including the many iNovaFX Actions. Actions are macro functions that can call upon any The digital before/after manipulation here has cut through function within the program and execute dozens or scores of steps 12,000 feet of atmospheric haze. The iNovaFX Photoshop™ Action that does this is on this eBook’s CD. with a single button push. Some of the iNovaFX actions have over a hundred steps! You would never be able to remember all of them, but the action will never misremember them. See Chapter 10 for details about the included iNovaFX Actions.

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2-8 CHAPTER 2

dSLR: Nikon D70

SHADOWS HAVE NO COLOR. Interrupting a beam of light with an opaque object causes no color, but it opens up the possibility for other environmental light to affect the shadow. Light that was there all along. The reason shadows arenʼt jet-black is because they are illuminated with light bouncing off everything else. Along with sunlight comes blue sky, for instance. Where the sunʼs rays canʼt reach, the sky often does. If todayʼs sky is intense blue, the shadows can fill up with light that includes a large component of blue sky light. Photographers call this “blue spill.” Your eyes often wonʼt see it this way, since their sensors are a combination of luminance and broad-sensitivity color Golden rays of sunset meet the blue of the sky allowing subtle receptor cells. Your brain works hard to see the color of the object color into the “neutral” shadow. Photoshop reads up to 14% in spite of the color of the light illuminating it. Photography, both saturation in the blue/cyan (sky blue) shadow of the cat. film and digital, must deal with absolute mixtures of primary colors, so that dyes, inks, pigments and glowing phosphors can portray a reasonable approximation of what was in front of the lens. In doing so, photography doesnʼt have the luxury of portraying the color of the object while ignoring the color of the local light, the way your brain does. Film is manufactured with its color sensitivity locked-in at the molecular level. Shoot with the wrong light, and the photographs will be filled with unwanted color. Yet the daylight streaming in through a window into a room lit with incandescent light looks fine to our eyes. Obviously seeing and believing are not in the same camp. Itʼs no wonder that eyes canʼt see the blue sky light filling in the shadows in direct sun. Knowing this, you can train your eyes to look where blue from the sky is, or is not, giving you interesting blue shadow opportunities. Sometimes, as in the Cat Railing shot above, you can peer at the scene and see the effect of the shadow filling up with sky color as a direct observation. If you can recognize the blue spill at all, you will find it to be more prominent in the final result. The more you look for the effect, the more you will find situations that deliver the perception consciously. In a sense, you can rise above your normal modes of seeing and start to see what usually is ignored. Learning how to observe beyond your normal habits of seeing will help all of your photography. Start by looking for sky color in shadows in the hour before sunset, then add in other skills such as watching life in terms of composition and framing. The more you do, the greater your visual experience of the world in your photography and your life.-

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Digital Color and the Photoshop Connection

Chapter 3

Digital Color

and the Photoshop Connection Nikon D70 cameras are so deep and feature rich they need deep and feature rich support after the shutter slap is a distant memory. Too bad Photoshop™ is so hard to learn. Or is it? COLOR BASICS

C

olor photography of all types deals with two different ways of forming an image: The camera and the display. Cameras must acquire the scene and somehow break it down into colors for storage. The D70 sees color through its RGB-capped sensors. Computer CRT monitors have red, green and blue phosphors that glow. This is no coincidence. Additive color images are formed when mixtures A computer display glows and of these colors pile on top of each other in our eyes. Mixtures make white and all mixes colors in your eye from red, the colors of the rainbow. green, and blue segments only. Yellow happens when red and green light The inset shows what the image is mix on our retinas. Magenta arises from perceived to be. blue plus red and cyan light is what we see when blue and green are mixed. Each display channel is monochrome (B&W) so depending on the tonality of each pixel, its participation in the color you see is proportional. When pictures arise from tiny glowing spots, the colors blend together in your eye. When you shine a light through an image or off a piece of paper, ink or dye has to absorb some of the white and only let the color picture pass through or bounce back. In prints and slides, materials are used that absorb light. Here cyan, magenta, and yellow (CMY) inks or dyes overlay each other and let only the light they donʼt Pull white light apart, and you get absorb pass through. Why these colors? Each ink actually lets 2/3 of the color the spectrum we see in a rainbow. Add red, green, and blue elements spectrum pass or bounce off the page, so it takes two different inks or dyes to cause together and our eyes see the result any given primary color like red, green, or blue to be the only surviving color. as white, even though some parts of Where magenta and yellow are mixed on the page, only red light, common to the spectrum may be missing. both, survives to bounce ULTRAVIOLET INFRARED off and reach our eyes. The bluish part of magenta is Visible Spectrum (human color vision) neutralized by the yellow which absorbs blue. Cyan and magenta only have blue 400 500 600 700 in common, and when they Wavelength in Nanometers (billionths of a meter)

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3-2 CHAPTER 3

dSLR: Nikon D70

mix on top of each other, only blue light bounces back from that part of the picture. Pile all of them on top of each other, and they subtract it all, and if the dyes are pure enough, no color escapes and that part of the image looks black. This sort of “subtractive” color is used in film transparencies, photographic prints, and the inks that print full-color pages in inkjet printers and on large presses for magazines and books. Many printing inks or dyes need a little extra help in order to make good-looking dark blacks. Black ink is added on most inkjet printers, such as the Epson models, and in mass printing processes, to boost the contrast and produce deeper blacks. The CMY colors here are 95% pure and the center where they all pile up looks plenty dark, but it could use some help. Rollover to see the effect of added black. Some photographic desktop printers have such pure color inks that they can produce photographic results from just three colors of ink. But the trend is toward more ink colors. Extra “light magenta” and “light cyan” and even “light black” inks are becoming standard in some models. THE COMPUTER CONNECTION When you wear a fabulously well-tailored suit, you donʼt want cheap shoes. Software in your computer will finish what the camera starts, so you would be ill-advised to stop learning digital photography as soon as the exposure is finished. Cameras harvest photons. Daunting or easy to use? Experience Just as reapers arenʼt bakers, cameras arenʼt croppers, tweakers or it for an hour or two, and you’ll realize that it isn’t difficult to learn the basics, rethinkers; only you can do those things, and your tool is your editing program. and you can keep learning it for years. To create custom prints, reduce images to Web size, maximize the impact of your images, and for all forays into the loftier realms of photography as a creative medium, you have to touch the image to bring it to a higher place. Much of this is done with lighting, framing, and exposure in the camera, and later sections of this book will give you plenty to do in these areas. On rare occasions the image from the camera will be perfect when it slides out of your printer unmanipulated. For the other 98% of the time, you will need to augment your efforts in the camera with adjustments, creative opportunities, crops, size changes, and tweaks from a software program in your computer. The software you use is as important as the camera you have acquired. Photoshop is an element in the mastery of digital image manipulation as constant and omnipresent as Kodak is in film. It isnʼt everything, but itʼs way ahead of whatever is in second Photoshop Elements 3 adds RAW file conversion. place. Thatʼs why the Photoshop Tryout (version 6.0 to get your feet damp) is included on this eBookʼs CD. Itʼs the right program to finish your shots with mastery. Other image manipulation programs are available, and all have their strong points and weak points. For many, Photoshop Elements (now in Version 3) will do a lot. Too bad it doesnʼt read the iNovaFX Photoshop Actions. Still, it will be your second-best choice and the latest V3 even reads Nikon RAW files. For the greatest benefit to your digital images, you will want to upgrade to the full strength version of Photoshop with all of its bells and whistles.

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You have choices. A few printers can make prints from the camera’s CF Card directly, and the camera can hook up to computers for direct downloading of images, editing, and distribution on the Internet. Alternatively, the computer can download images from a CF Card Reader and become the center of a complete digital darkroom. Here images can be distributed to deep storage (represented by the CD R recorder), the Internet, and into Photoshop for the most advanced editing and printing to a wide variety of printers. One can start with the simple system and add a CF Card Reader, CD R storage, and Photoshop over time.

PictureProject offers basic importing, organizing, croping and anti red-eye correcting. And it will get you through your initial adventures in image editing. It will even assist you in making slide shows from your images, sharing and ordering prints on-line, and burning collections of shots onto CDs. You can’t beat the price. It’s included with the D70 at no extra cost.

THE DIGITAL DARKROOM Darkrooms arenʼt dark any more. Think of it as a dimroom, a place without glare on the computer screen. In the chemical era, the darkroom was the only place you could organize all the enlargers, trays, developing hardware, chemical fluids, and wash systems, and it had to be absolutely light-tight to do color work. In black and white darkrooms, a deep red light was the only light you could work under because the papers were only sensitive to bluish photons. Color materials had to be handled blind. Today, a computer, printer, and software cost about as much as a fully equipped color darkroom, but the flexibility and depth of achievement has skyrocketed. No chemical darkroom could ever surf the Internet. Fully equipped, the digital darkroom is the custom finishing center, the storage library, and the distribution nexus for your images. No wonder the most common form of darkroom these days, even for film originals, is the same one your D70 feeds directly—the digital darkroom. An editing program, PictureProject, gives you the opportunity to organize, retouch, re-size, color change, sharpen, and add some editing enhancements to your digital images. As image manipulation programs go, it is basic, but PictureProject will allow you to play with some of the concepts of the digital darkroom. If you want to finish your images with a program that is a direct match to the values of your camera, Photoshop is the answer. It is the program others are compared to and to which they aspire. Itʼs not cheap, but then neither was your camera, nor are your images.

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3-4 CHAPTER 3

dSLR: Nikon D70

THE FAST TRACK TO PHOTOSHOP™ • You can learn 80% of Photoshop in seven quick steps. • Most of these steps work with Photoshop Elements, too. Many people have said that they see Photoshop as a daunting learning curve of effort and frustration. From the viewpoint of Photoshop users, this simply isnʼt the case. In fact, you can learn Photoshop one trick at a time and get immediate satisfaction from it with a little basic guidance. If I were looking over your shoulder while you were trying the program out for the first time, I would guide your attention to things in this order: • Learn to open an image and save it under a new name, so the original won’t accidentally be • • • • • • •

replaced by future saves. (The Save As function in the File menu) Learn to open an image and save it as a different form like PICT, TIFF, JPEG, and Photoshop’s native PS format. (The Format option in the Save As function) Learn how to change an image’s lightest, darkest, and middle values with the Levels control. Learn how to change an image’s brightness values with the Curves control. Learn how to use the gray eyedropper in the Levels or Curves control window to instantly fix color balance issues. Learn to add and subtract chroma, the amount of color, to an image with the Hue/Saturation control. Learn how to apply the Unsharp Mask filter from the filter menu. Learn how to use the Burn and Dodge tools to darken and lighten local areas of your image.

This would have taken about an hour of your time. These basic manipulations are the ones you will use 97.2% of the time. The other 2.8% of your time will be consumed in filters (easy), masks (tougher), special effects (fun), and exotic manipulations (which can be so involved that these are probably why people think Photoshop is hard to work). For many of those last items, this CDʼs other files (called “Actions”) provide solutions that satisfy even the experts. Since opening and saving files is such a basic function, Iʼll assume you already know how to do that. What follows are the other steps that will help you learn the basics of Photoshop right this hour. (Note that many Photoshop tools are selected with key shortcuts. The Command key is used in Macintosh computers and Windows computers use the Control key, Ctrl, plus individual letter keys to select some tool and windowed controls.)

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DIGITAL PHOTOSHOP™ BASIC DARKROOM TECHNIQUES IN SEVEN EASY LESSONS.

PART ONE. TONAL BALANCE. Tonal balance refers to the brightness dynamics of the image. Some programs, including Photoshop, have controls labeled Brightness and Contrast. Try to avoid these controls because they almost always cause information to be lost as they do their job. Other controls achieve the same results but let you see what you are doing. You have 256 levels in each RGB color so you want to keep the useful ones that particpate in your shot. For many changes in your image, you donʼt want to change the color, just the brightness of the image in certain narrow ranges. Here are tools that do exactly that. 1. LEVELS PHOTOSHOP AND PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS (COMMAND OR CTRL–L)

The Levels control lets you adjust the top, bottom, and middle values of the image separately. Sliding the middle control, the “gamma” adjustment, is a surprise to someone doing it for the first time. Wow, look at that, the whole picture got brighter. In a technical sense, just parts of it change, but the middle values are adjusted up or down with this control, giving that impression. For many images this may be all you have to do. Interacting with your adjustments is a histogram of the pictureʼs brightness values. Itʼs that mountain range-like graphic. You can pull the shadow point indicator in from the left and the highlight indicator in from the right causing the mountain range to spread out over a wider space. A Contrast control would achieve the same thing, but here you can see exactly what you are doing and more importantly, when to stop. If you move the control into the space occupied by the histogram, you are trimming the top or bottom tones of your shot. Anything outside the shadow and highlight indicators will be lost forever into the white or black limits of the resulting image. The center gamma control lets you pull the middle tone of the image up or down. The effect is very much like adjusting the exposure, but the shadow and highlight extremes of the image donʼt move. You are moving the mid-point alone and nearby values change proportionally. Play with this control a lot to see how your image behaves. You donʼt have to accept changes you make with it, and the next control may be more to your taste.

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3-6 CHAPTER 3

dSLR: Nikon D70

2. CURVES PHOTOSHOP 6, 7 AND CS (COMMAND OR CTRL –M) (NOT AVAILABLE IN PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS)

The Photoshop Curves control is much like the Levels control, except it can do more in a different way. When you open the control, it is a chart with a 45° slanted line across it. This line stands for the tonal value in compared to the tonal value out. We played with the concept in Chapter 1. Now we are going to use it for real. Since the image starts with its beginning values, the line is a neutral diagonal, and even though it is straight right now, it is called a “curve.” If you click anywhere on the graph, a midpoint is instantly created, and the curve immediately flows through it. The first click defines a gammalike adjustment similar to the gamma adjustment in the Levels control. You can move this point anywhere on the surface of the graph and achieve all sorts of results on the image, both good and bad. Experience here will be its own best teacher. With a second click, a new point is created along the line. Now you have a control that is much more sophisticated than a simple gamma adjustment. With care, you can gently reshape the highlight area AND the shadow area while letting the curve flow through the middle of the graph unchanged. This gentle ʻSʼ curve (top image) can go a long way towards softening up a contrasty original, making it look more like a film image. If you like the look of a particular curve, you can save it to a folder in your computer, and bring it back later, in order to apply it to other images. A folder full of curves is found on the CD, ready for you to play with, learn from, and modify to your heartʼs content. With more points added to the line, you can shape it into some very strange twists and make special effects. Digital solarization can be produced as soon as any portion of the line travels downward instead of steadily upward, as in the bottom image. The end points are movable, too. You can use this to cause the line to flatten out at a certain value. The end points of the curve are similar to the end limits in the Levels control in that everything beyond them has hit the end of the tonal range. If you pull the highlight point, for example, out of its usual corner, it will define both the white point (horizontally) and the brightness (vertically) that you assign to that white point. You could at one stroke cause the highlights to clip at 70% brightness and the value of that brightest area to show up as only 90% simply by moving the highlight anchor to a point 70% horizontal and 90% vertical in the chart.

Notice that to make these “flow-through” curves that the small curve icon must be selected. That other pencil icon lets you draw any arbitrary curve. Play with both methods.

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PART TWO. COLOR ADJUSTMENTS. The next group of controls adjusts the color qualities of the image. Photoshop often has several ways of achieving similar results, and color adjustments are made in various ways. You may prefer some to others, but it is nice to know several methods that each approach the idea in a different way. This first technique is unique in that it is so very quick, easy, and accurate. 2A. CURVES OR LEVELS AGAIN PHOTOSHOP AND PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS (COMMAND OR CTRL -M, -L)

The Curves and Levels controls have a special feature useful in color control of your image. Three “eyedropper” controls with black, gray, and white fluid in them are used to sample the imageʼs brightest, darkest, and most neutrally colored places for fast adjustment. The middle eyedropper is the one with the greatest color correction use. The default setting is for middle gray. Double click on it to see what it is set to on your computer. Not gray? Easy to fix. See those boxes labeled H:, S:, B:? B = Brightness. Enter H: 0°, S: 0%, B: 50% and the rest of this idea will work for you. Now touch this Gray Eyedropper cursorʼs tip on any object in your scene that would naturally be close to neutral gray. It doesnʼt matter whether the gray part is light or dark, just so long as it is supposed to be without other color. The white trim of a house in slight shadow, a whitewall tire or the dark gray of the tire itself, a gray patch of pavement, a gray foggy sky, a colorless rock, lettering on a sign, a silver car, a white shirt… all of these will work if you find the right place to click. As soon as you click on your reference object, the entire scene adjusts its color balance to that sample. The control adjusts the Red, Green and Blue channels in a way that turns the pixel you sampled into a neutral gray hue. The brightness of the sample doesnʼt change, just its hue and saturation. Play with this control a lot. Itʼs surprising to see how dramatically it works. After a while, you will become quite adept at improving the color of images shot in shade, indoor light, office light, and in errors caused by outright mistakes. Shade often tends to look cool, due to contamination from the blue sky. Indoor light can be recorded too warm, due to incandescent bulbs on dimmers. In office light, which is often greenish due to fluorescent lights, the color is dependent on the exact formula of the bulbs and no one fluorescent setting will get all of them perfect. Then there are the mistakes. Some will be due to your forgetting to put the white balance on the right setting; some will come from mixed light situations that simply canʼt be correctly guessed by the Auto White Balance feature of the D70. When any of these show up on your computer screen, hit that center eyedropper, and start hunting for a likely gray object in the shot. The image above was exposed with the camera set to the wrong white balance. Fortunately, the strip of cement (arrow) was neutral in color, and simply clicking on it with the neutrality eyedropper created the vivid, realistic result.

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3-8 CHAPTER 3

dSLR: Nikon D70

3. HUE/SATURATION PHOTOSHOP AND PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS (COMMAND OR CTRL -U)

Photoshopʼs Hue/Saturation control is rather like the control on your TV that pumps up the color and steers magenta faces back to pink. The Hue part should be used sparingly, since it moves all the colors in the image equally. The Saturation slider is the Kodachrome control. Here you can push the color up as much as you can stand. You can also use this control to drain all color out of an image and turn the picture into black and white. You can drain color without introducing artifacts, but try to keep color boosts under 20%. A special control on the page is called Colorize. Check this box, and the image becomes monochrome with an almost maroon, reddish look. Changing the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness sliders lets you turn your image into a wide range of tinted variations. Playing with this control, you can simulate cold and warm monochrome print techniques and duotones, and a very convincing warm sepia effect. COLOR FINESSES Two controls allow you to really tweak the color of your image with very fine degrees of perfection. Although both look completely dissimilar, note in particular how each control lets you adjust shadow, highlight, and midtones of an image separately. 4. COLOR BALANCE (COMMAND OR CTRL –B) (NOT AVAILABLE IN PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS)

This control will help you finesse image color in a different way. Images shot in cool shade can be tweaked here with good results. When the pointer is moved, numeric indicators change at the top of the control window. You can move the pointer or enter numbers directly. A setting of +20, 0, -20 will pull a subtle blue tint out of shadow areas, for instance. A sub box of controls invites you to work on the Shadows, Midtones and Highlights separately. Like the other controls in Photoshop, these beckon you to play with them. Play here is creative play. You are learning the tools and techniques of digital photography in a fast responding darkroom that isnʼt dark and which doesnʼt have stinky chemicals. 5. VARIATIONS PHOTOSHOP AND PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS (IMAGE > ADJUST > VARIATIONS)

This control is sort of the easy way to make your picture better. It isnʼt the fastest to work with, but for intuitive results, it canʼt be beat. With your picture selected, you open the control, and a large window opens on your screen with 12 miniature versions of your image on it. A group of seven shows your current pick plus six color changes, three more show density changes, and two show the original and the current pick versions of your shot side by side. Controls in the upper right let you adjust the strength of color change for highlights, midtones, and shadows, plus a check box that limits the changes to color saturation. Beyond these basic color adjustments are two tweaking adjustments to make your images look sharper, both on the computer screen and in printouts, and a special tool that almost exactly mirrors a darkroom technique for locally improving the exposure in different areas of an image.

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Digital Color and the Photoshop Connection PART THREE. FINISHING TOUCHES. Digital images can be manipulated by space-age image processing techniques. This is one of them. Edges that were marginally well defined are now very well defined. Hair suddenly looks super sharp. The photographerʼs dream of focusing the image after the exposure is beginning to come true. 6. THE UNSHARP MASK PHOTOSHOP AND PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS (FILTER > SHARPENING > UNSHARP MASK)

The Unsharp Mask control is a filter in Photoshop in the group of controls labeled Sharpening. Choose the Unsharp Mask, and a window appears with several choices and a small preview window. If the box labeled Preview is checked, the filter is already being applied to your shot. Image size slows down the full image preview, but if your computer is reasonably fast, you should be able to leave this checked so you can see the results of making adjustments interactively. Why is it called that? It masks unsharpness. In other words, it sharpens. The top slider shows the amount of sharpening the control is generating. Under that you have a window that asks for a number. This is the radius, in pixels, of the influence of the filter. It works fractionally as well. This is important. By being able to influence only about third of a pixel with an entry of 0.3, you are keeping the effect very tightly bound to the contours in your image. A 1.0 pixel radius will extend the influence of the sharpening effect a full pixel in every direction from the one being worked on. How it works is interesting. It heightens the contrast between pixels of different values. A dark pixel against a light pixel will become a darker pixel against a lighter pixel. Since the original values are slightly exaggerated, the boundary from one to the other is exaggerated, and looks sharper to the eye. Locally, the contrast between the two original features is increased, but it is our vision system that interprets this as being a detail improvement. It is real easy to overdo Unsharp Mask. Try numbers like these to experience how they work: RADIUS NOMINAL AMOUNT EXTREME AMOUNT 0.2 0.3 0.5 1.0 2.0

100 80 50 20 10

500 300 170 90 50

Super Secret: Large number entries in the Radius box have a different sort of influence on the picture. Try putting in a number like 30~100 and moving the Amount slider around. Notice how areas of the picture adjust their relatively local contrast into looking more vivid? Watch out for bright areas, though, they can easily become too bright and lose detail. Often a conservative use of this technique will simply add a bit of snap to the image. Try a Radius of 80 and an Amount of 15. Threshold is less important. It defines the value difference below which the sharpening wonʼt occur. Low numbers (1 to 4) keep sharpening effects off of grain but you need to play with it to get an intuitive feel for it. Higher ISO images have more grain, so for them you may wish to use a larger number here. Make sure the Preview box is checked so you can work with your image interactively.

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3-10 CHAPTER 3

dSLR: Nikon D70

HANDS ON In a chemical darkroom, burning and dodging techniques are extremely important. Good prints donʼt reveal that they have areas which are burned or dodged, and this is the goal; to concentrate some areas by burning, and hold back other areas by dodging, but not so much that people notice the result on the final image. 7. DODGING AND BURNING PHOTOSHOP AND PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS (THE ‘O’ KEY)

Although from the names of these tools you might think they had something to do with a game of laser tag, the two terms come from techniques used in the exposure process in chemical darkrooms. Enlargers are low-brightness projectors pointing downward onto a piece of photographic paper. Usually, they project the image of a negative. Where the negative casts light, the developed paper turns dark. Under the enlarger, a photographer would often move a disk of opaque black paper mounted on a wire handle, into the beam of light as it exposed a sheet of photographic paper. The exposures for a print are often ten seconds or more, and by stopping down the enlarger lens, the photographer could easily extend that to around thirty seconds, which would provide a lot of time to manipulate the light. By holding this “dodging paddle” in the beam for a while over areas that get a lot of exposure, the photographer holds back the light, thus lessening the exposure and making that part of the image slightly lighter. This brings out shadow detail. The out of focus shadow of the paddle is moved during the exposure, so no shadow of its presence is perceived in the final image. The opposite technique is called “burning.” Some areas, where the negative in the enlarger is particularly dark, might need a bit of extra exposure to be delivered to the photo paper in order to bring detail into a very bright area of the print. When burning, the photographer often holds one hand in the beam, arranging fingers to let only a small ray of light reach the paper in the area needing extra exposure. Two hands are often used, sort of like a soft focus shadow puppet. The two icons found with the keyboard “O” key in Photoshop are shaped like a dodging paddle, the black lollipop icon, and a hand forming an opening with the thumb, the common method of quickly burning-in an area. These are two distinct tools, but they do the same things to a digital print that the originals did for enlarger prints. Plus a whole lot more. Use the shift key with the “O” key to select among the options of burn hand, dodge paddle, and saturation sponge. Select a brush to the size of the area you wish to influence. Notice how the last brush used with each option sticks to it, changing back to where you last left things as you change tools.

The top image is what the camera recorded, a table in the corner of an artist’s living room. No chance to re-light the scene, bringing out shadow detail, and suppressing some of the brighter highlights. Burning the highlights and dodging the shadows produced the bottom result. Rollover the bottom shot to see the original in context.

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DODGING To see the shape and limits of any brush as you work, open the Photoshop Preferences window and select Display and Cursors > Painting Cursors > Brush Size. Select the dodging tool, and also select a large soft brush from the brushes window. The Options window shows two things. One is a choice among highlights, midtones, and shadows, and the other is for the strength of exposure. Set the Exposure to about 25, and select Highlights from the list. Move the tool over a fairly dark shadow area, click, and drag. Notice that the shadow area lightens, but anything very dark or black doesnʼt. Only tones above black are lifted proportionally. The brighter they were originally, the more they are lightened. Try changing the option to read “Midtones” and try it on another area. The behavior difference is subtle, but you can see how it more aggressively lifts middle densities than darker detail. Changing it to read “Shadows” causes the darkest parts of the image to lift but not highlights. This is a big improvement over the darkroom version, which changed everything in all tonal ranges at the same time. The smaller the Exposure numbers, the less the influence of the tool on the image. With small numbers, you can go over an area several times to build up the effect you want. BURNING Using the Burn tool is very much the opposite of using the Dodge tool. Here you are darkening the areas you are working on. If a highlight is too bright and indistinct, the Burn tool may help. As with the Dodge tool, a large soft brush is usually your best choice. Here, too, smaller numbers and multiple passes will build up the density you want. With Burn, the Exposure option that works best is usually “Shadows.” Now, only pixels that are lower than pure white will be affected proportionally. The brighter the original, the less they will be influenced. After playing with these options for a while, you will begin to develop an intuitive sense of how they work. Now you will be able to look at an image and start thinking about fixing the shadows, highlights, and local areas of brightness in new ways. You will no longer need to accept the limitations of the lighting in the original image. Play with it enough to see how far you can take the technique. In fact, it is a good idea to take it too far on a few shots, just so you can see what too much of a good thing looks like. As a general rule, if you look at a shot and can immediately see where it was burned and dodged, youʼve gone too far.

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7A. SATURATION/DESATURATION Since we are already here, a third tool appears with the burn and dodge tools: the Sponge. It can saturate or desaturate colors locally in the same way the Burn and Dodge tools operate, on a small or large area, and the Options window adjusts its effect. No equivalent tool exists in a chemical darkroom, so that sponge icon has no direct counterpart. Here it behaves more like a sponge soaking up paint from a watercolor, or washing on dye in an exotic coloring technique. The digital darkroom borrows its metaphors freely from all the graphic processes.

CONGRADUATIONS* That wasnʼt so hard, was it? These seven techniques are the key to digital manipulation for tonal scale and color adjustment in Photoshop. Moreover, you have touched the Tools, Control Windows, Filters, Preferences, and Save systems of Photoshop along the way. Each was easy to access and operate. Your fear of them is hereby declared obsolete. You deserve a diploma. Nearly all of your future explorations in Photoshop will be variations on these familiar procedures. As you use these tools more and more, you may begin to realize that one of these controls has much more influence and capability than the others: the Curves control. Except for color saturation, the Curves control can achieve most of what the other controls do for tone and color. As your experience with it grows, so will the quality of your creativity in this digital dimroom. One more post-graduate lesson: While the Unsharp Mask tool can perk up the effects of low or no in-camera sharpening, the camera has the image in memory before compressing and storing it, so the very sharpest images with the fewest artifacts will probably result from appropriate in-camera sharpening. With the D70 the Sharpening control may be set to its Normal or Automatic Sharpening setting without fear. Experiment with shots made using Low in-camera sharpening followed by judicious Unsharp Mask tweaking. If you are preparing images for use on the Internet, it is doubtful that you will need to display images larger than 1024 pixels wide. Photoshopʼs scaling tool, Image > Image Size > Resample Image: Bicubic, produces the cleanest results. Specify a dimension in pixels in the upper windows and the rest of the window will calculate itself automatically. For the best results apply any sharpening after re-scaling your shot. *Congratulations on graduating.

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Here’s major bonus from Uwe Steinmueller, naturalist art photographer popular with advanced photographers around the world. His eBooks take an in-depth look at photographic ideas like workflow, RAW image processing and advanced color printing techniques. On his website, www.outbackphoto.com, you can learn a great deal and find valuable resources that will expand your photographic horizons. What follows here are his detailed instructions in the use of layers, perhaps the single strongest feature of Photoshop and the very next thing you would wish to understand after basic image manipulations. After you know how to alter image color and tonality, you can now start stacking pictures and effects on top of each other. This chapter will introduce you to the flexibility and depth inherent in Photoshop, and it will show you how you can alter and improve your image without actually touching its pixels directly. Uwe is a devotee of keeping the image as pristine as possible. By floating different kinds of layers over your master file, you can perform nearly every function, manipulation and enhancement you could wish to. This is steeper instruction and will likely take you longer to absorb, but once you go through it, you own it forever. —iNova

CHAPTER

3A

Using Photoshop Layers

by Uwe Steinmueller

Images by Bettina and Uwe Steinmueller

Camera: Nikon D1

Layers are an essential tool for our workflow. This chapter gets you started with layers to make it your tool of choice.

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• •

• •

What are layers anyway? Think of multiple documents put on top of one another. If all layers were 100% opaque, then you would only see the content of the top layer. Even this would be useful as the layer hierarchy documents your steps used to refine the image. This means for our workflow that every image processing step is performed in a new layer. But there is much more to Photoshop layers— Layers can have opacity from 0% (transparent) to 100% (opaque) Layers allow different blending modes Layers were invented for the use of graphic designers. This chapter only covers the elements that are most useful in your digital photography workflow. Layers are power tool that have some cost attached to them: Layered documents use more space on your disks and in memory 16-bit layers need even more memory and processor power Photoshop CS is the first version of Photoshop that supports layers also in full 16 bit.

1.1

Understanding the Layers palette

Showing the Photoshop Layers palette

Nearly all operations on layers can be accessed from the Layers palette. The layers are displayed from bottom to top (means that “Background” is the bottom-most layer). First have a look at the all the different UI elements. This is a complex UI because Photoshop Layers are a real power tool. Again, learn as you go. The tools will look much easier to you once you use them in the context of your photographic workflow. The top most row shows the Blending Mode and Opacity for the currently selected layer. Both features are crucial for the layer based digital workflow. Shows Blending mode ( “Normal”) and Opacity (100% the default)

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The tools in the next row are mainly used by graphic designers or painters. Can be ignored for most of our workflow. Layer tools that are used mainly by graphic designers and painters

Every layer is either a normal Layer. Think of it as one full image on top of the other images. If you would then tune Opacity the layer below would start to shine through.

Normal layer

Every layer has a name. Photoshop generates layer names for you but you should use your own names to document what your layers should do. You may even later replace this layer by a technically different layer that fulfills the same intention. Adjustment Layer: Adjustment layers are very important for our workflow. Adjustment layers are layers that are defined by image operations and not pixel content. We cover adjustment layers in more detail later.

Adjustment layer The left two columns show some icons that have the following meaning:

indicates a visible layer. If you click on it the icon will disappear and this layer will not effect the final image. This feature can be very useful as it allows us to check the layer’s effect on the resulting image. It also allows you have multiple versions of processing in the same layered image. Layer)

indicates that you can paint on this layer (you cannot paint on an Adjustment indicates that this is an Adjustment Layer and you cannot paint on it

Shows the picture thumbnail for a normal layer. The thumbnail is the result of the current image at this level in the layer hierarchy. Indicates the operation used by an Adjustment Layer (here Levels) Indicates that Layer and Layer Mask are linked (we always leave it this way) Layer Mask for this layer (this is an optional property of any layer)

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3-16 CHAPTER 3

dSLR: Nikon D70

Layers Palette bottom toolbar Layer toolbar

Nearly all operations on layers can be accessed by using these buttons or the layer palette menu. Add a Layer Style (we have never used this) Add Layer Mask Create new Layer Set Add Adjustment Layer Create new Layer Delete Layer or Layer Mask Background images are treated special by Photoshop. They are not considered to be layers in the first place. Background layer

Note: All new images start without layers. This is why the Background image is not a layer. In most cases this is not an issue. However, some operations might not work on the Background image (read our section on “Smart Cropping”). You can leave the Background untouched most of the time.

1.2

Your first layer Let us revisit the sample crop with the dust spot.

Image shows a strong dust spot

In the first take on dust removal the spot was removed directly on the Background image. There is a drawback in doing this. If you did not do a perfect job removing all the dust you later need to redo the complete image processing again by going back to our raw converter. A better approach is to perform the operation on a copied layer of the Background image. Drag the Background image in the Layer palette on top of the New Layer icon and drop it there.

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Image with a dust spot

Do not forget to rename the layer for better documentation. You now have a new layer with a copy of the Background image. Clean up the dust spot in just the same way as we described in chapter 2. If you make the new layer invisible, you can see that the dust spot is still there on the Background. 1.2.1

Changing opacity

New layers are created 100% opaque. But every layer can have a different opacity: • • •

100%: opaque 0%: full transparent All other values: define an opacity between 0% and 100% You will use opacity all the time. Especially it allows you to perform an operation in a way that it is initially too strong. You are then able to fine tune the effect by using opacity. Use the opacity slider for the last example and observe how the dust spot gets increasingly more visible the lower you dial the opacity value.

1.2.2

Understand Blending modes

In the last section, you saw how opacity works. Our workflow uses blending modes a lot. Blending Modes are also complex feature that is only covered as it is required by our workflow.

Blending mode selection

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Blending modes define the mathematics how pixels of the layer below and the current layer get “blended” (mean mixed) into a new value. Here are some blending modes that are used more often in our workflow. Normal: Standard mode only the values of the current layer count (but the opacity controls the strength) Darken, Multiply: Used for burning effects Lighten, Screen: Used for dodging effects Overlay: A value of 50% gray does not effect the image. Values below 50% darken and above 50% brighten the resulting image. Soft and Hard Light: Can be used to increase saturation Luminosity: Very important blending mode as it prevents unwanted color shifts (see our section on S-Curves revisited). Color: The layer will only change color and not any luminosity (most of the details) Saturation: The layer will only change saturation and not any luminosity or color hue Hue: The layer will only change color hue and not any luminosity or saturation

1.3 Fine tuning with Adjustment Layers Adjustment Layers are the major reason to use layers in our workflow. With Adjustment Layers, you do not put another image layer on top of your other layers. Instead, you perform image correction operations on top of the layers below. A new adjustment layer can be created using the button in the bottom tool bar of the Layer palette. There are many possible types of adjustment layers. For the photographic workflow most of the time the six marked in the below figure are used.

Shows the drop down list of Adjustment layer types

You may find other options useful too once you found your personal workflow style.

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Now create your first Curves Adjustment Layer. As an example we darken the image using the following curve.

Darken the image with a curves adjustment layer

The Layer palette shows now a new Adjustment Layer.

Palette shows the new created Curves adjustment layer

You might ask why this would be an improvement over using Curves directly on the original image? There is a big difference. Click on the icon of the new curves layer and the Curves dialog will pop up again. Now you can tweak your settings. This is not possible using curves directly on your image. Note: If you use Adjustment Layers, all your changes are not cast in stone and can later be modified. In addition, your settings are well documented. You can also inspect them at any time and can even save the Curves settings and apply them to other images. Once you have discovered Adjustment Layer you hardly want to live without them.

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1.4 Work selective with Layer Masks Adjustment Layers would be useful as we described them. But Layer Masks add a completely new dimension. Layer Masks let you control how much the Adjustment Layer operation (here Curves) effect different areas of your image. We revisit the Fiery Furnace sample (again a small crop).

Shows the original picture

Select the sky (using the Color Range tool)

New Sky selected

and create a Curves Adjustment Layer.

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Layer palette shows the adjustment layer and the layer mask

You have created a Curves Adjustment Layer with a Layer Mask. Note: If you Command or Alt+click on the Layer Mask icon (Command is for Macs), Photoshop will display the Layer Mask instead of the image (Command or Alt+Click brings back the original view).

Layer Mask as grayscale image

Note: You can see that Color Range did not really produce a perfect mask. Creating masks for objects like this can be tricky. Our workflow does rarely rely on perfect masks as they are an art by itself. The books by Martin Evening and Katrin Eismann cover this subject in more detail. You should try to avoid complex masks as much as possible. 1.4.1

Understanding Layer Masks

A Layer Mask is actually an 8-bit grayscale image. White means that the Layer or the Adjustment Layer operation (e.g. Curves) will be 100% effective at that position. Black means the Layer or Adjustment Layer operation will be 0% effective. The real importance comes with gray values. X% gray means the effect will be effective by X%. This is exactly like controlling the opacity on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Black-to-white gradients allow you to get smooth transitions if needed. This concept is even more powerful. You can even paint using brushes on the Layer Mask and control its behavior.

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1.5 Flatten images and merging layers 1.5.1

Flatten image

Sometimes you want to get rid of the layer structure because you need to save the file as a JPG or non-layered TIFF. This is very easy; just select the Flatten Image menu command and you have a simple non layered Background image. 1.5.2

Merging Layers

Even more often you need to perform an operation (e.g. sharpening) on the combined result of the underlying layers. Flattening is not a real option as you do not want to lose the layer structure. 1. Create a new empty layer on top of all the other layers (this layer is filled with transparent pixels):

Create a new empty layer on top

2. Select Merge Visible, do not release the mouse button yet, hit the Alt (or Command) key and then release the mouse button.

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Layer palette menu

As the result there is a new layer filled with the merged result of all visible layers.

Combined layer on top

Now you can perform you filter operation of your choice on this new layer. Note: If the new layer is 100% opaque and you change any underlying layers it will not effect the final image. This means if you want to tune Adjustment Layers below this layer you have to recreate this combined layer and also perform the operation(s) again. That is why a good naming is so important. It will remind you what this layer should do.

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1.6 Apply actions and filters in new layers Many actions and some plug-in filters are not designed to be used in layers. Some experts may say that the solution is very simple: 1. Duplicate image 2. Flatten image (in case it has layers) 3. Perform action/filter on this image 4. Select all (Ctrl+A) 5. Copy the result 6. Close the duplicate file 7. Create a new layer on top of the original image 8. Paste the processed image into the new layer This is a tedious manual task and should be implemented by an action itself. You actually need two actions: • •

Preparation Post processing Since the action is general it does not know anything about the actions or filters used by the users. Here are the actions that do the trick:

Steps that are performed by the MakeALayer actions

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• • •

• •

If you want to use these actions inside your own actions. Simply record a new action like: Run "MakeALayer_Pre" Run any action or filter Run “MakeAlayer_Post” There is one more advantage to the layer approach. You can for example use a slightly stronger sharpening filter and tone down the effect by changing the layer’s opacity. There are the usual downsides to this layer approach: Layered files need a lot of disk space Need more memory It makes also sense to rename the new layer. That way it can document what operation was done in that layer. Click on the small square in the second left column for the “Make layer” entry. The “Make layer” dialog will prompt you for a new name.

1.7 Smart cropping This photo below made us ask the question: What if we could crop it and also keep the full image to change the crop later?

Dunes in Death Valley shown before any cropping

Looking at this photo (as shot, no crop) it is not very obvious what would be the best possible crop or even if cropping would be even necessary. After cropping the image you would then spend time on contrast, shadows, colors, retouching and saturation. These are done by layers on top of the crop. You may also do one to four proof prints during this process to find out the best way to print the photo. You hardly would want to redo all these changes from scratch if you decide on a different crop in the future. Katrin Eismann (author of “Photoshop Restoration & Retouching”) showed us a solution to this problem. This technique is based on using Photoshop’s Crop tool.

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Using the Crop tool

This is by no means a tutorial about the Crop Tool. We cover only aspects that help us to solve the problem. For our exercise we will use a file that has no layers (only the Background image). If you select the Crop tool you get the following tool palette: Crop tool options

You then select the area you want to crop:

Crop tool hides the parts that will be cropped off

The area that is not selected displays darkened. You can change and move the selection as you like. The Crop Tool palette changes to:

Changed Crop tool options

If you then hit enter the photo gets cropped without being able to get the full image back later once you saved the file. There is feature “Hide” that cannot be selected on this image because “Hide” is not available on the Background image. Why? Because the Background image is not a layer.

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Background image is not a layer

Fortunately we can change the Background into a layer. Just double click on the “Background” and confirm the new layer dialog

Making the Background a layer

This transforms Background into a layer with the default name “Layer 0”

The background image has become a layer

If you now use the Crop tool again the crop tool bar has changed and you can select the “Hide” option.

Options allow selecting “hide”

You can now choose between a “Delete” and “Hide” for the area that gets cropped. Delete is what happened before, so that is why you use “Hide”. If you hit “enter” the image looks the same as if the cropped areas had been deleted.

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Shows the final cropped Image (cropped areas hidden)

Where is the original image? With “Image->Reveal All” we get back to the original full sized image.

Reveal hidden image areas

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The original image is revealed to the original full size

So far, this is a nice solution. But you may want to restrict the aspect ratio to 3:2 (like you can do with the rectangular Marquee tool). It was not obvious how to solve this as there is nothing in the tool palette that mentioned aspect ratio. Here is a solution from Martin Evening (author of “Photoshop 7 for Photographers”): Select width and height to constrain proportions

Enter width “3cm” and height “2cm” and leave resolution open. Now the Crop tool keeps a 3:2 aspect ratio. The only odd thing is that it will set the resolution value to some funny value to keep the crop 3cm x 2cm. This can easily be fixed using the Image->Size dialog. If you crop often using the aspect ratio 3:2 then it is easier if you save the setting as a preset for the Crop tool:

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Setting crop tool presets

You can recall the 3:2 setting later at any time.

1.8 Minimize S-Curve side effects Improving contrast by using S-Curves is a standard technique to improve contrast. Often these S-Curves also improve saturation. But what if you want to improved contrast and avoid shifted colors?

This is our flat looking original image

Instead of using S-Curves directly you create a curve adjustment layer. Curves Adjustment layers are integral part of the general workflow.

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Enhance the contrast with a weak S-Curve

Contrast is now enhanced by S-Curve (with slight color shifts)

While enhancing the contrast, you also get a color shift that you may not want in this case. You can avoid the color shift by changing the blending mode of the adjustment layer from “Normal” to “Luminosity”.

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Changing Blending Mode to “Luminosity”

Blending Mode was changed to “Luminosity”

Note: The subtle changes are hard to see on small images or on the web. It is best if you try this yourself with an image that needs some contrast boost. There is actually an interesting complementary variation to this technique. If you use “Color” as blending mode the contrast only changes the colors and does not increase the luminosity contrast.

1.9 How to remove moirés Some cameras produce some color aliasing (small colored pixels in the photo). You can remove moirés using the following method.

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Sample shows moiré from a Fuji S2 (at 100% pixel level)

1. 2.

Create a new merged layer Use the Dust & Scratches filter (radius 3-7 are good values)

Using the Dust & Scratches filter

3.

Now the image looks all blurred (no problem though) Set the layer’s blending mode to “Color” and all is fine.

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Set layer to Blending Mode “color”

Moiré reduced

You can even use a stronger filter and tone done the effect using opacity.

1.10 Use Auto Colors to tune contrast Normally, you should be very careful with every tool that has the name “auto” in it. Your eyes and skills are soon better than most automatic tools. However, as with every “rule”, there are exceptions. Here is a trick that uses auto colors in Levels to tune contrast. You start with an unsharpened image (this is actually a small crop)

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Sample image has a flat contrast (100% pixel crop)

1.

Create a new Levels Adjustment layer and you get this histogram in Levels

Opening Levels Dialog for the Adjustment Layer

2.

Click on Options

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Selecting the Auto Color settings

• •

•

3. Change the settings to Enhance per Channel Contrast Set both Clip values to 0.2. The default 0.5 seems to strong for us, but you should experiment to see what suits your taste best. Actually remember that clipping is bad most of the time. But with this technique you get away with it. You can also check “Save as Default” if you want 0.2 to be your future default. Don’t worry about the horrible colors you see right now. Here is what happens behind the scenes. Each channel is clipped in the shadows and highlights by 0.2%. Because each channel gets clipped differently, the result can be a very strong color shift. The next figure shows only the red channel, but you should inspect green and blue as well.

Clipping in color channels (here red)

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4.

The photo looks now this bad

The image suffers from major color shifts

Lesson: Auto Color can get horrible results. However, don’t worry, we are still on track. 5. Change the Blending Mode of this layer to “Luminosity” Voila, the colors are back. The Luminosity Blending Mode for a layer ensures that only the contrast on detail is changed and not the colors.

Blending mode set to “Luminosity”

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Contrast overdone

6. Tune down opacity to about 30% The contrast has been increased. Unfortunately, this is far too much due to the strong clipping. What do we do if a layer shows the right effect but just too much? Correct, we turn down the opacity. In this case, about 30% opacity will do the trick.

Contrast improved with lower Opacity

7.

With some final sharpening, you can gain also better local contrast.

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Showing the final image after sharpening

1.11 Optimize layers with Advanced Blending options If you select the Blending Options for a layer the following dialog will pop up.

Showing the Advanced Blending default settings

The slider labeled “This Layer” allows a very interesting control of the blending. For example in the last section you learned hot to improved the contrast. The downside of this technique can be too much contrast in the highlights and shadows.

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dSLR: Nikon D70 You can reduce the effect to the highlights and shadows if you set the sliders as shown here

Showing the new Advanced Blending settings

To separate each of the small triangle pairs you use the Alt (Command) key while dragging one of the triangles. What do these settings mean? Between the right most black triangle (here 22) and the left most gray triangle (here 204) the layer effect will be 100%. Between the black and the gray triangles, the effect fades from 100% to 0%. This way you get a smooth transition.

1.12 Dodge and burn using Layers This is a concept Mac Holbert showed us when we visited Nash Editions in January 2003.

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We want to brighten up the bird’s body.

1.

Create a new layer

Create a new layer with Overlay Blending mode

• • •

2. Set Mode to Overlay and select layer is filled with 50% gray. Overlay is a very special blending mode with the following properties (for more details consult the Photoshop help) 50% gray leaves the image unchanged (that is why we start there) Painting with values below 50% gray will darken the image (black is strongest) Painting with values above 50% gray will lighten up the image 3. Select the Dodge Tool

Select Photoshop Dodge and Burn tools

4. Set the exposure to 5-15%. Enable the Airbrush option and use a reasonably large soft brush.

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If you now paint on areas that are too dark for your taste they will brighten up the more you paint in that area. The lower the exposure the more you need to paint but also have so much more control.

Select your dodge options

4. Dodge the birds head and body with a few careful brush strokes. If you make all other layers invisible you can see how your dodge & burn layer looks like.

Shows only the Dodge & Burn layer

The dark areas show the areas used to burn (no burning here) and the bright ones are used for dodging. The following picture (blending of the original picture and the Dodge & Burn layer) illustrates our point Here is our resulting image:

Avocet has improved brightened shadow

i For an even more advanced look at Photoshop techniques, study the RAW Materials eBook by Uwe Steinmueller on this CD.

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Hands-On Control Essentials

Chapter 4

Nikon D70

Hands-On Control Essentials A digital single lens reflex that combines top quality images and a superb photographer interface, while advancing the art of photographic engineering. In a nutshell, the D70 is the result of Nikon’s having poured over every detail hundreds of times in order to bring the maximum performance, greatest durability and widest array of features into your hands for the price you paid.

T

hat Nikon D70 digital SLR in your hands was created collaboratively with input from professional photographers, engineers, materials specialists, optical designers and camera design specialists. There are a huge number of useful features in this camera, both easy to use and deeply complex, so the designers spent a lot of time considering its ergonomics, especially the physical placement of controls and how they feel, fit and function in your hand. Along the way they asked over and over, how can we make this camera in large quantities and sell it for a Nikon’s D70 dSLR is a professional grade very attractive price while building camera at a price enthusiast photographers it to our highest standard? Part of that solution was achieved by making many of its can appreciate. Most are sold with the 18 to parts and all final assembly in Nikonʼs Thailand super factory. This same factory 70mm f/3.5-5.6G DX Nikkor lens, providing a zoom range equivalent to a 27 to 105mm makes several Nikkor optics including the Kit Lens that is most frequently bundled lens on a 35mm film camera (3.8:1). Roll with the D70 body. your mouse over the image to see the High tech polymer bodies are less expensive range of this “Kit Lens.” to design and manufacture, but theyʼre not necessarily less durable or less ergonomic. The amount of trauma that can shatter polymer is close to the threshold of force it takes to deform metal. By making the critical internal structures out of metal, the precision of the machine is maintained. = By the end of this chapter you will have touched nearly every InfoBite idea the designers labored over, and we predict that your photos will benefit greatly from having explored each item in context. We strongly recommend that you read this chapter with the camera close enough to grab and play with as ideas, settings and features appear in the text. The marked Infobites are there to bring you operational notes that significantly contribute

i

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to your use of any given feature—or photography in general—that is relevant to the moment. i There are over 400 Infobites in this chapter—succinct one-paragraph guides, notes, factoids or warnings to keep your pictures on track. Like this paragraph, they are identified by the i icon for quick spotting.

CAMERA FAMILIARIZATION When you first turn the D70 over in your hands, notice the basic control layout—mode dial on the top left, shutter release and LCD panel on the top right, some buttons nearby marked with icons, the on/off switch around the shutter release. On the back, a stack of buttons parallels the left of the monitor, and more buttons, switches and a four-way rocker switch sit to its right. Just where your thumb rests is a horizontal scrolling Camera controls may seem like a large number of wheel, and if you look on the front of the camera, just buttons at first, but after working with the camera for below the shutter release another identical scrolling wheel is positioned where awhile, you’ll appreciate how so many functions can come from so few controls. your right index finger can easily reach it. Also on the front, an unmarked button below the lens presents a momentary iris-closing, DOF switch that you can reach with your pinkie while gripping the camera with your right hand. On the lower left front, also near the lens mount, sits a rotating switch you can flick with your thumb while supporting the lens in classic “up-grip” SLR support mode. Itʼs made with a protrusion so you can click it with the ball of your left thumb without taking your eye from the viewfinder. Fourteen push buttons, two scroll wheels, one four way “joy button,” one slide switch and two rotating switches plus a monster mode switch are all that it takes An easy to overlook switch on the front lets you use AF—auto-focusing—or M—manual to run this camera. Why so many? The camera offers a lot. Why so few? Several of them do double duty, depending on whether the monitor is showing an image or focusing. The Kit Lens has a similar switch, and both achieve the same functional result, not. The 14 buttons provide over 22 functions and settings. but try to get in the habit of using the one on These controls are the result of endless meetings in which designers agonized the camera body exclusively. over the function, shape, placement, feel, marking and color of every one. They tried proposed designs out on photographers, novices and people with small hands and large hands before locking in the design you see here. From the ground up, the camera represents Nikonʼs current best dSLR design thinking for its intended users, from professionals, who depend on their machines for their livelihood, to newcomers who have never owned a fine camera before. While the D70 is capable of amazing photographic deeds, you donʼt have to know much to get started using it, because it has seven easy-to-shoot modes—including a full auto mode—on its largest, most obvious Mode dial at the top left of the camera body. Six modes have icons suggesting that they link to portraits, scenics, close ups, sports, night scenes or night portraits, and one of the more entertaining things you can do is amuse yourself shooting with these modes right away. As you do,

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questions will arise. Why did the flash pop up in this mode? Why is the bracket graphic dancing around inside the viewfinder as I focus? Each mode causes internal settings of the camera to adjust to a particular string of options. In a way, the camera becomes six different cameras, each optimized for a different photographic mission. In Portrait mode, for instance, the camera knows that you want to shoot a picture of a person and that pictures of people may need some light, so it will pop up the camera Speedlight (Nikonʼs word for an electronic flash unit) if the light is low. It also knows that portraits look best when the background is out of focus, so it tries to keep the aperture as close to wide open as possible One dial, eleven cameras. Each of the icon-identified “Digital Vari-Modes” are exposure modes that optimize during the exposure. If it detects an external flash unit in the camera top the camera to a different mission. Greater control is hot shoe, it switches things around internally to account for it. Later in found with the P, S and A modes. For the ultimate this chapter we will run through each one of these “Digital Vari-Modes” control (and the responsibility that goes with it) M (DVM) that Nikon has created to simplify your life. delivers Full Manual settings. If you are new to the camera, twirl the mode dial so the green camera is selected. This is Full Auto mode and the camera will now weigh every variable as it encounters a shot. Focus and exposure are taken care of. Frame the image indoors, outdoors, under office lighting or under cloudy skies and shoot. If the nearest subject is off center, the focus system will notice and lock onto it. If the flash is needed, it will make itself available automatically by popping up into place without your intervention. Just concentrate on organizing the picture inside the viewfinder. After you shoot the picture, it will instantly show up on the back of the camera where you can observe what you just shot.

CARD TRIP Right out of the packaging, the camera needs only a lens and battery power to start teaching you its secrets, but if you want to keep pictures, you will need one other thing: a memory card. The D70 uses the popular CompactFlash memory card format for its removable memory, and without one you can only play with the camera, zooming its lens, seeing how the auto-focus works, testing the flash and exploring the menu system—but no pictures can be recorded even if the shutter trips. If the card you purchase for your D70 i Buried deep in the menu system is a menu item (CSM #06) that is not proven to equal or exceed the either allows the camera to trip or not without a memory card in it. Being able to performance of the SanDisk Extreme series click the camera without taking pictures is a useful ability. It lets you see how some of CompactFlash cards, you’re missing out on useful features. Card speed is increasing things function without having to think about, or manage, a bunch of pictures. with each new product announcement. i If you donʼt already own a CompactFlash card, you can buy them at photo and Current Extreme III cards transfer data at 20 electronics stores or over the Internet at numerous places. Prices generally scale megabytes per second. with their capacity in megabytes but one thing is extra important for this particular camera. Card speed varies with the exact technologies used within each card design, and older cards are generally slower than recent models. Itʼs not just megabytes of storage that you want. Itʼs megabytes + speed that will ultimately make you happy with the cameraʼs performance. i One of the most recommended card designs for the D70 in particular is the SanDisk Extreme series. They inhale files from the camera with blazing speed and are available in 512-megabyte, 1-gigabyte and 2-gigabyte sizes today. A 512-megabyte card will store about 150 images before

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requiring downloading into your computer or portable storage unit. Thatʼs like having a 35mm film camera with just over four rolls of film. i Professionals shoot more images than that in a typical assignment, so they will appreciate the 1GB and 2GB versions. Those get expensive. i RAW images (Nikonʼs NEF Mode) take up more than three times the space of Large/Fine-compressed shots. The 512-megabyte card only holds about 40 of these. i The other extreme is that using half-size files (1504 x 1000 pixel Small frames) at Basic compression, the same 512-megabyte card will hold around 1,900 images before filling up. i For travel photographers the 1GB SanDisk Extreme card is highly recommended.

D70 power comes from the Nikon EN-EL3 Lithium-ion, 7.4 volt, 1400 mAh battery. If you are an enthusiast, get at least one extra. If you are a professional, get at least two extra. Protective covers are included.

POWER UP Power for the D70 comes from a battery or by an AC external power supply called the EH-5. The batteries you will use most often are the lithium ion EN-EL3 cells that come with the camera. A universal-voltage MH-18 Quick Charger comes in the box with the camera, and it can recharge a depleted EN-EL3 in about two hours on AC voltages available nearly anywhere in the world. Since one of these will run the camera for two or more hours in most kinds of photographic situations, buying one extra EN-EL3 may be all you need to assure yourself of continuous power, providing you can recharge the other one nearby. Nikon has cleverly provided a little supplemental battery holder (MS-D70) that can be filled with three single-use CR2 lithium batteries, and it fits into the camera battery well where the EN-EL3 cell usually goes. We recommend that you fill one of these and pack it away in your camera bag for emergencies. The CR2 batteries cost about $10 to $15 US for three of them, so they are not inexpensive power, but they do have a 10-year shelf life, so you will rarely need to replenish them. Switching the D70 on shows you how highly evolved this camera truly is. The power up time is measured in milliseconds and overall, the image processing and storage times for this camera are possibly faster than any other dSLR yet. You experience ZERO start times and the camera back monitor will show you your most recent image faster than you can pull the Nikon has included an emergency power supply within the D70 box. It’s a carrier for three CR2 batteries with camera away from your eye to see it. near infinite shelf life (2013 for these) and will run the Once on, the camera can immediately start shooting pictures. If the color camera in a pinch. You buy the batteries yourself. monitor on the back of the camera is active, indicating a review image mode or menu selection process is in progress, it will return to picture recording mode instantly with a half-press of the shutter button. i The designers have wisely optimized every system in the camera to achieve one single primary goal—to gather exposures. If any other system is interrupting this process, it will be set aside as soon as the photographer indicates a need to capture a shot by touching that shutter release. As the camera is switched on, all systems awaken and are ready to go. Most options remain exactly where you left them last. Every menu preference you have made remains where you set it and even the last place you visited in the menu system is immediately available right where you left it if you

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switch the menu back on. As much as possible, the camera behaves as if it were a physical set of switches and options, not an electronic device that needs to be reminded what you were last doing within its logic systems every time it wakes up. It says, “You were here,” not “Where were we?” After a specified period of time, the camera goes to sleep, but as it does so, it shuts down systems that draw the most standby power, while keeping alive systems that will help you get ready for the next shot. Even when asleep, the data display atop the camera stays on and active, minus only shutter speed and aperture information. These bold numbers occupy the top line of the LCD display so their absence serves to signal you that the camera has dozed off. Shh. This camera is totally asleep. Yet its LCD still i When switched completely off, the camera is not entirely inactive. As tells us that it is set for Matrix meter mode, Sunlight WB, Large, Normal compressed frames, continouous long as its main battery has any power at all, the LCD data display shows shots, EV +/– active, battery level high and continuous a three digit number indicating how many shots the current memory card auto-focus is in Dynamic mode. Plus, we can see that can make with the currently selected frame size and quality settings. If the at these settings, at least 560 more pictures can be CompactFlash card is removed, this number changes to – E – showing you captured on the current CF card. The data display draws about as much power as your watch. immediately that your photographic gas tank is empty. i When a new CompactFlash card is inserted and the camera is switched off, the shot remaining number updates anyhow. Just the way you would want it to work if you were designing the camera. It behaves as though the central computer had been turned off but a small pocket calculator had been kept active just so you could check any card to see how many shots remain. i CompactFlash cards have no indicator showing how much memory is still within, so if you want to see how many exposures you can hold with one, slide it into the D70 and get an immediate estimate of how many shots you can shoot at the current settings. Like a cat, the camera wakes up quickly with a half-press of the shutter button. In no time it is ready to shoot pictures again. Roll your mouse over the image and/or click on it for more info.

LCD DATA As the camera switches on, the top LCD panel blossoms with information displayed in words, graphics and numbers. These tell you several things you will most frequently want to know.

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4-6 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

Thereʼs even a little symbol of a musical note to tell you why you keep hearing a tiny beep as you shoot pictures. You can turn it off if you wish, but itʼs so friendly. These bits of information can be scanned quickly as you make changes to the cameraʼs function buttons and Command Dial settings. But you donʼt spend a lot of time looking AT the camera; you generally look THROUGH the camera, so inside the viewfinder some of these ideas also appear just under the reflex focused image. That tiny beep you hear with VIEWFINDER DATA For the most part, you can keep your eye in the viewfinder as you change settings like shutter every focus lock is coming from the camera. speed, aperture and exposure compensation while you shoot, because numbers there show you the current settings. Across the bottom of the ground glass window a rear-lit data display becomes visible when the camera is switched on. If the camera meter falls asleep the display disappears, but a half-press of the shutter button restores it. You can set the time it stays on. We will get to that, later. At the extreme right a blinking lightning bolt icon shows up when lighting conditions require additional light, presumably from the camera Speedlight. Itʼs no guarantee that the flash will fire, just a reminder that you will probably want more light. Depending on the specific exposure mode active at the time the flash unit will pop up and join the exposure or await your manual deployment of the flash. When the flash unit is up and ready to fire, the lightning bolt stops Viewfinder data tells you the things you need to know while framing and composing images. blinking. You can turn the blinking icon off in a menu item mentioned later in (Any idea how hard it is to shoot an actual this chapter. picture of the interior of the viewfinder? Nikon Off to the right a large bracketed three-digit number—e.g. [ 2 8 8 ] —tells CP5200 did it.) you how many pictures you can still shoot on the remaining capacity of your memory card. If it shows a tiny “K” to its right, the number is now being expressed in thousands (kilo shots). If it shows 3.7K, then that means you can shoot 3,700 pictures before filling the card. Donʼt laugh; it happens. Youʼll see. As you half-press the shutter release, the remaining shot number changes into something like [ r 1 2 ] where the number following the lower case r indicates the number of remaining continuous shots you can shoot right now before the internal memory buffer would fill to the top. The number changes as you adjust frame size and compression settings, which will be discussed later. i If you use an older, slower responding CF card, you will actually be able to run over the bufferʼs limit, but with fast, modern cards like the recommended SanDisk Extreme 1.0GB card we use, the camera becomes a 3 fps continuous motor drive, shot-gathering hot-rod—even for hundreds of shots in a row. That ability is available when shooting all but one of the three JPEG compressed image options.

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i At a setting of Large frame and Fine compression the buffer will show r 0 9 , meaning nine shots before buffer overflow. But the SanDisk card stays ahead of you and absorbs images so quickly that you will actually inhale about 18 shots before you feel the camera starting to slow its frame rate. Every other setting of frame size and compression will run virtually continuously until the card is filled to the brim. i With NEF (RAW) shots, the buffer only shows r 0 4 and these exceptionally large files will shoot only four in a row before the camera slows down to about one frame per second. Even then you can continue collecting shots at that rate for at least 60 more images before further slowing is felt. SanDiskʼs Extreme one-gigabyte card holds only about 96 of these huge files. i Two-gigabyte cards are available. Twelve-gigabyte cards have been announced. And Nikonʼs Firmware Update (A 1.01, LCD readings include the number of shots remaining. Here 3.7K, or B 1.02) expanded the D70ʼs ability to use multi-gigabyte cards. 3,700 Basic / Small frame shots i If you set the camera to the smallest frame size (1504 x 1000 pixels—exactly half of full remain. size) and Basic compression, that same 1.0GB SanDisk Extreme card will hold somewhere in the range of 3,700 images before filling up. Plenty good enough for Internet work. i Reviewing all 3,700 shots in detail will take you the better part of a day. Got batteries? To the left of the remaining shot number are some things that only show up when the camera is shooting in P, S, A and M exposure modes. Thereʼs a +/– icon that tells you if you have selected any exposure compensation and the words “ISO AUTO” in tiny type tell you if the camera sensitivity rating (formerly called “ASA”) has been set to automatically adjust, should the lighting require it. These ideas are set elsewhere in the camera, so if you see them when you first peer into the viewfinder, you will know that you or the last person to handle the camera made some adjustments. If you donʼt see them at all, it means neither feature is active right now. More on these in due time. In the middle of the data display is a + . . 0 . . – graphic that behaves as a light meter and exposure compensation indicator. It shows up only in the P, S, A and M exposure modes and with M mode only, it indicates how much above or below the cameraʼs recommended exposure the current scene needs. P, S and A modes use this same graphic to indicate any exposure compensation (EV+/–) you dial into the computation. Left of that meter-like figure are large numbers telling you the current shutter speed and f-number. You will grow to become very observant of these numbers as you work because they suggest things to you like, “Hmm, Iʼm shooting at 1/4 sec so I had better stabilize the camera especially well,” or “I need Your inner meter keeps you to iris down that f-stop to pick up some depth of field.” informed of EV+/– and relative exposure in M mode. Rollover for a Next left is a small graphic that indicates the active focus sensors available on the big +0.7 EV exposure increase . ground glass screen above the data line. Itʼs telling you which ones are active before you need to use them. To the left of that is a bold circle that turns solid when the camera locks the lens in focus. If that circle blinks, it means that focus has not locked, and without solid focus, most exposure modes actually prevent you from taking a shot. i In Single-AF mode (AF-S in CSM#02) the camera locks you out of unfocused images.

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4-8 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

PRE-PHOTOGRAPHY DECISIONS Make sure the lens is in Auto-Focus mode, and on the Kit lens this is the M/A position of the switch. Make sure the camera is in AF, too. That switch is on the lower left side of the lens mount. Before you shoot, you will need to set image size and compression settings. The camera makes pictures in three different sizes and three different compression settings plus an advanced super-quality format called RAW that will be discussed at length, later. i Selecting image size is really a misnomer. Itʼs really setting the file size for the image. The camera always shoots its picture with the entire surface of the image sensor and either keeps the picture at that size or scales it down to an intermediate or small size file before compressing the shot and storing it on the CompactFlash card.

At 400% viewing these pixels are reproduced at 100% scale. One camera pixel = one display pixel. Roll your mouse over the image to compare Fine and Basic compression. Quick: which is which? (Click for the full original frame.) The rollover image was shot Fine; the initial image is Basic.

QUAL = SET SIZE AND COMPRESSION To set the image size and compression you must enter the menu system or use the Qual button in concert with the Sub-Command Dial on the front of the camera grip just below the Shutter Release and/or the Main Command Dial on the upper right of the camera back. Press Qual and rotate either dial while looking at the LCD. Notice that when you press Qual, most of the information leaves the display but the compression setting, image size and number of shots remain visible. As you rotate the Command Dials you will see these change. The front Command Dial changes image size (L/M/S) and the rear Command Dial changes compression setting (Fine, Normal or Basic), or it switches to RAW or RAW + Basic. i Ignore the RAW settings for now. Images in this format take up enormous amounts of memory space and slow normal camera operation. Theyʼre great for the experienced shooter, but they will slow camera operation to a snailʼs pace and confuse newcomers. As you adjust size and compression the number of remaining shots changes dramatically. Where a card might show that only nine shots remain for a Large/Fine frame, changing that to Small/Basic shows the potential of gathering 117 pictures. In fact the numbers in this chart were reported from a 32-megabyte CompactFlash card used in a test of the predicted versus actual images gathered. 32-Megabyte CompactFlash Card.

Compression Fine Normal Basic

Size

Predicted / Actual

Large 9 / 11 17 / 21 34 / 40

Medium 16 / 19 31 / 35 59 / 65

Nikon D70

Small 34 / 36 65 / 75 117 / 138

Notes: Images were gathered at ISO 200 in Continuous mode of the same exterior scene chosen for its average complexity. Since scene detail and contrast affect compression and file size, this table is only a guide. Your mileage will vary. During this test some configurations were repeated. The battery charge produced over 600 exposures in all, some with flash. i For a ro

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SIZE WISE Full frame images from the D70 are 3008 x 2000 pixels, and every pixel is extremely well defined—better so than from other cameras that also use single image sensors to shoot full color. Theoretically, the CFA (color filter array) that places two green and one each red and blue color filters on each cluster of four individual photosites should only get around 50% efficiency of detail, since so many compromises are present. But Nikon gets better than that. A black and white sensor chip this size would produce sharper images, because every pixel would be uncompromised by the need to contribute to a color result, but the question is begged, by how much? Nikonʼs dSLRs have always shown excellent per-pixel Three sizes of image give you detail, and the flexibility. Nothing says you can’t secret is in the processing. Every image is run through a shoot smaller frame sizes and sophisticated string of image processing steps designed save storage space. to exploit everything that the image chip can gather. Contours that pass through the green photosites are easy for the computer to see in luminance terms, but those that duck behind the red and blue photosites are harder to track. Knowing this, image process designers can RGBG Color Filter Array apply different mathematical and with image focused on it. comparative algorithms to these pixels, deriving the maximum definition from each individual sensor and the underlying luminance image that gives each picture its smallest detail. If the D70ʼs color image were shrunk to 50% of its original size, every group of four pixels on the full size image are now compacted down to one super pixel that contains 100% of the tonal, color and detail information that ever could have possibly been present in a single pixel. Shooting at the Small frame size of 1504 x 1000 pixels does this. The full image is captured and scaled down to the smaller dimensions through the cameraʼs computer. That Small frame is pixel-perfect, and you simply canʼt cram more usable detail into each pixel than that. Of course, this same perfection is available to nearly every other digital camera, too. Half-size images define what pixel perfection can become, but the scaling process introduces some degree of artifaction into the shot. Notice the grill on the Three images shot at different zoom settings to show relative per-pixel quality of each size image. View at Small frame of the ice cream truck at left. A little steppy. 200% magnification in Adobe Reader to view the crop One can reduce full size images in Photoshop to 50% size and with at 100% pixel size. (Small original shot zoom errors Bicubic interpolation, results are quite similar, but Photoshop tends to aren’t significant to this test.) Rollover then click for Medium and Small frames. avoid a greater range of artifacts.

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4-10 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

The medium size frame from the D70 is 2240 x 1488 pixels and represents a 74.47% of full size image. Will it produce pixels that are less than pixel-perfect? Yes, but not by 25+%. The reality is that most full-frame digital camera images can be scaled to about 80% of their original size (if the camera supports this alternate file size), then scaled back up to 100% without exhibiting more than 3-6% of image detail degradation. D70 images are too well-defined to permit that. Even a 10% reduction in image scale begins to compromise detail you probably donʼt want to lose. Detail test. Every thin antenna support wire is distinct, even though contrast is low. But to see them, you must examine the image at 400% scale in Adobe Reader for i D70 images at full size are not literally pixel-perfect, but it is unusual to see bold artifacts a 100% pixel-direct crop. Rollover to see the original full frame. in images. Nikon has made image rendering and processing choices that achieve maximum detail per pixel, but it is possible for some types of subject matter to produce artifacts. Fine, repetitious detail may occasionally produce moiré with false color effects in places where parallel line detail strikes the image chip close to the 7.8 µm spacing of the photosites on the image chip. Things like far distant railings or parallel gratings might cause this, but the effect is rare.

SHOOTING PICTURES Now that you have a basic overview of the data displays, nothing stands in your way of shooting pictures. There are several first-level choices that you must make or reset before doing serious image gathering; otherwise the last person to use the camera may have left you some strange or undesirable options. You will soon see that there are options for nearly everything you would wish to control on this camera, plus a bunch you never thought of, and they are all available through menu settings. Basic menu skills include pressing the Menu button to get into the system, then using the Multi-Selector buttonʼs fourdirectional control to scroll around. When the menu is showing, the camera is only a fraction of a heartbeat from picture mode. i As soon as you touch the Shutter Release, the menu evaporates because itʼs Show Time. Let the frames begin!

Moiré effects show up as inappropriate color caused by repeating fine linear detail. It can show up under specific circumstances in JPEG shots. A screen in the right window segment triggered the effect when focused at at just the right zoom position.

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Four main menu areas control Playback, Shooting, Custom Settings and Set Up functions.

MENU OVERVIEW Within the menus, both basic and esoteric choices can be made, all of which affect the way the picture looks or how the camera behaves. If you enter Menu mode and press the Multi-Selectorʼs left quadrant several times you will see only four choices; Play, Shooting Menu, CSM Menu and Set Up. CSM stands for Custom Settings Menu so the title CSM Menu was titled by the Department of Redundancy Department. CSM items are numbered from 01 to 25 and a later section will explore every last one of them. The Set Up menu is 14 items you rarely change. The Play menu controls review, deletion and printing functions and isnʼt a factor in acquiring pictures. i Shooting Menu choices let you control things that affect the look of the picture, not how the camera behaves. It has six items, four of which are controlled with buttons, so you wonʼt need to go into this menu to change image size, image compression, white balance or ISO. Some of these canʼt be changed except in P, S, A or M modes. Images are tonalities on parade. A photograph is a two dimensional graphic, painted with natureʼs photons as interpreted by the lens, the image sensor and all the technical processes that package it into numbers. The sheer volume of photons that enters the lens—and is allowed to pass during the period of time that the shutter stays open—defines a tonality at every point in the image. The local population of red, green and blue photons describe color in terms of hue, chroma and intensity. Controls on the D70 exist for handling brightness, contrast, color saturation, hue and electronic sharpening, which itself is a result of small-scale tonality control at the boundaries of tonal contours. Brightness alterations to the image are the domain of exposure. Aperture and shutter speed let in a flood of photons. The bigger the pipe (aperture) multiplied by the length of time (shutter speed) equals the number of photons that get through. After that, the camera has the option of amplifying the electronic picture it has gathered by turning up the gain as electrons flow internally. This lets the camera boost the ISO up to eight times “louder” than ISO 200. Loudness in picture terms is brightness, and just like your stereo amplifier, as you turn up the volume, any noise is amplified, too. In an image, noise looks like the grainy pattern you see in fast films. i If a digital camera is too warm, or if individual photosites create a one-pixel flaw in the image, noise can be exacerbated. A menu selection—Shooting Menus > Long Exp. NR > ON—lets you call up a noise reduction process designed to eliminate it. It works by capturing the scene, then capturing a reference frame that uses the same long shutter speed. Presumably that blank frame will reveal any under-performing pixels, allowing a correction process to repair the image, effectively eliminating pixel flaws. Every reviewer of the D70 has noted that while the feature is there, theyʼve never seen the kind of noise in their pictures that this feature is designed to overcome. Even ultra-long 30-second exposures donʼt show noise effects, so you may never actually need to switch it on. Test your D70 with long duration exposures to see if you even need to use this feature.

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4-12 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

DVP MODES When any of the DVP modes (Digital Vari-Program, A.K.A. Scene modes) are selected, sweeping changes are made to the tonality options that make up the image. Added to these, trends are imposed on things like f-stop (high or low Depth Of Field), shutter speed (slow, fast or flash-optimized), color emphasis (normal, bold) and flash behavior (none, auto, auto+slow). All DVP modes use front-curtain flash sync, meaning that the flash fires the instant the shutter is electronically thrown open. DVP selection of Portrait, Landscape, Close Up, Sports, Night Landscape and Night Portrait situations turn the camera into a more ideal automatic machine for the type of shot at hand. i Because of their function with 3D Matrix metering, all DVP modes work only with Type G and D lenses. With any non-computer lenses, these exposure modes will not function. i In all DVP modes, EV+/functions are suspended and cannot be accessed. i Maximum length shutter speeds behave unpredictably when zero light is allowed into the 3D Matrix Meter. With the slightest amount of available light, the long shutter times become more predictable and can actually run longer than if the lens cap is blocking the lens during the exposure. Full Auto DVP mode automates nearly everything. As images are gathered, each is compared to a database of Full Auto brings every automatic system in the camera 30,000 images and is processed to full attention. It’s almost impossible to make a totally in the way the camera decides is right for this sort of shot. A slew of bad picture when the camera has its way. photographic factors are considered; subject distance, color, contrast, white balance, focus mode, composition clues and angle of view are actively being regarded as the image is processed from lens to CompactFlash card. Flash mode is switched to Auto TTL with front-curtain sync (flash fires at the beginning of the shutter opening) and if the Speedlight is used in the shot, maximum shutter speed is 1/60 sec. Auto-Focus is set to AF-S (CSM #02) and AF-Area mode (CSM #03) is moved to Closest Subject. i Both of these can be updated by you and will remain set to your preference as long as the Mode Dial stays on Full Auto surviving off/on cycles. Switch to another mode and these will both reset. i You can change the flash program to Auto, Red-Eye Reduction or Off, and you can switch off the Auto-Focus system manually, since that is a physical switch. If you turn the camera off, it will come back on in Auto Flash mode, no matter where it was set before. i Most CSM Menus are still available for modification to numerous options but Flash Mode (CSM #19) is forced to i-TTL mode and Flash Shutter Speed (CSM #21) ignores prior settings, limiting shutter speeds to between 1/60 sec and 1/500 sec. You may change frame size and compression, but you canʼt alter White Balance or Optimize Image functions.

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Portrait mode

Landscape, above (cropped), and Close Up modes. The close up images below were shot with a 60mm Micro Nikkor. Rollover and click to review.

Portrait DVP mode optimizes the way the camera and lens behave by favoring open f-stops for enhanced background blur, and limiting flash options to Auto, Red-eye Reduction or Off. Auto-focus targeting is based on the nearest detected subject. As images are gathered, each is compared to the portion of the database that is appropriate for portraits, and settings are adjusted to process images with lowered electronic sharpening, smoother tonal transitions and better skin tones. i As the subject moves to different areas of the frame, the expert system regards it in different ways, so results from shot to shot may differ. With experience you may wish to shoot portraits with the manually selected settings in Shooting Menu > Optimize Image > Custom. i If the flash becomes involved in the shot the shutter speed range will limit itself from 1/60 sec to 1/500 sec, otherwise longer shutter speeds may result. If Auto ISO (CSM #15) is turned on and flash is switched off, ISO will lift as high as 1600 in very dim light. Landscape DVP assumes that you are shooting vistas that are out of reach of the flash, so the Speedlight and Flash Assist light are turned off. Colors associated with outdoor scenery are made bolder, sharpening is enhanced, and long shutter speeds will occur whether ISO Auto (CSM #05) is on or not. AF Area Mode (CSM #03) is set to Closest Subject. i The slightly increased color saturation of Landscape DVP comes from an automatic selection of Color mode Type IIIa (sRGB) which can be chosen in S, P, A and M Exposure modes via the Shooting Menu > Optimize Image > Custom > Color mode option. i Focus range with Landscape DVP is not changed. We mention this for photographers who may have experienced compact digital cameras that actually lock focus at infinity in their analogous Landscape Scene modes. Close Up DVP prepares the camera for close-up and macro shots. The AF target area is set to the center and Single Auto-Focus is engaged along with Auto Flash with front-curtain sync, but all three of these can be changed if you wish. Image adjustments are made that favor greens and reds especially well, which is a good choice for flowers, for instance. Sharpening is increased and flash options are Auto, Red-Eye Reduction and Off but flash sync speeds are extended to between 1/25 sec and 1/500 sec. i Nikonʼs own 60mm f/2.8D Micro-Nikkor AF lens is a great match to Close Up shooting mode as seen at right.

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4-14 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

Sports DVP engages the Continuous Predictive Auto-Focus mode and combines it Sports mode kills the flash, maintains high shutter speed and engages the with a preference for higher shutter speeds. All flash activity is switched off. If focus predictive AF-C auto-focus. is not locked, illuminating the focus confirmation dot in the viewfinder, the shutter will fire anyway. (Better to get the shot than to require the camera to decide the moment of capture). AF targeting will select the nearest subject. i Switch on the Continuous frame capture mode and catch all the action. i Sports mode works especially well with Type G and D telephoto lenses. i You can switch to AF-S (CSM #02) for single autofocus behavior if you wish, but the camera initially sets this to the AF-C option for fast moving subjects. Night Landscape DVP assumes that the image will require long shutter speeds to a maximum of 15 seconds, and that the subject matter will include large areas of shadow and darkness. Most cameras tend to overexpose shots like this. Not the D70. White balance Night Landscape catches city is automatic, and all flash activity is canceled and AF-S panoramas after dark, and Night (CSM #02) is instituted and AF Area mode (CSM #03) is switched to Closest Subject, but Portrait balances the camera both of these can be changed, if you wish. flash into Night Landscape images without burning up the i No doubt that this is tripod territory. Or you might wish to prop the camera up for foreground subject. stability using a table, fence post or anything that can immobilize it for the long shutter speed. Consider setting your Self Timer (CSM #24) to two seconds, so it behaves as a short-term delay for the Shutter Release button. Night Portrait DVP combines the attributes of Night Landscape DVP and portrait flash opportunities together with the uncanny ability to get the background exposure right while controlling the flash so the foreground subject looks right, too. Flash can be dialed to Reduced Red-Eye mode, but it will always include Slow Sync and will always be Front Curtain Sync, firing the flash at the shutterʼs first open instant. i It doesnʼt require a person to be the foreground subject. It could be a “portrait” of anything. i Since exposures can run into long shutter speeds, tripod or heroic degrees of camera immobilization

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I

n general, the longest auto exposures made within DVP modes are difficult to pin down. Test your camera with the lens cap on and the AF/M Switch thrown to M—to avoid engaging auto-focus—and note that with flash switched off, all DVP modes except Night Landscape and Night Portrait modes tend to reach a maximum exposure time of around six seconds, but that isn’t entirely consistent. Sometimes shutter speed is as short as two seconds or so. The Night modes’ longest exposures appear to be in the 13-16 sec range. Battery freshness doesn’t seem to affect this phenomenon, but the moral to the story is clear:

may be needed to keep the shot steady. Delayed shutter release (CSM #24) will possibly help in those cases.

REVIEW SYSTEM Digital cameras universally can show you the results of your most recent shot right away, so you will know how well you did immediately after shooting the picture. The D70 delivers that review image automatically—unless you have told it not to—right after the shutter closes. The picture appears so quickly that it seems instant. i Instant response is the hallmark of the D70. Itʼs the first dSLR to act and react this quickly. The picture is there before your eye leaves the viewfinder. i A special term has entered English to describe reviewing digital images on the back of the camera. “Chimping.” It comes from all the “Oo, oo, ooo!” people vocalize when looking at the pictures. If you look at the review image after a shot has been captured and it times out (CSM #22), then you can refresh it by switching on the Review system. Left of the monitor is a column of buttons with the top one used to review images. The image on the monitor screen turns on and off with this. It shows either the last image you took or the last image you scrolled to using the large round, four-way Multi-Selector on the opposite side of the monitor screen. Pressing up moves you up to earlier shots you made and pressing down moves you down the list of shots already in the camera. i Like all good menus, it loops from last to first. Sideways presses show you data overlays on top of the shot you are reviewing. If hen you want very long you start with the basic clear image the data overlays loop to the right through exposures, Shutter Histogram display, Highlights display that shows top 10% highlights blinking Priority or Manual Exposure slowly, Data Page 1 and Data Page 2, then back to the full frame image. Again, it modes are your best bet. loops. Clear Image + File Information is the screen you probably will use most. Itʼs the camera default review screen. The image is displayed with very few graphic overlays and a single line of text in cyan and white lettering is spread across a black area under the picture. Data from left to right tells you the image file data starting with the name of the folder, the shot prefix “DSC.” (Digital Still Camera) the four-digit frame number and what type of image it is—JPG or NEF. On the right of the data strip Size appears in a small iconic box with L, M Histogram and data or S inside followed by the current Compression setting written out as Fine, Normal or Basic. review modes let you

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know how well you’re doing.

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4-16 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

i The number “100” begins the line on the left, giving the camera a serial number with which to identify the folder sequentially. The next folder you or the camera create will be 101, 102, etc. if they are under the same folder five-letter name. i Itʼs possible to have two or more folders associated with the same folder name in the camera. If you use a plug-in card reader you see different folders on your computer. i Current images can be Protected by pressing the key/WB button. Across the top of the image a tiny key icon may show if the image has been Protected and the number of the image being reviewed contrasted with the number of shots in the current folder. This shows up in the form “32/45”. If you are shooting with only one folder, this also indicates the total number of shots in the CompactFlash card. Histogram display presents a large yellow histogram that covers most of the image. It gives you an immediate chart showing the relative pixel brightness populations of each pixel value between black on the left and maximum brightness on the right. Vertical height indicates relative population of pixels at each intermediate brightness value. Most well-exposed images will cause it to look like a rather rugged mountain skyline. Overexposures will bias the biggest peaks to the right, and underexposures will bias them to the left. Itʼs not unusual to observe peaks at both left and right but absent from the middle. Every image produces a different shape. i The histographic display can be used to evaluate an image in absolute terms. Any image that tapers down to zero at each end of the figure is demonstrating that the image contains no highlights that are “crashed” against maximum brightness at the right or no “crushed” shadows at the left. These are easier to alter in an editing program because they lack extremes. i An image with spikes right up against the upper and lower limits will likely show bleached highlights that will never be able to drop below full white and shadows that can never be lifted enough to reveal useful detail. Thatʼs not necessarily a Bad Thing (sun, top). i RAW images captured in NEF format are evaluated from a JPEG, compressed image captured at the same time, so their appearance in a histogram is not the whole story. NEF images often contain extra head room and foot room not seen in the histogram. Highlight display reveals any pixels that are in the top 10% of the brightness of the image by inverting them to black and blinking that area off and on. It instantly calls attention to the parts of the image that may be troublesome later during image editing. i Digital images are more sensitive to overexposure than film negatives. Once the values in a 24-bit RGB image (three 8-bit channels RGB) pass 255, 255, 255, there is no more room to define highlight detail, so

Learn how to read a histogram and you will become a master exposure maker. By leaving the camera in histo-review, it will be the first thing to appear on the monitor as shots are gathered. Rollover for histograms.

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controlling the upper brightness tones in a picture is a Big Deal for you and the camera. The camera works hard to preserve tonalities, but it canʼt do it all. Some highlights simply need to become pure white and nothing can be done about it. Film photographers who work mainly with transparency film experience a similar limit. Knowing where this may be happening is useful to you. If it seems that too much of the image is in the upper brightness region, you can adjust the exposure and shoot again. i When using optics that donʼt intimately connect to the meter systems or automatic iris systems of the D70, e.g. non Type G or Type D lenses and microscope or telescope adapters, the Manual exposure mode is used and the camera canʼt show you before you shoot what the correct iris setting should be. You then will need to use a test exposure or an external light meter to determine where to set shutter speed and aperture settings. Shoot a test picture and observe the histogram. Make adjustments from there until the range of tonalities seems within the extremes and the review image seems close to correct. i The monitor image canʼt be used to determine perfect exposure. Itʼs good but not absolute in its portrayal of image tonalities. Tipping Development : Normal the camera so you are not looking straight into the monitor can ISO : 400 reveal whether or not more shadow or highlight detail is available in the picture. Tipping the body down reveals highlight detail, tipping White Bal . + / - : Auto .0 up reveals shadow detail. Size . Quality : M . Normal Image Data Page 1 overlays the review image with 11 useful Sharpness : Auto bits of information about the image. The same Protect key icon Tone : Auto may or may not be present, and the current shot & number of shots Color . Hue : Mode Ia . 0 indicator remain along the top of the underlying image. Saturation : Normal i The D70 manual refers to these data pages in reverse numerical order to the above. There is no page numbers, so for western photographers who are used to scrolling to the right for deeper meaning, the practice of moving from file data with its clear image to Image Data Page 2 adds nine more line items: histogram to highlight review and then to the text pages seems to be the arbitrary “right” order. Eventually, youʼll scroll both ways. Camera : Nikon D70 Some of these data make intuitive sense. Itʼs nice to know that Date : 2004/06/20 lenses can report their focal length into the picture file, but what Time : 16:09:51 could “Color . Hue : Mode Ia . 0” mean? These and other items in Metering : Matrix the two-page list represent the result of options selected in the menu Shutter : 1/400 system (discussed later). Aperture : f/10 EXTERNAL CONTROLS Mode . Exp + / - : P . +0.7 As you capture photographs, you will wish to change modes, Focal Length : 18mm invoke special features, alter exposure, change ISO, trip the shot Flash Mode : Built-in TTL through the self-timer, trigger the camera with a wireless remote and alter the manner in which the camera behaves in various ways.

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4-18 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

Many of these changes are right at your fingertips—some of which you need to access frequently and others you need to know to avoid unless you are absolutely certain you wish to trigger them. i In this section you will see interactive notes in this format: “(CSM #06).” Clicking on the inner color text will jump to the detailed CSM menu-setting area that pertains to the current item, explaining it more precisely. To return to this text, use the back button on the Acrobat browser. Nikon has gone the extra mile to bring functionality without danger to your images, but this camera was designed to help those who learn the implications of its functions. Casual or novice users can get into trouble if they forget key ideas. The buttons we are about to explore are in the order of their most frequent or important use, not in the order of their layout on the camera.

Are you a control freak? You might wish to become one with the D70 since its controls offer you so many beneficial nuances. Most of its buttons perform more than one task depending on whether you are reviewing or shooting.

ON/OFF SWITCH Surrounding the Shutter Release is the rotating On/Off Switch and a tug with your right index finger turns the camera on. After that you donʼt really need to touch this switch until you put the camera away for the day. i Battery power is not gulped by the D70, it is merely sipped except during intense moments of use such as long strings of continuous shots and full power Speedlight shooting. That means you donʼt need to shut the camera off. It falls asleep after a time (CSM #23) that you set from 4 seconds to 30 minutes after you last touch a button on the camera. i Setting the sleep time to 16 seconds gives you more time to figure things out when you are new to the camera. Eventually you may wish to set this to 4 seconds. The 30-minute setting is primarily for studio use where you may wish to keep the camera alive during long setups. SHUTTER RELEASE Itʼs the trigger, the release, the picture taking switch and the go button all in one. As you press it, you realize quickly that it is a two-stage button with a half-press / full-press character. The half-press position does a lot of work. It turns on the camera if it has been asleep, it triggers the auto-focus system, it changes LCD data information to keep you aware of the shot buffer condition and it awakens the data display inside the viewfinder. Under certain menu settings it can lock the exposure (CSM #16). i Stabbing the Shutter Release upsets the camera. Literally. Not emotionally, but physically. You probably wonʼt see it in pictures shot at 1/125 sec or faster, but an enthusiastic jab into that sector of the camera body has the effect of slightly rotating the camera a tiny bit clockwise, and during long exposures this can be seen as a slight smear because of the movement during the time the shutter opens.

Shutter release and power switch plus exposure compensation and meter select. All for your trigger finger to operate.

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i Avoid as much camera busywork as possible, meaning try to have everything solved before the final trigger instant. Since the auto-focus takes a fraction of a second to operate, by having the Shutter Release button halfway down before the moment of image capture, the camera reacts quicker. Now the release will grab the image 0.12 seconds after you press the Shutter Release button all the way. Otherwise it can take from 0.3 to 0.45 seconds to focus and finally trip the shutter, depending on how far the lens has to move to achieve focus. i Single focus mode (CSM #02) will not allow an image to be exposed if the lens is not in focus. Most of the time that is not a problem, but it will sneak up on you, especially during focus jabs. i Manual focus speeds the shutter release operation up considerably. No auto-focus checking is needed. If you use the AF / M switch on the camera body to change modes, remember to reset it to AF when youʼre done. i Continuous focus (CSM #02) speeds things up by having the lens already in focus, but you must half-press the Shutter button to make it active. Learn to habitually hold the Shutter Release in the half-press position when looking through the viewfinder hunting for the moment. Releasing the shutter via the Self-timer allows the camera to be free Avoid using the DX lens autofocus switch in favor of finger shake. Nikon has provided self-timer settings from 2 to 20 of the one on the camera body. Habits like this that seconds so you can use the system as a delayed release when the camera is on save time by avoiding confusion might help get a a tripod or resting on a surface for stability (CSM #24). shot one day. When shooting single frames you release the shutter and lift your finger for the next shot. If you have the frame rate set to Continuous, pressing and holding the shutter keeps swallowing pictures at nearly three frames per second until the internal buffer fills up and the frame rate slows to a rate at which your CompactFlash card can handle the data.

EXPOSURE MODE DIAL Shooting pictures can certainly be done in the Full Auto mode indicated by the bold green camera icon on the mode dial. When the camera is new to you, this mode is a good way to start shooting pictures. Some may think of Full Auto as only a beginner mode, and while it is true that it serves beginners well, it is also the quickest, most decision-free way to use the camera. Camera designers know that in order to create a good Full Auto mode, they have to skillfully coordinate every system in the camera from autofocus to meter system to white balance system to exposure computer to Speedlight system and more. The D70ʼs Full Auto mode is one of the most highly developed features on the camera, and photographers who understand how clairvoyant it can seem will come back to it time and again. After a while you may wish to get a bit more sophisticated, and those P, S, A and M settings will seem more intriguing. They stand for Program exposure mode, Shutter Priority exposure mode, Aperture Priority exposure mode and Manual exposure mode.

Master control. Before anything else, set the Mode Dial to the exposure method that’s best for the moment.

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4-20 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

All exposures are a balance between shutter speed, aperture and image chip sensitivity to light. ISO speed is the sensitivity number, and the cameraʼs computer brain already knows this number even if you forgot it. The D70 works with ISO 200 to ISO 1600 and as long as the camera back monitor is dark, you can check the current ISO by pressing the center ISO button left of the monitor momentarily and reading the value off the camera top LCD screen. While that button is pressed, all other data leaves the LCD, leaving only the ISO number visible. If you hold the ISO button and rotate the rear Command Dial, the ISO setting on the LCD will change. i That ISO button, and most of the buttons on the camera, has a dual use. When the camera monitor screen is displaying a picture or menu item, the ISO function cannot appear on the LCD panel. To dismiss the current image from the monitor, simply half-press the shutter button. Itʼs the fastest way to clear off image displays and return to shooting mode, too. Now the ISO button alters sensitivity. In principle, the aperture is just a round hole that changes size, thus letting in more or fewer photons every second. The shutter speed defines the time interval that they are allowed to flow, and the ISO sensitivity determines how effective any given volume of photons are at making a picture. As long as the ISO is fixed, the camera must balance shutter speed and aperture to compute the correct exposure, and since both of those are variables, it must work through a math problem. If the ISO is allowed to wander, based on current conditions (CSM # 05), then it has to juggle more variables.

PROGRAM EXPOSURE MODE The P of P, S, A and M stands for Program Exposure mode and it balances both shutter speed and aperture against the current ISO sensitivity by taking into account several factors such as lens focal length, absolute light levels detected and current lens maximum aperture. So this is the exposure mode that does the most intricate work and presumably rewards you with the best-tempered auto exposures. i Itʼs managing many considerations at once, trying to keep your shot steady by using higher shutter speeds at long focal lengths as well as using f-stop settings that achieve maximum lens performance when shutter speed is easy to hand-hold. i Since the optimum performance f-number is usually about three stops down from full aperture, Program Exposure mode targets this f-stop area as soon as it can after balancing available maximum aperture and focal length. i With a wide lens it can afford to let you hold the camera steady at slower shutter speeds. Any small motion of your hands is translated into a much smaller jump in the image than it would be at long tele focal lengths. Under identical conditions, the Kit Lens at 18 mm would only show a one-pixel motion blur, but at the same shutter speed a 180 mm lens would produce a 10-pixel streak. i With tele lenses the Program mode keeps the aperture wide open until it estimates that your ability to hold the camera steady has been achieved. The formula Nikon uses is 1 / lens focal length

P, S, A and M.

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in millimeters = shutter speed for steady holding in seconds. That makes a 200 mm lens fairly easy to hold steady at 1/200 sec shutter speed. Program Exposure mode has a convenient trick up its sleeve, so you donʼt have to be locked into its assumptions if you donʼt want to. Called Flexible Program, itʼs a way of keeping the exposure computation constant by letting you decide to alter the shutter speed versus f-stop relationship. When the current subject begs you to open the aperture to blur the background for a shot of a flower, for example, you can force the aperture open and the exposure computer will increase the shutter speed, automatically tracking your choice. Perhaps you are shooting a fast moving subject and want to streak its motion intentionally. You can force the shutter speed to a longer setting, and the exposure computation will adjust the lens to a smaller aperture while following your lead. i Flexible Program is instantly easy to access. Simply move the Main Command Dial with your thumb and notice how the shutter speed and f-stop both change in unison on both the viewfinder data display and camera top LCD display. As shutter speed goes up by moving the thumb wheel to the right, aperture opens up to let in more light. Move the wheel to the left and shutter speed becomes longer while aperture stops down to a bigger number. The exposure doesnʼt change; the same number of photons make it to the sensor, but you get to force your shutter speed or aperture choice into the system. i As you alter the exposure balance with Flexible Program, nothing inside the viewfinder display tells you that you have made a change, other than the symmetrically changing numbers of shutter speed and aperture, but on the LCD atop the camera, an icon appears showing “P*”. When you rotate the thumb wheel back to where you started, that icon will vanish and you will be back in the middle of Program Flexible Program mode lets you change aperture and shutter speed in a single, coordinated stroke Exposure mode. without altering the exposure. With practice, it’s i Turning the camera off momentarily resets Flexible Program mode, too, and faster to implement than Aperture or Shutter since there is not a start-up time penalty, this is the easiest way to reset Program Priority modes. mode while looking through the camera. Clicking the Exposure Mode dial to any other setting and back to Program Exposure Mode will cancel Flexible Program Mode as well. At any time during a Program Exposure or Flexible Program Exposure mode shot preparation, you may dial in exposure compensation to intentionally lighten or darken the image. You know about things that the camera is not smart enough to perceive. It is, after all, just a tool, and sometimes you

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4-22 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

must insist that photographer knows best. With experience you will be able to predict shots that need a little Exposure Helper, and dialing more or less light into the picture is easy. Move your shutter finger down the face of the front hand grip a half an inch (about a centimeter) and you will feel a knurled wheel that works just like the Main Command Dial on the camera back. This is appropriately called the Sub-Command Dial and it performs the function of letting you force the exposure up and down by fine degrees. Moving the wheel toward the lens (left) causes the picture to become incrementally lighter. Assuming that you have set the menu preference for this to “1/3 stop,” each click lightens the shot by a Flexible Program mode and EV+/– are small amount. each assigned to different Command Dials, so they can be adjusted instantly. i Digital cameras in general are more exposure sensitive than most types of film, In Manual mode the two dials become notably color negative film formulas. Where film has a greater latitude, the D70 has aperture and shutter speed (rollover). a stunningly accurate group of exposure meters to keep its pictures well in line. To set this up fully, CSM #14 must be Intentional exposure jumps of 1/3-stop up or down are easier to fix than exposure errors switched On. of 1/2-stop up or down, should that become the result of your intentional alteration of the exposure when dialing in some compensation. For this reason, we recommend that you use the 1/3-stop incremental option until you gain enough exposure experience to move to the 1/2-stop option later on, if you ever wish or need to. As you change the exposure compensation the + . . 0 . . – display tracks your progress with a graphic line that animates as you make alterations. Each click stop of the front Command Dial adds or subtracts one fraction of a stop worth of light to the exposure. If you know that youʼre using 1/3-stop increments, three clicks move you one stop off center. An alternative way to create Exposure Compensation is to press the +/– button right near the shutter button, holding it while you rotate the rear Command Dial. While you do this the LCD drops all of its display items except the icon that says you have instituted an EV+/- button works in concert exposure change and large numbers that animate, telling you how with the Main Command dial. much of a stop up (+) or down (–) the compensation is. i 0.3 = 1/3 stop. 0.5 = 1/2 stop. 0.7 = 2/3 stop (CSM #09). i Intuitive addition and subtraction of f-values is often mistaken. Each increment adds to the prior value, so 1/3-stop upward represents 26% more light. 1/2-stop upward adds 41.4% more light. Downward, 1/3-stop diminishes the prior amount by 20.6% and 1/2-stop drops the prior value by 29.3%. (1 x 126% x 126% x 126% = 2, etc.)

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SHUTTER AND APERTURE PRIORITY MODES With any given ISO, two legs of the exposure computation triangle remain. You tell the camera what the priority leg should be, and the camera computes the other one automatically. This means that the camera will now determine the right aperture when it is in Shutter Priority mode or the right shutter speed when in Aperture Priority mode. Inside the viewfinder and across the top line of the LCD, the shutter speed and f-number appear in large, obvious numbers, telling you what the exposure computer has figured out. In Shutter Priority mode, you give the camera the shutter speed with the SubCommand Dial control on the front of the camera. The Main Command Dial control on at the upper right of the camera back now informs the camera that you wish to over or under-expose the current shot by some increment of EV adjustment. The viewfinder exposure meter graphic tracks how much over or under-exposed you select, just as it does with Program Exposure mode. With Aperture Priority mode you tell the camera just which aperture the e’ve worked with digital SLRs now camera is to work with, but in this case you rotate the Main Command Dial on for over four years, and for the last the back of the camera for the aperture setting and the Sub-Command Dial is now used for the EV adjustment. three we have only used Manual exposure That may seem confusing at first, but there is a major logical structure to this mode on all cameras. Here is our rational. layout. Every time you use these two controls you are training your fingers to For any given scene/light exposure depends think in terms of Aperture = back dial while Shutter Speed = front dial. Eventuon three factors: aperture, shutter speed ally when you consider making an aperture adjustment, your thumb will begin and ISO sensitivity. What you want to to start thinking in terms of f-stops and your index finger will start planning its photograph and at which DOF determines next shutter speed choreography. the aperture. Because you want to stay at i After all, your index finger is your shutter release finger, too. a low ISO value (for lowest possible noise) i Itʼs possible for you to tell the camera to work with a specific shutter speed this defines the shutter speed. Now it is up or exposure compensation that lies outside its range of available apertures. to you to decide that the shutter speed is When that happens in Shutter Priority mode, the words “H I ” or “L o ” appears in the aperture area, signaling you that the exposure setting you just asked for not too low to avoid motion blur or to use is not going to happen. In Shutter Priority mode, these words show up in the a tripod. It is a good thing to learn the right aperture number area. balance of aperture, shutter speed and ISO. i Exposure compensation can be turned off—thus requiring you to use the We use the camera metering to get some two-control method with the +/– button if you wish (CSM #10). initial values for aperture/shutter speed

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MANUAL EXPOSURE MODE M means Manual, and the good news here is that you get to set shutter speed and aperture deliberately without the camera exposure computer trying to take all the credit. The bad news is that you must set these two elements and if you had to do this all the time it would drive you nuts, distracting you from the joy of taking pictures. For most of the history of photography both of these settings were up to the photographer to sort them out and he often got them wrong. i With Manual mode, you can see the logic of training your fingers to work the shutter speeds with the index finger and aperture with the thumb. Since S and A exposure modes insist that you do it this

and take a test shot. Then we correct the exposure by evaluating the histogram. —Uwe

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4-24 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

way, the discipline and practice gained there pays off in quick, intuitive (meaning experienced) finger moves to adjust these manual settings. In Manual mode, the electronic analog exposure display, + . . 0 . . – , under the focus screen now behaves like a computerized light meter. With aperture and shutter speed set just right, the central 0 will appear perched above a single thin line, indicating that the center of the cameraʼs exposure computation has been met with a combination of both settings. If that line Manual exposures make this thickens out to either side, it means that the image in the viewfinder will be overexposed (left) into a super-accurate light or under-exposed (right) so unless you know what you are doing, you will need to change one or meter read out. Here it shows a 1.0-stop overexposure. both of the settings. i Of course, you donʼt need to be in Manual mode to get the exposure correct. If you shoot with manual settings, you have other ideas in mind. Things like, “I donʼt want the exposure to change with the light” or “Every exposure in a sequence must match the previous and following shot,” or perhaps, “I need exactly this shutter speed and this amount of depth of field at the same time.” Ideas like this can cause you to require locked down, constant exposure settings.

LENS DYNAMICS Thousands of years ago a few people noticed that a dark room with a tiny hole in one wall could cast a living image on the opposite wall. Aristotle wrote about it. The picture formed there showed an upside down, real time view of the scene outside the perforated wall. They called it a “camera” which is the Latinadapted Greek word for “vaulted chamber.” Hundreds of years The very first cameras were accidental. A dark ago the addition of a lens allowed the hole to become enlarged, room with a hole in one wall cast an image from letting in more light while sharpening the image. This became the “camera outside. Add the right lighting conditions and obscura” (dark room) and Leonardo da Vinci would have recognized one immedi- there’s the world in living color. Only trouble: the ately. Ever since then cameras have used a lens. picture is upside down. (After Velazquez.) The D70 is a vaulted chamber, all right, with a high-tech ceiling, a room-dividing mirror and a whole wall full of lens. When the mirror is shoved out of the way, light from the lens can shine on an electronic image chip that fills the opposite wall, and thatʼs the whole purpose of the machine, to project the image from the lens onto the opposite wallʼs picture capture device. Everything else is in support of this one fundamental task. Most D70 cameras are sold with the Kit Lens in the box. Itʼs an 18 to 70mm zoom lens that changes the amount of light passing through from f/3.5 to f/4.5 as the elements move from wide angle to tele zoom position. Maximum Minimum Zoom f-number Since the image chip is smaller than a frame of 35mm still camera film (135 format), the 18 – 21 mm wide f/3.5 f/22 lens gathers images from 76.5° to 22.9° angle 22 – 27 mm wide f/3.8 f/25 of view (diagonal) from wide to tele settings, 29 – 31 mm wide f/4.0 f/25 equal to the field of view a 135 camera would 32 – 38 mm normal f/4.2 f/29 see if it had a 27 to 105 mm lens. 40 – 70 mm tele f/4.5 f/29

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The 18 - 70mm AF-S Nikkor Kit Lens outside and inside. Possiblly the best value in all dSLR photography.

i The Nikon AF-S Nikkor DX 18–70mm, 1:3.5-4.5G ED lens covers a 3.8:1 zoom range that observes a field of view ranging from 66.6° to 19.2° over the width of the frame and 46.8° to 12.7° in the vertical frame dimension. Zooming is achieved with a wide exterior ring that moves the internal elements from wide to tele in a single clockwise 60° twist. Friction within the mechanism keeps the zoom position parked where you leave it, and there is no play when you change zoom direction. Markings on the lens indicate the actual current focal length in millimeters. In tele zoom position the front of the lens extends one inch farther out (25 more millimeters) and filters attach to a 67 mm threaded ring that does not rotate during manual focus. i The non-twisting front element is a very good thing to have. Filter holders wonʼt rotate with lens focus operations, the tulipshaped lens shade keeps its orientation and polarizing filters stay right where you position them. i Its only drawback is that this lens uses a large, relatively expensive 67 mm filter size. i Go to www.2filter.com and see if you can find a good multicoated UV filter for your Kit Lens—for protection. Manual focus is handled through a second, slightly smaller ring an inch closer to the camera body. Itʼs mechanically linked to the internal focusing elements and a moving scale inside the lens behind a small window shows you distance settings marked in meters and feet. i The focus ring is not solidly attached to the internal focus mechanism. If the auto-focus system of the camera is engaged, the inner ring moves freely, activated by the fast-acting internal focus motor only while the shutter release button is half-pressed. As soon as the lens settles, the external focus ring instantly becomes available for adjustment. So you can focus with the auto-focus system then immediately adjust the focus setting manually even though the shutter button is still midway through its release. A switch on the lens bodyʼs rear left side changes the lens from the Manual + Auto-focus mode (marked M/A) to a fully Manual mode (marked M). A different switch on the camera body only an inch away also changes from AF (Auto-focus) to M (Manual Focus), largely performing the same function. With either switch in M position, the auto-focus system is disengaged. Sometimes you will want to focus the lens manually. You can do that and still enjoy benefits from the on-board focus detection system. A technique referred to as Electronic Range Finding mode has you manually focusing on a subject using the focus ring, and when the lens reaches maximum sharpness, the focus confirmation indicator—a round dot—at the far bottom left of the viewfinder data strip lights up. Chances are great that it will blink at least once, indicating that you have focused through the zone of best sharpness. Eventually your

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dSLR: Nikon D70

fingers will find the sweet spot and the indicator will stay on. At that instant you are in perfect focus and can complete the shot. This technique works in all exposure modes. i Not all Nikkor lenses have the M/A-M switch found on the 18-70 mm Kit Lens, and not all Nikon camera bodies have the AF-M switch found on the D70. The D70 plus the Kit Lens has both, so you can use the one that fits your hand the easiest. But if you ever pick up the camera and the auto-focus system doesnʼt seem to be working, check the position of both of these switches first. Predictive Auto-Focus is a feature that tracks the motion of subjects that are moving toward or away from the camera and estimates accurately where the subject will be when the shutter opens. The D70 will initiate this feature in Single-AF (AF-S in CSM #02) if the subject is moving at the moment the Shutter Release touches the half-press point. With Continuous-AF selected (AF-C in CSM #02) the Predictive Auto-Focus feature is on all the time that the shutter is half-pressed.

ALTERNATIVE LENSES FOR THE D70 Most of Nikonʼs lenses work with the D70 body. The computerized (CPU) models do including all of the DX lenses made for digital cameras and the Type G and Type D AF Nikkors. These work with all auto-focus options, all Speedlight options, all aperture options and the exotic 3D color matrix metering system which is looking for distance feedback data from the lens. D-type non auto-focus Nikkors of course donʼt auto-focus. The rest of the AF Nikkor 2 models work but without the 3D color matrix metering and i-TTL fill flash functions. AI-P Nikkor lenses work with aperture auto exposure functions, but without auto-focus, color matrix metering and i-TTL fill flash for digital SLR functions. Non-CPU lenses work with Manual Exposure mode only without any onboard camera metering available. With these, you will have to shoot pictures and review the shot in histogram mode as Nikkor lenses come in all sizes. you steer the exposure into place. Or use an external exposure meter. Manual focus can be From fisheye to super tele, most of them work with the D70, including detected by the camera auto-focus system in Electronic Range Finder focus mode. optics that are decades old. i Older Nikkor lenses take extra time to use. The camera stops the lens down to the exposure aperture you selected, all right, but without auto-focus and f-stop automation, so working this way is slow and deliberate. The worst thing about using these old lenses is that the camera canʼt give you any pre-exposure metering help, so you are in the same boat photographers were fifty years ago. Itʼs nice to have the focus confirmation, since D70 focus screens donʼt have the exotic focus helper patterns in the center of the picture that manual focus SLRs had eons ago. i If you ever find a used Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 lens from the ancient, pre-automation past, consider buying it. Look also for a version in f/2.8 that was first introduced in 1980. Or perhaps you may find a used 55mm f/2.8 AF version that was made for only two years in the late 1980s. All of these optics just about define the word “sharp” in the dictionary, and they focus with the D70 right

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down to 2:1 reproduction ratio or closer, meaning that the image on the chip is exactly half the size of the object being targeted. With a 2:1 magnification on the chip, the image on the camera monitor will appear to be about 75% of the size of the original subject. i Nikon also gets extra points for calling these Micro instead of the popular term Macro. My dictionary defines Macro as being “Of great size; large. From the Greek Makros meaning huge.” Of course the rest of the photographic community has inverted the meaning and says Macro when they mean a lens that shoots ultra close-ups of something extra small. Go figure. i The 2:1 ratio is exactly ideal for using the D70 to digitize slide and negative frames. You will need a sturdy tabletop light source and camera mount to facilitate this. Better yet, look for a dedicated slide duplicator attachment made for 35mm film cameras. i Nikon makes a handy ES-1 Desirable classic. The 55mm f/3.5 slide copy adapter (right) that fits their Micro-Nikkor Micro-Nikkor manually focuses down to 2:1 making a field of view lenses and recent internet prices show this to sell for smaller than two iches wide. around $50 US. i Enter the strange world of “T-Mounts”, a manual lens, universal adapter system that connects optics to the camera via an adapter for the bayonet mount on one side and a threaded mount on the other. T-Mount accessories include lenses, microscope adapters, telescope mounts and slide duplicators. One low cost unit in this configuration is made by ProOptic so using “ProOptic Slide Duplicator” will find you sources of these with Google on the Internet. i Any T-mount accessory must be used with the camera in Manual Exposure mode (M) since T-mount devices have no link to the cameraʼs logic or mechanical iris systems. i When changing lenses, always check the incoming lens base for dust before you start the exchange process. Use a dust blower bulb, lens cleaning brush or both before committing that new lens to the camera body. Digital SLRs are more dust-sensitive than their film counterparts and keeping dust off of anything that eventually might spill it into the camera interior is Job Two. Job One, of course, is capturing pictures. T-Mounts facilitate attaching the D70 to exotic optics such as this 8-inch Meade i If you have no blower or brush your mouth is the next useful dust removal tool, telescope. Surprise: the hardware is meaning that the goal is to dislodge only the dust without introducing anything else relatively inexpensive. inside of your mouth. To avoid micro droplets, practice puffing across the back element with your breath to dislodge any motes that have settled there. No spitting. No popping your lips as you begin to blow.

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4-28 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

LENS STRATEGIES Ideally, you could have it all. Every lens that you might ever need would be in your camera bag, but that would weigh you down. Better to select the few, the proud, the truly useful balance of optics and weight to deliver the performance and range you find most helpful. Thanks to computer designed, high quality zoom lenses, oneʼs bag need not be filled with numerous single focal length lenses. Thanks to variable ISO, the need for raw lens speed is greatly diminished. A wise selection of lenses covers the widest to the most tele you can hand hold. The DX Nikkor lenses are made to bring wide, ultra-wide and fisheye capabilities to the D70, so the Kit lens wisely starts at 18 mm, equivalent to 135 formatʼs 27 mm wide-angle coverage. Several longer zoom designs are available. There are also third-party optics that fit this camera, priced to presumably save you money on lenses. That may not always be the case, though. Nikkor lenses have five year warranties and the intimate computerized connection between camera body and lens is not as rock-solid in lenses by manufacturers who donʼt sit in Nikonʼs design meetings. My personal experience includes failures from third-party optics, and no such problems from the camera brand lenses. In addition to the Kit Lens, most photographers soon want more telephoto, and the recommendation here for the D70 is the 28-200mm G-type Nikkor. Alternative to that, the 24-120mm G-type VR lens is more expensive and shorter but offers tele 180mm lens performance (135 format) with the astounding vibration reduction technology that makes hand shake a thing of the past, except, of course, as a social greeting. My personal preference is to have at least one optic in the f/1.4-f/2.0 range for extra-dim light situations. With ISO 1600 at your fingertips, f/2.0 can bring you portraits by candlelight. The superinexpensive, classic 50mm f/1.8D lens fills this category neatly and should be a definite purchase. But before you take my word for it, some research on lenses is in order.

DX lenses are specially designed to deliver wide angles of view with Nikon dSLRs.

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LENSES FOR THE D70 While nearly all—over 90%—of Nikkor lenses fit the D70 body, some of them are especially well suited to its smaller sensor and automated features. DX SERIES At this writing several DX-series lenses are made to the special needs of all of Nikonʼs digital cameras. Since all of these camera bodies use the same chip measurements, DX lenses are optimized for that circle of coverage. DX lenses can be mounted on Nikonʼs computerized film cameras such as the F5 and F100—and they will function there—but the image is often severely vignetted, especially at wide zoom settings, meaning that a circle of image only appears in the middle of the shot. i Well, that actually could be quite cool with the 10.5mm fisheye. DX Lenses currently available: (Summer, 2004) i Be aware as you browse the Internet for prices on Nikon lenses and accessories that so-called “Gray Market” imports are often folded into lists without being identified as such. These are not imported by the Nikon organization in your country and represent minor price reductions while passing to you a product that is not easy to get repaired, adjusted or even cleaned by the local Nikon organization. Warranty bets are off for grays, unless sending it back to Japan or its country of origin appeals to you. 10.5mm f/2.8G ED AF DX Fisheye. (Top) This is a full-frame fisheye, super wide-angle lens that is as fun to use as it is extreme in coverage. Angle of view is 180° corner to corner similar to a 16mm fisheye on a 135 format camera. Closest focus is just 0.03m from the front of the lens (1.2 inches). Ten elements in seven groups. Price in the $650 US range from several Internet sources. Wow factor is very high. 12–24mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom. (Middle) Where super wide-angle shooting is needed, this is the lens for Nikon digital cameras that does the job. The rectilinear 2:1 zoom behaves like an 18 to 36 mm zoom lens on a full frame 35mm film camera, meaning ultra wide-angle. Coverage (diagonal) is from 99° to 61° formed by 11 elements in seven groups with two ED elements. Uses 77mm filters. Includes petal lens hood. Price is about $1,400 US MSRP and Internet prices are generally under $1,100. Expensive but fabulous. Iʼve used it. I love it. 17–55mm f/2.8G IF-ED AF-S DX Zoom. (Bottom) While this lens maintains its f/2.8 aperture over the entire zoom range, list price for it is around $1,500 US. It covers the range that a 135 format camera would experience from a 25.5–82.5mm lens. Ten lens groups with 13 elements, two of which are ED glass. 18–70mm f3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom. The Kit Lens, as it is most often called, sells for about $300 US and is an exceptionally sharp, fast-acting zoom covering the range that a 135 format lens of 27–105mm would exhibit. Fifteen elements in 13 groups, with three ED and one aspheric elements, its minimum focus distance is 0.38m (15 inches from the focal plane, about 13.25 inches from the base of the lens or 8 inches from the front of the lens hood at 70mm zoom setting) for a field of view five inches wide (125 mm). Comes with HB-32 flower-shaped bayonet mount lens hood that can be attached reversed to save space in your camera bag.

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4-30 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

AUTO-NIKKOR LENSES RECOMMENDED FOR THE D70 Among the wide arsenal of lenses that may be of interest to you are several that stand out because of their performance, suitability and price. Here is a list of lenses that work especially well with the D70 while maintaining the same budgetary influences that placed the D70 body in your hands: (Prices are quoted from unverified Internet sources. Subject to reality.) 28–200mm f/3.5–5.6 G ED-IF AF Zoom. Probably the first “next” lens most D70 owners will wish to own. A number of images in this eBook were shot with it, and performance is high with the D70. Physically it is slightly smaller and lighter than the Kit Lens, yet it zooms over a range of more than 7:1 and uses 62mm filters while maintaining the same maximum aperture of the Kit Lens. It covers a slight wide angle to an impressive telephoto range in an affordable, lightweight package that has proven ideal for travel as a second lens or perhaps for lightweight travel, it would be your first choice. Typical Internet prices for the 28–200 hover around $300 US. Nikon advertises it as the worldʼs lightest lens in this zoom range at 12.5 ounces (356 grams), and the closest focusing at just 1.3 feet (0.4 m) from the focal plane which is mere inches from the lens hood at tele zoom. Field of view at 200mm is now just under three inches (70mm) which is great for most small subject photography, and its bokeh, the treatment of out of focus background elements, makes pleasingly round abstract shapes from the seven-bladed iris. Spikes of flare from this iris at night look best at f/11 and higher, yielding 14-point cross star effects. i Factoid: Diffraction cross star effects arise from the relatively straight sections of a closed-down iris blade, and each blade edge creates two star points. So even-bladed irises create the same number of points as there are blades because edges opposite each other create points that coincide. Odd-bladed irises create twice as many points as there are blades. Seven blades = 14 points. Angle of view on the D70 is from 53° to 8°, equivalent to a 135 format cameraʼs experience of 42–300mm zoom. It comes with a petal lens shade (HB-30) that reverses for storage, yet permits easy finger access to the zoom ring. A slide switch can lock the lens at 28mm and another slide switch allows you to limit the close focus to two feet (0.6 m) to avoid longer auto-focus searches. A must-own optic. 24–120mm f/3.5–5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor. Equivalent to a 36 to 180mm zoom in 135 format, this 5:1 zoom lens is unique with its VR (Vibration Reduction) technology that actively floats interior elements counteracting and compensating for lens motion. Significant improvement for hand-held shots is the result. Users report 1/10 sec shutter speeds at tele zoom and 1/3 sec at wide angle! All this technology and capability comes at a price. But a low one. An affordable $500 at some Internet stores. Sweet! 50mm f/1.8D AF. Not a zoom, but an easy purchase that brings a fast prime lens into your camera bag. Price is generally around $100 US and optical performance is very good. Keep in mind that this behaves like a 75mm portrait lens in 135 format, making it very appropriate for portraits by candlelight. The design of this lens is so superior that it has been manufactured continuously since around 1990 from a design that dates back to 1984. A classic by any standard, this should be an instant acquisition for any D70 Kit Lens owner.

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50mm f/1.4D AF. For comparison, this lens is one of the outstanding lenses of all time with a true f/1.4 aperture. Like the prior f/1.8 50mm lens, it behaves at portrait focal length. The cost for the additional 2/3-stop of aperture and all-around superior design is about $270 US from Internet sources. Nikon 70–300mm f/4–5.6G AF Zoom. A very inexpensive 4.3:1 telephoto zoom lens that picks up where the Kit Lens leaves off. It behaves like a 105–450mm zoom in 135 format. Prices are often under $135 US from Internet sources. Weight; 17 oz (480 grams). Note: This appears to be optically similar to Nikonʼs 70–300 f/4.5–5.6D ED AF lens, which has a sturdier metal mount and rotating aperture ring while costing about double.

SUPER NIKKOR LENSES When price is not a factor you can purchase one or all of these super lenses with the Nikkor logo on each unit. 28mm f/1.4D AF. It behaves like a slightly wide-angle lens on the D70 but rightfully claims to be excellent in sharpness, flatness of field, freedom from corner darkening and chromatic aberration at all apertures. Equivalent to a 42mm lens in 135 format, it is the widest, fastest Nikkor. About two grand, US. 50mm f/1.2 AI-S Manual Focus. For the ultimate in a fast optic for fireside snaps, this is Nikonʼs fastest, delivering 50% more light than the f/1.4 50mm lens. Cost will be in the $550 US range from Internet sources. Hey, not too bad. But note that it requires manual focus using the Electronic Range Finding Technique mentioned earlier and manual exposure calculation. 200mm f/2.0G IF-ED AF-S VR Nikkor. The VR feature is Vibration Reduction—the computerized motion sensing system that floats internal elements to counteract lens and hand vibration, so this lens can be held about two or more stops slower in shutter speed than a non-VR lens. The usual hand-held formula for shutter speed versus focal length is [1 / focal length in mm = shutter speed in seconds] meaning that most 200mm lenses should be shot at about 1/200 sec. This lens lets you shoot at about 1/30 sec often with excellent results and its f/2.0 aperture brings in long tele images in what photographers like to call “available darkness.” In the $4,500 range. 80–400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED AF-VR Nikkor. With VR engaged, this is a hand-held, extra-long tele zoom that wonʼt break the entire bank. Owners brag about shooting super tele (600mm equivalent) at 1/50 sec. About $1,300.

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4-32 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

FOCUS STRATEGIES The D70 inherits the famous TTL phase detection auto-focus module called the MultiCAM900 that first appeared on the N80 film SLR and which was used on the technically advanced D100 dSLR that preceded the D70. This technology guides auto-focus lenses to their destination quickly and accurately under a wide range of lighting conditions, and when the scene is too dark, it turns on a focus assist lamp (CSM #04) that works out to about 12 feet (4 meters) in total darkness. i Some Nikon AF lenses have a switch on the side that selects between manual and autofocus. The D70 has its own switch for this function, so the best strategy is to consistently turn the function on and off at the camera to avoid confusion. To most people the Multi-CAM900 Focus is determined by vertical and horizontal transitions of relative light and dark in the auto-focus module looks about as subject matter. Itʼs the contrast in detail that interesting as a widget. To your pictures it looks great. does the job and the Multi-CAM900 module picks out diagonal detail just as easily. Only our eyes are auto-focus, big areas of no detail can fool it. Blank walls so of course your camera may not be focusable, but textured plaster certainly is. In the CSM Menu page (CSM #02) you can select the should be auto-focus! primary focus method you prefer, and it could change —iNova with the nature of the subject you are shooting. The choices are AF-S for single auto-focus and AF-C for continuous. Both of these have a predictive focusing attribute that observes the focus distance over time and accounts for where the subject will be at the moment of exposure. i With AF-S, the subject must be in motion at the moment the half-press of the Shutter Release closes for predictions to enter into the focus equation. If the subject starts moving nearer or farther after the half-press, predictive auto-focus wonʼt become active and focus will lock until you release the Shutter button. i Continuous focus, AF-C, uses predictive auto-focus all the time. The half-press of the Shutter Release doesnʼt lock the focus, and if the subject moves toward or away from the camera, the continuously refocusing lens estimates where it will be at the instant the shutter opens. i With long lenses, predictive auto-focus can save your shot.

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FOCUS ZONES Looking into the viewfinder, you see five delicately outlined bracket figures with a largish, square one in the center of the frame and four lesser ones arrayed around its compass points. These indicate the five focus points that the D70 can use to lock onto subject targets in a variety of ways. In the DVP modes, control of how focus targeting is set by simply selecting a mode. Most of these choose the Closest Subject (CSM #03) option from the AF-Area

Five focus zones give the camera multiple opportunities to get the focus right. Rollover / Click to see variations.

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mode menu. For P, S, A and M exposure modes, several options become available allowing you to customize the behavior of the focus zones to your liking. Within the AF-Area mode menu (CSM #03), three behaviors are available: Single Area mode activates focus by concentrating on only one selected area of the five focus zones. The selected zone appears bold in the viewfinder to unambiguously identify it. If the AF Area Illuminator (CSM #18) is set to On, then as the shutter button reaches its half-press point, the viewfinder graphics briefly wink on in a deep red glow just long enough for you to catch a glimpse of where they are, overlaying the image. Of course, if the scene is bright, the graphics stand out against it, but in dim lighting, the fine lines on the focus screen can get lost in the dark so the brief illumination is a welcome assist. i Choices for the illumination include Auto, which only provides the red lighting when brightness levels are low. You can also turn it off. Both Auto and On are recommended. Battery preservation by using Auto is not significant. Selecting a desired focus area is via the Multi-Selectorʼs four quadrants. If the Focus Area menu item (CSM #17) is set to Wrap (on) then presses in any direction will wrap your selection to the next area in all directions, meaning that continuous up button presses will eventually select the low center area from any of the other four. i Wrap is a useful convenience that most D70 photographers prefer. Once you have selected any of the five focus zones, you can lock your selection with the focus area lock switch just below the Multi-Selector. With the switch pointing to the round dot, zone selection can be changed. When pointed to the L, zone selection is locked to the current setting. i To change the setting, the dedicated focus zone lock switch must be unlocked. Dynamic Area mode looks and selects its highlighted focus zone the same way that Single Area does, but it behaves differently. The selected focus area is used initially, but if the subject moves out of that part of the image, information from the other focus areas is used to determine how to re-focus the lens. When this happens, the selected area graphics do not update. i Nikon recommends this mode for subjects that move around in unexpected ways and it works especially well with long telephoto shots that are made hand-held. In that case, the subject isnʼt the thing thatʼs moving, itʼs your grip. Closest Subject mode polls all five zones to find the one reporting the closest subject, then locks onto that zone, highlighting the nearest bracket so you can see what its choice was. As with Dynamic Area, this mode is very helpful with long lenses and randomly moving subjects in concert with Continuous Auto-Focus (CSM #02). i In a way, Closest Subject mode is like Dynamic Area mode with visual feedback, but doesnʼt start seeking and tracking focus with any specific area pre-selected.

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dSLR: Nikon D70

i Closest Subject mode ignores the dedicated focus zone lock switch. Returning to either Single Area or Dynamic Area modes restores the last locked preference. With any of these three modes selected, an Auto-Focus Assist Light (CSM #04) can become available for dark areas, or you may turn it off if you donʼt want to call attention to your camera. It does not light at all if AF-C (CSM #02) is active. Since the auto-focus modes work very well into extremely dim areas, you may wish to only switch it on in extreme cases.

COMPOSITION STRATEGIES Within the viewfinder the array of focus area brackets and a thin central circle are easy to dismiss, visually, as you frame and compose a shot. If these were the only markings, they might still be helpful to assist in placing subject matter dead center or to remind you when the camera was level. Nikon has provided optional grid lines (CSM #08) that you can switch on or off. The Grid Display option includes line segments drawn at center and quarters of the dimensions of the frame. These provide a precise reference for vertical and horizontal elements while only lightly taking up valuable viewfinder real estate. i Keeping in mind that compositional centers of interest often land at the crossing points of image thirds, one can easily estimate from the viewfinder clues where that is. Horizontally at the sides of the circle. Vertically at the inner edges of the upper & lower focus zones. i Framing here means where the boundaries of the image are defined and composing means how the elements inside the frame are arranged.

Focus light. Rollover.

HOW SHARP IS SHARP? That all depends on what the definition of is is. Sharp is different for each format of film and print size. Just to confuse you at this moment, the concept is literally founded on “the circle of confusion” and it is a numerical way to put boundaries on what people mean when they Grid lines: help or hinderance? quantify sharpness as it relates to hyperfocal distance and depth of field You can turn them off (rollover) (DOF). or keep them always ready. As the iris diameter drops to a smaller and smaller hole, the detail in front and back of the focus point is observed through a narrower and narrower angle. Blobs of abstract color that show up at f/4.5 become detail that begins to look like something at f/16. If obviously large, unfocused details are changing in size with f-stop, the smallest ones are, too. At a certain point they become so small that theyʼre not considered to be out of focus any more. The circle of confusion (sometimes written as CoC) is the tiniest blob of acceptable out of focus you decide to allow in a print. Larger prints require more detail and smaller circles of confusion. A good viewing standard often quoted is a 6.67 x 10 inch print. This easily fits on a sheet of letter paper and is almost exactly the size of a page in National Geographic Magazine. i Big magazines, by the way, tend to hover at 10.5 x 8 inches and at 11 x 8.5 inches—the same size as US business letter paper—they feel artfully large. A few are larger still, dazzling you with form rather than content. Quick: Name a popular 11 x 14 inch magazine. Canʼt do it. When prints are defined by their circle of confusion as the judge of what qualifies as photographically sharp, the measure become exceedingly relaxed compared to the “300 dpi” standard. CoC standards imply that digital or film images are within spec at under 900 details in their short dimension and under 1400 details in their long dimension. The D70 delivers far more than that as does most color

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film. Ironical, isnʼt it, that there are standards for DOF numbers that conflict with the “photographic resolution standard” numbers. Who dreams these up? Once the circle of confusion is defined, it becomes less confusing. For the D70 it is assumed to be an out of focus circle just 0.018 mm in diameter—about twice the size of a single microscopic 7.8 µm photosite or single pixel. Once it has been standardized, it folds into a string of algebraic formulas that define the measurements that are useful. The first of these is:

With hyperfocal distance set, h, everything from half that distance to infinity will look in focus.

HYPERFOCAL DISTANCE Hyperfocal distance describes the focus setting that captures quantifiably sharp detail from infinity to the nearest possible point. Detail, for this computation, is described for the D70 as being 0.018 mm. That describes a spot so small that the sensor wonʼt really show it as being out of focus and even large prints will portray the detail as being sharp and clear to viewers.

Hyperfocal Distance Calculation When focused to the hyperfocal point, everything is sharp from half of the hyperfocal distance (h/2) to infinity. Where

/

2 f h = (A • C)

h = hyperfocal distance (millimeters) f = focal length (millimeters) A = aperture expressed in f-stops C* = Constant CoC of 0.018 mm for the D70. * This is 60% of the C used for 35mm film frames (0.030 for 135 format). A higher standard.

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4-36 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

Plugging in some typical numbers, the Kit Lens at wide zoom would produce this interesting hyperfocal distance math: h = 182 / 3.5 • 0.018 h = 324 / .063 h = 5,100 millimeters or 5.1 meters Half of the hyperfocal distance is the closest sharp point at 2.55 meters at this focus setting wide open at f/3.5. i Try it yourself. Focus on something 5 meters away from the camera and lock focus with the AFM switch. Now shoot with a high enough shutter speed to include distant and more nearby subjects. Keep the f/3.5 and zoom setting. Notice how infinity is still sharp and closer objects are, too. i To convert meters into feet, multiply meters by 3.28. To convert feet to meters, multiply feet by 0.305. To convert inches to mm, multiply inches by 25.4 and to convert mm to inches, divide mm by 25.4. Other focus point calculations use the h value as an essential element since it distills the active ingredients of aperture and circle of confusion. Once an array of hyperfocal distance computations is generated, more math can determine boundaries.

Farthest Focus Distance Calculation The farthest distance that still looks sharp when you have focused the lens to a specific distance setting.

ffl = ( h • d )/

(h-d-f)

Where ffl = far focus limit in millimeters h = hyperfocal distance in millimeters (from h equation) d = distance to which the lens is focused in meters f = focal length of lens in millimeters If we focus the 70mm tele setting at 2 meters using f/8, our hyperfocal point is 34 meters distant (34,000mm), so ffl = (34,000 • 2,000) / (34,000 – 2,000 –70) ffl = 68,000,000 / 31,930 ffl = 2,129 mm or 2.13 meters Sharpness that is considered perfect only occupies a zone from the focus point to an extra 130 mm (5.1 inches) past the focus point of 2 m (about 6.5 feet).

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Nearest Focus Distance Calculation The closest sharp point when the lens is set to a specific distance.

/

(h•d) = nfl (h+d-f) Where nfl = near focus limit in meters h = hyperfocal distance (in meters (from h equation) d = distance to which the lens is focused in meters f = focal length of lens in meters (e.g. 18mm = 0.018 m) The same 70mm lens at f/8 focused at 2 meters shows nfl = 34,000 • 2,000 / 34,000 + 2,000 – 70 nfl = 68,000,000 / 35,930 nfl = 1,893 millimeters or 1.89 meters Notice that the span from focus point to nearest sharp point is 110 mm, somewhat less than the span from focus point to farthest sharp point. We now know the two elements that give us the

Depth of Field Calculation(s) In common usage, DOF is often spoken as being the nearest point and farthest point of sharpness when focused at X. “Your depth of field is 1.89 meters to 2.13 meters at 2 meters,” from the above example. But the term seems to really want to express the span of sharp focus as a single number. Thatʼs simple:

DOF = ffl - nfl In this case the zone of sharpness is 0.24 meters thick, or just over 9 inches. The slightly lower sharp focus span toward the lens seems trivial in this example when compared with the far focus limit but important physics are already beginning to upset the symmetry of DOF. When these equations are solved for a more typical situation, say a 31mm zoom setting (chosen to mimic a 50mm normal lens on a 135 format camera) shooting at f/5.6 while focused at 5 meters, the results shape up as h = 9.53 meters ffl = 10.59 meters nfl = 3.29 meters

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4-38 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

Clearly the zone of sharp focus extends way beyond the focus point, capturing a depth of 5.6 more meters, while only including 1.7 more meters of sharp focus on the near side of the focus point. The often repeated photographerʼs rule of thumb says, “DOF is one-third on this side of the focus point and two-thirds past it.” Like many rules of thumb, this is just a very rough guide. In the example above, the rule is off by quite a bit with one quarter of the DOF on the near side of the focus point. And when one considers that by setting the lens to a focus point of 9.5 meters, the entire DOF balance becomes 4.75 meters on the near side and 13.6 billion light years on the far side (infinity), then the proportionality of 1/3 versus 2/3 can be seen as the definition of a mythical proportion. i Notes: My calculation of 0.018 mm for the circle of confusion is not the one referenced by others. It seems that everybody has their own opinion on that, including me. This measurement does not express a Great Truth, it merely describes a choice. In my case, Iʼve tightened it up a bit in order to present numbers that will pass scrutiny with images reproduced slightly larger than 6.7 x 10 inches—the real dimensions for the 8x10 standard often quoted. I like to print slightly larger, and the D70 certainly can support the extra enlargement. You can do all of this math with a different constant for the circle of confusion and alter the numbers to fit your print reproduction size choice. i Keep in mind that the distances for DOF are not walls. At the near and far points indicated, focus only begins to start commencing to initiate the introduction of small increments of focus spread. I hope Iʼve made that redundant enough to sink in. Focus gradually leaves the zone of perfection that DOF numbers attempt to put boundaries on. Any DOF number that claims that the span of sharp focus is “3.29 m to 10.59 m”—as I do above—is technically precise to the point of distraction. Subject matter at 10.63 m doesnʼt really look any different than subjects at 10.59 m from the camera. Better to think of this as meaning “around three meters to around ten meters” and get on with shooting your picture. i As a potential help, here are some common hyperfocal distance numbers in meters and feet for focal lengths and f-stops you may encounter with your D70 and its lenses (all based on the 0.018 mm choice). Hyperfocal Distance in Meters based on circle of confusion = 0.018 mm f/ Focal Length in mm 10.5 12 18 24 28 35 42 50 60 70 80 105 135 200 400

2

2.8

4

5.6

8

11

16

22

3.1 4.0 9 16 22 34 50 70 100 140 180 300 500 1100 4400

2.2 2.9 6.4 11 16 24 35 50 70 100 120 220 360 800 3200

1.5 2.0 4.5 8 11 17 25 35 50 70 90 150 250 550 2200

1.1 1.4 3.2 5.7 8 12 18 25 36 50 60 110 180 400 1600

0.8 1.0 2.3 4.0 5.4 9 12 17 25 34 45 80 130 280 1100

0.6 0.7 1.6 2.9 4.0 6.2 9 13 18 25 32 55 90 200 800

0.4 0.5 1.1 2.0 2.7 4.3 6.1 9 13 17 22 40 60 140 550

0.3 0.4 0.8 1.5 2.0 3.1 4.5 6.3 9 12 16 30 45 100 400

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Hands-On Control Essentials Hyperfocal Distance in Feet based on circle of confusion = 0.018 mm or 0.00071 inches f/

2

2.8

4

5.6

8

11

16

22

10.0 7.2 13.1 9.4 30 21 52 37 71 51 110 80 160 115 230 163 330 235 450 320 580 420 1000 720 1700 1200 3600 2600 14500 10500

5.0 6.6 15 26 36 56 80 115 165 220 290 500 830 1800 7300

3.6 4.7 10.5 19 26 40 57 80 117 160 200 360 600 1300 5280

2.5 3.3 7.4 13 18 28 40 57 80 110 150 250 410 900 3600

1.8 2.4 5.4 9.5 13 20 29 40 60 80 100 180 300 660 2700

1.3 1.6 3.7 6.6 9 14 20 28 40 56 75 125 200 450 1800

0.9 1.2 2.7 4.8 6.5 10 15 21 30 40 55 90 150 330 1300

Focal Length in mm 10.5 12 18 24 28 35 42 50 60 70 80 105 135 200 400

WHITE BALANCE With film cameras, you either shoot with color negative film or purchase transparency film attuned to specific color balances. Daylight film is used for full sun, cloudy exteriors and flash photography, and incandescent lighting uses indoor film balanced for 3200K lighting. No films exist for candle light. D70 photography offers eight color balance options including one that is fully automatic and one that reads the color from an image already in your CompactFlash card or quickly captures a reading from white or gray sources in your environment. This last manual white balance feature is one of the best implemented assets of the camera. The six factory presets are not limited to their original values. Each one of them can be customized by you (Shooting Menu > White Balance) within a convenient range expressed as integers from 0 (the factoryʼs own standard) to ±3 units, each of which stand for about 10 mired of change. i Negative units warm the image (emphasizing yellows and reds) while positive units cool the image (increasing blues). The logic of this is that when the positive adjustment is made, the color balance applied to the image is higher and bluer, while negative adjustments portray it as warmer and redder. Each factory preset can be adjusted 10, 20 or 30 mired up or down from its original setting. Set White balance by pressing the WB button to the left of the monitor when the screen is blank. The LCD data will leave the display except for WB data along the lower center-right area. Scroll the Main Command Dial to change the white balance icons from Auto, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Sunlight, Flash, Cloudy, Shade and Preset (manual). To alter any or all of these use the Menu > Shooting Menu > White Balance > (desired factory setting) > (adjustment page) sequence and use the up/down portions of the Multi-Selector to increase or decrease the setting.

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i When you change the adjustment to any preset white balance standard, that adjustment only sticks to that preset. So you can cool incandescent settings and warm daylight settings and keep all of them.

KELVIN COLOR A “mired” is a small increment of color change that relates to the Kelvin scale of color temperature, which defines the central point of photon distribution exhibited by a warm body. As things heat up, they glow. First red, then orange, then white hot. Then what? Blue. Like the flame on your gas stove.

Glowing objects throw off photons that are evenly distributed in a continuous spectrum—a bell curve of colors—and the peak of that curve is described by the heat it emits. Heat and color are intimately connected, and Irish mathematician Lord Kelvin figured this all out in the 1800s. On the Kelvin temperature scale, 5200K (sometimes written as 5200°K) is the white balance setting for full daylight conditions, 5000K is the white balance temperature of the Sunʼs direct rays at noon (notice that daylight conditions are higher—meaning bluer—due to the presence of blue skyʼs contribution to the lighting). Electronic flash tubes usually create 6000K light, cloudy skies typically produce from 6500K to 9000K depending on cloud depth. Your computer monitor usually exhibits a color temperature of about 6500K, but can be as high as 9000K. Deep blue sky itself might reach a reading of 20,000K with its overwhelming preponderance of shorter, hotter, blue photons. Incandescent quartz bulbs put out 3000K while 100 watt household bulbs throw off warm 2900K glows while a 40 watt bulb shines at only 2600K. A candle flame is about 1800K. i Kelvin temperatures are measured in degrees Celsius (Centigrade) from absolute zero—the point at which all thermal activity stops in atoms. 0° K is –273.15° C (-459° F). i A single mired (micro reciprocal degree) is the reciprocal of any color temperature divided into 1,000,000 and the reason it is used to express color difference is that it causes the same visible result to any original color temperature, the way a glass color filter would behave. Thirty-mired changes applied to a 6000K image cause Kelvin degree swings of 600°K. The same mired change applied to a 3000K image would change its color temperature by only 300°K. i A one-mired change in color temperature is not detectable by the human eye, but we can see a 10-mired difference as a small change. The full ±30-mired alteration seems to our eyes to be a very modest difference, one that might not be noticed, but which may influence the image as feeling warmer or cooler, psychologically. Rollover for a -60 mired change. i Semantics! Blue is considered cool and gold is considered warm—psychologically. Exactly backwards of Kelvin color temperature physics in which blue is quite literally hotter by any measure of real heat. Then again, fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing. For what itʼs worth, Benjamin Franklin got the direction of electrical current flow backwards, but we still use positive and negative the way he labeled it (meaning your battery flows – to +).

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Of all of these, only Preset is a measure of reality.

FACTORY AND PRESET WB Incandescent WB is designed for Metal Halogen bulbs at 3000K. You can adjust this setting down to 2700K and as high as 3300K with mired adjustments. i Studio photo flood bulbs burn at 3200K and a –2 adjustment will deliver this white balance. Low wattage bulbs in oneʼs home can be neutralized with a +3 Fluorescent WB is something of a strange phenomenon since fluorescent bulbs throw off color spectra with gaps of missing color frequencies. Many common bulbs give a color that looks pretty good at 4200K, the default setting, but the range of different bulb types is so big that Nikon allowed this setting to adjust up and down over a huge range. Adjustments range from 2700K to 7200K. i Test the fluorescent lighting in your photographic environment with these before you commit to one. Better yet, use the easily implemented Manual WB procedure below. Daylight WB is centered at 5200K and can be adjusted up and down from 4800K to 5600K. Itʼs for direct sun, shooting under clear skies. Notice that its official menu title is “Dir. Sunlight”. i By warming the image with a +3 adjustment, high noon can look a bit more like late afternoon. Cooling the image with a –3 adjustment and underexposing two stops will make some scenes look like they were shot in moonlight. Flash WB is balanced for 5400K because the tube in Nikon Speedlights (and most flash units) is slightly cooler than daylight—a subtlety lost on film. Adjustments range from 4800K to 6000K. i Warming up flash pictures helps avoid the “paparazzi” lighting that makes them look uninviting. An adjustment of –2 helps a lot by making flash look more like ambient incandescent. Cloudy WB expects light that is 6000K and adjustments range from 5400K to 6600K. This setting should be used for dense overcast skies. i Nothing says you canʼt shoot in clear sunlight with Cloudy selected. Images will adopt a nice warm, cozy look, not unlike the early stages of Golden hour, the last 90 minutes of the afternoon before sunset begins. Shady WB assumes that the blue sky from a clear day is illuminating your subject, so it targets 8000K, which is very cool light indeed, and adjusts from 6700k to 9200K. i Like Cloudy WB, Shady WB setting can be used to produce a more extreme version of Golden Hour in full daylight scenes. It warms flash shots and images captured under cloudy skies. Preset WB is really two different white balance techniques in the D70. One uses the white balance data from any image on the CompactFlash card as its guide—no matter how that image was acquired—and the other lets the camera sample a visible reference in your photographic environment, using it as a guide for processing the white point of the image. Selecting Preset WBʼs icon with the WB button only switches the camera to the last white balance setting that the Preset register memorized. By switching into Menu > Shooting Menu > Preset > Use Photo > Select Image > (current folder) the camera now shows you six thumbnail images that scroll in all directions. Now you can select another image from the card that was balanced the way you want the current image to be shot. Once you settle on an image that was made under similar lighting to the scene you see before you, but which has some special quality that you wish to repeat now, press Enter > This Image and the white balance characteristics of that shot will now be transferred into the active Preset WB memory register.

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Recycle the white

i Letʼs say that a particular shot was made some time in the past under fluorescent lighting adjusted to balance data from prior +3 because a particular room looked best that way. You protected the image against erasure, so it is still images. there on the card. You forgot the setting you made back then, and you have altered the Fluorescent WB settings so many times since that you canʼt possibly remember exactly how you got that image quality. Having the reference shot on your CompactFlash card is all you need. You scroll to that image when the menu asks you to Use Image and instantly the characteristics are available for shooting right now. i The Use Image technique is powerful, but only if you have images handy that contain the white balance data you wish to recover. It might be a good idea to carry around a special CompactFlash card to capture unusual lighting situations for future recycling. Manual White Balance is the process of using the camera to observe the color of ambient light— the light illuminating the scene you wish to immediately photograph—and turning that observation into a data file that drives the cameraʼs internal color balance. Professional videographers do this frequently, nearly every time they enter a new scene, office, studio, or exterior location. They hold up a neutral white card, sheet of paper, T-shirt or handkerchief and point the camera at it while the White Balance button is pressed. The camera considers the colors that are coming in through the lens and adjusts its internal RGB image components to regard that color as neutral gray. Your D70 can do this exact same thing, and almost as quickly as a $100,000 HDTV camera. • First you must tell the camera that it is in the special Preset mode by combining the WB button press with the Main Command Dial and scrolling to the far right icon on the LCD panel. You could achieve the same thing by opening up the Shooting Menu > Preset > Measure sequence. All that does is change the current white balance to Preset. • Now point the camera at a white subject and press the WB button again—but this time, hold it for three seconds while continuing to look into the viewfinder. Notice that on the data display below the ground glass the letters P r E appear where the remaining shot number was before. This tells you that the next step is primed for action. Now make sure the center part of the image covers any white or neutral gray Fill this part of the frame with a subject—no focus will be needed, so it could be as small as a business card held near predominantly white target with the lens—and release the shutter. An exposure is made, but no picture will be stored. The EV+/- centered or slightly low. camera shows that white reference subject to the image chip, so it will be able to make wise decisions about the color of the light. If all goes well, the confirmation will be where the shutter speed numbers usually appear on the data displays. It will simply report “Gd” meaning Good. If something has gone wrong, or it canʼt work correctly with the current target, the display will say “no Gd” and when you half-press the Shutter Release, the PrE will continue to flash, indicating that you can immediately try another color test exposure, perhaps in brighter light or with a lower EV setting. i Make sure that EV+/- doesnʼt force an overexposure when you make the color test shot. Overexposure will cause errors, and the words n o G d will appear in the viewfinder plus LCD displays when as little as 0.5-stop of extra light is added to the test exposure. Underexposures arenʼt as fussy.

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They can work with color data that is 3 full stops underexposed at ISO 200. EV 0.0 test exposures produce more accurate results, especially at elevated ISO. i The rhythm of the manual white balance procedure is important. Set WB to Preset / Press the WB button three seconds / Trip the shutter. Do it twenty or fifty times over the course of an afternoon and you will become a master white balancer.

OFF-WHITE BALANCE Nikon made the D70ʼs white balance evaluation circuits capable of neutralizing more than the colors of light that define the Kelvin scale of color temperatures. They knew that photographers might show up in any sort of environmental situation with any color of ambient light pouring down, so they gave the camera a wide range of white balance latitude. In fact, an enormous range. i You can point the camera at a white target under night neon signs and the camera will balance for the obviously colorful test subject. Shoot a photo right away of the white balance test subject and you will see immediately how well the camera solved Off-white balance color filters on this eBook’s cover give you stronger colors the the color lighting equation. The white target in colored light will show as white! more they fill up the center half of the focus i Extend that idea to its logical conclusion, and you will soon discover that a screen. You can remove the cover card to manual white balance off of any color object will cause the camera to produce a avoid glare, too. color-filtered image that has the exact opposite color of the test object. i Now you know what the color tiles on this eBookʼs cover can be used for. Theyʼre color targets for manual white balancing, and theyʼre arranged in pairs of opposite colors linked to show that white balancing off this color tile causes the camera to look like it shot through that color of filter.

WB examples made with this eBook’s offwhite balance filters.

i Other color objects work, too. Faded blue jeans produce a light gold effect and so does the blue of the sky. Yellow Post-Its cool pictures down as do clusters of red flowers. Green grass causes purple filtration to occur. The stronger the initiating color, the greater the filtration effect.

White balance off the scene. Manual WB off white card, left. Rectangles indicate the area of the image used for the manual WB on center and right.

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METER LAND Inside the D70 are three light meter systems. Each estimates the exposure by observing light in different ways. Holding down the left triangular button that sits just behind the shutter release (Metering Mode button) and rotating the Main Command dial selects your meter preference. When you do this, all data leaves the LCD screen except the meter graphic. Rotate the Main Command Dial and it changes from Matrix to Center Weight to Spot meter and back to Matrix in a continuous rotating series of choices. Matrix, Center Weight (rollover) and Spot Spot Meter measurements are made from a spot about the size of the central focus target bracket (click). seen on the ground glass and when any focus zone is designated, that highlighted zone becomes the active spot. i Although the outer brackets are smaller than the center one, the area of the spot is the same for each of them and is centered on the bracket. Spot readings occupy only about 1% of the surface area of the image, making them very discerning. Everything inside the spot is averaged for exposure evaluation and bright or dark areas will give false exposure readings. i You must hold the spot on an appropriate mid-value subject to capture the scene at the right exposure. But that isnʼt always the right place to frame your subject, so using the spot meter effectively means locking the exposure at the moment of half-press while the appropriate exposure target is in the active focus bracket, then allowing auto-focus to occur at the moment of shutter release. To assure that Spot readings are this is happening, set the AE Lock (CSM #16) to + Release Bttn and ONLY taken from the Auto-focus (CSM #02) to AF-C for continuous focusing. Since predictive auto-focus is occurring, this center spot zone. No setup should achieve the most optimum spot reading. Use of the AF-Area Mode (CSM #03) Dynamic consideration of the rest of the image is Area or Closest Subject options may be required to keep focus after the shutter button half-press. involved. i Spot reading is extremely useful for situations with large areas of brightness or darkness surrounding your subject. Back-lit people pictures and stage lighting are good examples. Lock the exposure on faces or medium value clothing, then re-frame for the shot. Keep in mind that even a subject with only black and white areas can be effectively metered by cutting through the spot area with a balanced mixture of black and white. i Spot metering takes practice. Learning which subjects make good targets is something the camera will have to teach you over time. Use the histogram frequently to evaluate how well you are doing. i A technique that may help is to read a good target tonal area at full zoom-in, then zoom out to frame and compose your shot. With the half-press locking the exposure, accuracy will improve. Center Weight Meter reads a soft circular area in the middle of the frame and averages everything it finds there, giving that area a 75% vote in the computation of exposure. Brightnesses outside the circle are still considered but they are in the minority. The size of the Center weight coverage circular reading can be changed to 6, 8, 10 or 12 mm (CSM #11) and the viewfinder inscribed circle can be this small at minimum. shows the size of the default 8 mm meter area.

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i Try this meter at each of the several size settings to see which one best suits you. I prefer the largest 12 mm setting for a big, general exposure evaluation area, but thatʼs just me. If you use any setting other than 8 mm, youʼll have to estimate the coverage in the viewfinder, but the circle helps you make an informed prediction. i Center Weight metering is quite good for shots that are of even tonalities such as cityscapes with the sun at your back and office interiors under broad, even fluorescent lighting. Matrix Meter is the King of all meters. Officially called the 3D RGB Color Matrix meter, it gathers information from 1005 red, green and Center weight coverage blue sensors arrayed in a grid of 335 spots around the image–covering can be this big at nearly all of it–and factors in distance information derived from the lens as it evaluates exposure. maximum. Years ago, American photographers Minor White and Ansel Adams developed a system that evaluated scenes with a number of spot readings, which became specific tonalities in the final print. By taking several readings they were “pre-visualizing” the tones in the final print and they called this the Zone System. Plural readings suggested appropriate development and print contrast options even before the shot was taken. The Matrix meter is rather like that with its ability to isolate areas of the shot under consideration and make an enhanced intelligent estimation of the appropriate exposure. Real world subjects reflect light in expectable hues and chroma intensities. Vegetation exhibits particular ranges of greens, flesh exhibits pinks, tans and browns within predictable bounds. Bright green faces are If you could make this many spot readings on a rare. Add to this the idea that various kinds of typical subject matter are shot at scene and intelligently calculate how to expose, predictable distances from the lens (Portraits = close. Landscapes = far.) and white balance and adjust contrast for it, wouldn’t you? The D70 Matrix meter enables this. Rollover. you have the basis for all sorts of clever assumptions. Nikon studied the color, area of coverage, focus distance, contrast and exposure characteristics of around 30,000 representative photographic images and incorporated this data in an expert exposure system that theyʼve been evolving and perfecting for years. Itʼs akin to making numerous spot color readings and making intelligent evaluations from them. The D70 has it, and Minor White and Ansel Adams would have loved it. i If a small area of the image were to report excessive brightness, that wouldnʼt necessarily need to be compensated for, providing most of the other zones reported more uniformly darker tonalities. It might be a sun glint, a light bulb or a toothy smile, so it might be better to ignore it, based on other factors. If areas along the top or sides of an exposure were to report light tones in the range of sky blue and focus was at or near infinity, the system could make assumptions indicating that this might be a daylight shot made outdoors in sunlight where contrast affects exposure. If a large mass in the center of the image were to be within certain flesh tone colors and intensities and the lens reported a focus distance of two meters,

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the system can make assumptions about exposure for portraiture. By the time the 3D Matrix meter has considered colors by hue and saturation, tonal ranges by brightest and darkest, areas of similar tonality that are connected or separated, distance to the subject, and compared that to its data base derived from real images, itʼs got a very good idea of what the exposure should be. Thatʼs why itʼs the King. i Most of the time the Matrix meter is the first choice of Nikon D70 users and deserves to be. Itʼs the default setting brought back with a Two-Button Reset and is used exclusively by all of the Digital Vari-Program modes.

Under / Normal / Over. Exposure alters

EXPOSURE ALTERATION: EV+/the brightness and compositional impact of an image. Once the meter makes the exposure calculation, you can take command of the exposure value (EV) and force it to become lighter or darker. At any time before a shot is made, you can press the triangular +/– button near the Shutter Release and scroll the Main Command Dial with your right thumb to make an EV+/- correction. i That correction you just dialed in is going to stay there until the cows come home. Switching the camera off wonʼt make it reset, nor will exchanging batteries. You must un-set it yourself. When the number rolls over 0.0, thatʼs center of exposure. Pressing the +/– button erases all data from the LCD and replaces it with the +/– icon and a number showing the amount of correction currently in place. Across the top of the LCD large numbers track your correction in 1/3-stop or 1/2-stop increments depending on your preference (CSM #09). In Manual mode, this informs the exposure computer that you prefer this new setting to equal correct exposure. i In Flexible Program Exposure mode, EV changes affect the exposure no matter what EV adjustment can new, alternative shutter speed or aperture setting you have selected. THE NATURE OF OVEREXPOSURE It is better to have a D70 image that is slightly underexposed than to have one that is overexposed. Why? Because overexposure leads highlights into the upper reaches of bleached-out, featureless pure white, while underexposure divides the numerical value of detail with every stop of diminishing tonality. You get more out of a tonal diet than by multiplying brightness out the ceiling, so to speak. Like a haircut, you can cut it shorter, but never longer. Exposure isnʼt strictly linear, the way light is in the real world, and the cameraʼs tonal response does not follow a strict doubling or halving of digital numeric values to produce the effect of one stop up or down, but our world is made of light, with glare, reflection and light sources in our visual field. Shadows arenʼt “anti-light” that can be broadcast the way light can. Darkness doesnʼt define imagery, light does, so placing the lightest highlight at the top of the numeric scale of tonalities lets the other tones fall where they may. Lifting shadows brings detail up in visibility, but once a highlight is bleached, itʼs gone forever. Its hair has been cut.

always be made with the two-finger technique.

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Much of our world exists in the narrow band of brightnesses we can experience from reflections off of materials from the blackest pigment to the whitest paper or paint. Thatʼs not a wide range, since most things we see as black are really dark gray and certainly a reflection off a wet flower is many times brighter than a pure white lily. No photography can do it all. Eyes operate in an approximate 30,000:1 range (adapted to ambient conditions) and photos maximize at less than a tenth of that. The black to white gray scale on this CDʼs packaging (flip the color cover insert) can be easily captured in the middle of the cameraʼs tonal range. By allowing the highlights to approach maximum white, digital images can concentrate on rendering the range of most common brightnesses as they appear in direct light and in shadows of different depths.

One-stop chop. The image on the left is underexposed by EV -1.0 and the image on the right is overexposed by EV +1.0. Rollover to see how well they have been “rescued” from their exposure error. Click to see what an optimum exposure looked like.

LOCKING EXPOSURES AND/OR FOCUS Auto exposures change as you point the camera around the environment. But the environment is usually a place with a fixed light level that includes areas of greater or lesser lighting. If you wish to shoot images that capture every part of the environment at the same exposure, you can use Manual Exposure mode, or you can take your cameraʼs exposure and/or focus advice and lock the exposure and/or exposure (or even flash intensity) with the AE-L/AF-L button. You have no less than seven options there. They all start with using the AE-L/AF-L button on the camera back just to the right of the viewfinder. For most functions, when this button is pressed and held, exposure and/or Panoramic images need each segment to be identifocus can be temporarily locked, preventing them from changing until the cally exposed. AE-Lock. Hand-held & hand stitched. button is let go. Depending on menu choices (CSM #15) : Rollover to see the middle section gone.

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AE/AF Lock. Both are locked together at the current focus position and the immediate exposure at the time the AE-L/AF-L button is pressed. The camera can be moved to new framing with exposure and focus unchanged. You must hold the button down or lose the focus and exposure settings, returning them to other AF and AE options you have set elsewhere (CSM #02, CSM #16). i The default is to have this button hold both AE and AF, locking them together. You may press the AE-L/AF-L button after half-pressing the shutter button to lock exposure at that instant and the current auto-focus setting. This is good for quick panoramics in which maintaining focus and exposure is necessary. Make sure you donʼt touch the zoom between sequence frames. i Keeping the AE-L/AF-L button pressed will continue to hold both settings through more than one photo. The only question is how long can you continue to keep the button pressed. By electing to use the shutter half-press to lock one of these ideas, you can leave the other one to your thumb. i Any change of focus will cause slight image size changes in the results, so shooting a panoramic for stitching several images together should be done with exposure and focus locked. If you have time, switch to Manual exposure mode and switch the lens to Manual focus. AE Lock Only. The exposure alone is locked at the moment the button is pressed while focus is handled normally. AF Lock Only. Either AF focus mode (CSM #02) is locked at its current position while exposure is computed at the moment of shutter press. You may wish to use the shutter half-press to achieve focus before you lock it with the AE-L/AF-L button. AE Hold. The exposure will be computed and locked the instant the AE-L/AF-L button is pressed and it will be held as long as the camera meter stays awake (CSM #23) without continuing to hold the AE-L/AF-L button down. A second press of the AE-L/AF-L button will cancel the lock. AF-ON. The AE-L/AF-L button causes the auto-focus to find focus in the manner of your AF preference (CSM #02), either locking it if AF-S is used, or continuously following focus if AF-C is used. Use with care. This mode has some unusual side effects that can confuse you: i Warning: When AF-S is selected, the AF-On setting (CSM #15) sets and locks auto exposure requiring you to hold the AE-L/AF-L button down during the shot. If you leave the camera in this mode, the next time you pick it up, you will wonder why the camera is not releasing the shutter. It may appear to suddenly be broken. i It gets worse—if you have the camera set for AF-C (CSM #02), and donʼt press the AE-L/AF-L button before exposure, the camera will fail to auto-focus entirely, but the shutter will trip, exposing an image that probably is out of focus. With AF-ON the camera is looking to the AE-L/AF-L button instead of the Shutter Release for its cue to auto-focus. If you use AF-ON, switch it off when you are through. FV Lock. As soon as you press the AE-L/AF-L button, the camera fires a test flash and computes an exposure solution. Subsequent images are all shot with the same flash energy even if your subject changes position, shape, distance or tonality for any reason. A second press dismisses the lock so normal TTL shots occur. A third press makes a new test flash.

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i One useful strategy is to use the option to cause the AE-L/AF-L button to only lock focus when it is pressed (AF Lock Only in CSM #15) with the AF-C setting (CSM #02). You have just told the camera to focus continuously unless you lock the current focus point with the AE-L/AF-L button.

MOTOR DRIVE While digital cameras donʼt have a motor to drive image functions, they have the equivalent with Continuous Frame mode. The normal, default setting for the camera is to shoot in Single Frame mode which requires a new button press for every picture. Continuous Frame mode with the D70 adds the ability to hold the Shutter Release down for as long as you wish, and multiple images will be devoured in a continuous string of shots—the digital motor drive. Set the Continuous mode by pressing the dedicated Frame / Self-Timer / Remote button just to the left of the viewfinder eyepiece and scroll the Main Command Dial to the right one click. Now you are motorized. Nikon has earned major bragging rights with the Continuous Frame mode as implemented on the D70. It shoots a bare minimum of 11 shots in an unbroken stream with the oldest, slowest CompactFlash cards, and with the recommended SanDisk Extreme cards, it will shoot many shots in a row at its maximum frame rate of nearly three frames per second. A gentle reminder on the LCD and viewfinder data screens shows you how many shots the internal image buffer can hold when you half-press the Shutter Release button. Between the brackets that usually show the number of shots available on the current CompactFlash card, half-press reveals [r 0 9 ] when Large frame, Fine compressed images are about to be made. What that number doesnʼt say is that the camera immediately starts compressing images as soon as the first one has been captured, and it loads them into the card as fast as the card can absorb them. By the time you Motor drive Continuous mode have shot a few, the first one has already been off-loaded to the CompactFlash card, so more easily captures 15+ images at buffer space is already available.

FV lock lets you separate the test flash in TTL mode from the exposure flash. Subsequent flash xposures are identical, so if your subject distance is constant, your exposures will be, too.

2.98 frames per second.

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i With the SanDisk Extreme 1.0GB card, full frame, Fine compressed images can be recorded so quickly that a minimum of 18 shots at 3 fps will be captured. Once the card becomes the bottleneck to further fast frame capture, the camera doesnʼt stop—it merely slows down. Subsequent shots are ingested at about 1 fps until you either get tired or the CompactFlash card fills up. i With a newly formatted 1.0GB card and Small frames of Fine compression, you can shoot around 1200 images continuously without a break at 3 fps. It will take you nearly seven minutes to do this. i Continuous Frame mode returns the mirror to viewing position between frames so you can continue to frame the action. Auto-focus will attempt to With the SanDisk 1.0GB Extreme track subjects if AE-S (CSM #02) is selected, but it may temporarily suspend card, a 9-shot buffer becomes shooting if focus lock is not achieved. If AE-C is chosen, focusing continues to change a minimum of 25 shots in an unbroken string. throughout the string of shots and shooting continues unchecked. Some frames may show miss focus but frames shortly before or after those will be sharp. i Playing back long strings of shots on the D70 is a trip. Scrolling backward or forward in time can be continuous by holding down the up or down quadrants of the Multi-Selector button. Images will refresh at about five frames per second and strings of shots will look like animation. Later, you can animate them using any of several animation and/or video animation programs that will work with still images. i Quicktime Pro from Apple Computer is available in forms for Macintosh and Windows platforms. It costs just $30 US and makes stringing together a numbered series of image files into a non-problem. i D70 Small frames are easier to manipulate, but Quicktime doesnʼt care what the frame size is (thatʼs why major special effects in movies like Lord Of The Rings were produced using it) and the Pro version allows you to gather frames at any size and shrink them down to smaller sizes as Exported movies.

SELF TIMER It always bothered me that self-timers were ten seconds long. Why not shorter? If Iʼm using the camera to copy artwork or shoot small still life subjects from a tripod in low light, I donʼt want to keep my fist on the camera for the duration of the shutter time. A very short self-timer would allow me to trigger the shutter release, let the camera settle into stability and trip the shutter without any added vibration from me. And all of that is just what Nikon has provided in the D70ʼs SelfTimer mode. You can set the delay duration from 2 seconds to 20 seconds in the CSM #24 preference, and that selection will stay implemented until you change it intentionally. i The flashing white self-timer light will count off seconds until the last two, during which it stays on continuously. If the camera Beep is on, a beeping sequence accompanies the signal light.

How about a 20 second delay?

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ML-L3 wireless remote triggers the camera with infrared signals.

Bracket makes perfect. With Continuous frames, it’s intelligently motorized. One Shutter press = one bracket. (±0.7 EV)

REMOTE CONTROL Using Nikonʼs ML-L3 infrared remote trigger, you can release the camera from several feet away without touching it or being wired to it. Remote distance can be as far as 7 meters in front of the camera. i Just to the right of the lens—as you face the camera—is a small black oval, just above the D70 name plate. Thatʼs the receptor for the infrared remote trigger, so aim at it. Two modes are available; instant release and delayed release. The delay is only two seconds, but thatʼs long enough for you to hide the remote trigger in your hand if the shot you are taking includes you. With instant release, the Self-Timer lamp winks after the shutter closes, and with delayed release, the Self-Timer lamp blinks for two seconds before the shot is made. i Focus for remotely triggered shots is performed at the beginning of the shot when using AF-S (CSM #02), and for AF-C no focus operation will occur at all. This means that during setup, the photographer should either use AF-S and make sure that the focus zone of choice is positioned well for the subject, or the Closest Subject (CSM #03) is selected along with AF-S. i Another option is to set up the shot, make the focus determination with a half-press, then lock the camera AF-M switch so focus is removed from the remote trigger sequence. i Try to avoid combining the remote trigger and AF-C. Continuous auto-focus only occurs during a half-press of the Shutter Release button, and this isnʼt happening with the remote unit. BRACKETING Sometimes youʼre sure that the camera isnʼt sure. A scene may have a contrast range or area of tonality that you donʼt trust to the standard exposure, so you would like to shoot a string of images to see if a little overexposure or underexposure might help. Certainly the camera monitor is not as good for judging images as your computer screen is, so whatʼs a photographer to do? Bracket. A bracket is usually a string of three images that are designed to assure you of the right exposure for the circumstances by trial-and-error. The world is moving and wonʼt stop for you to examine your shots, so the most expedient thing for you to do is to shoot extra images and sort it out later. A normal exposure is made plus and overexposed shot and/or an underexposed shot. To turn Bracketing on, press the top, left BKT button and scroll the Main Command Dial. On the LCD screen most of the data goes away leaving a BKT icon and some numbers. The numbers change when you scroll the Sub-Command Dial, rolling through your choices of bracket step (2 frames or 3) and bracket exposure offset. You may select any amount up to two stops from the normal exposure, depending on your EV step preference (CSM #09) of half or one-third stop jumps.

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i With two-shot brackets, you get one normal plus one either an overexposed or underexposed shot, so you must be observant when the numbers appear. A leading + or – sign will accompany the number. i Shoot with Continuous Frame mode selected. The camera will quickly acquire the bracket in as little as one second and then politely wait for your next shot. In Bracket mode, Continuous Frame settings know that you donʼt want to keep shooting, so the camera uses the mode as an assist to your bracketing goal.

MAKING MENU CHOICES Just under the Review button is the Select your bracket from a rolling list Menu button, and it brings up lists of options on the of 18 choices in 1/3-stop increments monitor screen. The first image you see will be the or 12 choices in 12-stop increments. last page that was selected using the menu system. It always remembers where you left off. Thatʼs good for continuity, so you donʼt have to scroll around just to find where you last set something, but it means that you have to generate a mental map of how the full group of menu pages works in the event that someone else was using the menu before you switched it on. (For routine resetting of shooting options, see the section on Two-Button Reset.) Along the side of the screen you will see icons for Play, Shooting Menu, CSM Menu (Numbered Custom Settings) and Set Up categories. Each of these four general areas has a page or more of options that you can set. If you select an exposure mode that requires a particular setting, the item will become grayed out and you canʼt change it just now. The general rule with menu items is that selections are made with the 4-way Multi Selector switch while on-screen right pointing triangles indicate that the current line item is selected by clicking to the right. Pages with more than six options scroll downward, bringing more options into view. The Play and Shooting menu pages have only six items but the CSM has a Menu Reset position plus 25 numbered items that cover a wide range of major and minor settings preferences. The Set Up menu has two full pages plus two extra items for a total of 14 options. One of those options is called CSM Menu and it lets you select the simple or detailed version of that item. Simple CSM Menu shows only the top nine items available for alteration plus the Menu Reset option. i Stay away from the Menu Reset option unless you are fully familiar with the menu system. It lets go of any optional settings you have made and the more you work with the camera, the more valuable those settings will be to you, since they characterize numerous behaviors of the camera. If you expect the self-timer to trip the shutter in two seconds, for instance, you donʼt want to find out while shooting that the Menu Reset took you back to a ten-second setting.

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PLAY MENU Six items let you control things like deleting images individually or in groups, working with folders full of pictures, rotating the playback image, running a simple slide show from within the camera (using a video out cord attached to your TV set), hiding images from review and marking images for printing. Delete gives you the option to delete pictures by selecting them from a display that scrolls six thumbnails using only the left and right Multi Selector buttons. Up or down presses mark each image with a trash can icon signaling you that when this process is complete, the marked images will be history. Alternately you can delete All images at once. Only images that are NOT marked to be preserved by use of the Protect button (skeleton key icon) will be deleted. Playback fldr is shorthand for Playback Folder and two options here let you review images from either the Current folder or All folders in the camera. Folders are created, named, renamed and deleted in the Folders option under the Set Up menu. Rotate tall can be switched on or off. This works hand-in-glove with a sensor inside the camera that detects whether you capture an image in horizontal or either vertical orientations. You can shoot a portrait vertical and have it play back on the review monitor as a horizontal image by switching this Off. Slide show lets you scroll automatically through the review image screens. Data icons, histograms, overlays and pages of text will show up on the images just as they do during normal reviewing and you can scroll sideways with the Multi Selector to see these changing with the pictures. A sub menu lets you decide that images will change every 2 sec, 3 sec, 5 sec or 10 sec. i The show plays through only once then stops on the last image and asks you if you wish to Restart. i Pressing the Enter button pauses the show and gives you options to change the timing and/or resume playback. Hide image moves around through images the way Delete > Selected images does, six shots at a time, horizontal scrolling only. Up or down presses of the Multi-selector mark the images for hiding and images marked this way wonʼt show with the image review system. The only place you can see them is on the Hide images page where they may be de-selected at will. Protected images can be hidden. And protected, hidden images may not be deleted from the CompactFlash card except by formatting the card. Print Set marks images for eventual printing by adding a tag to the image file that calls for x-number of prints when that file is processed by a printer that uses the DPOF (Digital Print Order Form) information to automatically retrieve and print images from the CompactFlash card. Use the Multi Selector up button to mark and quantify the number of prints on the currently selected image. A small number indicates the number of prints desired from 1 to 99. You can come back and alter this at any time before removing the CompactFlash card and using it in a DPOF-compatible printer. Once you have made your selections, press the Enter button and decide if you wish any of the two final options to be printed on all your pictures. You can add

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Data—meaning shutter speed and aperture information—or Date and Time to each picture by selecting them on the final Print set menu page. When you are finished, select Done and the print order will be imbedded in the image files. i If you switch the menu button off or turn off the camera before reaching that last Done item, the entire order will be canceled and you will mutter curses. i You can use the CompactFlash card to print with, re-insert it into the camera, return to the Print set and change the order again so a second printing session will produce different shots and quantities. i Hidden images will show up on your computer as being “read-only.” i Hidden images wonʼt show up among the Delete > Selected Images thumbnails, so you wonʼt be able to select them for deletion there. But if you Delete > All, only images that are marked as Protected will survive erasure.

TWO BUTTON RESET Sometimes you just need to get back to Square Two. Not Square One which is the starting place for everything, but solid ground from which common everyday decisions are made. As you set up your D70, certain choices will be made that affect things like “Does the monitor come on after every shot? If so, for how long?” and “My preference is to have the Command Dials swap their functions so the aperture selection is under my thumb while my shutter finger controls shutter speed.” These custom functions in the CSM menu are not things you want to lose, but you might want to return many other types of choices back to their starting place before proceeding with a shooting session. No sense having yesterdayʼs choices spoil todayʼs photographs. For this there is the Two-Button Reset (TBR), a fast way of returning the camera functions and options to a sane starting place. Itʼs only going to return things to normal that you often change or temporarily hold while shooting. To perform a TBR, press the BKT and Meter Selection buttons both at once for two full seconds. The LCD will blink, affirming the reset.

The TBR is easy to perform and difficult to recover from. Advice: avoid it.

Hereʼs the list of items that get reset and the default setting they return to: ISO . . . . . . . White Balance . Metering . . . . Image Size . . Compression . . Optimize Image Frame Rate . . Focus Area . . .

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . .

. 200 . Auto . Matrix . Large . Normal . Normal . Single . Center

EV +/– . . . . . . Flash Sync . . . . Flexible Program . AE Hold* . . . . . Bracketing . . . . Flash Comp. . . . FV Lock . . . . . Night Port. Flash .

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . .

. 0.0 . Front Curtain . Off . Off . Off . Off . Off . Auto Slow sync.

Some of these are choices made to Full Auto, Portrait, Macro and Night Portrait Exposure modes. Nothing changes in Sports, Landscape and Night Landscape modes. i *If AE-L / AF-L preferences (CSM #15) are set other than to the default AE/AF Lock position then AE Hold and FV Lock are unaffected by this type of reset.

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i Self-Timer and Remote functions are unaffected. i If AF-Area (CSM #03) is set for Closest Subject, then Focus Area is not reset. So the camera now becomes “normalized” requiring you to change certain things for whatever job is at hand. You wonʼt lose the contents of your Optimize Image > Custom settings, so if you want those back, theyʼre easy to regain through the Shooting Menu. Long exposure NR wonʼt change. You might prefer Flash Sync to be Rear Curtain (I do) so that may need to be reinstated. i In the Custom Settings Menu (CSM numbered items) nothing is changed overtly, Certain menu settings allow you to temporarily lock things like focus point and exposure. The contents of that temporary lock evaporate with a TBR, but the preference to make these temporary settings stays put. AF-Area mode returns to the center whether it was locked with the external AF-Area switch or not. You may now lock it, or if the switch is already in the L locked position, it wonʼt move by touching the Multi-Selector. If you have locked exposure or focus with the AE-L/AF-L button, that temporary memory is forgotten. If this switch was set to memorize flash value (FV Lock) the value in memory is dismissed, but the preference stays active so the button will work the way you wished next time.

SHOOTING MENU PAGES Some things you may wish to change often, and others only rarely. All of the options listed on the Shooting Menu pages are things frequently changed that pertain to the look of the image. Of the six items, four of them are more easily changed by using dedicated buttons along with the Main Command Dial: ISO, White Balance, Image Size and Image Compression all can be set here, but changing these with their buttons is faster. Switching on the noise reduction feature, NR, is set here, too, but you probably wonʼt need it. It turns out that NR may be only useful for ISO 1600 shots made at two minutes or longer! Optimize Image gives you a great deal of control over the look of the final result. Here are eight settings that cause the image to be captured in interesting ways, not unlike the DVP Exposure modes, letting you interpret the image with qualities you prefer. Normal serves as the reference standard to all of the other Custom settings. i Normal images are captured with Sharpening at Auto, Saturation at Normal, Tone (contrast) at Auto and Color Mode at Ia (sRGB). Vivid boosts chroma and contrast for images that are just a bit more dramatic. i Use the Vivid setting when you want to lift color values, but test with this before shooting valuable images. It might be just a tad too much for your eyes. Technically, this is a Normal image captured with color mode IIIa. Sharper increases the contour sharpening of images. i Sharpening in the camera can introduce small scale artifacts such as outlining contrasty contours (wires, leaves against bright skies, hair) and once artifacts are in an image, they canʼt be eliminated. Technically Sharper

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images are collected with Sharpening increased to the cameraʼs +2 High setting and color mode is Ia (sRGB) . Softer reduces electronic sharpening of contours, allowing you to perform this function in an image-editing program. i Softer images avoid artifacting by adjusting the contour sharpening effect down to –1 Medium Low with color mode Ia (sRGB). Direct Print captures images with Medium High sharpness to deliver large prints right from the CompactFlash card. i If you plan to avoid image editing altogether, this option may appeal to you. Technically, this is just a Normal image with Sharpness adjusted to +1 Medium High. Portrait lowers sharpening and contrast and softens backgrounds. i Technically it shoots with sharpening reduced to –1 Medium Low and Tone comp (contrast) set to Auto. Landscape optimizes the camera for grand vistas that may have a bit of chroma-reducing haze between lens and distant mountain. i Two settings are different from Normal images. Sharpening is increased to +1 Medium High, and Color Mode is switched to IIIa. Custom is the most complex setup since you now can control a greater range of image parameters. Entering into Custom presents you with a list of options that spans one item more than a full page of text. At the top of the list is the cryptic entry “-- Done” and any change or group of changes you make here must be ratified by clicking through this item when you finish making your various selections. i Without highlighting and pressing to the right with the Multi-Selector, none of your changes will be brought into play. Sharpening can be Auto, which is the default setting for Normal images (above) and the native contrast and tonal contours of an image will now direct the camera as to how to set the sharpness algorithms used in image processing. But you have six options in addition to that, ranging from –2 Low to +2 High. i To achieve nominal camera sharpness for all images and to prevent the camera from selecting the amount of sharpness for you based on image content, set the Sharpening option to 0 Normal. i When shooting smaller frame sizes, the need for sharpness goes down, since pixels have been down-sampled into more pixel-perfect condition by that process. Still, the sharpness algorithm has an effect and with tooaggressive sharpness enhancement, shallow angle straight line contours can become steppy. Limiting in-camera Sharpening to 0 Normal is prudent. One final Sharpening option is None. All algorithmic contour enhancement is removed from the image and at 100% scale on your computer screen the image will seem soft. i With Sharpening set to None, your editing program can start applying its own sharpness methods starting with a clear field. For shots that will print 8 x 10 and larger, this will probably be necessary.

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Photoshopʼs Unsharp Mask is an excellent starting place and special programs from Nik (not related to Nikon) and others will assist you. In-camera sharpness algorithms are quite good and tend to avoid artifacts except in extreme cases. Approach using None after you have acquired a good amount of experience with the Sharpening options. Use it for critical images only after you understand how to work with it thoroughly. Tone Comp. In the Custom Setting menu is a contrast adjustment with a wide range. In principle, contrast is the effect of stretching or compressing more tonalities into the range of brightnesses available to the image. In 8-bit per channel RGB images this is 0 to 255—just 256 total steps—from black at 0 to total white a 255. Auto is the default setting that is used for Normal images, but like other settings with an Auto position, this means that the camera is deciding how much contrast an image should have based on its observation of contrast range and extremes of brightness captured into the shot. i Make no mistake, the camera is relying on a file cabinet of 30,000 images that have been digested into the expert system of photographic optimization as it relates native image qualities of color, brightness, coverage of contiguous tonalities and contrast extremes to its internal “experience machine.” The chances are greatest that it will make decisions better than you could on the fly. But the downside is that several images in a series can become treated differently by the camera simply because composition or lighting changes are different enough to call up different expert opinions. When you want to suspend the cameraʼs judgment and keep images to a contrast standard of your favor, use one of the numbered settings. Numerical contrast settings span from –2 Low to +2 High. A setting of ±2 alters contrast notably and you can see the effect of this on the histogram during image playback. i Shoot two images, one at each extreme, and view them on the camera monitor. You can see the contrast difference immediately, but remember that the camera monitor is a Low contrast subjects may be contrast relatively poor judge of the fine points of an image. Now look at their histograms, back enhanced in the D70. Rollover for and forth. Notice how shadows lift and Normal, click for -2 Low contrast. highlights drop in the low contrast image. i Higher contrast settings help with images that lack contrast and low contrast settings help with images that are extreme in contrast. Low settings have the extra assist of controlling highlights a bit better than the 0 Normal setting. Custom is a contrast setting you download into your camera from your computer when a camera to computer data connection is made. Contrast curves are available from resources on the Internet and in the software that came with your camera. Nikon Capture facilitates uploading them into the D70.

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i Custom curves are available from www.fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com/downloads.html that control highlights while lifting mid-tones. Color Mode assigns one of three color standards to the overall image and defines the image to references used in editing programs and printing. Nikon has prepared one of them to produce a special high-chroma mode. Ia (sRGB) produces images in the standard sRGB color mode. Colors are mild and Nikon advises that portrait skin tones can be printed directly from images captured in this setting. i Ia is used in most of the Optimize Image modes. II (Adobe RGB) is a slightly wider-gamut, higher chroma camera setting that matches Adobeʼs RGB standard allowing a wider degree of manipulation in editing. i IIʼs images look less colorful at first glance on both camera monitor and computer monitor and may require chroma boost in specific color areas. Greens tend to closely resemble the color of sRGB while reds diminish considerably when shot in II (Adobe RGB). IIIa (sRGB) is a special adaptation of Ia that boosts chroma making it ideal for situations that can benefit from a boost in color. With some subject matter it can go too far, oversaturating already loud colors. i IIIa is used in Optimize Image > Landscape, too. i None of the Optimize Image modes other than Custom employ Color Mode II (Adobe RGB). Itʼs real use is within Photoshop with color management that expects it. i For shots that are destined to be printed on Kiosk printers, ExifPrint printers and directly from the CompactFlash card, Color Mode Ia (sRGB) is the first choice, followed by IIIa, a variation of sRGB. i Images shot with Color Mode II are marked in their file name with a leading underscore, e.g. “_DSC2455.JPG”. Saturation can be applied to the image at Normal, Moderate (lower) or Enhanced (greater) levels. i Lowering or boosting saturation is not the same as selecting a different Color Mode (above). In any Color Mode, these three levels of alteration are available. Hue Adjustment creates a global change rotating the hue of all colors within the image in ± three steps of 3° for a maximum 9° of hue adjustment away from normal, or an 18° swing from one extreme to the other. i Rotating an imageʼs hue spins its underlying color wheel. Like the tint control on a TV set, positive rotation of hue makes pink flesh tones go yellow-green and negative hue adjustment turns them more magenta. The

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±9° is not a great alteration, but it is enough to spoil a shot. Use this adjustment only—and we mean only—if it is required unambiguously to correct your images as they are processed by your in-house editing and printing resources. Long exp. NR is a noise reducing technology that captures two images, the first being a photograph made at such a long exposure that it may inherit thermal noise and pixel flaws that only show up with extended photon acquisition over time, meaning the crude noise flaws that accompany long shutter speeds. A second, duplicate, same-length exposure is captured, one that is in total darkness with the camera shutter staying in place over the Hue adjustment might help image chip for the duration of the shot. but the chances are that it won’t. Hue 0 looks close to Since no photons are being allowed into the sensor, all that is recorded are the artifacts from the actual flowers. Rollover thermal noise and sub-standard pixels. This mostly jet-black image is used to identify places on the for +9 and click for the -9 photographic image where potential compromises have shown up. A repair process uses information versions. in the good pixels surrounding any bad pixel to fill the bad pixel with the appropriate tone and color to make it disappear. NR systems like this have been used for several years in digital cameras. i In a sense, the errant pixel is camouflaged. Any pixel that doesnʼt call attention to itself, aside from the image details it conveys, is rendered invisible. i Thereʼs a problem with the NR system on the D70, but a good one. You might have to shoot extraordinarily lengthy exposures at ISO 1600 in order to cause the image to gain flaws of the type that the NR system is designed to suppress. In other words, many D70ʼs are flaw noise-free and their performance is better than typical dSLRs. i Using the D70 for astrophotography involves long exposures in the range serviced by NR systems, but the performance of the Long exposure of 30 D70 is so noise free that long exposures of seconds and no NR stars and nebulae are possible without NR. Astrophotographers probably wonʼt be using ISO 1600, since needed. its grain competes with subtle star and nebula images, and with low ISO shots, they wonʼt see pixel flaws. i Test your camera. Set it to ISO 1600 and cap the lens. Shoot a manual exposure for 20 seconds @ f/22 and examine the black frame on your computer. No blown pixels? Good. Otherwise read up on the iFF iNovaFX Photoshop Actions that fix images with problem pixels. Image Quality selects between three levels of JPEG compression and two forms of RAW image collection. JPEG formulas can be tweaked by image engineers and Nikon has long produced cameras with three levels of compression options, Fine, Normal and Basic.

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Fine compression reduces the file size of images by a factor of at least 1:4 while preserving high quality detail, tonality and color accuracy. i Six-megapixel images would consume 18,048,000 bytes of storage space if memorized as an uncompressed image, and Fine f your main goal f your main goal compression reduces this typically to about three megabytes or is image quality is gathering many less, often in the range of 2.2 megabytes. Excuse me? Thatʼs not and larger prints, images to catch that one quarter of the 18 megabytes an uncompressed image contains. I would not even one great story-telling The truth of compression is that it almost never consumes the think of using the picture, higher proportion that is advertised, because real world images are far from being worst-case subjects. lower compression compression gives you i Fine is virtually indistinguishable from an uncompressed TIFF setting. more shots. image on other Nikon cameras that include TIFF as an image format —Uwe —iNova option. So on the D70, TIFF is not available and not needed. i TIFF images are 24-bit (three channels of 8-bit RGB) uncompressed image files. Tests with Nikon Fine and TIFF images have consistently shown that under the toughest tests, Fine preserves 99.99% of the color value fidelity that TIFF images retain. Normal compression produces image files that take up about two-thirds of the memory space consumed by Fine images (in tests using identical subjects). i Normal exhibits a very modest degree of artifacting making this setting a work-horse for many kinds of photography. Full frame images captured with this compression setting are effectively impossible to identify in prints under 11 x 14. Yet they typically only consume 1.4 to 1.7 megabytes. Basic compression makes greater compromises to the image and produces images that take 30% of the storage space of Fine compressed shots. Artifacts are more visible, but for small images of 5 x 7 or so, you would never see them. RAW images are unique. They are always full frame files and are made by collecting the raw 12-bit data from every photosite on the image sensor. Nikon packages this data into a proprietary RAW format they call NEF for Nikon Electronic image Format. The advantage to RAW files is their purity. These are pixels at their least-processed and a NEF image holds greater dynamic tonality—a wider range of light values—than a JPEG image. i NEF images are losslessly compressed. All 6,016,000 photosites contribute their 12-bit (1.5 bytes each) data number to the file. Near lossless compression reduces this to about 5.5 Raw Converter software megabytes, not the 9.024,000 bytes that an uncompressed RAW image would contain in a non-Nikon presents you with a huge range of control. RAW form. Rollover/click. Images captured as NEF files are marked as having the file name format of “DSC_nnnn.NEF” and can be opened with Nikon Capture 4.1 or later software—or by Photoshop CS or Photoshop Elements 3.0—with the latest update in file handling drivers (version 2.2 RAW drivers required for PSCS, downloadable for free from Adobe.com). i An entire tutorial—RAW Materials—is on this CD by collaborator Uwe Steinmueller. RAW+Basic format is available, too. This is the same 5.1 megabyte RAW image plus a full frame Basic compressed image (adding about 800 K to the total file size.

I

I

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IMAGE SIZE Large, medium or small; one size does not fit all applications (rollover and click the above image). Large produces full frame files in which every photosite is represented by one pixel of final image at 3008 x 2000 pixels. i These images have 6,016,000 pixels and take up the most CompactFlash card storage space. They are the sharpest, most detailed per-pixel images that Nikon has ever produced, and Nikon is known for getting better per-pixel detail out of their dSLR cameras since the introduction of the D1. i Any of the two NEF file options automatically produce Large images. Medium images are 2240 x 1488 pixels representing a reduction to 74.46% of original dimensions (54% of the surface area of a full size frame). Which begs the question, why wasnʼt it exactly 75% instead? If the short dimension had been 1500 pixels, it wouldnʼt have worked well as a JPEG. i The size of smaller files requires pixel dimensions that are evenly divisible by 8. This is due to the way JPEG compression works with blocks of 8 x 8 pixels as it analyzes and replaces them with compression tiles. If images were not exactly divisible by 8 in all dimensions, boundaries cannot be compressed cleanly. One eighth of 1500 is 187.5. Oops, canʼt use that. i Medium images are more pixel-perfect than full frames. Itʼs a natural by-product of down-sampling as larger groups of pixels are scaled to a smaller space. In D70 Medium frames, original groups of 4 x 4 pixels are scaled down to approximately 3 x 3 pixels. (If the Medium frame had been exactly 75% of the Large frame size, blocks would have been exactly 3 pixels square.) Images of this size

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and pixel fidelity will generate 8 x 10 prints of superior quality and are detailed enough to be used for motion picture special effects work. Small files are exactly 50% of full frame size at 1504 x 1000 pixels. Images collected at this size are completely pixel perfect to the max. i Too big to use on the Internet without further reduction, Small frames print as 5 x 7s. Or, at 180 ppi, these images will look stunningly good at 8.4 x 5.6 inches (211 x 141 mm) floating in the middle of a letter size sheet. i Small files behave better at Sharpening settings of 0, -1 Medium Low, and –2 Low, better than at higher, positive settings. Sharpening of +1 and +2 tends to aggravate shallow angle contours and fine linear detail causing Small frames require less in-camera sharpening. aliasing, a stair step-like break up of edges. Itʼs less of an “issue” than this note This one was set to -2 (lowest). Rollover to see the same scene at +2 (highest) which appears may make it seem, but itʼs easily avoided by using Sharpening 0 (middle). over-sharpened. View at 400% for 1:1 pixels. White Bal menu item can be used to set the white balance if you find the dedicated button + Main Command Dial method unhandy for some reason. i Setting White Balance here or with the buttons and dial perform the exact same function. Using either method will update the other. Icons in the LCD show the current WB setting. Preset reveals two items, Measure Set, which merely switches the camera white balance to the Preset mode, and Use Photo, which engages a system that derives a completely detailed white balance setting from previously gathered images. This Image shows a small thumbnail that shows the last recalled image that the cameraʼs Preset WB system used for its reference. Select Image carries you to another menu page that first selects the folder from which the image will be lifted, then shows you six thumbnails that can be scrolled quickly to find the image that will give up its white balance information. The white balance data within that image may be a custom white balance setting or a standard one with unique color fine tuning adjustments. Pressing Enter pulls the white balance settings from that image file and implants it in the Preset register where it can be accessed at any time by simply selecting Preset. i If the contents of the Preset register are replaced, the previous data will be lost. Recovery requires re-selecting the image. ISO settings of 200, 250, 320, 400, 500, 640, 800, 1000, 1250 or 1600 are selected by menu or with the ISO button in concert with the Main Command Dial, as viewed on the top LCD. i ISO 1600 is very fast and notably grainy. It allows shooting under very dim light at the cost of image tonal smoothness. Film photographers see similar graininess in images at similar ISO. i Small image files tend to crush the grain structure of high ISO images and this lowers the perceived grain texture. ISO 200, 500, 1600 image structure. i For shots that require even higher ISO, one can shoot with an EV Low, Medium and High sensitivity for setting of –1 stop, thus making an exposure equivalent to ISO 3200. With an EV –2.0 setting, the D70. This crop is best viewed at the exposure computation equals what it would have been with ISO 6400. You can shoot 400% to see as a 100% scale pixel map. Rollover / click.

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The crop above was made at ISO 1600 with Optimize Image > Normal. Rollover for one at ISO 3200 (EV-1.0) and click for one at ISO 6400 (EV-2.0). Both high ISO shots used under Tone Comp -2 to lower contrast and Color Mode > IIIa to boost color, then they were rescued with iNovaFX Photoshop actions customized to D70 tonalities. View at 400% for 1:1 pixel display to inspect grain.

images at these settings and perhaps rescue shots by lifting the exposures in Photoshop. Results vary. i On this CD several iNovaFX Photoshop Actions help recover D70 images that are in this extremely underexposed state. Achieving good results at ISO 3200 is possible, but trying to collect ISO 6400 images produces contrasty, highly compromised results. i To attempt ISO 6400 images, some preparation is required. The best results come from images that are gathered with Shooting Menu > Optimize Image > Tone Comp. > -2 Low Contrast and Color Mode > IIIa. Results will border on the very edge of useful. Itʼs amazing that by lowering contrast, bumping up chroma and using the D70 versions of iSOD70 > iSO3200 or 6400, a useful result may pop out. i Ultra high ISO images look better at small frame sizes where downsampled, averaged grain improves the look.

CSM MENU PAGES Detailing 25 numbered behaviors of the D70, the Custom Settings Menu handles details that range from simple preferences to complex behaviors of features unique to the camera. Menu Reset. Not a numbered feature, but it heads the list prior to the numbered settings. Choices are No and Reset. If you select Reset, all of the settings in the rest of the CSM that you may have decided to change will be lost and the factory default settings will return. i Donʼt do that. 01 Beep simply turns the low level beep that announces focus confirmation and Self-Timer functions. i The camera beep is so quiet that you may not hear it in environments with even modest sound levels. 02 Auto-focus selects between the two modes that govern focus behavior. AF-S selects Single Auto-focus which performs a single focus operation based on settings that affect the behavior of focus zones. At half-press of the shutter release the auto-focus system identifies its target and focuses on it while it determines if it is in motion toward or away from the camera. If it is moving, the system initiates predictive auto-focus and tracks the subject until the full press of the shutter release occurs. At that point it predicts the next logical distance point the subject will be in the fraction of a second between full press and the instant of exposure.

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i The window of opportunity for this single prediction lasts for only a second, so get the shot. AF-C selects Continuous Auto-focus which initiates auto-focus at the shutter release half-press and continues to focus as long as it is held down. Predictive auto-focus kicks in if the subject moves toward or away from the camera. i It is common to hear or feel the lens actively refocusing in Continuous AF. 03 AF-area mode determines which of three behaviors will be assigned to the five-position focus areas visible on the focus screen in the viewfinder. Single area activates only one of them—the one you pick by highlighting it using the Multi-Selector to steer to a specific focus area of your preference. i By throwing the focus selector switch, found just below the round Multi-Selector, to the L position, your selection will be locked. With this switch in the dot position, you can change the focus spot at will. Dynamic area behaves similarly to Single area in that you can intentionally identify the focus zone you wish to use for your focus determination, but if the subject leaves that zone, the other four zones attempt to track it and keep it in focus at or near the distance it was first observed and acknowledged. i Use Dynamic area with Continuous Auto-focus for best results. Active subjects that wonʼt sit still are best tracked with this technique. Puppies and kids come to mind. Closest subjct uses all five focus zones to find the closest focusable subject and locks onto it. If the subject moves, another focus zone will activate. i You have no control over which of the five zones will activate, nor will locking the focus lock switch have any effect. i Focusing on the closest subject is a very efficient and accurate choice for quickly changing subjects that are the nearest thing to the camera. i Of the three types, Single area is the one that gives you the greatest control, but it is worth practicing with the other two in order to see what they offer you and how they may integrate with your work style. 04 AF assist determines whether or not the focus assist light is available to help the focus systems find their targets in very dim light. It puts out a very bright white beam of light from the port near the shutter release. i You can elect to shut it off since it can call attention to you in situations you might not prefer to be identified as the person taking pictures right now. 05 ISO auto is an elective feature that allows the camera sensitivity to elevate when the light gets low enough and the shutter speed reaches your personal limit for hand-holding the camera. If you wish to let the ISO elevate when needed, then switch the feature on. A secondary menu screen lets you select the shutter speed that triggers the sensitivity to rise. The choices span from 1/125 sec to 30 sec in one-stop increments. As soon as the feature is switched on, both the LCD and viewfinder data screen show “ISO Auto” to remind you. i The rule of thumb with telephoto lenses is focal length equals the fraction of a second you can use to shoot with. A 200mm lens implies 1/200 sec as a reasonable shooting speed. With the Kit Lens

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at wide-angle, itʼs reasonable to hold the camera at 1/30 sec, but you may be able to hold it down to 1/8 sec with a practiced stance. 06 No CF Card? poses the question of how the camera should act if no CompactFlash card is inserted. Should it keep the camera from releasing the shutter when it is pressed, or should it simulate an exposure and let the mirror flip? i There is no right or wrong answer, but if it is selected to Release Lock, you will not pick up the camera and think that it accomplished an image only to find out that it didnʼt. 07 Image review allows you to control whether the just-taken image appears on the camera monitor, or not. Default is to display the most recent picture as soon as it is captured. i We are tempted to look at pictures right after theyʼre shot. With the image review switched off, the camera doesnʼt show the picture until it is called for with the dedicated Review button. This is useful in situations where you donʼt wish to be distracted with the monitor, and for times that you donʼt want the monitor to distract others. 08 Grid display controls the appearance in the viewfinder of the several straight lines that divide the screen into quarters, horizontally and vertically. i I donʼt find them distracting, and theyʼre a welcome visual reference any time I require them to gauge centering, composition, level and/or alignment with subject matter. The default is off. i For a genuine surprise, look through the camera when the battery is out. None of the markings you normally see are visible. All of them are a form of LCD overlay. But when the camera is switched off, the graphics you have selected are all visible. 09 EV step simply allows you to adjust shutter speed, f-stop and EV± operations in 1/3-stop increments (1/3 step) or 1/2-stop increments (1/2 step). i Inside the viewfinder the graphic meter reflects this adjustment and the numerical displays in the viewfinder and on the LCD all now work with the selected system. i ISO values are still called up in 1/3 stop increments. 10 Exp comp. changes the availability of exposure compensation via one of the Command Dials when P, S or A exposure mode is being used. The default is off, requiring you to depress the triangular EV+/– button while the Main Command Dial is rotated to institute an exposure compensation causing the exposure computer to drift its exposure away from its initial conclusion. With Exp comp. on, in Program Exposure mode the Main Command Dial runs the exposure possibilities up and down by altering shutter speed and f-number symmetrically. At the same time, the Sub-Command Dial may be used to directly set exposure offset as EV± alterations. In the viewfinder, the amount of exposure offset registers on the graphic meter display under the ground glass. For Shutter Priority Exposure mode with the Exp Comp. On, aperture adjustments are made with the Main Command Dial and compensation is introduced with the Sub-Command Dial in the same way that adjustments are made in Program Exposure mode.

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For Aperture Priority Exposure mode with the Exp Comp. On, the adjustment of shutter settings is handled by the Sub-Command Dial and exposure compensations are now introduced through the Main Command Dial. i If you intend to use Manual Exposure mode a lot, itʼs worth training your fingers to expect shutter adjustments via the Sub-Command Dial and aperture adjustments through the Main Command Dial. i The only down-side to this setup that we have found is that in Program and Shutter Priority modes, accidental connection of fingers to the Sub-Command Dial can introduce unintended exposure alterations. Careful. 11 Center wtd adjusts the diameter of the center weight exposure meterʼs response circle. The visible circle that shows in the viewfinder represents an 8 millimeter diameter circle and the default setting for this option is—not so surprisingly—8 mm. Other choices include a more restrictive 6 mm and more generous coverage is available at 10 mm and 12 mm. i You will have to estimate the difference if you select another option but the circular guide makes this pretty easy to do. i My preference is 12 mm because it integrates the Center weight’s default circle coincides with the exposure over a larger central area, behaving more like the center weight meters 8mm diameter circle on the focus screen. Other choices are available. Rollover. on other cameraʼs Iʼm used to. i Remember that center weighted metering in the D70 uses the central circular area as a 75% influence on the exposure, not as the only area that determines the exposure computation. 12 BKT set determines the way the auto bracketing system functions. Four possibilities are available and you may wish to experiment with all of them before deciding where to leave your personal default behavior. AE & flash affects bracket steps by adjusting both the exposure computation and any accompanying flash assist computation concurrently. i If no flash is used while this option is selected, only the exposure computation will form the basis of the bracket. With flash contributing to the image, the power from the camera Speedlight is adjusted along with whole exposure. i If the flash is set to a different mode other than TTL, the participation of the flash may not be altered during the bracket, having been removed from the exposure computation as a variable. AE only isolates the bracketing steps to only the ambient light portion of the shot, whether a flash exposure is part of it or not. i A flash computation is established that would balance with the unaltered exposure of the bracket, and that strength of flash will be used throughout the bracket. Flash only establishes the exposure for the ambient light and keeps that throughout the bracket, altering only the strength of the flash contribution to the picture.

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White balance bracket. Three shots made from one. Maximum difference, but still quite close. Originally Daylight WB. Rollover / Click.

i Flash mode must be set to TTL for this to work. Other flash modes donʼt allow flash bracketing. WB bracketing is a special case bracket technique that produces its results from a single exposure. In this mode, the camera produces a color temperature based bracket from the master frame, generates a normal image based on color temperature preferences you have established for the selected white balance, then adds and/or subtracts color Mired values from the image to generate the other frame(s). i When setting up the bracket range you have the same 3 and 2 –step bracket options, but in WB bracketing mode you wonʼt see EV+/- values but instead the integers 1, 2 or 3 will appear on the LCD and viewfinder displays. These stand for the color value alterations of ±10, ±20 or ±30 Mired units per exposure. Setting this option to 3 produces barely noticeable results on the camera monitor. i The only way to turn bracketing off is to do it manually. But it will not be remembered when you switch batteries, though. 13 BKT Order is a minor housekeeping function that determines the order in which images will be captured during a bracket. MTR>Under>Over collects the center, recommended exposure first, as determined by the cameraʼs exposure computation. Then the underexposure, then the overexposure in that order. i if the bracket you are collecting is rarely expected to produce better results with the over and under exposed shots, this may be your preferred capture mode. Under>MTR>Over collects the bracket in the logical order of darkest to lightest. i This sequence makes it relatively easy to compare exposures in camera review mode on the monitor with image, highlight or histogram screen active. 14 Command dial switches the functions of the Main Command Dial and Sub-Command Dial when used for A, S or M exposure mode selections (CSM #10). Default setting is off showing in the menu list as “No.” With it on, (Yes) the aperture is now set with the Sub-Command Dial and shutter speed is now set with the Main Command Dial. The choice is yours. 15 AE-L/AF-L determines the behavior of the AE-L/AF-L button to the right of the viewfinder eyepiece. Six options let this single button control how you lock aspects of the exposure and auto-focus systems. AE/AF Lock causes a continuous press of the button to lock both auto exposure and auto-focus systems at the same time. i Half-press the shutter release to establish a focus, then press the AE-L/AF-L button and keep it down to maintain the focus point and exposure of the image at that moment. AE Lock only performs an exposure calculation the instant the AE-L/AF-L button is depressed. Hold this down while re framing or recomposing the image and the exposure wonʼt change even though new elements are introduced or focus targets change. i You can zoom into a section of the scene and use its contents as the exposure determiner, press and hold the AE-L/AF-L button to lock exposure, then zoom out to reframe or recompose the image before making the shot.

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AF Lock only lets the AE-L/AF-L button deal with focus lock exclusively. Exposure will be computed at the instant the shutter release is fully pressed. i This can change based on the setting of CSM #16. AE Lock hold (timeout) causes a single momentary press of the AE-L/AF-L button to lock the exposure for one shot only. Exposure is computed the instant the button is pressed. This computation is only kept as long as the viewfinder data screen remains active (CSM #23). i Actually, the exposure computation is made the moment the button is pressed and released. If you need to shoot several shots with the same exposure, use AE Lock, above. AF-ON moves triggering of the auto-focus system off the shutter release button and into the AE-L/AF-L button. Now the shutter release only deals with exposure while the AE-L/AF-L button performs the AF function. i If you are in a situation that demands infrequent focus adjustment, this option will keep the shutter release from re-performing a new focus lock at the beginning of every exposure cycle. i Warning, unless you are expecting this to be the AF control, it can confuse and bewilder you when you pick up the camera and find that it is unresponsive, exposing images without focusing them. FV Lock triggers a test flash the instant the AE-L/AF-L button is pressed, but only if the flash is deployed. The exposure using that flash is memorized temporarily by the camera and is kept until dismissed or the camera is turned off or changes exposure modes. i Now you can shoot many shots with the same exact flash value. Flash pulses are single, so simple slaves units fire. Press again to dismiss the setting. Bonus: No blinkers. 16 AE Lock permits you to assign the function of exposure lock to either the AE-L/ AF-L button (default) under conditions set with #15 above, or to the Shutter Release. If it is assigned to the AE-L/AF-L button and the AE-L/AF-L is not intentionally pressed, then it is computed at the instant the Shutter Release reaches full press, just the instant before the mirror starts to flip. i When this is set to + Release bttn, it causes the exposure computation to be held from the instant of Shutter Release half-press. Some photographers like this arrangement and others want to keep the exposure option open in case fast-changing lighting needs to be accommodated, as in a stage performance where locking focus might precede exposure by several seconds. 17 Focus area is a small preference that lets you tweak the behavior of the Multi-Selector button when itʼs used to move around the viewfinder screen selecting your desired focus area (CSM #03). No wrap requires you to only press the Multi-Selector in the direction of the focus point you wish to reach, while Wrap allows you to scroll up and wrap around to the bottom focus area, or scroll right from the right focus area and wrap the selection to the left focus area. i This photographer prefers wrapping menus and wrapping focus point selection. It makes every zone just one directional press away from every other one. 18 AF area illm controls the viewfinder illuminator that lights up the graphic overlay on the ground glass. Auto lets it show up only when the light is dim and you might need it to see the focus

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zones and reference lines, while Off keeps it from ever lighting up and On turns it on with every half-press of the Shutter Release button. i I predict that you will eventually switch this to Auto. It does not drain power much at all, so switching it off wonʼt extend the battery life. 19 Flash mode controls how the camera Speedlight behaves, and it has a very wide range of behaviors, indeed. TTL is the normal flash mode for the D70. It is a two-flash system that fires a probe or test flash at a power setting determined by ISO. That flash tests the image through the lens by diverting flash energy to the sensors in the camera base which are bounced off the auxiliary mirror that articulates behind the main reflex mirror. At this point, the flash exposure computer knows how much power to deliver for the main exposure and the exposure continues to completion with the precise amount of flash delivered at just the right moment. i Because the timing of the test flash is about 1/10 sec before the exposure, you may catch people in mid-blink as they reflexively react to the first pulse. Use FV Lock mode (CSM #15) to avoid this. Manual is an optional flash mode that fires only one pulse per exposure. A second menu page allows you to set the flash energy output from 1/16th power to Full power. i You will need to adjust the aperture of the camera manually to achieve a good exposure. At Full power with ISO 200, flash exposures will range from around 16 feet away at f/3.5 to under 2 feet away at f/22. This is perhaps your best default setting, since 1/2 power works out to about 11 feet and 1/4 power only works to about 9 feet (assuming f/3.5) i Testing the flash for moderate distance subjects is faster than trying to do a guide number computation. Guide numbers are 17/56 at full power (m/ft), 12/39 at half power and 8/28 at 1/4 power. i A good starting place to test your flash exposure is ISO 200, f/6.3 at Full power for a subject 8 feet away (2.2 meters). Commander Mode TTL is used only by photographers who are lighting with Nikon SB-800 and/or SB-600 Speedlights in Remote mode. To trigger SB-800 units that are set to Remote mode, set the SB-800 to Channel 3, group A. More information about the Commander mode will be found in the section on the SB-800. i No exposure will be made from the flashes the camera emits in this mode. Without one of the two i-TTL capable Nikon flash units in hand, this setting wonʼt do you any good at all. See the section at the end of this chapter on the SB-800 Speedlight to get an idea about how these units work with the D70. 20 Flash sign is a small convenience that illuminates the flash icon in the viewfinder at the right end of the data screen when flash illumination is requested by the camera. i You can turn it off if you dare. Default is On. Itʼs only job is to tell you, “Yo, you might consider flipping on the flash!” My suggestion is to leave this “word to the wise” on. 21 Shutter spd sets the longest shutter speed the camera will set in Aperture and Program Exposure modes when flash has been deployed. The default is 1/60 sec.

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i In bright light where the flash will act as a fill, this shutter speed will usually rise with the light level. 22 Monitor off lets you set the review time that the monitor stays on when an image is automatically reviewed, or manually reviewed, or a menu button is pressed. Review time can be set to 10s, 20s, 1min, 5min and 10min. i Any other button press on the camera will extend the time the monitor stays on. This includes any activity on the Command Dials. i This is such a personal choice that I can only recommend that you spend a day or two in each option to see how it feels to you. Studio review times tend to run longer than reviewing things in the field. Keep in mind that a half-press of the shutter release dismisses all monitor activity completely and returns you to shooting mode. 23 Meter-off sets the duration that a half-press will keep a focus lock and exposure calculation alive after you release the Shutter Release button. Times available are 4s, 6s, 8s, 16s and 30min. The thing most noticeable about this time is that it governs the data display inside the viewfinder. i Since the camera comes awake in under one second, this setting can be just a few seconds and when the data display dozes off, a half-press of the Shutter Release button awakens it immediately. 24 Self-timer settings can be as short as two seconds or as long as 20 seconds. Much of the time, a self-timer is used to simply trigger the camera while nobody is touching it. Being able to adjust the delay between shutter release and exposure is handy. i A good example is for copy photography or astrophotography where shutter speeds tend to be much longer than other photography regimes. With a setting of two or five seconds, the camera has time to become vibration free while you are not required to wait ten full seconds every time you wish to initiate an exposure. i For those rare times that a longer than 10 second self-timer moment is needed, the 20 second option gives enough time to trigger the camera and get into position while walking around more obstacles. 25 Remote sets the time that the camera remains in a state of expectation anticipating further signals from the ML-L3 remote after being set up in either instant or delayed remote mode. This can be set to 1min, 5min, 10min or 15min. After the time is up, the camera stops looking for the remote and reverts to the frame rate last in effect (Single or Continuous). i Touching any button on the camera reinstates the time limit.

SET UP MENU This entire menu is comprised of things that you will rarely, if ever, change. Once you set them, chances are good that you can forget them because theyʼre not things you alter or adjust in the heat of a photo session. Folders is a utility to select, create or rename folders or delete empty folders. Folders created here can have a name up to five letters long and when they appear as a list within the camera, they show up alphabetically.

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By setting up several folders, you open the option of shooting certain photos for one specific use and others for other uses while neatly keeping them in different folders. i Examples of this might be real estate photos that are kept separate by house. Interiors can look a lot alike, so folders titled with addresses (or at least five numbers and letters) may do the job. On screen instructions guide you through the process but a few pointers will keep you ahead of any folder “issues.” i Selecting a folder; piece of cake. Making a new one; a little confusing. As the screen direction indicates, use the WB/Protect (key icon) button to enter each letter or number, and you can only fill five spaces. At the end, use the Qual/Enter button to ratify your choice, create a folder and activate it as the current folder. If you make any error at all, moving up and down the string is facilitated through the ISO/Thumbnails button in concert with the Main Command Dial. i If something has gone wrong when entering the name for a folder, you can press the Menu button to bail out of the process without creating one with an incorrect name. If you do make one with an incorrect name, the Rename option will allow you to change it. Select the wrongly named folder and the highlight is on the first letter. But notice that any entry will not simply replace the letter, it will add a new letter at the head of the string and push all the rest down the line, removing the last letter from the end. You must delete the letter you wish to replace first, then enter the one you want to substitute. i Letters can be deleted with the Trash button, but this will only delete the current highlighted letter, tucking any letters after the highlighted space to the left. Adding a new letter will push existing letters to the right. i Confusion will reign when you attempt to delete folders. If you create several empty folders and select one, then select Delete, the screen asks you “Delete empty Folder?” and Enter says yes to the camera. You probably think you deleted the selected folder, but, surprise, every single empty folder in the camera is deleted except the one you selected. (Will this be changed with future firmware? The cameras that show this are Firmware A: 1.01 and B: 1.02 and earlier.) i If you create a folder that is to be used later, such as a list of houses, places, people, departments, subjects or anything you can predict will need its own folder, shoot a picture into that folder so it cannot fall prey to the Delete empty Folder menu item. File No. Seq. allows the numerical shot counter to rise with every exposure, rather like the mileage odometer in a car. If it is turned off and a new folder is created, a fresh CompactFlash card is inserted or the current card is formatted, then the numbers start all over at DSC_0001. i Leave it on so you can estimate about how far back any given shot is by simply looking at its number. Of course, that will only tell you when 9999 images have been acquired and the number will roll over again in an automatically generated new folder. The Reset option starts the number sequence all over again from 0001 and this has far-reaching consequences.

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i After Reset, every time you enter a previous folder that contains a higher numbered image, a variation of that folder is automatically generated on the CompactFlash card to contain the lower number, newer image. Folders there have a name like “100NCD70” normally, but a generated folder will change the prefix three numbers so a new one will appear as “101NCD70” and all subsequent images will be placed there, not in the original folder. NCD70 stands for Nikon Camera D70. i After formatting a CompactFlash card, all folders evaporate and the card will contain only one folder. To the camera, it looks like “NCD70” and to your computer it will show up as “100NCD70.” Images will start numbering from 0001 if the File No. Seq. option is set to Off, or they will start with the next integer higher than was assigned to the previous exposure. i If you remove this CompactFlash card, insert another and start the numbering sequence all over again, then remove that second card and put the original back in, the camera will start a new folder that doesnʼt show up on the camera but your computer will see it as having a next integer higher prefix, e.g. 101NCD70. i As a strategy that will keep you from wrestling A utility every photographer with the folder system, take a pencil, pen and piece should have is included of paper with you and record the frame numbers of on this CD in demo form for both photographs that pertain to specific categories. That Windows and Macintosh. It’s called is literally easier to do than trying to use the folder PhotoRescue2 and it recovers erased system to “help.” images—even from CompactFlash Format is a dangerous but cards that have been Formatted. necessary utility. If you Format a CompactFlash card, all of the folders un the program and it will soon and all of their images will disappear from it, and the card will show up show you every picture it finds that as having only the default NCD70 can be recovered. The only thing that folder on it. Nothing remains. will destroy an image completely is to Evaporated. Destroyed. Vaporized. have another image write its data to the Or are they? exact same memory locations on the i You may erase the CompactFlash CompactFlash card, so the chances are card frequently, but erasing images excellent that images you wish to recover does not guarantee that islands are still able to be PhotoRescued. of memory—forgotten strings of memory locations—donʼt build up on he demo version will show you the card. Formatting does eliminate these, so every few weeks or months, which images are available for Format the card to freshen it up. rescue and you will need to purchase CSM Menu lets you set the number of entries the program over the Internet to unlock you see when using the Custom Settings Menu. The these images and selectively save short version shows only the first nine numbered the ones you want. See the Appendix items and hides the rest. The long version shows for the link to buy the program. everything.

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i Settings you have made in settings from #10 to #25 still are active when the short version is selected. Theyʼre protected by being hidden. Date simply sets the date and time. Nikonʼs internal clock is accurate, drifting only a few seconds each week. i Remember to change the hour as you move between time zones, otherwise sorting images on your computer by date will not produce the desired results. LCD brightness adjusts the back light behind the exterior monitor ±2 units. Default is zero. i Set this high if you are primarily trying to review images in daylight or bright shade. Set it low for interior review and menu setting. Mirror lock-up is used to lift the mirror inside the camera when access to the image chip surface is needed for inspection or cleaning. i Keep in mind that any time the chip is exposed—whether that is during an exposure or during an inspection—it is possible to have dust settle on, and stick to the surface of the image chip. i Returning the mirror to shooting position is done by switching the camera off. If the battery dies while the mirror is up, it wonʼt come down automatically, and insertion of a fresh battery indicates an error condition (e r r on the LCD) that will potentially endanger the camera. With a fresh battery in place, cycle the Shutter Release to bring the mirror back down. i Special CCD cleaning kits are available for extracting the dust from a contaminated CCD surface and they contain a special super lint-free miniature spatula and cleaning fluid that evaporates completely. In principle you wet the tip of the absorbent cloth-wrapped spatula with fluid and drag it once across the image chip, lifting any dust into the special cloth. Iʼve used this method several times on camera image chip surfaces without problems arising from the cleaning process, but I must warn you that it is delicate, potentially deadly surgery. Like my mother used to say, “If you fall down and break your leg, donʼt come running to me!” i Never touch the CCD surface with anything that is not specifically made for the purpose, not a Q-Tip, no cloth, no lens cleaning paper; Nothing! Video mode selects the display standard for external video monitor hook-up. i NTSC, 525-line video format is used in the USA, Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Burma, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Greenland, Guam, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Kitts, Saipan, Samoa, Surinam, Taiwan, Tobago, Trinidad, Venezuela and the Virgin Islands. i PAL, 625-line video format is used in Abu Dhabi, Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Ascension Island, Australia, Austria, Azores, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, China, Christmas Island, Cook Island, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Dubai, Easter Island, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Finland, Gambia, Gaza and West Bank, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greenland, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Holland, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madeira, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norfolk Island, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Sardinia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South

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Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Tonga, Tristan da Cunha, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vanuatu, Vatican, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Zambia, Zanzibar and Zimbabwe. i Some countries use formats that are similar to one of the above, but have technical variations. Brazil uses PAL-M with its 525-line format and Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay have been known to use the 625-line format called PAL-N. Some countries use more than one format and some formats are easy to convert to others. I donʼt know about Brazil, though. Itʼs a technical setup like PAL and a scanning system like NTSC and Brazilians may find that they can only view on multi-standard monitors. i SECAM, a different 625-line format invented by the French is found in Benin, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cyprus, Djibouti, Dem. Republic of the Congo, Egypt, France, Gabon, Greece, Guadalupe, Guiana (French), Guinea, Guyana, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Kiribati, Lebanon, Libya, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Martinique, Mauritius, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, New Caledonia, Niger, Reunion, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Syrian Arab Republic, Tahiti Islands, Togo, Tunisia, Tuvalu, Western Sahara and Zaire. SECAM signals are relatively easy to convert into PAL video. Did I miss anybody? Language selection is extensive. You can re-organize the screen to read in any of these languages: Japanese, Deutsch, English, Español, Français, Korean, Italiano, Chinese, Nederlands or Svenska. i Say, this is fun. I canʼt read the Korean, Japanese or Chinese, but I see that self-timer in Italian is autoscato and blixtikon in Svenska is flash sign (flash icon). Image Comment provides a means to add a text message to images. Like the folder text entry system, the input procedure is basic, to say the least. But the intent of this feature is that you can use it to take simple things like names and phone numbers if you must. i Use the ISO/Thumbnails button plus the Main Command Dial to scroll around inside the previous comment and click on the Trash button to delete old letters. i Comments are attached to every image once the Attach Comment box is checked. This would be a Good Thing if the very first thing you put into this field were “Copyright 2004 (your name)” thus dropping a tiny string of ownership legalese into your images. You have up to 36 letters, numbers and spaces to do this. i The Image Comment feature doesnʼt paint anything on your image, just a string of letters in the data that is part of the image file. i Reading the image is easy in Nikon View 4.1 and even Photoshop CS will show you the comment string by opening the fileʼs Info > Advanced > EXIF > UserComment sequence. USB selects between Mass Storage, the M default setting, and PTP (point to point) which is more rarely used but is available in Windows XP and Mac OSX. i PTP is required when Nikon View 4 camera control mode is engaged and when the camera is connected to a PictBridge-enabled printer for direct printing. i Most computers like Mass Storage and both USB 1 and 2 are accommodated. Dust ref photo initiates an interesting feature for capturing an image of the shadow pattern that dust may be leaving on your images. You shoot an image of a pure white, featureless subject that sits 10 cm (4 inches) in front of the lens (thus assuring an out of focus shot—so switch the focus to

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manual—and an image of this is saved in a special .NDF format for later use by Nikon View 4.1 or higher. i Use a focal length longer than 50mm or zoom all the way tele with the Kit Lens. The white subject must be very bright or you will see a message on the monitor that proclaims “Exposure Settings Not Appropriate.” A sheet of white paper in full sunlight does the trick. i You wonʼt be able to see this image in camera playback, but you can make a separate shot in normal picture mode to see what the camera dust situation is. Shoot at f/11 or higher to make dust motes stand out and view on your computer. i A utility iNovaFX Photoshop Action on this CD allows you to take a regular photo in the same manner as the Dust Ref Photo and enhance the contrast to view any dust. Firmware Ver. Is a display of the Firmware Version numbers. Two complete sets of firmware are used in the D70, A and B. When you purchased your camera, it may show A 1.00 / B 1.01. Newer cameras will have higher numbers in these places, e.g. A 1.01 / B 1.02. i When you update the firmware, a special procedure instructs you to load in the new components one at a time onto a blank CompactFlash card to carry the new code into the camera. Follow the instructions on Nikonʼs Firmware Update site for your area of the world. Image Rotation allows the camera to detect when an image is shot vertically and which orientation that was, clockwise or counterclockwise of horizontal. You can turn this to Automatic, which tags the image with the correct orientation in its file data, or Off which leaves no orientation information in the shot. i Using Play Menu > Rotate Tall > On, images will play back from the camera in vertical format only if Image Rotation was on for the shot.

Dam the fog. A 1mm x 1mm self-stick foam strip does the job.

LIFE’S LITTLE MYSTERIES Every camera has peculiarities that show up under occasional circumstances, and the D70 is not immune from these “character traits.” Here are some and their workarounds: Fogging the Monitor Cover. As you breathe on a cool camera, the swirl of your exhale is rich with moisture. Some of it can flow under the clear monitor cover and condense there, fogging the view of the lower left quadrant of the picture. While anti-fog treatments made to keep glass from fogging up may help, get out the Exacto Knife and find some 2mm thin rubbery foam double sticky tape. i Itʼs used for mounting and vibration isolation of surfaces. Check small manufacturers, locally. You only need two inches of the stuff, so you probably can get it for free. Shave it down to 1mm thick and 1mm wide and lay a line of this on the left and bottom edges of the monitor where it will lie just outside the raised frame that defines the protectorʼs clear window. No air flow = no fog.

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No Focus Light. The bright focus assist light has a safety timer that keeps it from overwork. If you focus in the dark for a while, it may suspend operation for up to ten minutes, confusing you. The work-around is to switch it off and keep shooting. Most restaurants, bars, living rooms, museums, night city sidewalks and all stage productions have plenty enough light to focus without the focus assist light. Switch it on only when things get down into the 0.1-foot candle range. See CSM #04. Inexpensive Slave Flash Trigger. Remote flash with Nikonʼs SB-800 and SB-600 units is very flexible and controllable, but what do you do with slave flash units you spent $20 US each on? Can you trigger them from the camera? Manual flash and a piece of black, unexposed—but developed—slide film is the answer. Black slide film lets out infrared light and slave units are looking for a pulse of light, not caring whether it is infrared or visible. But it takes the camera flash out of the picture (except as a minor catch light). i Make a small cover for the camera flash tube using black slide film using the pattern on the right. Cut it out, make two small straight cuts along the top and bend the ears over and use them as a friction fit mount, pressing them into the seams above the camera flash to the right and left. i Be sure to aim the emulsion (slightly duller than high gloss than the film backing) away from the flash tube (no sense having dye vaporize in the heat) and use the minimum Manual flash setting to trigger the slave unit. Invisible slave flash trigger. i Experimentation will show you how bright to set the camera flash, but several inexpensive A piece of black, unexposed, slave flash units in our hands give good response about 12 feet from the lens when only 1/16 developed slide film + some know-how is all you need. power was employed from the cameraʼs Manual Power setting. i No need to have the film fit absolutely flat over the flash tube. This pattern is a little oversize, Cut = dark; bend = light. so none of the tubeʼs light will spill around its edges into the shot. Besides, the air circulation will help prevent the flash tube from becoming warmer. Sure grip. Sears self-stick sandpaper i From the camera back, the keystone section between the mounting ears is visible, is easy to cut and stick so your fingers reminding you that the filter is in place. You can leave the filter on the flash when the don’t slip. Speedlight is closed, but remember to remove it for TTL flash. Kit Lens Cap Pinch. While the lens caps on recent Nikkor lenses have handy center of the cap pinch releases, the inner surfaces of the finger area is slippery—especially if your fingers are dry. The act of pinching can launch the cap into the environment. Now where did that cap go? Two remedies: 1. Grab the cap by its outer diameter whenever you can. 2. Get some fine grit Sears self-adhesive sand paper and cut a small rectangle for each indented finger grip surface (right). i And always be consistent with your lens cap storage strategy, e.g. always put it immediately into your pants pocket, camera bag or anything that works with your fashion—so you wonʼt get into a cap-hunt when itʼs time to swap lenses.

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Nose Balance. With most lenses, the camera will not sit flat on a surface using only the body base as its contact point. Stability is not automatic, and even with the rather thick Kit Lens, itʼs not a camera designed to sit level on its own. Meaning that any surface will have only three small points of contact without friction to keep it from sliding. I wish the camera could sit on a flat surface. There is one way. With any lens hood in storage configuration over the lens and the cap on (or off), the diameter of the lens is large enough to rest the camera on its nose, so to speak. The body is light enough so this is a nostress situation and itʼs easy to pick up the body with one hand right around the grip this way. i Camera straps can alter this equation. The camera is not balanced over the center of the lens resting on its filter ring or lens cap, so any small tug can upset it. Probably not a good idea to put the camera down on a table in any configuration with a neck strap dangling where kids, pets—or random events—can tug it off balance or off the table. i Donʼt try to balance the camera on its nose with the petal lens shade in shooting position. It wonʼt work. Instant tipping. But nose balance works with small diameter 52mm lenses, even though those are less stable. i Landing the lens on its nose produces a point of stress, and repeated rough landings could hurt critical alignment of lens mount parts. Of course any time the camera is put down, the lens to body connection is challenged. Easy does it. Nikon CoolWalker, Too Many Gigabytes. With a 1.0GB CompactFlash card, you may be able to work all day, but what 30 gigabyte portable about tomorrow? Nikon offers a portable solution to the problem of large capacity image gathering with image bank. the CoolWalker, a 30-gigabyte portable image storage device that will let you capture around 9,000 full size, Fine compressed shots. Its color screen lets you review images in greater detail than the camera monitor and it hooks to TVs in PAL and NTSC formats for slide show reviewing back at your hotel. Dust to Dust! Itʼs everywhere. Inescapable and ubiquitous, dust will eventually make its way onto your image sensor, leaving its shadow in clear areas of shots. The first line of defense is through capturing a dust image using the Set Up > Dust Ref Photo technique and combining that frame with RAW (NEF) shots, but why not eliminate it from the camera sensor altogether? i Arm yourself with knowledge. Read the internet articles that are produced Actual on-sensor dust mote at by Googling “digital camera sensor dust removal” and gain some perspective on f/36, f/11 (rollover), and f/5.6 the problem. Note that the dust you see is really on the surface of the low-pass filter that is (click). Smaller apertures and perched over the actual sensor. Cleaning this is more like an advanced version of cleaning a longer focal lenghts make dust lens or lens-mounted filter, but this is no place for a LensPen or bristle brush of any kind. more visible.

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i Ever. Blast off. The Giottos Rocket i The Internet articles will point you in several directions, and after reading a few, you will bulb blower is infinitely safer than canned propellant. gain the most important thing: perspective. i Warning: The following dust lifting technique is not for beginners, people with unsteady finger dexterity or the faint of heart. Itʼs a somewhat surgical technique for removing dust from the sensor directly and it takes a cool head, a keen eye and some of the fine finger skills that model builders, small component craftsmen and artists who work with tiny details generally posses. You also need special tools. So read everything thoroughly before beginning. i Check the dust situation with a Test Blank shot: • Point the camera at a white surface six inches from the lens • Manually focus at infinity • Zoom to maximum (or around 100mm if the lens allows it) • Put the camera into Aperture Priority exposure mode • Set the f-stop to the smallest aperture opening (f/22 or higher) • Adjust to EV 0.0 • Shoot a blank image. Review it on your camera monitor. No dust visible there? Zoom in and crawl around under magnified view. Still no dust? Then forget it. No cleaning needed. For a second opinion, review the Test Blank image on your computer. Got dust? Now you begin the removal process. Familiarize yourself with the requirements of the mirror lock up technique found under Set Up > Mirror Lock-Up and note that pressing the Shutter Release raises the mirror, but you must switch the camera OFF to lower the mirror. Once youʼve done this a few times, you may begin. Plan A: Raise the mirror and remove the lens, setting it aside within easy reach. You are looking at the naked sensor in the interior of the camera. A large photo squeeze bulb blower—not one of those wimpy two-inch diameter rubber disk things that come with a brush at the blower tip—should be used to attack loose dust. The Rocket blowers by Giottos (c. $10 US) are the minimum strength for this. Try this air blast at first, energetically puffing the area several times. Shoot another Test Blank and see if the dust hasnʼt left under pressure. Some dust isnʼt worth going after. i Try this seven times (!) before giving up on large dust motes that wonʼt blow away. If big motes remain then move to Plan B. i Never, ever—not on a dare, not on a bet—use a canned air product to blow dust around inside your camera. Not unless you put that air into that can yourself with an air pump. Some air-pump cans exist that let you use a hand bicycle pump to pressurize the can and these are generally safe, but any commercial product that uses any kind of pressure propellant—no matter how “ecological” it is—can blow raw propellant out the nozzle. That stuff is deadly to sensor chips and coated surfaces like the very surface you are trying to clean. One system that I use is the ReAir can and pump. Plan B: Surgery. Using a special sensor cleaning wiper, dust-free Pec-Pad cloth-wrapped tip and appropriate cleaning fluid, dampen the tip of the wiper—not soaked, merely slightly moist—and make a single minimum contact stroke across the sensor face, lifting the wiper tip the instant the end of the sensor is reached. Maintain

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SensorSwipe® spatula tipped with Pec-Pad.

even pressure on the tip, not favoring one edge or the other. The moisture in the tip tends to adhere dust motes to the Pec-Pad cloth. i Match the dimensions of the cleaning tip to the camera sensor. The sensor in the D70 is 15.4mm wide, so a 15mm wide tip is optimum. Some have reported success with 18mm wide cleaning tips. i Use a strong light over the camera body when doing any dust removal surgery. Make sure you can see what you are doing. i To practice the wipe technique, use the surface of a clean neutral density or polarizing filter as a test subject. Practice should not take place with a filter that was cleaned with a LensPen. Clean the practice filter first with lens cleaning fluid and lens cleaning paper or untreated cleaning cloth. The dark filter will let you observe the drying pattern that trails the wiper tip as you move it in a single stroke. It should dry in nearly instantly, before the wiper tip has moved an inch across the filter surface, the starting point should be completely dry. Otherwise, the tipʼs too wet. i The stroke should start on the camera left side (the side with the large Mode dial) and end on the right side. Thereʼs a good reason for this—the right side has a 2mm extension of the filter, behind which chip contacts may be seen. This makes ending the stroke here very non-critical. If the wiper tip were to leave a dust mote here as it was lifted from the filter surface, no flaw would ever show in an image. Stroke speed is about 1.5 ~ 2 seconds for the full long dimension of the sensor face. Shoot another test blank and check your final results on your computer. You might have to repeat the wipe if it didnʼt clean completely the first time. i Pec-Pad material is TOTALLY lint and dust free—but only when it is new, fresh and never been used. If dust is not being removed but seems to be deposited in different places, the tip may be contaminated and needs to be replaced. Pec-Pad cloth in a package of 100 sheets is available in better camera stores that are hip to the digital dust idea. Calumet Photographic, for instance, will sell you 100 of these for around $7 US. So once you have amortized a wipe tip and cleaning fluid, each cleaning would cost you a maximum of about 9¢. i Keep in mind that the tiny f-stop is used to exaggerate the dust. At f/8, it may not show at all. Test with blank images at various f-stops to see if the problem persists at settings you most often use. Plan C: Send it to a Nikon-approved camera cleaning service. If you can afford this in time and money, perhaps it should be your Plan A. Professional cleaning is a version of Plan B. On a recent trip abroad, my dSLR picked up some impressive dust during lens changes. Fortunately I had a dust removal kit in my camera bag. This one was a SensorSwipe, tip-wrapped with a Pec-Pad (right), and a single wipe was all that was needed. Kodak lens cleaning fluid provided the moisture. Only a single drop was used. This same device removed the dust mote seen on the previous page. i Never try to perform this operation in a dusty, polluted or windy environment. Still air and consummate cleanliness are required. In fact, donʼt even change lenses in windy, gritty conditions. i Donʼt ever touch the inner mirror surfaces with a brush, either. Dust on the mirror or back of the focus screen may annoy you through the viewfinder, but remember that it makes no impact on the photograph, whatsoever. Dust Avoidance. Before you get into Plan A, B or C, get paranoid! Everything you do to avoid dust helps you to avoid the day of reckoning. Dust is all around. You see it in a sunbeam in a dark

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room (or Camera Obscura image that includes the Sun) as little flecks floating in the air. In dusty environments you can see blobs of soft round circles floating in camera flash images. Thatʼs dust illuminated by the bright pulse just above the lens. So how can you postpone the inevitable? 1. Dust weighs something. It floats up and down, but eventually it is pulled down. Meaning that it settles on things that point up more than on things that point down. Not much dust on the ceiling. 2. Dust takes time to float around. The longer you point something up, the more dust it collects. 3. Dust sticks to things. Any dust mote can acquire a small static charge. Static electricity causes things to stick to each other. And that image chip inside your camera depends on static charges to hold onto the electrons that move around when smacked by photons. So itʼs a poor defender against dust. 4. Dust rides air currents. Any puff, breeze or swish by physical objects can move the stuff around. And what is going on inside your D70 with every shot? A giant (relatively) mirror stirs up all the air within. Whoosh. Micro-tornados galore. Putting all these factoids together, several strategic habits can become part of your dSLR handling technique: i Keep that camera capped at all times with a lens or body cap. It goes without saying. Never leave the body pointing up with its mirror showing. Curiosity may get the best of you, and peering into the inner chamber of the D70 is tempting, so study the picture here and get over it. Step away from the open camera. Thereʼs nothing in there that needs your steady gaze. Here’s the interior of your i Cleaning the interior from time to time requires camera. Take a good look. Notice that the mirror has a slight a self-pumped air source. Use a big bulb or ReAir only, please. Dust on the reflex mirror is transparency? A rectangular NOT a problem for picture taking, but with every slap, it might dislodge and float around area in the middle gives it away. during an exposure sequence, so puff it off from time to time. Once every month of frequent Good. That just about does it. lens changes should do it. Nothing more to see here, move i Point the camera body down during lens changes. If you can, prepare the incoming lens along. Now you don’t need to spend time gawking at the real for super fast transfer. Have it resting nose down with its back cap off. Next, loosen the thing while letting the dust in. camera lens—also resting on its capped nose, but donʼt remove it. In a coordinated move, grab the incoming lens with the index mark identified, twist the on-camera lens the rest of the way while resting its lens cap on something secure (bag, surface, assistantʼs hand), lift the camera body off the original lens, immediately insert the incoming lens and twist it into lock. Done right, the total exposure to environmental dust can be around one second! Cycle the back cap to the exiting lens. Practice, practice. i Blow dust off the back of lenses before covering them with the back cap. Blow across the rear element—not at it—to avoid mouth droplets. Puff out the interior of the back cap, too. i Drop the rear cap in the dirt? It happens. Monolithic plastic, itʼs dishwasher safe. i Anti-static de-ionizing devices may help you control dust that sticks to the inner mirror or the back of lenses. Google “ZeroStat antistatic gun.” Pricey ($70 US), but potentially helpful.

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i The interior of a camera bag can become your lens changing chamber on location. Vacuum it out occasionally. No sense having your camera bag become the source of your dust issue. i Carry a sealed zip-top bag in your kit. To isolate anything (lens, cap) that gets filthy with dust, grit or anything that you donʼt want to turn loose inside your camera bag. CompactFlash Cards Are Easy to Lose. Small, arenʼt they? You could put one in your pocket, pull out a key out and never notice that you had inadvertently extracted the CF card, sending it to the ground. If you donʼt hear it hit the jungle floor—and you wonʼt—then you will lose everything on it and probably hundreds of dollars worth of card. So welcome to the world of CF card holders. Various models are available from cloth to aluminum hard-shell designs, but unless you are using it as a business card holder, too, its primary purpose is to hang onto your cards, protect them from loss and/or trauma, and always be easily noticed when dropped—not to look impressively cool. One of the cleverest weʼve seen is this fluorescent neon green Card Case Extreme from Gepe. Itʼs a wallet with room for up to four, each with a transparent window revealing the interior cards. It floats, and itʼs extremely visible (donʼt get the black one, youʼll never spot it among the dead leaves). Meaning that you will see it on the jungle floor if and when you drop it there. $20US. i And write your phone number on the back of every CF card. Anything to help it return to you when you do drop it along the trail. I Hate Neck Straps. Iʼm with you on this—sort of. Really, itʼs just that I prefer other security measures. Straps around the neck hold the camera in a vulnerable position. Up front and center, right where you tend to steer your tummy when standing next to car doors, sinks, museum exhibits, railings, handlebars, ticket counters, clumsy pedestrians and loved ones. How about a big hug, honey? Oops. The camera manufacturers donʼt even call them neck straps any more, due to the frequency of trouble with them this way. Ever lean into a convertible talking to a model with the door open, give her a kiss goodbye as she closes the door and floors it, glad to be finished with the session? Excuse me, I seem to have been typing out loud again. Neck-anythings are asking for trouble. Frontiersmen didnʼt call lynchings “necktie parties” for nothing. So now they are dubbed “camera straps” or “shoulder straps” for legal reasons. But frankly—never mind what I said earlier—itʼs a lot easier to carry the camera in front where you can control it and use your shoulder for your camera bag. Shoulder straps need constant attention, but necks are more intuitively managed. Then again, why not avoid the dangling camera altogether? i Sports stores sell nylon strapping that is 1/2-inch wide (12mm) and it comes in colors. Two feet or so of this stuff makes a nice loop that can be affixed to the right side strap connector, and now you have a right hand palm-strap that is easy to put your hand through as you pick up the camera.

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i Get some strap in festive red. Youʼll spot it more easily in the dark, and it matches the D70 accent V on the front grip. Black: a nice basic color alternative. i In an emergency, you can let go of the camera and use your hand for other tasks as the D70 dangles. The strap does not have to be tight to do its job, because its only job is keeping you from dropping your capital investment. Palm straps look more pro, and indeed require you to be more situationally aware for carry and use. i Make the loop generous and easy to push your hand into. Then twist your hand before grabbing the camera grip—taking up the loop slack. Bounce Me! I want bounce flash and I donʼt want to put an external flash unit on the camera. Is there a way? There sure is. Youʼll need a silver card or bright metal lid to a small tin box (I found one that is about 3.75 x 5 inches (95 x 125mm), and learn the fingering needed to hold it at a 45° angle right smack in front of the camera flash. Practice, as always, makes perfik. Hold the base of your reflector close to the camera flash, above the Nikon logo plate. i Shooting this way uses maximum camera flash power and a low ceiling is needed to make it work optimally. ISO will Good news: the camera flash can bounce off generally need to be higher than 200. Adjust a hand-held reflective surface and catch shots this big. The bad news: it took ISO 800 to the flash power output upward (it peaks at +1.0 stop above normal and youʼll cover this area at f/3.5. probably need all it can give). i The cheapest solution to a sizeable reflector might be this: The 3 x 4.25 inch (75 x 108 mm) lid from a tin of smoked oysters. One that has no built-in lid removal feature. Find one that is bright mirror reflective. Some cleaning required. If the can is opened with a hand can opener cutter entering the side of the can—instead of punching down into the top of the can as is normally done—the lid retains the canʼs folded metal seam and you have a cheap, durable reflector (plus some smoked oysters for canapés). Yes, you can get rid of the fishy smell; just run it through a dishwasher cycle. i In very low ceiling rooms, tall subjects like standing adults may be captured with a simple white card of paper or cardboard in combination with the camera flash, and if a single sheet of paper is used, its translucent illumination will create a soft camera light, while the bounced 90% of the flash will produce a fill effect. Silver reflectors work best, but only for full bounce. Camera as bounce flash generator using the smoked oyster i Remember to set the camera flash back to normal levels once option. Low white ceilings make it possible. Rollover. your bounce flash shots are finished.

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SB-800 Flash Operation with the D70 For a camera as capable and technologically advanced as the D70, premium external flash operation becomes a delight—one that can make you money or help you hang images in a museum. Nikon recommends either the SB-600 or SB-800 zoom Speedlights and I second the motion. These are the only ones that take advantage of intimate working relationships with the D70ʼs flash computer via i-TTL flash mode, which incorporates a suite of technologies called CLS for Creative Lighting System. A less expensive unit, the SB-600, performs many of the same CLS functions as the SB-800 with about a stop less power and minus a feature or three.

NEW FLASH TECH At this writing, summer of 2004, CLS compatibility is only intrinsic in the D2H and newer D2X professional dSLRs and the D70. Future Nikon dSLRs will inherit the technologies. With CLS, a higher level of communication bonds the Speedlight to the cameraʼs computer in order to achieve a substantially improved suite of lighting features, possibilities and options previously absent from photography. Nikon promises better exposure from the flash and improved integration of ambient light than with conventional TTL modes. The system offers Advanced Wireless Lighting—a remote triggering technology that uses the camera flash as a data carrier to a non-connected group of SB-800 units that are each acting wirelessly. Camera communication flash pulses are pulse-code modulated, informing the remote Speedlights how and when to fire. When this feature is engaged, a rather complex conversation flashes back and forth between camera and remote flash unit coordinating both to the same synchronized purpose. Flash value can be locked even when aperture on the camera is altered at the photographerʼs whim or the subject is rearranged or the lens is zoomed. Color temperature information from the SB-800 is transmitted to the camera causing the camera to track its WB setting automatically. High speed sync of up to 1/500 sec shutter speeds is available using the D70. Even the focus assist illuminator on the SB-800 covers more area than previous models, allowing deeper penetration into dark scenes. FEATURES AND SPECS SB-800 power is high, and the physical form of the Speedlight includes numerous features and flexibilities. Flash angle is adjustable from –7° to +90° straight up and the whole head pivots 90° to the right and 180° to the left, so you can bounce light off the wall behind you, if that works for the shot. Its guide numbers are 53/174 (meters/feet at ISO 200) when the zoom head is at the 35mm lens position and higher at more telephoto zoom positions. Flash zoom coverage follows lens zoom positions and accounts for the view angle difference compared to 135 format cameras.

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Power can be supplied by any of Nikonʼs external power supplies, the SD7, SD-8A, and Power Bracket Unit SK-6/SK-6A are easily adapted. Wired interconnections between other flash units are also accommodated. A modeling light illuminator turns the SB-800 into a momentary bright modeling light by rapidly firing the flash fast enough for you to gauge shadows, highlights and reflections. It looks nearly continuous, so estimating the look of the light is straightforward. i In complex setups, triggering the modeling light from one SB-800 will cause the modeling lights in other units to fire at the same time, allowing all of the flash unitsʼ light to be observed together. Flash head auto-zoom range covers 135 format images from 24mm to 105mm. When longer lenses are used, the 105mm position stays in effect. For wide-angle lenses, a diffuser is tucked into the top of the flash face and it spreads the light out for use with lenses as wide as 14mm in 135 format. Accessories that come with the unit include a self-standing base for use on table tops or tripods, a dome diffuser, a gel filter for balancing the flash to incandescent light color temperature and the SD-800 battery add-on compartment plus a soft bag to carry everything around in. It is a relatively expensive small flash unit (MSRP $370 US), but after working with one you might not want anything less. The value is not in the capital investment, itʼs in the intimate communication between camera and flash.

SB-800 OPERATION Set the D70 to TTL flash (CSM #19) and place the SB-800 in the camera hot shoe. Power the flash on and immediately the camera and Speedlight talk to each other about what they each know. The SB-800 will display a nice bright red ready light when it is fully charged. Power for the SB-800 comes from four or five AA batteries and the reason thereʼs confusion in the number is that an extra battery holder can be attached to the unit, replacing the normal battery door. With 125% of the power normally available, extra responsiveness and faster recovery kick in. i Use high capacity NiMH rechargeable AA batteries. Every charge holds more than the total power realized from Alkaline cells, and the amortized cost per charge is miniscule.

Versatile flash unit. Not only does it zoom with the lens, but it twists like an acrobat for bounce flashes. Rollover / Click.

TTL MODE In TTL mode, the SB-800ʼs flash intensity is controlled via sensors that peer through the mirror of the D70 at what the lens sees. A test flash or probe pulse is emitted by the unit at a known energy. Reflected light is focused into the camera body, and some of it passes through the reflex mirror, which is slightly transparent, reflecting off an auxiliary mirror and down into the base of the camera chamber where a team of sensors are waiting to read the incoming light. They decide how bright the flash must be, and inform the SB-800 through the contacts in its base how big of a pulse to fire in just a few milliseconds when the actual exposure will be made. Then the camera initiates the exposure sequence, flipping the main and auxiliary mirrors up against the ceiling of the camera chamber, yanking the mechanical shutter from in front of the

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image sensor and triggering the picture-taking flash at exactly the energy level the pre-flash indicated would be right. i This makes “paparazzi” flat lighting. Not too exciting, visually, because the light isnʼt angling in from some other direction. But it gets pictures in uncontrollable situations. As the camera shutter closes over the chip, the image is drained into the camera body for processing, pixel by pixel. Of course it is easy to coordinate this sort of thing since the SB-800 is physically in contact with the camera, but what if it were completely disconnected from the camera? The idea of triggering one flash unit to fire when it sees the light from another flash unit has been with us for decades. Itʼs commonly called a master/slave flash relationship in the sense of one machine component triggering another without a direct mechanical link. Flash pulses are highly digital in the sense that they are either on or off. They donʼt ramp up to brightness the way a filament bulb does. Any flash setting that is labeled “half” is really fully on for only half the time that a “full” pulse shines. Dr. Harold E. Edgerton—father of electronic flash starting in the 1930s and inventor of the stroboscope—showed that he could time the instant and duration of an electronic flash so precisely that he could stop a bullet in flight just as it emerged from an apple. And that was over four decades ago. How far have we evolved since then? Thatʼs where the SB-800 comes in. Circuits in the camera and in the SB-800 talk to each other by using a form of pulse-code modulation—sort of a Morse Code carried in rapid flashes of light—before the exposure light is triggered in synchronization with the camera shutter. Both camera and flash unit have light sensors that can sort out these brief pulses of light and computers in each component make sense of what is being communicated. TTL can be fooled. The paparazzi blast coming so close to the lens axis tends to give A mask of decorative feathers hanging many indoor scenes dimensionless lighting, forcing the TTL sensors to see only the high on a wall. Bounced SB-800 in Remote mode received exposure instructions from relative colors of subjects, not a rounded modeling of a 3D object. Bounce brings this the camera which was in Commander dimension into the picture, but direct flash neutralizes things. Boosting the SBʼs own EV mode. Extenuating circumstances: The compensation may be called for. Itʼs easily accomplished with the + and – settings on SB was behind a door, out of sight from the flash multi-selector switch. the camera, yet all f-stop and EV+/– tweaks were obeyed remotely. i Light backgrounds hurt, darkening images overall. What color is on most walls? Camera source flash shots are better if walls arenʼt right behind subjects.

COMMANDER TTL MODE In Commander mode (CSM #19) you turn the camera flash into a commanding transmitter and a properly prepared SB-800/600 becomes a wireless remote unit that intimately works with the cameraʼs actual experience of the light. The remote flash (or several of them) is set to Remote through its own on-board menu system. When the shutter is released, a two-way conversational sequence of flashes occur, not to illuminate the subject, but to talk between camera and flash unit. To get a sense of this, consider what it would look like if time slowed down a million fold and the conversation between camera and remote Speedlight were in plain language: • At the very beginning of the exposure sequence, the camera flash fires pulsed signals into the environment. These are coded flashes of light that precede the actual exposure, and all they do is carry information about what to do next and what the time frame is for any further communication.

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dSLR: Nikon D70 Although in code, the camera essentially shouts, “Yoo, hoo! Any flash out there that can hear this message; Iʼm in i-TTL mode, calling for help on Channel 3, Group A, and Iʼm working with ISO 200, stopped down to f/5.6. Let me know if you heard this!” The SB-800 signals back through its own pulsed light beam, “Right! SB-800 Channel three, Group A here, synchronizing with you now, and hereʼs my best guess at an exposure flash based on what I know and oh, by the way, just a reminder, Iʼm sending you some 6000K color balance light and you know what that means. Here goes a test flash right... now!” The camera hears the returning message and studies the pre-flash that the SB-800 paints into the image as seen through the lens. Quickly, the cameraʼs exposure computer chairs a meeting with the TTL sensors who have watched the returning light through the matrix of 1005 meters in the camera base. Light intensity is discussed, the expert system of flash shots is consulted, an environmental impact study is performed, votes are tallied, the motion is carried and the meeting is adjourned. Data from the exposure computation meeting is emailed back up to the camera flash head, encoded into a language the SB-800 understands, and a new message is transmitted that proclaims something like, “Attention SB-800 on Channel 3A, we make the following recommendations: Number one: increase the power by 1.57 stops relative to the test flash. Number two: the time to fire your flash will be in about x-milliseconds. Wait for my sync pulse.” Allowing time for the instructions to sink in, it says, “Go 10 milliseconds after this flash ends.” Camera and SB-800 are in synch, so each waits, counting off the micro moments until the cameraʼs mirror and shutter lift slowly out of the way and the CCD is informed that it is okay to start gathering photons for the Big Image. A bucket full of nanoseconds later the SB-800 starts pouring energy into its plasma tube. Electrons elevate the gas to an incandescent plasma, and energy streams out of the tube in the form of photons over a broad spectrum of frequencies as 6000K light. When the flash tube achieves a light output equal to 1.57 stops higher than its test flash, the SB-800 cuts the current to its flash tube and ceases putting out any more photons. After what seems like an eternity (remember our time scale), the electronic shutter on the camera CCD is informed to take in no more visiting photons, and the mechanical protective shutter that covers the CCD begins its graceful, floating journey to cover up the image chip. Much later the mirror returns, and photons from the subject start flowing back into the viewfinder. In the mean time, the camera has drained out the pixel information from all of the photosites on the CCD, and it applies the information about the flash color balance from its files. It renders a color picture, and darn if that flash doesnʼt look exactly right.

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Speeding time back to normal time, you pull your eye away from the viewfinder eyepiece and gaze at the monitor image of the shot you just took. And darn if that flash doesnʼt look exactly right, even though the unit was way over there and the camera that was reading its light output and calling the shot was way over here. In its simplest work process, i-TTL mode has the ability to carry on this conversation immediately before the flash, but it can also be done at some earlier time prior to the exposure flash. TTL remote flash metering only happens when the camera is in Commander mode, but that mode offers three options. For unpredictable situations, full TTL conversations and test flashes can be instigated with every exposure. Thereʼs a whole lot of flashing going on with each shot, but a fresh test is made every time. More commonly, the remote units are in fixed positions covering a known and unchanging area, so the exposures from shot to shot should be identical. What if just one test flash could be made and all following shots recycled that information? i Test flashes and the conversational pulses eat power. Eliminating them from being a part of every single shot saves power. i Set the camera to FV Lock (CSM #15) and now the usual test flash made by pressing the AE-L button becomes an iTTL test flash over the entire remote flash system. This produces a more complex communication with the remote unit(s). All the remotes have been told by the camera just how much power to put out, because the camera has witnessed the test flash from the iTTL pre-flash conversation. i From this moment on, until FV Lock is dismissed or is re-tested (or the camera power is turned off, or the exposure mode is changed) the remote unit(s) will fire with a single cue flash from the camera. That camera flash is only a sync pulse and wonʼt appear in the picture, but it is so close in time to the instant of the main flash that subjects wonʼt have time to blink or even half-blink before the shot. Commander AA mode is a setting on the camera that tells the remote flash to use its own photocell to gauge the flash intensity for the shot. Itʼs a little confusing because there is a separate AA mode that can be set on the SB-800 causing the flash unit to determine the exposure based on its own on-board photocell as it sits in a camera hot shoe. But this isnʼt how you set it on the SB-800 unit in order to have it become the current exposure mode when it is used remotely. i In camera Commander mode, one shot can be made AA, the next i-TTL and the next Manual—all choices can be made without your having to wander out from behind the camera and touch the flash unit. i Until you get used to it, the idea of using choices in the camera menu system to control that flash unit over there—it could be twenty feet away— feels rather strange. Commander Manual mode is the third Commander mode controlled on the distant SB-800 from the cameraʼs internal menu setting. With this control on the camera, the flash is remotely instructed to fire at any setting from Full th power to 1/128 power. Meaning you can cluster a group of SB-800s around a tiny object or large set and get the light values you want without having to touch every flash unit to adjust things.

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Master and Commander. The D70ʼs own flash can command remote flash units over Channel 3, Group A only. But when an SB-800 is installed on the camera, more complex Channel and Group options are available. The SB-600 canʼt be used for this on-camera Master Commander operation. i SB-600s can be used as receiving remote units, but not as Commanders. Using an SB-800 to command several groups of remote SB-800ʼs or SB-600ʼs involves setting up the transmission channel (there are four available) and the groups (A, B and C) for each remote unit. Conceivably four photographers could custom light the same area and stay out of each otherʼs face. i No matter how many flash units are arranged for the shot, they each will have to be on the same channel and one of the three groups. Changes to group ABC are made on the SB-800ʼs LCD that is directly connected to the camera. Change the intensity of group C at the camera, and all flash units in that group are altered together. You can shoot test shots very quickly to see how light level adjustments are working and you donʼt have to visit each flash head to change its output. i Commander SB-800s on the camera can be used as one of the light emitting units that contributes to the final exposure, if desired. A common use is to have it provide very little of the light, reducing its output to fill or catch-light level. As the Master unit on the camera talks to each remote, the camera and Speedlights take turns reporting, digesting and responding to each group in a time shared basis. That way, a back light, key light, set light and camera mounted fill light SB-800 could each be set to different power levels around a subject and the camera unit will coordinate everything with them, analyzing the exposure through the lens as light pours in during the pre-flash sequence. i More than one SB-800 can subscribe to each channel, and the Commander unit informs each remote how bright to be, so if any are out of grasp, theyʼre still in touch. You can clip flash units to the ceiling and theyʼll still be in touch with your intentions, if not your fingers. Just remember to set the standby timer on each unit to not put the flash to sleep. i These units are so versatile that there are photographers who buy them by the six pack. i The SB-600 is about one stop lower in light level, costs $100US less and canʼt be used as the Commander, but they can each be slaves on any channel or group.

FLASH FILL MODE One can use the i-TTL in a special mode designed to bring fill flash to outdoor daylight shots without being too bright or too dim. Certainly you could use the camera flash for fill light with Manual mode (CSM #19 > Manual > [select strength from Full to 1/16]) and eventually get the picture right, or you could do this in TTL mode and get a reasonable degree of fill, but with the SB-800, the fill is adjustable in nice 1/3-stop increments. On the LCD, the display proclaims TTL BL (BL for balanced) and default power is 0.0EV, which is about 2/3-stop brighter than the cameraʼs own fill effect at distances of around 10 feet (3 meters). With the SB-800 itʼs a snap to adjust the light output and get just the right level of fill. i TTL BL works exactly the way TTL behaves. But it tracks its own EV +/– setting separately, letting you switch between them as different types of light.

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BLINKERS Some photographers have noticed that with direct flash pointing at the subject (paparazzi blast lighting), the pre-flash from i-TTL initiates an eye blink in a high number of people. The result is a “blinker”—a photo of someone in uncontrollable mid-blink—that strikes more often than with the dTTL mode used by the D100 and earlier Nikon dSLRs. D2H cameras with their ultra-rapid shutters seem somewhat immune to the phenomenon. This usually happens when the person is in dim light to begin with, and reaction to the bright pre-flash is most likely to trigger a reflex blink. i The farther away from the subject the flash fires, the less the chance of a blinker. i One work-around is to use the M-mode (Manual) mode on the SB-800 which emits only a single flash per exposure. No chance for a reflex blink when thereʼs only one spike of light. Thereʼs a drawback for shooting this way, in that the M system is not auto-distance intelligent. LCD information on the SB-800 tells you at which distance the current f-stop is targeting, so you can run the camera f-stop Sub-Command Dial up and down to select distance. This sounds clumsy but works quite well. The rear-lit LCD glows with a soft green light, so you can read the large numbers as you scroll the f-stop. In M mode you control the output of the flash as a fraction of full power. i Another work-around is to put the camera in Aperture Priority exposure mode or Manual exposure mode and set the SB-800 to A-Auto mode. In this mode you must inform camera and flash unit of the f-stop you want, and the flash shows you the available range it can cover. At ISO 200 with f/5.6 dialed in, this is 0.7 – 8.0 meters (about 2 to 30 feet)—quite a good range for many flashy images. i Thereʼs the AA-Auto mode—a setting inside the menu system of the flash unit—so watch out, that one emits double flashes and may produce blinkers. FV-LOCK Perhaps the best anti-blinker strategy starts with the AE-L/AF-L button on the camera back. CSM #15 allows you to switch this to FV-Lock which disconnects the test flash from the exposure flash in all TTL and iTTL modes from simple camera flash to whole complex lighting setups. The AE-L/AF-L button causes the camera flash or installed SB-800 Commander Speedlight to instantly perform a test flash and/or communication cycle. Frame the camera and hit the AE-L/AF-L button, and the camera and flash units are now completely aware of the present lighting situation.

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All following flashes are carried out with a minimum of correspondence. If the camera flash alone is being used, it emits just one single pulse—so fast that no human or humming bird can blink during the shot. i If an SB-800 is the cameraʼs Master and Commander, every flash unit in the room will fire in coordinated splendor from a brief trigger pulse from the camera, and still nobody will have time to reflexively blink.

GOT DARK? One endearing feature of the SBs is the AF assist light (right). Itʼs strong, reaching over 15 feet (5 m) with the Kit Lens in total darkness, but its deep red color often escapes your notice through the viewfinder— except that you see that the lens has achieved good focus. i You must have the camera in AF-S (CSM #02) to activate the focus assist light. TTL + AUTO DARKNESS i With the D70 in Auto or Program exposure and the flash in TTL mode, many pictures can look dark, having been averaged to middle values. Youʼd get this with any sort of camera light in Auto or P mode, so itʼs not actually the flash unit. Often the culprit is a white background wall that overpowers the exposure computation but which isnʼt very noticeable under ambient light. Try A mode or GN (Guide Number mode) which lets you dial in the distance and use any f-stop you wish. These give naturally brighter paparazzi flash results. DREAM FLASH SYSTEM i Most working photographers who have multiple SB-800s think of it as a dream system. Getting thoroughly used to all the systemʼs features will take many days of practice in a variety of situations, but once you train yourself with multiple SB-800 and 600s, setting up and getting results is very quick. Wedding photographers find them especially potent. i With auxiliary battery or AC power, itʼs not unreasonable to consider using multiple SB-800s in a studio setting. A big umbrella might benefit from two ganged together while fill and set lights would work as individual or doubled up units. When the studio has to pack up and move to a location, the small size of the units, their battery options and much smaller physical volume may mean the difference between small car trunk or SUV.

Flash image sucessfully fooled by high technology. Using iTTL and bouncing the flash off the ceiling, the white background has caused the exposure to drop. With EV+2.0 dialed in on the SB-800, the exposure is normal (rollover). With no EV compensation while zoomed in to exclude most of the background, exposure is also close to normal (click).

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D70 VS. FLASH FROM THE PAST: THINGS TO AVOID Not all flash units from the past are compatible with the D70. Since its TTL function is so different from those that are based on simply extinguishing the flash in mid-pulse, the D70 TTL mode will fail to shoot images when it recognizes a non-i-TTL flash unit in its hot shoe, which is expecting a TTL function. That eliminates nearly everything except the SB-800 and SB-600 units from approaching the full potential of control and flexibility, but most past units from Nikon will retain at least some form of usefulness, if only to blast forth full strength and let the camera aperture sort it out. A good case in point is the SB-50DX that automates some functions with Coolpix cameras, adds some interesting technologies from 2002, but avoids most of its cleverness when combined with a D70. i If you perch an SB-50DX flash up there dialed into TTL mode, it will jam the camera. No shots can be fired, and you will dig deep scratches into your cranium trying to figure out why not. Is it broke? Naw, just watching out for you. The SB-50DX will have to be Although you wouldn’t buy the SB-50DX used in M (manual) mode at the flash head and Aperture Priority or for the D70, if you have one laying around, Manual Exposure modes on the camera. Camera manual flash power modes wonʼt it makes a great long-distance IR trigger for inexpensive slave flash units (rollover). affect actual SB-50DX output, so almost no control exists between camera and Speedlight with this combination. i One of the least accessed features of the SB-50DX is an instant winner in combination with the D70, however. An IR filter comes with the flash unit and when used as a manual mode flash only one pulse is delivered from the SB-50DX. Aha! A higher powered, camera-top IR trigger for distant slave flash units. With this combination, you can cause small, inexpensive slave units to fire hundreds of feet away from the camera—invisibly triggered via infrared light. Even in full daylight, this combination will trigger a very inexpensive slave flash from over 50 feet away. i When the camera switches on, or dozes off, the SB-50DX mirrors the power saving by activating or going to sleep itself. i SB-28 Speedlights—a very popular previous generation model—that work TTL magic so well with film cameras donʼt retain all their functions with the D70, but they can be used in Manual mode and A-Auto mode. The good news: Power is high, reaching far into the night or across the ballroom; rear curtain sync is available, controlled from the camera flash selection; exposure is automated with some restrictions; and each of these modes fires but a single pulse of light, thus avoiding the Camera flash fill. Rollover for no fill flash image. blinker phenomenon.

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NIKON CAPTURE Included with the D70 is Nikon Capture 4, an advanced image manipulation program that reads NEF files, performs advanced tonality operations, allows color and sharpening adjustments, uploads custom curves into the camera, works with the “Image Dust Off” files and facilitates batch operations in which numerous images are all given the same treatment. Changes made to files are done so non-destructively with the alterations tracked separately. A full function 30-day Trial version is included with the camera, but if you decide to purchase it, the price is around $100US. i Upon loading the program into your computer and attempting to boot it up for the first time, it needs to access the Internet in order to install software elements not included on the installation CD. The site that dispenses these utilities into your computer also double checks for software piracy. Bluebeard, Nikon Capture has a talented Curves control in Palette 1. Behind the curves adjustment figure beware. a histogram displays the relative population of pixels ranging from dark to light. Available functions are shown with a green check mark in the header bar. The red X in DEE simply i As soon as you successfully boot the says that the function is available but interactive update is switched off at the moment. program for the first time, the 30-day clock Green dots at the right of the header bar tell you that the function is currently being applied. starts ticking, so choose your moment carefully. If youʼre just starting to learn the camera, Nikon Capture is not one of the very first things you would wish to touch, but after your experience curve has some depth, Nikon Capture is going to mean much more to you. Nikon Capture presents you with a number of image adjustments. Noise reduction, shadow and highlight enhancement, sharpening via unsharp masking, curves adjustment, Luminance/Chroma/Hue adjustment, color boosting, size adjustment, cropping, image rotation and a wide range of interpretive controls for NEF (RAW) files. Many of these same functions are found, in similar forms, in Photoshop CS. Learning these functions in Nikon Capture is a valuable experience. i Photoshop provides many more functions than Nikon Capture, and all of the parallel functions that Photoshop contains move at blindingly fast execution speeds in comparison, but Nikon Capture is specifically tuned to Nikon cameras and brings several bells and whistles that Photoshop misses.

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Color noise reduction is extensive. Above you see a tiny crop with no NR applied. Rollover to see a +5 unit noise reduction and click to see what +10 noise reduction looks like. Below, the Nikon Capture (left) and Photoshop (right) interpretation of the same exposure were lifted from the computer screen directly to show how small tonal and color differences can be lost—or emphasized—in translation.

Where Nikon capture shines brightest is in its handling of RAW files in NEF format. Here one can choose to accept the camera settings that were in place when the image was shot or change them. White balance, exposure compensation, tonal compensation (contrast), color mode (Type), saturation, warming or cooling, hue rotation, color noise reduction, edge artifacts, color moiré reduction—all can be altered for the current image and the complex results of all these operations may be saved as a group of look-up files for manipulating other images that might benefit from your hard-earned tweakings. i If you have several NEF files open at once and make complex changes to one of them, you can copy all adjustment parameters to the computer clipboard and past them on a different image. Parameters are non-destructive, so further tweaking can immediately follow the paste operation. As you make changes to NEF files in Nikon Capture, the image is visible to you and updates interactively. Dramatic changes such as showing how the image would have looked in a radically different white balance show up in about five seconds. Once you like the look of a current image, you can save it with a new name and open the image in Photoshop, or simply select Image > Open with Photoshop 8-bit (or 16-bit) and view the image there. i Note that the image that opens in Photoshop depends on how Photoshop has been instructed to render it. If Photoshop is being used with Color Management off, small differences in tonality and saturation will occur. Small adjustments to either the open Photoshop file or original NEF file may be needed before you achieve a Photoshop result that entirely satisfies your eye. Within Nikon Capture you can view a number of data readings concerning the image. Across the page below, the Shooting Data, EXIF details from a typical image can bee seen. Notice that the camera is fully aware of the lens being used, the focal length setting in millimeters, ISO sensitivity, white balance information, status of Optimize Image settings and even the contents of the Image Comment file. i Images that are opened in Photoshop from Nikon Capture operations are each given a unique new file name. You may send numerous variations of a NEF image to Photoshop from Nikon Capture, each with unique color and tonality attributes. Handy, that.

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dSLR: Nikon D70

PERSPECTIVE CONTROL An interesting feature of Nikon Capture 4 is its ability to treat full frame fisheye images shot using the FisheyeNikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED AF DX lens, turning it into a rectilinear perspective image. Only a portion of the fisheye image is converted, but the straight line ultra wide angle image is striking in its dramatic interpretation of perspective. i Fisheye perspective straightening is restricted to only the 10.5mm Nikkor. The feature is disabled when Nikon Capture detects that the current file was not created with this specific lens. Rollover the image at right to see the straightened version. i Want more? Check the special iNovaFX Photoshop Actions that pull even wider results out of these 10.5mm Fisheye-Nikkor images.

Straight talk. Fisheye 10.5 curved images to super wide rectilinear via Nikon Capture software. Rollover for straightened shot. Of course, with this building, how do you know? Light poles, railing supports, window frames and doors now appear made of straight materials.

DUST MANAGEMENT The Image Dust Off feature in Nikon Capture applies only to NEF files. With this utility, a separate dust identification image made under special circumstances (Set Up > Dust Ref. Photo > [expose]) is called up and integrated into the image, causing the shadow of dust spots to disappear from the shot. i Dust reference files (marked “.ndf”) can only be read by Nikon Capture and applied to RAW files during conversion. No other programs can view them directly, but you can make a non-dust reference file separately, if you wish to see what they look like. Bring the dust image exposure into Photoshop or Nikon Capture and increase its contrast. The faint shadows of the dust will become more visible to you. One thing that bothered me when I first heard about Image Dust Off files and their use in Nikon Capture was the notion of depth of field. Any dust captured at a specific f-stop would be defined in a reference program as a more or less out of focus blob, entirely dependent on the iris geometry at the moment of exposure. I waited until I noticed a dust blob in skies of some shots and used the opportunity to test the notion. Dust reference files are captured at an f-stop known only to the camera and no external control is possible to their iris setting unless they are shot through an older, completely manual lens. But shots that would need dust correction have no such limit, so a series of shots of the sky were made at Bad dust. The worst I’ve seen. If this different f-stops, and sure enough, the faded shadows of had been a NEF original the dust dust was easy to spot at different sizes, depending on the f-stop used to gather them. shadow could have been eliminated using a “Dust Ref. Photo” in Nikon For a challenging sky image made at f/29 @ 1/15 sec, results could not have been better. all traces of dust were eliminated and forcing the Curves control to exacerbate the Capture. contrast that would have revealed them showed no dust left in the image at all.

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With an intermediate f-stop of f/11 @ 1/100 sec on an equivalent overall exposure, the same dust reference frame was applied. Results were less positive. About 80% of the worst dust blob disappeared, and all the minor ones were erased. A third string of tests were made, this time the original image was exposed at f/8, f/5.6 and f/4.5. The dust blobs in these exposures were very hard to see, even when extreme contrast was applied in an effort to make them more visible before being treated. After processing with the reference frame, no appreciable improvement was noticed. Verdict: The Nikon Capture Image Dust Off technique does the job it is intended to do on images that show visible dust shadows from around f/9 and smaller. At larger iris openings the effect of dust is so minimal that Image Dust Off processing isnʼt really noticeable. Or needed. i The downside to the technique is the time it consumes to achieve the final corrected image. Processing took 45 seconds once Nikon Capture had been steered to the most recent dust reference frame, but getting the program to recognize that it should pull that frame from the folder in which the image file resided was agonizingly slow, often running over a minute and a half while the program slowly came to the conclusion that it needed to find a reference image. We tested the program in a fast (1 gigahertz) Macintosh portable computer, then polled users who work with it in Windows, only to find that everybody is having similar experiences. Nikon Captureʼs handling of the Image Dust Off routines is not quick. i Since Image Dust Off processing only works with NEF format files, and since the effects of dust shadows are only noticed in areas of the image with smooth, un-textured pictorial content, the fastest treatment for this problem is most often quick retouching, Cross section of the corner of an image chip showing schematically, from the not automated IDO processing. bottom up, silicon substrate, CCD layers, RGB filters, microlenses, antialias i The thickness of the micro lenses and overlaying filter, antireflective coating and a big fiber of dust about 10% of the diameter of a human hair. Nearly vertical light rays from a tele zoom lens causes a dust anti-alias & infrared filter holds the dust at a definite shadow over four photosites. Rollover to see how the less-perpendicular rays distance above the image chipʼs array of photosites. from a super wide-angle zoom shifts the shadow of the same dust mote to Lenses cast their image into the camera at differing different photosites. At optical center this effect wouldn’t occur. projection angles, depending on their focal length. This means that the angle of the light that forms a shadow of a dust mote can place the shadow laterally over different photosites, depending on the interception angle of the ray. The effect is more pronounced in the corner of the image chip. i When you shoot a Image Dust Off reference image, the best results will come from one that was made at or near the same focal length as the image you are trying to fix. For focal lengths over about 24mm, the same reference frame will work well with all higher focal lengths.

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INOVAFX DUST AWAY FOR JPEG IMAGES For flattening the effect of dust shadows, one could layer a negative image of the shadow above the color image and use a Photoshop blending mode that combines the two, thus repairing the image. In fact this CD has a special Photoshop Action in its iNovaFX iD70Set.atn file that does exactly this. Now you can remove 99% of dust shadows from any image you can shoot with the D70. i When dust appears in an image, shoot an iDustAway reference frame. Follow these steps: Aim your camera at a totally blank white surface, manually focus the lens at infinity, put the camera into Aperture priority mode and make sure that EV settings are zeroed out, then perform a Manual White Balance operation on the white target subject. (No need to have the reference frame shot at the identical white balance of the dusty image.) Adjust the f-stop to the same setting that your repairable images were shot The same dust mote from page 4-94. A JPEG with, set the camera to an ISO that reference frame was take from a white card is a stop lower than what was used for the picture (or the ISO 200 minimum) all (rollover). During the iDustAway Action process while the lens is zoomed to approximately the same focal length. The image will you are given the step (below) to center the be nearly exactly a uniform middle gray. Almost invisible to you will be the very reference exposure. When complete, the dust faint shadows of dust, but their presence is there, lost in the seamless gray image. is erased (click & hold). Examine the image closely. Notice that more routine dust effects i What has been accomplished at this step is an image that has almost nothing such as the one nearer to the hawk are totally eliminated. to it. Dust shadows are exactly the same size and position as they were in your original shot, and their contrast is very low. Moreover, by shooting the iDA reference frame with a lower ISO, it will have less grain than the image being repaired. When this reference image is layered above the repair frame, make sure that its orientation is correct. Vertical images may be shot twisted either left or right, depending on your preference, so you must keep track of the iDA reference frameʼs orientation. i The iNovaFX action insists that you lay the iDA frame over your picture before you start. If the iDA frame is not captured at middle gray, a step in the action lets you tune it to middle gray using Photoshopʼs Levels controlʼs Gamma adjustment arrow. This is done interactively over the image and tweaks to the other Input Levels may help. In principle, the iDustAway Action refines the reference frame then uses it in concert with Photoshopʼs Vivid Light blending option. With Vivid Light, any middle gray tone has no effect on the layer below. But anything lighter than middle gray lightens the next layer by the same

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amount. The action inverts the reference frame, so dust shadows become dust light spots that erase the dust shadows in the original picture. A second variation uses Linear Light blending. i Once you process a NEF (RAW) file into being a Photoshop file it can also be de-dusted with the iDustAway Action. The JPEG reference frame is used with this result as well. i You probably wonʼt need this technique for images made with apertures wider than f/8. The larger apertures blow the dust so far out of focus that they donʼt normally make much impact. i It works with any JPEG image size, ISO or compression settings. Just capture the iDA reference frame as close to the aperture and focal length of the original shot as you can. You may even shoot Medium and Small iDA reference files to apply to Medium and Small originals. i Since the iDustAway technique causes the image to invert dark areas, it has the unintended, but beneficial effect of reducing any corner darkening that is a function of lens geometry and f-stop. The Nikon Kit Lens shows a bit of corner darkening at both full wide and full tele zoom positions, so images processed with the iDA reference frame will tend to neutralize the corner darkening.

IMPORTANT PHOTOSHOP CS NOTE: Nikon Capture installs a utility inside Photoshop CS that you very possibly wonʼt want to keep. Itʼs a normally helpful utility that intercepts RAW (NEF) files and permits their being opened by older versions of Photoshop (6 and 7 in particular). The problem is that this utility gets in the way of Photoshop CSʼ own RAW interpreter, which is an extremely useful, feature-rich alternative. i Look for the folder labeled “Adobe Photoshop Only” and inside of it will be another folder labeled “File Formats.” Inside of that you will discover the file called “Nikon NEF LE Plugin” and thatʼs the one that gets in the way of Photoshopʼs own Raw Interpreter. Pull it out of the File Formats folder and it will become inactive allowing Photoshopʼs own utility to intercept the NEF file and open it. The complete path to this is Adobe Photoshop CS (the folder)>Plug-Ins>Adobe Photoshop Only>File Formats>Nikon NEF LE Plugin. i If you are using Photoshop 6 or Photoshop 7, keep the Nikon NEF LE Plugin. For these versions of Photoshop, you will need it. i If your copy of Photoshop CS suddenly fails to open the D70 NEF files after you remove Nikonʼs utility, its because your Photoshopʼs master Plug-Ins folder doesnʼt have Adobeʼs own “Camera Raw” file installed inside its own File Formats folder. The correct place for that is Adobe Photoshop CS (the folder)>Plug-Ins>File Formats>Camera Raw. Adobe updates its Camera Raw file from time to time so check with them to see that you have the most current version. i The path to find the Adobe free Raw Interpreter is: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/ detail.jsp?ftpID=2461 for both Windows and Macintosh platforms. i Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 now supports opening RAW files.

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4-98 CHAPTER 4

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NIKKOR LENS NOTES These notes come from my direct experience. I assume that you have the Kit Lens, so these are some other top-recommended optics for most photographers. No one photographer will likely need them all, but hereʼs your top-of-the list choices. Presented in order of widest first. 10.5mm Fisheye DX: Huge fun factor. Huge utility factor with either Nikon Captureʼs fisheye straightening routine or the iNovaFX iBCFisheye10.5mm.atn actions on this CD. Producing a nominal 180° diagonal full frame image, the original files are sharp overall and are exceptionally well shaded and controlled from f/2.8 to the smallest aperture of f/22 which moves the DOF into the range of a few inches to infinity. Focus at full aperture is only about 50mm from the front element and at f/22 includes the dust on the front element. No chance of filter-protecting the front of the lens, so be careful with it. Lens shades are built-in and the cap is friction-fit. i Hot environments may loosen that cap, allowing it to fall off unexpectedly. i Cost for such an unusual optic is appropriate, given its performance and extended usefulness with software rectilinear straightening. 12-24 Ultra Wide Zoom DX: If you shoot architecture, or interiors where a wide angle lens is appreciated, here is THE top lens for the job. Like other zoom Nikkors, its aperture ranges from f/3.5 to f/5.6 and since its mid-point overlaps the Kit Lens, you will probably use it most often at the full wide, 12mm setting. This is a dream lens for the advanced digital photographer. Overall barrel distortion is fairly low, especially considering the huge angle of coverage it creates at 99° diagonally. For divergent perspective shots, it looks rectilinear, but this lens has pushed the optical limits of design technology and aspheric correction, producing zoom barrel distortion that I call “M-type” in certain shots. Corners show a different barrel curve from the central portion, requiring a “reverse-aspheric” treatment to fully correct it. Not to panic; the fix is on this CD. i For ultra-critical rectilinear results, you will need to run images through the iNovaFX Photoshop Action, iBCD70.atn > iBC12.24Wide for totally straight lines. After running it, the image will be as wide, side to side and top to bottom as it started, but lines will look like they came out of a prime optic.

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Hands-On Control Essentials 24-120 Zoom AF-S VR: A truly talented, reasonably priced, all-purpose, wide to tele (36-180mm equivalent) lens with active Vibration Reduction technology to keep you shooting in available darkness at all zoom settings. With an elbow braced support, Iʼve seen novice users get good results shooting full tele at 1/10 sec! Thatʼs an actual performance increase of 3.5 stops over typical 120mm focal length shutter speed. 28-200 Nikkor G AF: Zooms from 42mm to 300mm (135 equivalent) coverage. Just get one. Fast Prime Nikkors: In low light, you want lens speed so you can keep ISO low and still shoot with decent shutter speed. The f/3.5 maximum aperture of the Kit Lens or DX and VR zooms causes you to make ISO, motion blur or steadiness compromises. Fast optics fix some of this, but introduce DOF loss. You canʼt have everything, but you can buy lens speed. Consider the f/1.8 50mm or f/1.4 50mm prime lenses. Focal length is mildly telephoto, but optical performance is high. i Compared to an f/3.5 optic, these 50mmʼs push you +2 and +2.7 stops deeper into the night, respectively. Both are very reasonably priced, but the f/1.8 can often be found at bargain prices well under $100US.

Top; 24-120 VR hand held, full tele @ 1/8 sec. Middle; 28200 at full tele. Bottom; 50mm f/1.4 wide open for just 4 sec @ ISO 1600.

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4-100 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

NIKON’S ACCESSORIES For quick reference, here is a list of Nikonʼs leading accessories that may interest you. Replacement Monitor cover: BM-4 approximately $10.00US. i Cheap replacement of the clear plastic cover that comes with the camera. Its extra reflections donʼt help outdoor shooting, but it keeps that monitor surface out of the way of fingerprints, scratches and fingertips from otherwise friendly guest reviewers who have a natural—and unstoppable—“Ooo, ooo, ooooo! Look at that!” finger pointing (fingerprinting) impulse. Right Angle Finder: SR-6. List price $250.00US. i Very well made, though expensive, but for the Compleat Photographer, itʼs a helpful accessory. You now can look down into the camera from above the eyepiece. I used one with film cameras for years—and actually used it for photography perhaps two dozen times—but in practice, you have to posses a spare, free, unneeded chunk of change and a crying need before considering buying one of these. You could probably score a 50mm f/1.4 lens for this amount of spare cash. Wireless Remote Release: ML-L3. MSRP $18.00US. i Go get one of these right now. Why it wasnʼt included in the box, I donʼt know, but you will use it many times every month in tripod and tele situations. The BEST! Comes with a strap case. Soft Case for camera and Kit Lens: CF-D70. About $50.00US. i This allows you to protect the camera and one lens without having to resort to a camera bag, but if you have a camera bag, you wonʼt need it. It is made to hold body and Kit Lens, and it works equally well with the smaller 28-200 Nikkor AF G. Not for the 24-120mm VR, though. Battery Charger for 2 EN-EL3 cells: MH-19. $250.00. Includes car cord. i Are you a power user? Are you working this camera eight hours a day in a studio? Or is your studio running a stable of D70s all day? Then you need this. Otherwise, itʼs a luxury option that has limited use for the enthusiast. Wildlife photographers will like the car cord option. Conceivably the right solar cell array with a car power cord plug could charge your EN-EL3s on the savannah. AC Power supply. EH-5. Around $87.00. i If you shoot exceptionally long exposures—astrophotographers take note—then this AC power option may become your very good friend. The ML-L3 remote makes 30-minute shots possible. NON-NIKON ACCESSORY OF INTEREST DigiSnap D70 from Harbortronics. About $100, it combines the talents of the DigiSnap 2000 with the optical remote capabilities of Nikonʼs ML-L3 via a fiber optic cable. i You can setup time-lapse intervals in the field with simplified button presses, or use it as a single button press remote release. Hook it to your computer, and you can feed it precise intervals. i Hints: Time-lapse sequences generally run around five to ten seconds in duration. Clouds: 5- to 15-second intervals. Landscapes (12-hour day cycle of 300 frames): one shot per 2 minutes, 20 seconds, and manual exposure set for full noon light values. Flower openings: one-minute intervals to start for testing purposes. Highly variable. Animate with QuickTime Pro ($30US). i Downsides: You must tape the end of the cable to the camera face in order to position the end of the fiber optic near the D70s IR window. Think black, rubbery electrical tape. Use manual aperture lenses (non-auto) for professional applications. Locked iris = no aperture deviation (flicker free).

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4-102 CHAPTER 4

dSLR: Nikon D70

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How Do I Get Everything Right?

Chapter 5

...How Do I?

Getting Everything Right

The single most valuable tool you can have is not your camera, or computer, or printer. It is the ability to look at your images and become critical of what you see. Get rough with yourself. Become your own worst critic. Attack your images with an analytical eye and seek ways of making them better through cropping, re-framing, correcting or even re-shooting. As long as this goes on inside your head, people will assume you are extra creative. Surprise—that’s exactly what extra creative people have always been doing—thinking extra critically about what they are focusing on. Imagine the inner dialogue; Well, what do you think? Pretty nice, eh? Are you nuts? You call that nice? Hey, back off. The exposure is... ...the only thing you got right. Just look at that background. Itʼs not about the backgrou... Looks like the horizon has a distinct... er, “tilt” to it, hmm? Should I re-crop it and straighten it out? Odd, how the tree grows right out of her head, huh?

i=

InfoBite

O

f course, if you mutter this under your breath, somebody may hear you and suddenly your cover will be blown, but as long as you keep it to yourself, you stand a good chance of becoming your own best guru.

Some people seem to have a knack for finding the right composition or spot to stand to get the right shot. Some people can learn a language in six weeks, too, but we all learned to read and photography is less difficult to pick up than that. Sure, there will always be the very highest achievers in any medium, but this isnʼt about them; this is about your learning curve as your inner guru steers you toward digital enlightenment. This long chapter will add to the skills that lead toward that growing awareness. The first thing that will help you is knowing your camera backward and forward. It's also the second and third thing.

The primary piece of equipment you will be using is the photon, the basic particle of light. Soon you will learn how to organize them into images. Since they are spraying around the environment all the time at the atomic level, you will need to exercise a bit of control over their activities. The camera will assist in their capture. As you experience the camera, it stops being a thing and starts being an avenue, a means to an end, a tool with abilities and boundaries that will facilitate some things, and hold up others. As an object, it will fade away and become less visible to you. After a few months, you will be occasionally surprised when a stranger comments about the camera.

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5-2 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

REPEATING THEMES This chapter deals with the practical aspects of camera management and strategies for getting the most usefulness from this instrument. Some of it repeats ideas discussed in earlier chapters or nearby topics so you can jump to an idea and get a self-contained answer. Most of it is new, or fleshed out with ideas based on long hours of experience. (All entries are live hyperlinks.) How Do I power the camera? . . . . . . . . How Do I turn the camera on? . . . . . . . . How Do I store images? . . . . . . . . . . How Do I shoot uncompressed images? . . . . How Do I store my shots in my computer? . . . How Do I trip the shutter? . . . . . . . . . . How Do I frame the shot? . . . . . . . . . . How Do I compose the image? . . . . . . . . How Do I carry the camera? . . . . . . . . . How Do I stabilize the camera? . . . . . . . How Do I capture the most pictures? . . . . . How Do I sharpen the image? . . . . . . . . How Do I balance the color? . . . . . . . . . How Do I focus the camera? . . . . . . . . . How Do I make the picture brighter or darker? . . How Do I zoom the lens? . . . . . . . . . . How Do I crop the images? . . . . . . . . . How Do I play back the images? . . . . . . . How Do I compensate for back light? . . . . . How Do I force the camera to focus where I want? How Do I shoot in available darkness? . . . . . How Do I edit my images in the camera? . . . . How Do I shoot animation frames? . . . . . . How Do I make double exposures? . . . . . . How Do I shoot panoramics? . . . . . . . . How Do I shoot infrared images in daylight?. . . How Do I shoot for special effects? . . . . . . How Do I shoot in 3D? . . . . . . . . . . . How Do I shoot wider-angle shots? . . . . . . How Do I shoot candids? . . . . . . . . . . How Do I shoot black and white images? . . . . How Do I shoot fast action? . . . . . . . . . How Do I bracket exposures? . . . . . . . . How Do I use external flash? . . . . . . . . How Do I trigger slave flash units wirelessly? . . How Do I keep direct sun off my lens? . . . . . How Do I disable features? . . . . . . . . . How Do I avoid blinkers? . . . . . . . . . . How Do I use a UV or Daylight filter? . . . . . How Do I print images from the CF card? . . . . How Do I play images on TV? . . . . . . . . How Do I add the accessories Nikon forgot? . . How Do I play slide shows? . . . . . . . . . How Do I adjust flash strength? . . . . . . . How Do I take the camera on vacation? . . . .

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. 5-3 . 5-4 . 5-4 . 5-5 . 5-6 . 5-6 . 5-7 . 5-7 . 5-9 . 5-9 . 5-11 .5-12 .5-12 .5-14 .5-16 .5-18 .5-18 .5-19 .5-19 .5-20 .5-20 .5-22 .5-24 .5-25 .5-26 .5-33 .5-34 .5-35 .5-38 .5-40 .5-41 .5-41 .5-42 .5-43 .5-44 .5-44 .5-45 .5-45 .5-46 .5-46 .5-46 .5-47 .5-48 .5-48 .5-48

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HOW DO I POWER THE CAMERA? You canʼt wind it up or feed it a sugar cube. The camera eats only one thing: electrons. Either you plug it into the wall or you give it a battery to sip on. A fully charged battery will last for varying amounts of time depending on your modes of use. Flash exposures use the most power, and playback of stored images uses the least. In shooting modes it is not unusual to be able to run non-flash sessions continuously for over three and a half hours. In playback only mode, you may be able to power the camera for over five hours continuously. See? Itʼs not such a glutton. With every shot a camera flash shot, you could use up a full charge in as little as half an hour, but you would have to be working fast to drain the battery that quickly. In a practical sense, the battery is good for about a day of frequent use, so you would be wise to get a second battery. With every D70 comes the MH-18 charger and cord that is plug-differentiated for the plug type in your country and an EN-EL3 Li-Ion battery. The charger works with both 120 and 240 volts making it useful nearly everywhere in the world—assuming you have the proper plug adaptors when you travel. The charger does not function as an AC power unit; for that you will need to acquire Nikonʼs EH-5 AC adapter. The charger recharges the battery outside the camera, not internally but charge time is a quick two hours—less if it has some charge left to begin with. For emergency power, Nikon has kindly provided a backup power supply. It looks like an EN-EL3 with its guts removed, but the MS-D70 is a frame that holds three CR2 3-volt lithium batteries in series and inserts into the camera just like the EN-EL3. A probe sticking out the top of the holder presses a switch inside the camera to tell it that power is now coming in at over 9 volts, so the camera adjusts for the incoming voltage. Very clever. i No other batteries are available for this camera, so if you run out of power and you havenʼt populated your MS-D70 with CR2 cells, youʼre stuck. On the Internet you can find these one-use cells for just a few dollars apiece. Get six (theyʼre often cheaper in packs of two). Keep in mind that CR2 power only delivers about 33% of what a freshly charged EN-EL3 delivers! i Smart photographers buy at least one extra EN-EL3 battery. Pros buy at least two. Each one delivers upwards of 2000 shots when no camera flash is used, and if every shot were a flash picture, you would still get several hundred from the single battery charge. i EN-EL3s come with a cover to protect the battery contacts. Since one battery will usually be inside the camera, use the spare cover on your filled MS-D70. i While charging, the small orange LED blinks. When the charge is complete, the LED stays on steady. i The EN-EL3 cells do not lose their charge in storage (unlike some battery formulas) unless that storage is measured in weeks or months. Havenʼt used it for two months? Give it a quick charge.

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5-4 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

HOW DO I TURN THE CAMERA ON? Several ways. If the camera is switched entirely off, your shuttertrigger finger can pull on the switch that surrounds the shutter button. Learn to do this reflexively as you pick the camera up. If the camera is already on, youʼll feel the switch. When the D70 is asleep (set in CSM #22 and CSM #23), pressing any button wakes the camera up. i This is one of the—if not the—fastest reacting dSLRs available. It wakes up faster than a cat. i Camera awakening is so very fast, and battery life is so very long, that you can afford to ignore the rotating on/off switch all day. Set the Monitor timing to 1 minute and Meter timing to 16 seconds, and your D70 will run all day on a single charge, instantly awakening every time you touch a button. i Be aware that the Meter timing option has a potential “gotcha.” The lowest item in the menu list is 30 minutes not the “30 seconds” some folks mistake it for. Keeping the meter alive for 30 minutes at a stretch is a good way to run the battery down quicker than you would wish. HOW DO I STORE IMAGES? CompactFlash cards are highly evolved. Since they were developed late last century, they have grown from housing just a few megabytes to now coming in several gigabytes. Prices per megabyte have steadily dropped. Two forms are available, Type I at 3.3mm thick and Type II at 5mm thick. The D70 takes either. Capacities that are appropriate for the D70 start at 256 megabytes (MB) at the low end and rise to over 1 gigabyte (GB) at the high (expensive) end. i Iʼm only going to say this thirty times: Get the fastest, biggest one you can afford. The recommended ones are Sandisk Extreme in 512 MB and 1.0 GB. You can press buttons, set preferences, ISO, image size, et cetera, but no shots can be memorized until a CompactFlash card is present. When the camera is asleep or fully off, the LCD readout shows how many shots are left on the currently installed card. If no card is present, you see “— E — ” on the LCD. i MicroDrive cards work in the D70 but performance is slower. Not recommended. i CompactFlash cards are so small that you could drop one and never hear it hit the floor. Iʼve done it. It is worth your while to create a way to store them out of harmʼs way. Simply dropping them into a pocket is not a good idea—especially a pocket that contains other things. Memory card wallet: a Good Thing. Storage and compression are inevitably linked. Fine and Normal compression options represent JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) standards that reduce the file size by an actual 6:1 and 12:1 respectively, when compared to a 24 bit uncompressed 18,132,634 byte result. Highly-detailed subjects cause larger final files than images of gradually changing tones. Detail eats compression. During image compression, the picture is broken down into small square tiles of eight by eight pixels. Each tile is analyzed into small, easy-to-store strings of code that approximate its original look. In Fine mode, the original and compressed image are within less than 1% of each other for nearly every pixel in the entire image. How visible would a 1% difference be?

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Take the cat image test at the left. Nikon has not provided a 24-bit non-compressed format (no TIFF files here) for the D70 since Fine images are so outstandingly good, but for ultimate image quality, they have provided a camera RAW format called NEF (Nikon Electronic image Format) that eats over twice as much CF card space as a large Fine image. Fine compression is the maximum JPEG quality, but Normal compression isnʼt far behind. Shoot images of the same subject in both settings, print them out and see if you—or anyone you meet—can tell the difference. i When you reduce the size of the image by scaling it down in your editing program—the way you would for an Internet-size image—compression artifacts blend into each other and politely disappear. i The iNovaFX Photoshop Action Filter called iDeJPEG reduces some JPEG compression artifacts (iDeNoiseHighISO folder). The series removes noise from high ISO images, but it is worth testing to see if it improves any image you may have that shows compression artifacting.

The 1% artifact. Here’s a tiny slice of an image peppered with an irregular pattern of 1% deviated pixels. The other image is straight. Can you see the effect? I can’t, either, but I could just barely detect it when I added the noise. View huge. ( ) Bottom

image has the noise.

HOW DO I SHOOT UNCOMPRESSED IMAGES? With JPEG files, the cameras process images into RGB files, changing their size to your specification, enhancing them with your preferred degree of sharpening—and only then compressing them into JPEG files for storage. Typical large, Fine images eat under 3 MB apiece. Saving this size image on a Sandisk Extreme CF card happens in a fraction of a second. RAW images in .NEF format take up over twice the memory space, but these are a direct recording of what the image chip saw as analyzed at 12 bits per pixel. In other words, each photositeʼs reported experience is saved with 4096 divisions of numeric fidelity from its lowest possible black to its highest, most saturated white. For every image, the camera starts with a RAW data array no matter what final format is filed. i Since JPEG images are generated from the sweet central zone of this data, some of the image is ignored during conversion. The .NEF file keeps it all. To save space in your memory card, .NEF files use “lossless compression” on its pixels, meaning that you get everything plus some extra memory. i If no lossless compression were applied, each shot would consume 9,024,000 bytes. Typically they consume no more than about 6,200,000 bytes of actual memory

space. i RAW image format gathers only the data from the image chip without further processing. Your computer now needs to reconstruct the picture with special software. The good news is that NikonCapture software that does this is free for 30 days for you to play with, and if you have Photoshop CS, the RAW interpreters are built in to that program. i To open a .NEF file in Photoshop CS and have it look identical to a Fine JPEG image of the same subject, use the default settings and save the image as an 8-bit sRGB file. The other options for saving the file will produce extremely different tonalities and saturation results. i See Uwe Steinmuellerʼs included eBook on working with .NEF files in RAW format.

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5-6 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

HOW DO I STORE MY SHOTS IN MY COMPUTER? Storing the image on a CompactFlash card is only part of the problem. Some printers and photo printing kiosks can read the card directly and make prints, but for true control, you need to transfer the image files to your computer. Transferring is fastest with a dedicated CF card reader or PC card adaptor (for portable computers). Adaptors are inexpensive and fast. Card readers can work at FireWire speed. Then thereʼs the USB cord included with the camera. When you connect it to your computer, the camera shows up as if it were a USB-linked external hard disk. Downloading images with all of these methods of connection can be as simple as picking up a group of files from the CF card and dropping them into a new folder on your computer. Next is a dedicated USB Card Reader. Simple versions sell for under $20 US. They simply plug into any spare USB port and act as a go-between from CF card to computer. The CF card shows up on the desktop as if it were a new hard drive, too. Recent operating systems such as Windows EX and Macintosh OSX are more image-aware than prior systems, but each computerʼs system of uploading images is slightly different, so you may have to consult your computer manual to see if there are particular techniques for your system. HOW DO I TRIP THE SHUTTER? Although this may sound trivial, it is not. Tripping the shutter with an auto-focus, auto exposure camera—any camera—involves the focus and exposure systemʼs timing delays. Auto-focus cameras ALL have this shutter response lag. The way you get past it is to learn the first rule of electronic image gathering: Half-press the shutter release to “prime” the camera into solving the focus and exposure ideas beforehand. Then hold the shutter release in this position until the scene is just right—and only then follow through with the full press that takes the shot. i The D70 trumps this advice with its extra speedy conversion to image gathering mode from sleep mode, giving it exceptionally quick shutter response. i Stabbing the shutter in hopes of getting it to work faster is rather like pressing the elevator button repeatedly in hopes of speeding things up. Worse; it physically moves the camera. Wiggles = smeared images.

Camera direct USB out is easy. Firewire CF card readers are the fastest (bottom).

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SLR viewing is the most intuitive in photographic history.

Think thirds. Now all those years of playing tic-tac-toe are going to pay off.

HOW DO I FRAME THE SHOT? Perhaps the hardest thing in all photography is the successful anticipation of composition and framing. Sometimes we can see the picture coming together and sometimes we miss it only to realize half a second later that something good was lost. As you practice photography, experience will guide your hands and eye more surely. But be prepared to see many more images than you can actually capture. Over time, fewer good ones wonʼt get away. Shutter delay with the D70 falls in the 1.5 tenths of a second range. Your own personal reaction time is probably in the 7.5 tenths of a second range, so anything you can do to feel the shot shaping up will help. Practice, practice, practice. Pop Quiz: What will help you with shutter release skills? Answer: Practice. Right. You got it. i Practice shooting things that move—such as the interchange of leg positions in a striding person—in order to get a feeling for the delay of your eye, your brain and the D70 combined. After a while, you will be able to predict the mid-jump point of a leap. Where the delay will not be compensated for are those surprise events that defy prediction. But thatʼs always the case. Practice zooming into a scene to put the frame around the interesting parts. When you start wide you can see more of what may become important to the shot. Nikon zoom lenses are extremely quick in their ability to pick out the shot and with experience you wonʼt even have to think about how far to rotate the zoom collar to achieve a desired framing. i Use the viewfinder grid lines (CSM #08) to provide ready reference for level and subject placement. i You can zoom with action in anticipation of a framing relationship, but donʼt stop to trip the shutter. Stay with the subject. Itʼs analogous to baseballʼs edict, Keep your eye on the ball. i With slow shutter speeds, the frame can be changed during the exposure. Try zooming during the shutter opening. HOW DO I COMPOSE THE IMAGE? Composing an image is different from framing an image, although the two work hand in hand. Framing an image has to do with its size, edge boundaries and timing. Composing an image has more to do with the relationship of elements within the frame, the center(s) of interest, the perspectives involved and the graphic dynamics of the shot. It sounds like a lot, and it is. Composing a picture means applying a sense of artistry to the image that will go largely undetected by most viewers—yet they will sense that this well-composed shot is somehow “better” than that poorly composed shot. A few rules of composition will get you started. 1. Think thirds. Imagine lines dividing the image into three vertical and three horizontal slices. The areas near the intersection of those lines, and the areas along those lines, are prime places to rest features, centers of interest and major tonal changes. This isnʼt always the case, but if you were to shoot pictures for a week that always acknowledged this rule, you would come away with many more shots that looked good. How close to exact must you be? Not very. 2. Avoid center symmetries. Donʼt put the sunset in the dead center of the image. Donʼt let the horizon cut the shot in half. Donʼt frame a person in the exact middle of the scene. Unless the intent of the shot, from a compositional standpoint, is to emphasize the symmetry of the situation—and that is rarer than you may think—go back to rule #1. (I break this rule frequently with malice aforethought.)

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5-8 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

3. Balance tells stories. A minor image of an interesting sub-feature can balance a strong, dominant center of interest in a way that brings a composition into a new aesthetic. Ideally, the element that balances the shot creates a story-telling relationship with the rest of the image. A little person in the corner of an image of the Grand Canyon not only brings scale, but it creates a sense of drama. “Big geology vs. fragile human” is the sort of story people understand intuitively, and shots that bring this kind of story out of the page have greater appeal. Images with stories in them are like spoken sentences. They have a subject, verb and modifiers. The subject is the center of interest. The verb is what it is doing, accomplishing, moving, regarding or the state of its existence. Modifiers are other elements that balance, threaten, assist or change the subject/verb from some predictable outcome. One other idea is present, just as it is in a verbal conversation: the context. Usually a context is the background, the environment in which the subject exists. Sometimes the background is the subject itself and the context is an emotion or mood to the image. Most story-telling images are easy to caption. Invent something wild. For the shot at right it could be, “Paolo soiled his cape and had to stand behind the wall all day long as punishment.” 4. Moments. You may have to find the framing, prepare the composition and wait for the instant of best story-telling to appear before the shot is complete, but a momentʼs expression, a gesture, a fleeting glance or a chance encounter with a surprise element can make an ordinary image into a suddenly great shot. The moral to the story is that for images that involve people, animals or dynamic elements, capture as many instances of the changing scene as you can in anticipation that things will be more story-telling in one frame than in the majority of others.

A story in the making. The guard is in the Italian White House garden visible from the street. The juxtaposed second guard is not at a grid intersection and is not immediately seen by most viewers, creating an interesting counterpoint or sub-plot.

An iNovaFX Action in the iHandyChanges.atn folder creates a rule-of-thirds overlay on top of any size or proportion of image non-destructively. All the images on this page show its effect. iRuleOfThirds: A quick estimator.

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Cap with finger gripping sand paper strips. (Sears, $4. for a lifetime supply.) Rollover for the palm strap.

HOW DO I CARRY THE CAMERA? You can carry it any way you wish. After carrying it all over the world, Iʼve developed favorite ways and now carry the camera outside of pouch or bag much of the time. The strap that comes with the camera is not a neck strap. It is designed to hang from a surface such as your shoulder but it could slip. Improved, clinging versions are available at your camera store. I carry the camera to my left side and keep it under my coat or jacket most of the time. Here a non-clinging strap helps. I can bring the camera up to shooting position quickly and still have the strap wrapped around my shoulder. When I let go of the camera and open the left side of the coat, the camera returns to a protected position under the cloth or leather, hanging at about waist height. People donʼt see the camera until I bring it up to shooting position, so it stops being a walking advertisement for pickpockets and candid subjects. Often it is better to look like just another person and not another photographer or tourist. But there is a better way. A two foot strap of hikerʼs “tube strapping” connected to the right camera strap attach point becomes a quick anti-drop hand loop. Grabbing the camera out of a shoulder bag is easier if there is no large strap attached. With the hand loop, controlling the camera is instant. As soon as fingers feel the strap the camera can be lifted out in a sweep. With the right hand through the loop, you can even let go of the camera completely, should the situation require it, and still maintain a secure link to it. Controlling the lens cap is job #2. Use the self-stick sandpaper trick to keep it from sliding off your fingertips and always move it to a habit-practiced storage place on your person. Pocket, bag or Velcro point—wherever you store it, do it consistently to avoid confusion later. i Donʼt tether it to camera or strap. You change lenses, after all. HOW DO I STABILIZE THE CAMERA? Everybody thinks of stable cameras as being on a tripod. Sure, tripods are stable, but they are unhandy for some types of photography. Still, you can use a tripod four ways: 1. As a stable platform for a non-moving camera. This is the way most people think of them. You donʼt even need to hold on to the camera in this mode. 2. As a copy stand. By extending one leg significantly farther than the other two, the pan-head of the tripod sticks out to one side of the center column. Artwork or objects on the floor (or table) between the two shorter legs can now be photographed from directly above, providing that the legs themselves donʼt cast unwanted shadows on the subject. Weight on the back leg may be needed for stability. 3. As a brace. Stop thinking of the tripod as meeting the floor and start thinking of it as a triangular brace you can push against other sorts of objects for stability as you continue to hold it. Where appropriate, it can be used against walls, steps, furniture, trees, parts of vehicles and irregular terrain as a momentary stabilization bracket. As long as you exert enough force down through the center-line of the tripod, it will stay still. Just donʼt let go. 4. As an extension of your own arm. A camera attached to a tripod is really a camera with a huge handle under it. With the tripod legs folded against the center column, you may be able to lift the entire camera six feet (2 meters) over your head or out of a window. Since this effectively keeps your

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5-10 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

finger off the shutter release, the self-timer or a remote release must be brought into play. The Nikon IR remote control can release the camera from several feet away. Itʼs not the sort of thing you would use every day, but it lets you perform vital functions about six feet (2 meters) back from the camera as long as the IR receiver is in a line with the remote. You did insure the camera, right? How you hold the camera has a lot to do with how steady it is for longish exposures. The least stable grip is out at armʼs length, guessing at the framing. But sometimes holding the camera over SLR grip. Elbows tuck the heads of a crowd will give you shots only Shaquille OʼNeal th against the rib cage, could otherwise get. Use the technique with shutter speeds of 1/125 sec or faster until you get plus support under the good at it. lens with the left hand, i The D70 is a two-handed camera. You cannot operate it hand-held with only one hand for very firm grip with the right and the eyepiece in long. Which isnʼt to say that it canʼt be done but remember that a single-hand supported camera direct contact with your requires about 1/4 the shutter speed you use for two-handed stability. brow. Solid! By holding the camera against your face in SLR stance, you add body mass to the stabilization issue. This means right hand on the camera body and left hand gripping under the lens with your palm facing your chin. Firmly press the camera into your eye as you use the viewfinder for framing. Your two elbows now join your chest for stability and the hand/face/hand combination creates a very stable platform. Longer exposures of 1/15th sec or 1/8th sec are often successful here because the arms and body are relatively immobilized. It helps to lean your shoulder or legs against something, too. Sitting down provides you with a very stable platform and resting your hands against a solid object as they cradle the camera can make exposures of up to one full second turn out sharp. Your hands may vary, and practice makes perfect, but finding your personal best in terms of stability before you start gathering valuable images will only help. When no tripod is available, there is always the Q-Pod. Okay, thatʼs quibbling on my part, since the Q-Pod is really a tripod of sorts. It has no pan head and no center column, but it does have three extending legs and folds up flat under the cameraʼs lens so well that it remains on my camera much of the time. I canʼt tell you how many hundreds of times it has come into play as a camera stabilization device functioning as a tripod, vertical grip and support rest that gives the camera legs when casually placed on a table. Now every table, post, tree and surface becomes a source of stability. If the supporting surface is soft, such as a cushion, and hand interaction with the camera would jar the image, trip the shutter with the self-timer. A bean bag that thinks i The self-timer is slow, at least two seconds to operate. But since the camera takes about a half it’s a tripod—the Pod ™ . second to auto-focus and compute the exposure, you can press the shutter release with a quick click and let go of the camera before the exposure begins, turning the natural focus and shutter delays into a short-term self-timer.

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Frame Sizes. On top, an image captured as a Large frame. Rollover to see the same scene captured on a Medium frame, and click to see the scene shot as a Small frame. Unless you knew which was which, would you ever know that the Small frame had 1/4th as many pixels as the Large by simply viewing them?

HOW DO I CAPTURE THE MOST PICTURES? Every professional photographer knows that by gathering a larger number of images, the chance for stray events to improve the shot increases. As you look through the pages of any book that shows quality photography—and just about any issue of National Geographic Magazine will do this for you—a growing impression of the value of the magic instant will emerge. The work of Henri Cartier-Bresson will show you the “decisive moment,” but his rolls of original negatives would show you the many not-quite-so-decisive moments he captured along the way. In photography, the notion of quantity is a quality unto itself. So strategies that bring you more exposures will bring you more moments and more good images. CF card capacity limits the number of shots you can gather. Fortunately they donʼt weigh anything, so you can have a lot of them with you and never feel burdened. Unfortunately, they cost money, and that will limit the size of your lot. i The D70 delivers a sharp full-size, 6-megapixel image, but it also delivers a sharper 3.3megapixel image at 2240 x 1488 pixels. Although the physical dimensions of these smaller images are only 67% of the size of the full shot, they contain about 90% of the effective image detail you gather with that full-size frame. They contain 3.3 megapixels but feel like 5 megapixel shots. i Take two exposures of the same detailed setup at full and medium file sizes, then print both of them to the exact same dimensions as 8 x 10s and 5 x 7s. Now ask people who donʼt know which was which to comment on them. Then factor in that the medium size image takes up 55% of the memory space of the large one. Only you can determine if giving up a small percent of the image quality is worth the 45% more images, but I shoot this way quite often. i When the day has produced an unusually large number of images, you may find yourself running out of storage space. Two strategies may be of help, especially when combined; smaller files from more compressed images and physically smaller shots. Small images (1504 x 1000 pixels) make really good looking 4 x 6 inch prints (100 x 150mm). Since all smaller-size images are in-camera reductions of a full-size capture, all smaller images are more pixel perfect. Every pixel represents maximum definition, and it would take four Small files to cover the same area of a full-frame shot. In practice, you can shoot about 350% of the number of full-frame images per megabyte of storage space by gathering half-size images. Why not 400% (since each is 25% of full size)? Because the full-size shot compresses more efficiently than the smaller, pixel-perfect files.

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5-12 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

HOW DO I SHARPEN THE IMAGE? Digital images are processed by the camera computer in ways that enhance outlines and detail. When this enhancement process goes too far, edges of objects look artificial and too much like TV images. That Sharpness control on your TV set is rather like a simple version of the Sharpening control in the camera menu. Setting it too high can produce edge artifacts and setting it too low can make the picture look too soft. Nikon has implemented a sophisticated sharpening system in the camera and the default normal “0” setting is your best bet (Shooting > Optimize Image > Custom > Sharpening). You have two more levels each of greater and lesser sharpness. As the contrast range of your subject matter increases, the need for more aggressive sharpening diminishes, and vice versa. In-camera sharpness control. The softest, least grainy image Graphics such as paintings, which have the dynamic range of reflected pigments, will (above) used the -2 setting. The tolerate more sharpening than natural real-world scenes with high contrast detail. zero setting shows by rollover i You can use the Sharpening menu item for effect. Set it low for images that should have a and most extreme +2 setting is softer quality, such as portraits or poetic still lifes, and set it high for images that should have under the click. Notice the increase in contrast a dramatic, edgy quality, such as sports action pictures. on small detail that accompanies i In Photoshop the Unsharp Mask control can add sharpening to the image after the fact, increased sharpnening. Severe crop, view at 200% or but be aware that sharpening is like a haircut; once the camera has applied sharpening to above. the original image, nothing can precisely reverse the process. “Unsharp Mask” sounds like something that would blur an image, but no, it really masks “unsharpness.” i Post exposure sharpening is possible in Photoshop, and you can use the iNovaFX iSharp -series actions. But often the best results come from in-camera sharpening routines. HOW DO I BALANCE THE COLOR? Cool and warm images have more blue or gold, respectively. Daylight is “cooler” and incandescent light is “warm.” Not that the sun isnʼt hotter, itʼs just a blue vs. gold terminology convention. Artist and photographer slang. Blue flames are hotter; blue colors are cooler. Go figure. For the greater range of images, the Daylight and Incandescent white balance settings of the camera give the best results when used with the appropriate light source, and that gives colors a basic frame of reference. Cloudy, Flash, Shade and Fluorescent choices round out the list. Overcast day? Use Cloudy white balance. Inside an office? Fluorescent may be best, but which of the three? Not sure? Try Auto white balance. Daylight is a good choice for use with flash units, too. You can use it under cloudy skies, as well, but images will appear cooler here, just as they feel cooler to your eyes. Often the sensation of cooler color wonʼt actually look blue to your eyes but it can appear blue in photographs. Not just digital photos. TV, film and movies often show cloudy sky images as noticeably bluish. Auto White Balance floats on a sea of color. When the sun goes behind a cloud, the camera responds to the cooler, bluer image and warms it up slightly. When the afternoon sun enters into the golden hour before sunset, the Auto White Balance responds by slightly cooling the image and neutralizing the extra warmth. When you have mixed light sources, the camera seeks a middle ground and equalizes the colors of the scene.

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Daylight white balance. Completely normal looking.

White balance off a puffy cloud above the image.

White balance off the redish roof (arrow).

White balance off the distant low sky (arrow).

i If you are unsure whether Auto or Daylight white balance is right for a lighting condition, take one of each and sort it out on your computer. The camera allows such fast access to the WB settings that this is an easy option. The ultimate white balance is from the Manual white balance system that Nikon calls Preset WB. Select the manual mode and hold the WB button down for three seconds. Viewfinder and LCD data screens blink “-P r E -” telling you that the next exposure will measure white balance. Point the camera at anything that is truly white or neutral gray, and press the Shutter button. The camera will cycle just like it does for exposures, but no image will be kept. Whatever the camera sees in the center half of the image will be used by the white balance system to estimate the color of the light. i The eBook jacket has a dozen “White Balance Filters” that cause the Manual WB circuits to create the effect of color filters over the lens. Slide the color insert out from under its clear plastic cover and re-insert it flipped over. The jacket graphic has color patches that will steer your camera into reacting as if it used color filters. 1. Put the jacket graphic in the light you are using. 2. Point the lens at the color opposite the one you wish to install. 3. Perform a manual white balance operation. The cameraʼs RGB circuits attempt to neutralize that color and immediately cause the opposite tint to appear in subsequent images. Internally, the data created when you manually white balance is stored as a look-up file. Opposite colors on the jacket are connected to each other with a graphic dot. White balance off of one produces the filter effect you would get from the other. i The Manual White Balance retains its last setting until it is set to a new Manual setting. It keeps this data through on/off cycles and battery changes. i Elements in the scene in front of you can be used to force color filtration effects. Manual WB off a cool blue cloud and the scene will warm up for following shots. Manual WB off a terra cotta roof tile and the scene will cool off. Manual WB off the sky itself and the scene will yellow out. i If you shoot a picture using this special color filter effect and keep that shot on your CF card, you can call up the white balance setting in the future. The D70 allows you to recall the white balance setting from any image it has produced in the past. Conceivably, you could carry a spare CF card with you that contains a string of shots in Small/Basic format each of which was made to produce a particular color effect. When you wish to access that filter color, insert the card, and select Shooting Menu > White bal. > Preset > Use Photo > Select Image > (choose folder) > (find image) > Enter > This Image Set. It sounds complicated, but each step is easy to thread through, being the most logical selection at every point.

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5-14 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

HOW DO I FOCUS THE CAMERA? As you look into the viewfinder, five focus brackets overlay the scene. At halfpress one of them fills in, indicating which of the five is active. Depending on settings you have made in the CSM Menus, the active focus zone can be manually selected, automatically selected or chosen by the nearest subject matter. What isnʼt immediately obvious is that Auto-focus is predictive. It attempts to track subjects that move toward or away from the camera so when you complete the shutter press and make the picture, the lens was in focus where it should be. Auto-focus only turns on at shutter half-press. But once there it can optionally be Too far, too near—just a single focusing operation (CSM #02 > AF-S) or it can enter into continuously focusing (CSM #02 > right. Auto-focus AF-C). When single focus is chosen, predictive auto-focus is active only if the subject is moving at sequences happen faster than you can see. the moment of half-press. With continuous focus selected, predictive auto-focus is continuous. i Focus zones arenʼt the exact size and shape of the focus brackets, but theyʼre close. Focus sensors actually detect focus in a cross pattern in the central zone, which has the ability to lock on horizontal and vertical detail. All four outer focus areas specialize in either horizontal or vertical detail as seen in the figure at right. Red patches identify and lock onto vertical detail while purple patches lock onto horizontal detail. i Most detail in nature, portraiture and urban settings is a mix of patterns and textures. While the focus zones show a distinct preference for horizontal or vertical contrast detection, these areas will lock on nearly anything you can show them unless that pattern or texture is exclusively horizontal or vertical and coincidentally ends up in the focus zone that is oriented the opposite way. As you half-press the shutter release, the auto focus system gets serious and performs Five focus zones are available and focus coverage closely a fresh, well-tempered focus operation. In the viewfinder you will see the focus “bounce” as parallels the size and shape of the lens searches through the plane of focus to a point nearby, then back through the zone of the marked brackets. sharp focus to slightly beyond it and finally settling into exact sharp focus. Itʼs so fast that you might just perceive a quick jump to appropriate focus, but for shots that call for a long focus travel—like shooting a macro close up—the sequence often shows its character more clearly. Focus to-fro-on is how you would manually focus an image by testing to see what this side and that side of true focus looks like before adjusting the lens to an in-between setting. If the lens is fairly near the right focus point to begin with, the focus action can take as little as 1/10 second. Auto focus is faster and more accurate than you are. Itʼs virtually instantaneous. Inside each lens a focus motor does the actual work and in some lenses (marked with the letters AF-S and SWM) a “Silent Wave Motor” moves the internal focus elements. This technology combines a DC motor with ultrasonic electric pulses to drive and brake its rotation. You wonʼt hear the effect because the frequency

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is above hearing, but it gives the motor exceptional torque and stopping power. The Kit Lens has an SWM, as do all the DX-series lenses except the 10.5mm fisheye. How does the camera know what sharp focus looks like? Sensors look for pixels that are near to each other yet report greater differences in values, meaning higher degrees of contrast. In particular, the system seeks lines and edge contours that show this sort of phenomenon, but if strong contrast isnʼt present, it considers less contrasty details. When adjacent pixels are similar in value, it usually means that they are blurred. If you were to point the camera at a textureless blank wall, the autofocus system could become confused, but most surfaces have a degree of texture to them—even if you canʼt see it in the viewfinder—and the camera will find it and lock onto it. i Blank blue skies are a major challenge for the autofocus system. If the center of your shot is abundant with infinite blue—or any blank, featureless area—pan over to a subject at the distance you wish to focus, half-press the shutter release button, then reframe for the shot. i Multiple focus areas assist with off-center focusing. Setting the AF-Area mode (CSM #03) to Dynamic Area allows you to select the initial focus bracket, but if the Focus on features, even if they’re out subject moves, the other detectors will take over and track it. With AF-Area mode set to of all five focus zones, then reframe. Closest Subject, the camera evaluates all ten focus strips and moves the lens to focus on the closest one. With AF-C invoked the nearest detail in the frame will be nearly always perfectly sharp. i When Auto-focus mode is active and AF-S is selected and the lens canʼt achieve focus, no shot will take place. AF-C avoids this impasse. A quick way to call AF-C up is to switch to Sports DVP mode with the large Mode dial. i Auto-focus can be fooled. The subject matter may be too small, too delicate or too low in contrast to give the camera an unambiguous focus target. High contrast backgrounds can sometimes steal the focus away from lower contrast nearby subjects, and for times like this, there are several ways to use Manual Focus. Switch off AF with the rotary switch on the left side of the lens mount base. The lens is now in manual focus mode and the shutter will fire every time it is asked to. Some lenses include the ability to zoom in on a subject, achieve focus there, and then zoom back to a wider view knowing that focus has been maintained accurately. Other lenses stay approximately in focus as the zoom collar is turned, but either AF-C or repeated half-presses with AF-S are needed to keep the lens accurately focused. i You can zoom in, then click the selector switch to Manual Focus, preserving the current focus point, then zoom out to frame the shot. There is a danger here that you will forget to unlock the Manual Focus mode for your next shots. i Perhaps the best focus strategy with the D70 is to invoke AF-C so the most predictive focus system is active and shoot with AF-Area selected to Single Area. Here the Multi-selector can manually choose the focus zone that best suits your shot. You can lock this area using the provided focus area lock switch, but in practice it may not be needed.

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5-16 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

HOW DO I MAKE THE PICTURE BRIGHTER OR DARKER? There is a concept floating through photography called Exposure Value, or EV for short. It is used two ways, as an absolute measure of brightness in terms of real-world exposures, and as a way of equating relative differences between exposures. Avalon, California. Actual Three things make up a given exposure. EXIF data: 1/500 sec @ f/8 with ISO 100 sensitiv1. The sensitivity of the recording medium (the image sensorʼs ISO, for instance). ity (not on a D70). Within 2. The lens speed, meaning its f-number or iris setting. a fraction of a stop of the “prediction” for full 3. The time interval of the shutter, meaning how much time photons are gathered. daylight. Absolute EV. In absolute terms, EV value measures how bright conditions are from a standard amount of light. Each EV number is one stop, or exactly double, the light represented by the number below it. An exposure of one second at f/1.0 with ISO 25 sensitivity defines an anchor point: EV 0. (The zero is just a reference point along an infinite scale, so it doesnʼt mean there is zero of something involved.) This also equates to approximately one-quarter of a foot-candle of light energy. Full noon daylight is EV 15 in absolute EV light value—also meaning that full daylight is 15 powers of two brighter than one-quarter foot-candle, or just over 8000 foot-candles of light. Since the sun delivers virtually the same exposure every day, these values can be useful for expressing the sensitivity range of a camera exposure system or the absolute range of a light meter. i The “foot-candle” that people talk about is a real thing you can approximate in the privacy of your own birthday cake. Light up one of those small candles in the dark and notice how much light falls on a sheet of paper a foot away from the flame. Thatʼs it. Pretty close to the one-foot-candle reference. Of course, the original “standard” used a flame of exact dimensions and burn qualities, but you get the idea. A second reference on the absolute brightness of full daylight is often expressed as this simple formula: 1/(the current ISO) of a second @ f/16 = full daylight exposure. With ISO 200, that means 1/200 sec @ f/16 should do the job. The sunbather above is a little underexposed by this formula, but the crowd on the Spanish Steps is right on. With the D70 using ISO 200, that would require a 1/500 sec @ f/9 exposure to make a full daylight image. Try it and see. Set the camera to full manual exposure with these settings and blaze away in full daylight. Itʼs always good to know that the Rome, Italy. Other side of the planet. This time it’s 1/500 sec sun is spewing out a reliable number of photons, eh? @ f/6/3 with ISO 100 sensitivity. Where light values are lower than EV zero, they are expressed as negative numbers, so it Absolute agreement with the rule would not be unreasonable to express an ultra-low light level as EV –50 (this is an extreme of thumb exposure. example that might be best suited to the Hubble Space Telescope) or to say that an exposure meter was capable of measuring accurately a range from EV –12 to EV +18.

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Relative EV+/-. All of that becomes academic when using EV as a way of expressing deviations from a metered exposure. The camera reads the scene and draws a conclusion from the light values it sees. In a sense, this is a recommended exposure and not an absolute determination. When a lot of bright sky dominates the shot, you will have to intervene and gently inform the camera that you want a different exposure, thank you. To do this, you adjust the EV+/- system. For a scene containing a naturally extra-bright sky, you will need to tell the camera to overexpose the shot, thus making the sky in the picture look appropriately extra-bright, the way it does in real life. If you didnʼt, the extra-bright sky could fool the meter into underexposing the image making the sky look normal and the foreground look extra dark. Near to the shutter release is a smaller button that switches on the EV+/- adjustment in any of the P, S and A exposure modes. The Command dial can now be rotated, producing an EV number from +5.0 to –5.0 on the LCD and viewfinder displays. With a setting of +2.0EV, you are telling the camera to allow four times as many photons through the lens as the camera believed was required. EV values can be adjusted up or down in 1/3-stop increments—just enough to see as a useful difference in exposure changes. Keep in mind that when an ISO rating and shutter speed and f-stop are all mentioned in the same breath, changing any one of these alters the exposure. But changing any two in a symmetrical way simply expresses an alternate setting, not a different exposure. Twice the sensitivity plus half the shutter duration equals the same exposure.

EV+/-

Equivalent exposures F- number

F/2.0

F/2.8

F/4.0

F/8

F/8

F/8

F/16

F/20

F/11

Shutter speed

1/2000

1/1000

1/500

1/125

1/160

1/320

1/100

1/80

1/500

ISO

200

200

200

200

250

500

640

800

3200

i The ISO 3200 called for in the last column isnʼt an impossible dream with the D70. Although the camera only shows ISO choices up to 1600, that doesnʼt mean exposures canʼt be made at ISO 3200 or higher. But in order to see images made at these equivalent exposures, you will have to do some “ISO Recovery” in Photoshop later. Special iNovaFX Photoshop Actions bring these too-dark shots back to a more normal-looking result. See How Do I Shoot in Available Darkness (pg 5-20 coming up). When the EV+/- compensation is dialed in, the Program exposure mode adjusts iris and shutter speeds but not ISO, while taking into account this new recommendation. i As you swing the camera around to a new subject, the compensation you called for with the EV adjustment does not go away, but the new subject may not need it, so you have to be aware that setting an EV adjustment is a two-edged sword. You can cut or increase the exposure with it, but you wonʼt like the results if you forget to zero it out after you have finished with it. Switching the camera off doesnʼt dismiss this setting—you have to do it yourself. As you move among Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority exposure modes, any EV+/– setting you had made for Program exposure mode is retained. In fully Manual exposure mode, the EV+/– number behaves differently tracking exposure, while showing you how far from the cameraʼs estimate you are, but it doesnʼt participate in adjusting things. When you see it telling you +/-2.0, you know that

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5-18 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

the camera is set way off from a normal exposure—in the cameraʼs considered opinion. i If you like the control of fully Manual exposure mode, but end up adjusting things until the EV number reads 0 all the time, you might as well have been shooting in one of the other modes. The zero reading indicates the exposure that the camera would have made anyhow.

HOW DO I ZOOM THE LENS? Of course, you turn the zoom collar, but Nikonʼs zoom lenses turn both clockwise and counter clockwise as the zoom achieves a more telephoto effect. Focus is always clockwise to infinity, but zoom is determined by more complex attributes of lens mechanics, so depending on the specific design, it could rotate either way. i The Kit lens turns the zoom ring clockwise to tele. The 28-200 turns counter clockwise to tele. Practice helps sort it out. i You can zoom the lens during exposure. Nobody said you canʼt. With fireworks, or even city lights, plus a well stabilized camera (think tripod), the effect is very interesting. If you are a fan of motion blur to convey movement, zooming and panning can be coordinated into interesting streak shots. i Generally it takes an exposure of 1/8 sec or longer to register the motion of an image as an intentional element in a picture, but like all rules of thumb, this one depends on subject and speed. HOW DO I CROP IMAGES? With a big six megapixel image to start with combined with Nikonʼs exceptional in-camera processing, the real estate of your image is quite large, and cropping to alter the aspect ratio or framing of a shot is to be encouraged. Anything that makes a picture better is allowed. Some photographers wouldnʼt think of cropping an image after the exposure, but for those who understand that this is not a Rule, crop away. i Limits to cropping are approached when reproduction size is large and the desired crop is more severe, meaning a smaller surviving area must print to a larger page. You can get away with a 2:1 crop (1/4 of the original surface area) when making a 7-inch print (178 mm) but not a great deal larger. Since the aspect ratio of the original image follows the 3:2 aspect of 35mm photos, nearly all images will become cropped for publication, usually toward a squarer 4:3 shape. Any true 8 x 10, 5 x 7 or 11 x 14 print will trim off some image. Images that look better wider will trim off some top and bottom. i Try to think of your frames as starting places for further manipulation, including crops.

Which is reproduced from a telephoto frame and which is a center crop from a wider zoom image scaled up? Can you even tell at 400% viewing?

Top image is the crop. Both images have been reduced to 1504 pixels wide before being embedded.

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HOW DO I PLAY BACK THE IMAGES? Playback mode displays images usually seen on the monitor through the A/V cord onto a video monitor. Camera back images wonʼt show you the full tonal range captured in the original shot, and your TV monitor may not, either, depending on its setup. NTSC and PAL formats can be selected from the Set Up > Video Mode option. i Neither the monitor surface nor the clear plastic monitor protector are coated to avoid glare, so you may have to angle the camera body to elude reflections. i With CSM #07 set to allow Image Review immediately after each shot, the picture you just took will be on display faster than you can pull the camera away from your eye to see it. Any time an image is being played back or reviewed, you can zoom into it and move around inside the image using a combination of the Enter button, then combine the ISO button with the Main Command dial for greater zoom in followed by scrolling with the Multi-selector. All of this is mirrored on the video out connection. Image quality of the video signal is quite good and zooming in all the way produces very acceptable video resolution display. i See also How Do I Play Slide Shows? on page 5-48.

When the light behind your subject is severe—ignore it! Expose for the foreground.

HOW DO I COMPENSATE FOR BACK LIGHT? Often the matrix meter will read a scene and identify backlighting, but itʼs not 100% clear on your intentions. Sometimes you have to show the camera what is best. The fastest way to expose for a subject that is in a strongly back-lit situation is to use the spot meter. Now the area of the scene that the light meter is considering is a tiny, less than 1% square in the center of the image. Spot meter coverage is about the size of the central focus bracket. The small size of the sensitive area makes this camera able to read very specific areas of your subject. At tele zoom you can read a spot that is under 1° wide. For reference, the full moon is about 1/2° degree in diameter. i After you play with the spot meter for a while, you will realize why it is a truly specialized metering system. It takes a bit of experience to understand where and how its readings are helpful or appropriate. Average Caucasian skin tones give a pretty good reading, but clothing, surface values, color and texture all read differently from what you might initially suspect. Practice and experience: thereʼs nothing to replace them, yet. i The spot meter is useful for the opposite of a back-lit scene: a performer in a spotlight is surrounded by darkness, typically, and this can also fool normal metering. The most common error in shooting live performers is obtaining an averaged reading that overexposes the person on stage. Stage performances most often highlight players in dark or subdued illumination. By reading directly off the surface you wish to properly expose—face, costume, illuminated set piece—other elements in the scene will not sway the exposure estimate.

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5-20 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

HOW DO I FORCE THE CAMERA TO FOCUS WHERE I WANT? The five focus zones in the D70 give you a certain degree of flexibility, but they donʼt cover every bit of the picture. In AF-S mode combined with Single Area AF-Area mode, you can learn to quickly pick the nearest appropriate focus zone, half-press to lock focus, then reframe slightly to complete the exposure. Exposure is computed when the shutter opens—not until then. You can zoom into a subject, let the Auto Focus system settle in on it, then click the focus switch to Manual, thus locking in the current focus point. In Manual Focus mode, you have the option of turning on the electronic focus magnifier through the Expanded Focus option on page one of the Set Up menus. The image now jumps, becoming larger, but only while you actively turn the focus ring. See the earlier section on How Do I Focus? i By setting focus in telephoto zoom, you are adjusting it for all wider zoom settings as well. So zoom in, adjust focus with the method of your choice, then zoom out to frame the final shot. HOW DO I SHOOT IN AVAILABLE DARKNESS? In spite of the old photographerʼs riff on “available light”, (Other old photographerʼs mirth-fests include “The f-stops here,” and “Hand me the focusing fluid”) shooting in near zero light is a lot of fun with the D70. Once the exposure requires shutter speeds of 1/15 sec or slower, only very stable cameras can possibly get the shot with any expectation of uncompromised detail. Slow shutter speeds need firm bracing or a tripod—or Q-Pod—for successful, detailed images. Once that is solved, the entire world will open up with images that are far brighter than your eyes could ever see. i Nikonʼs tech solution: Vibration Reduction optics like the affordable 24-120mm AF-S Nikkor f/3.5-5.6 G lens. Expect about three stops higher shutter speeds in low light. i In long exposures, anything that moves becomes a streak of movement. Anything that pulses regularly becomes a stream of dots or dashes over time. If a flash goes off during the shot—from another camera, if not your own for instance—a frozen image will appear among the streaks and blurs. Extra long exposures open up a whole different sort of image gathering, and getting into it with a digital camera is the only way it can be done while seeing what you are accomplishing. Using the Nikon wireless remote release, you can trip the shutter without touching the camera. That allows the exposure to happen without slight hand movements wiggling the camera during the shot. You can also use the Self-Timer and the cameraʼs own focus time to trip the shutter after your hands have stopped touching it.

Clouds often fool the auto-focus. So just to make sure, I targeted focus on contrastier detail (outlined), then reframed for the shot.

Just because it’s night doesn’t mean ALL exposures are long.

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In Night Landscape DVS mode, you can make automatic shots of night scenes with a shutter speed up to 15 sec. That will light up the night, but it is not the end of the story. In fully Manual exposure mode, you can shoot images up to 30 seconds in length. That will make a full-moon-lit vista at midnight look like a shot made at high noon, providing you used the right f-stop and ISO setting. If the camera is very warm, noise can randomly show up on the image as light specks. Shooting with NR active (Shooting Menu > Long exp. NR) will cause the camera to make a black reference frame after the shot is gathered, performed with the lensʼs internal shutter closed. Night imagery is often helped by Night It is a shot of nothing, but any flawed pixels and random noise on the Landscape and Night Portrait modes. imaging chip will be captured. The second exposure is exactly as long as the first, and the camera uses the second exposure to erase flaws from the first frame. i A manual version of this idea is available using the iFF-series of iNovaFX Photoshop Actions made for the D70. Several variations are available, but the D70 is so very immune from this phenomenon, that you may never experience the need for these rescue operations. Since you canʼt tell until itʼs too late, when shooting long exposures, capture a black frame—lens cap on—at the same shutter speed of your shots. This “flaw frame” may become useful later. Since darkness is just a relatively lower population of photons, the designers have given you several camera sensitivities to use. Settings range over a four stop sensitivity span from ISO 200 to ISO 1600. Shots made at ISO 200 are essentially grain free at print reproduction sizes up to 11 x 14 inches (280 x 356 mm). Print the files larger than that and the slight pixel to pixel variations that form grain can show. i Shrinking the image either by shooting Small frame files or reducing it later in Photoshop tends to average out fine scale grain. ISO 1600 can look quite smooth at half size (Small frame). i If you shoot with the D70 camera set for ISO 1600, but force the exposure lower by one stop, you will get the same exposure settings you would have gotten if the camera supported ISO 3200. Open the underexposed image in Photoshop and use the iNovaFX Photoshop Actions in the iSOD70.atn folder to lift the values of the underSize reduction blends exposed image. The natural grain of the image makes the shot look like it was made with high-speed grain, reducing its apparent presence in film. After lifting the values of the image, try the iColorDeNoise action(s) from the iColorDeNoise/ low light images. DeJPEG folder to bring the chroma noise down. On some images, you may wish to run de-noise actions first. i No sense wasting a free effect. Grain that accompanies low light photographyʼs higher ISO settings can give images a psychological boost, especially when color is drained from the image, producing the effect of high speed black and white. This wonʼt work with all subjects but if your shots support the look of gritty documentary photography, grain can be your friend. i In urban nighttime settings, many photographers mistakenly think that ISO has to rise to the ceiling or nothing will show up. True, nighttime contains a lot of darkness, but the subject matter under streetlights, sidewalk illumination and storefront lighting is relatively bright. ISO 400 can shoot in these situations with exposures around f/3.5 @ 1/60 sec.

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5-22 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

HOW DO I EDIT MY IMAGES IN THE CAMERA? Once you are in Playback or Review mode you have options for editing your images in the camera. Immediately, you can scroll backward and forward through the string of shots by using the up and down segments of the multi-selector control. To see more than one shot at a time, press the ISO button and four thumbnail images will appear. Press it again and the view now shows nine images in reduced thumbnail form. One of the images has a light frame around it. Thatʼs the currently selected shot. Deleting. Perhaps the first thing you will wish to do is get rid of the clinkers (derived from the Dutch word for slag or scum). These are the bad shots that all of us take either by accident (yeah, right) or while testing the lighting or simply through common momentary bewilderment. Any image that fills the camera monitor—or is highlighted in a thumbnail display—can be deleted quickly by simply hitting the trash button twice. A fast two-press lets you move through your files quickly. The only thing that will get in the way of this convenient operation is marking an image for protection. Doing that is even easier than deleting an image. i If you delete a valuable image completely here, itʼs still on the CompactFlash card. But to recover it you will need to run the Photo Rescue software found on this eBookʼs CD. If you shoot pictures after accidentally deleting your valuable shot, you run the risk of writing new images over the file memory locations that deleting just freed up, and if that happens, the shotʼs data may be lost forever. Thereʼs a good chance that this wonʼt happen and that the card will continue filling up memory locations in serial sequence before overwriting areas that have been recently used, but since there is no guarantee that this will be the case, prudence says your best bet is to swap out the current card and recover the shot before continuing to use it for new pictures. Protecting. To protect an image from deletion, scroll to the shot and press the WB button left of the monitor. A key icon appears in the upper left corner of the frame or thumbnail showing that it is “locked,” get it? The icon is a skeleton key. Itʼs an industry convention but not something that many people carry these days. Do people all over the world recognize it as a key? With the Play menu > Delete Image > Delete All selected, confirming the selection throws away all images that are not protected or hidden from view. Hiding an image is not as easy as deleting or protecting a shot. You must follow this sequence; Play menu > Hide Image > (select image) > (up/down to set) > Enter (to confirm). If the final Enter button press is not engaged, the camera ignores any selections that have been made. i Hiding images takes them out of showing up during casual chimping review or in slide shows. In fact, the only place you will ever view them again is through the Hide Images menu where you can make them visible again, one by one.

Rollover, click.

Rollover. Hey, where’s number five? See below.

Rollover, click.

Rollover, click.

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Printing Images. Although Nikon doesnʼt make printers, the D70 can prepare shots for direct printing from the CF card through the Play menu. Selecting images for printing marks them with an invisible flag that DPOF-compatible printers recognize. It stands for Digital Print Order Format. Most modern printers that read CF cards recognize these tags. Like the Protect and Hide functions, you mark each file you wish to print, only in this case the up/down actions of the Multi-selector button starts a running tab of the number of prints each shot will automatically produce from the printer. You can mark them for up to 99 prints, so be careful how many you ask for. A tiny number on each file shows its unique order quantity. When you verify that a print order is correct, the confirmation screen lets you choose to imprint data or date on the face of the print. Data is f-stop and shutter speed and Date is calendar date, showing year/month/day that were set in the Set Up > Date menu. i Unless you are required to print these bits of information on your pictures due to legal reasons or other compelling necessity, leave them off the picture. Art, they are not. Print services and kiosk printing stations usually recognize these DPOF orders but they may not be completely compatible with the print order quantities youʼve selected inside the camera. If you plan to use the service for convenient printing, test them with a small order, first. i Mark a CF card to print only one from Shot A and two from Shot B. Then see if the print service or kiosk follows your instructions faithfully. If you donʼt automatically get two copies of Shot B back, youʼll know that it isnʼt fully compatible. The files that define Shot A and Shot B are entirely up to you. i If it does work to your satisfaction, youʼll know very quickly. One of the big deals with digital printing services and kiosks is speed. A three print order wonʼt consume more than a few moments of your time waiting for results. Since outside services like these are variable, a three print order should give you a pretty good idea of image quality, too. Pick Shot A and B to represent tonal, color and resolution challenges. i Shooting pictures for DPOF printing is enhanced by selecting Shooting Menu > Optimize Image > Direct Print. If you are more deeply customizing your Optimize Image options, avoid shooting with Color Mode II (Adobe RGB). Shots made with that setting will look dull in direct prints. i Print Set menu options also includes the option Deselect All? This makes wiping away your print order a quick task.

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5-24 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

HOW DO I SHOOT ANIMATION FRAMES? Digital cameras are a new thing under the sun. Not only do they shoot still pictures, but also many of them, these included, can shoot frames to make animated sequences for playback on computers, on the Internet and as special effects for scenes in motion pictures. Major motion pictures have had a large portion of their special effects requirements fall into the desktop and laptop computer. Not just editing, but actual film resolution animated graphics are being used more and more from equipment that seems to cost less and less. The large 3:2 aspect image from the D70 is big and clean enough to be used easily for large scale cine backgrounds, frame by frame capture of animation artwork, time-lapse scenes and still-frame animation that involves complex moves, zooms and rotations for documentary productions. Movies are, after all, just a string of still shots. Since the D70 is fully capable of shooting long strings of still images, it can be used to gather frames for later animation.

QuickTime movie. Click to play. If the area above is blank, you will need to view this page with QuickTime 6.0 or higher installed on your computer.

Image sizes

Compression

Running length limitation

Image size

Motion rate (screen time)

Quality

Small

Basic

1.0 GB = 4,400 frames

1504 x 1000

24 fps (3:20)

TV movie

Small

Basic

1.0 GB = 4,400 frames

1504 x 1000

30 fps (2:25)

HD Video

Small

Normal

1.0 GB = 2,400 frames

1504 x 1000

24 fps (1:40)

HD Video+

Medium

Normal

1.0 GB = 1,100 frames

2240 x 1488

24 fps (0:36)

Motion picture

Medium

Fine

1.0 GB = 610 frames

2240 x 1488

24 fps (0:20)

Motion picture

Full

Fine

1.0 GB = 360 frames

3008 x 2000

24 fps (0:12)

Motion picture+

i When shooting any sort of series of shots that will later be animated, do yourself a big favor and lock the lens at a focus point, not allowing it to wander from frame to frame. Successive auto-focus operations are achieved within a tolerance range, and the effect of even tiny differences in focus from shot to shot appears as a size change to the overall image. Even a one pixel difference in frame size can destabilize the smoothness of a scene made from a string of same-coverage still frames. i Animation frames need to be exposure identical. Manual f-stop and shutter speed settings are needed. Older, mechanical iris lenses work best. Modern computer lenses produce a slight flicker as in the above example. i To trigger the shutter release, a remote release is essential. Either Nikonʼs own ML-L3 or a DigiSnap D70 will work. Touching the camera for every frame release is a no-no. Manual remote release gets tiresome quickly, especially if you are trying to capture a time-lapse result. For regular spaced shots over long periods of time, the DigiSnap is recommended. It will trigger the camera from under one second intervals to over an hour between frames. And you can set its timing with simple button presses in the field. i Even at Large frame and Fine compression, you can release the camera at one frame per second until the CF card is full. Still animation is easy to organize, if you can spare $30 for the software to Time-lapse images can be facilitated with achieve it. Apple makes QuickTime Pro and while many people think of this the Harbortronics DigiSnap D70, which is an enhancement of their popular DigiSnap as a program for little tiny web videos, Peter Jacksonʼs amazing Lord Of the Rings trilogy made use of QuickTime-based special effects scenes in wholesale 2000 plus the hardware that makes it interface with the D70’s infrared remote quantities. QuickTime, it turns out, is not in the slightest connected to any size capability. constraints. This means that you can shoot full frame images and animate them

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nearly instantly at full resolution and quality. Stringing a sceneʼs worth of frames together is quicker and easier than typing this sentence, and after that, reducing the image to a new frame size is just about as simple. i Put all the frames you wish to animate into a folder on your computer. It doesnʼt matter if they are perfectly contiguous or not. With QuickTime Pro, select the option Import Frame Sequence and locate the first frame—the one with the lowest frame number—and select it. QuickTime will ask you for frame rate information. You can choose 24, 25 or 30 fps for movie, PAL or NTSC video frame rates. Other fps options are available.

Multiple exposures can achieve some very cool effects, especially when controlled as Photoshop layers.

HOW DO I MAKE DOUBLE EXPOSURES? One of the first special effects was the double exposure. No doubt this occurred by accident when a view camera exposed two images onto the same plate, but pioneer photographers quickly realized that by careful manipulation of lighting and framing, they could float image B over image A and make an artful result right in the camera. Ghosts, pixies, impossible celestial events, glows, titles and graphics became photographic elements by burning the light from one exposure into an already exposed frame. You can do this with the D70 quite easily, but it wonʼt happen exactly inside the camera. Nikonʼs D2X will allow it in-camera, but for true control, you must do it after the elements that are to be combined are shot separately. i The big trick is Photoshopʼs easy layering and Blending Mode capabilities. Copy any image and paste it on top of another shot and Photoshop instantly creates a new layer holding the pasted image. Select Screen Blending mode (upper left of the layers), and the light from the top image is added proportionally to the lower image, exactly the same way that an in-camera double exposure would add them. Shoot the moon in telephoto, then shoot a scene on the ground in wide angle. Paste the moon over the ground shot. Inside Photoshop you can the elements into a better composition, but you also have much greater control of densities, color tint, rotation, size and placement in the frame. It will drive you nuts trying to get a really good double exposure inside the camera—there are simply too many variables. (Oops! The moon just barely digs into the side of the building: Re-shoot!) i A variation on double exposure can be created with a flash unit and some color gels. Focus on a subject in the dark, shoot a string of self-timer one-second exposures from a tripod while you walk around the scene blasting manual bursts of filtered light while the shutter is open. Lock focus before you begin. Blow the light in directions that illuminate your subject and the background without silhouetting yourself. The signal lights on the camera will cue you. Now take those frames and layer them using Screen blending. i Make adjustments and touch up anything that is out of place. You might have to slide a layer or two back into alignment if the camera was touched for each shot. Using Nikonʼs ML-L3 wireless remote in two-second delay mode helps keep things from drifting between exposures. People can be double exposed into the scene, but you might have to control light that leaks onto their image from other layers. Paint Here eight color and white flash with black on layers where light exposures are combined. Rollover & click to see two previously intrudes over things that should layered sub-groups. look solid.

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5-26 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

HOW DO I SHOOT PANORAMICS? Panoramics and full circular Virtual Reality scenes must be made from more than one exposure. The process of combining images into larger vistas is generally called stitching. A number of programs let you stitch pictures together including Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Nikonʼs own Nikon Capture program. One of the most flexible is free in the public domain, Panorama Tools by Professor

Helmut Dersch. A version of it is included on this CD and instructions for using it are on the Internet. Photoshop allows you to manipulate images in ways that permit stitching, as do PhotoVista from MGI, VR PanoWorx from VRToolbox, Pixmaker from Pixaround, and QuickStitch from Enroute. Some of these are even bundled with various printers. For interactive Virtual Reality images, you will need a viewing utility to interpret and playback the stitched image. Quicktime VR, PanoMagic from VRTools, and several other programs for Macintosh and Windows machines can be found on the Web. Shooting for VR pictures takes some understanding. It also takes some money to do it flawlessly. The basic principle is this: Shoot a series of overlapping images. For the best work, the angle of change from one picture to the next will be identical. Special camera mounts are available that allow adjustment of the lensʼs null point—the point at which panning produces no lateral shift or parallax from shot to shot—and these can be quite expensive. Check out the Manfrotto 302 or 302Plus VR panheads. They are miniature optical benches with adjustments for any camera and lens, but the full system can cost $400. Modest panoramic images is what most people want to shoot, so they can gather superwide vistas that no single lens could achieve. Here, three or more images can be stitched together creating a single shot. With Photoshop and some guidance (plus the experience of doing it a number of times), the results can be indistinguishable from single-lens images. The amount of needed overlap rises as the angle of view goes wider. At full wide angle, you should overlap shots at least 50%. Telephoto shots can have as little as 10% overlap if you prepare the shot carefully, but the 50% rule will get you more success than trying to economize in the overlap area. Experience demonstrates that with Kit Lens zoom at wide, 27mm equivalent, and a 50% overlap between segments, almost all images can be gathered with enough grace to steer around problems. Problems usually show up as visible elements in the overlap area that donʼt appear in the matching area of an adjacent segment. People, animals and moving vehicles are the greatest culprits.

An easy one to start. This full tele panoramic started as three identical exposures captured with full Manual exposure mode using the 28200mm G AF Nikkor. This image exists on the CD for practice, and it is the subject of a special Photoshop Action tutorial on page 10-27.

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Interesting panoramic images can be stitched together from hand-held shots. A large picture made out of un-matched exposures or color balances could look really bad. Use a factory preset white balance (Daylight or Incandescent) or perform a Manual white balance before you shoot, and donʼt change it until you are finished. Manual exposure mode will avoid all Opportunistic panoramic captured from the middle of a sorts of problems. pedestrian crosswalk. Shoot first and solve issues later. i Frequently the urge to catch an impromptu panoramic will preclude Rollover and click to see intermediate steps. careful planning and exposures will vary among segments of the final scene. Adjusting shots that mate together will challenge your retouching skills. Photoshopʼs Curves control will likely be your best starting place. i To stitch images together, they must be free of barrel distortion. Your new iBC filters from this CD will help. Eliminating barrel or pincushion distortion from all shots should be your first step.

SEW WHAT When you make your first panoramic, set some boundaries for yourself. Limit the number of images youʼre combining to three, limit the lens to a marked 24 mm field of view, use a tripod, and shoot straight out from the axis of panning rotation. By doing so, you will be avoiding a warren of variables that can complicate a panoramic shot. You will also be setting yourself up for the iPanoProcess iNovaFX Action that is found in the iPano folder of Photoshop Actions. i The technique taught here assumes you can remove barrel distortion from the images before stitching them together. If you donʼt have the tools to do this, shoot Kit Lens segments at the 35 mm

The angle of coverage is greater for the side Segments. With a 50% overlap, you get 260% coverage overall. Compare to actual shots, next page.

mark where barrel distortion is minimized. Make SURE that the camera is scrupulously level and that the tripod column is exactly vertical. Most of them have built-in levels, but it wouldnʼt hurt to get a small, reliable hot-shoe level for checking the camera directly. The more variables you remove from your first effort, the easier and less frustrating it will be overall. • Pan the camera to center your subject. Thatʼs right, the middle of the image will likely be the first exposure (unless, for some reason, it makes a lousy exposure target). Take a test exposure, and study it on the LCD screen to see if it is acceptable. Remember that a monitor screen that is set to extra

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5-28 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

bright (Set Up > LCD Brightness > +2) can fool you about image quality. It may look more appealing than the actual image does later on your computer screen. i Pick a subject that is more than 25 feet away from the camera. Panoramics that include close objects should be shot pivoting the lens around its nodal point and that changes with each zoom increment. As you pan from one segment to the next, the arc of parallax displacement of the Kit Lens has a radius of under 2.5 inches (65 mm) because the nodal point of that lens is just barely forward of the word “Nikon” boldly printed on the underside of the lens. Actual parallax offset at the 35 mm mark is only about one inch (25 mm) between adjacent, 50% overlap shots. Unless objects are very close to the camera, this is minor and can tolerated in the eventual blending of frames. For huge vistas in which everything is 100 ft. (30 meters) or farther from you, you will be safe from parallax errors with every tripod on the planet. • Before panning the camera to the next segment, it is VERY important to note the details that fall along the vertical grid lines on each side of the central circle. • Practice panning the camera while the details bisected by one grid line are moved over to the other grid line. To shoot the left segment move the details cut by the left grid line so they are cut by the right grid line, etc. Only a visual test like this will show you the extremes of the whole picture. • Adjust the center framing if need be. Repeat the left/right practice until you are confident of the series of framings it will take to make the final shots. i Alternatively, you could pan details from the center of the frame to the exact edge, left and right, of the viewfinder boundary. Notice that the only shot you have taken so far is a test image for exposure.

• Frame to the center image and shoot it, following with the left and right images in fairly quick succession. If the scene is full of people, this rapid acquisition of shots will help keep folks in their own frames. Alternatively, you can shoot the left, center, and right shots in clockwise or counterclockwise order. Clockwise L/C/R segments look more intuitive in a thumbnail viewing program. i If a lot of “traffic” seems to populate the overlap areas, shoot the stream in your chosen order several times in hopes that one of them will stitch more easily. • Now take the camera off the tripod, and make the same string of shots hand-held. The practice you have just acquired by doing the shot on the tripod will immediately help you to do the shot with nothing more than your hands. Use the AE-L/AF-L button for the string of shots if Manual exposure is inconvenient. Use the viewfinder grid lines to keep you level and geometrically aligned. i Later, when you study the two trios of images on your computer, you will see how little drift vertically there was in the tripod series, and how much there was when you shot the series hand-held. This is a factor that will be with you always when shooting panoramics by hand. With practice and

With the constraint of a 50% overlap, you can easily slide the centermost detail over to the extreme edges of the side segments as you pan and shoot—or use the vertical grid lines for reference. Notice that these original shots are slightly rotated and barrel distorted. That will need to be fixed.

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Level segments stitch more intuitively. If your subject is face-on and flat like this one, the iGrid&Rotate action followed by the iPanoiBC- actions will help. Note the rotation angle. It must be the same on all three segments. This rotation technique does NOT interfere with the subsequent barrel correction.

Once you open all three segments, change the outer ones to 50% Opacity and park that center target detail— the one that guided your shoot—on the center image version of the same detail. Notice the “detail echo” effect when it is right (inset).

awareness, it can be minimized, but it will not disappear. Later, you will need to crop the image to the top-most and bottom-most surviving details, so a little extra-wide framing will help. Many VR panoramic stitching programs create a curvilinear perspective—as if the image were created on the inside of a cylinder or sphere. That looks warped in a print and makes straight lines display as curves. For architectural images, you want straight lines. Rectilinear perspective is needed. Now we will stitch these three segments and keep the perspective as straight lines. If you are using Photoshop to transform the pictures for stitching, the following steps will guide you through the process. Hereʼs where Photoshop becomes a sewing machine. • Open all three sections at the same time in Photoshop. i If you made your shots with the lens at 24 mm wide angle, you will need to run the iBCD70Kit24 de-barreling iNovaFX Photoshop Action to bring each frame into perfect linear alignment. Remember that every zoom lens in the world creates some degree of barrel or pincushion distortion, and this will really drive you crazy unless you can correct it before attempting to overlap and align images. • Display segments at 25% size or smaller for easy reference in Photoshop. Arrange them side by side on the screen so you get a rough idea of how they relate to each other. i If you have used the iPanoProcess Action to orchestrate overlapping and pre-distorting the segments, note that it only works with full size, 24 mm shots. Open them one at a time in L/C/R order. • Make a new canvas with a black background. It should be about 9000 x 4000 pixels large. You are going to need some room to work. Copy then Paste the Center Segment onto this new frame.

• Copy the Left Segment. Paste it onto the larger center shot. It will land as a separate layer that can easily be slid into place. Slide it so its center is on the left. Paste the Right Segment and slide it half way to the right. • Change the Opacity of both outer Segments to 50%. This will let you see how the details are lining up. It becomes an exercise in seeing two layers at once for a while. iPanoProcess does all this automatically, stopping to let you make adjustments then picking up with the next task.

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• Carefully position the Left Segment so that the vertical center of its right edge exactly overlays the same detail on the center image. You will probably have to shift the whole left panel up or down to achieve this, but it is the foundation to all that follows. Do the same with the Right Segment. Using the Transform tool in the next steps, a habit must be learned. You will adjust the left image first as Perspective, then as Scale. Learn the key shortcuts for your computer that facilitate this. Going back and forth between these two modes is critical, for as the perspective of the outer images is adjusted, horizontal scale within the image changes. You will need to correct both aspects of the image to see how much more correction will be needed for the next step as you get closer to perfect. Initially you can work at 33% or 50% of full image size, but as you get closer to perfect, you will enlarge the image to 66% or 100%. • Using Perspective Transform, move the upper right adjustment box of the left image downward until the size of the detail at the right edge matches to the center panel. Be exact. If it seems to be the right size, but not centered, lift or drop the whole panel with the keyboard arrow keys until it fits. • Now grab the upper left Perspective Transform box, and move it upward until perspective features look right. The picture at right shows about how much to expect. Notice that the perspective lines of the original subject have now extended straight into the very distorted left panel. When perspective lines arenʼt present, make any image details match the size and spacing of the corresponding ones in the center. Notice how details are offset only left or right of their counterparts. • Using Scale Transform, pull the left side of the left image out about as far as you see in the image, above. Squeezed details in the overlap area become much closer to the correct horizontal dimension. • Using the arrow keys, you can re-center the images over each other by small increments. • Repeat these transformations, Perspective and Scale, until the images seem to be well aligned. Pay particular attention to perspective clues in the overlap area, and let them guide your next tweak. With practice, you can do it in one pair of moves. So feel free to practice. The linearity and size of the overlap area are completely at the mercy of these two transformations. i If you need to make fine adjustments to one corner, you can only do so in Free Transform mode. If you get lost, start over. i If one side seems to be the right size but is above or below where it should be, lift that side with the center edge Transform box. You may have to move both sides to maintain alignment.

When working with a fullwide, 50% overlap set of segments, they always acquire this shape.

Once everything is lined up, turn the outer segments to 100% Opacity and get ready to blend the images together

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With good alignment you can use a generous blend stroke. Smaller soft eraser circles can work around detail.

Turn off the Center Segment to check that there are no image pieces left hanging.

After the left side is Transformed, the right side will go faster. Your experience is showing already. • When you feel that you have aligned it about as closely as you can, select the Eraser tool, and give it a big soft brush of about 800 pixels. iPanoProcess facilitates this, too. • Plan a route down through the part of the overlap area that seems to be the best aligned. The overlap area may show some flaws or non-coinciding subject matter, but you are about to stitch around them. Use a smaller brush if the flaws are outstanding or if you have a lot of transient traffic in the overlap area. •Once you are satisfied that a blendable area goes from top to bottom, make the Right Segment 100% Opaque, and paint the eraser effect down through its left side in a continuous stroke. You may have to try this several times before you get it right, so be prepared for fast undos. Notice that the brush needs to be offset to the left as you paint the eraser effect. The soft edge may leave some parts unerased, and you will have to clean that up later. Turn off the Center Segment temporarily to see if there are any unerased details hanging. After both sides are done, collapse the layers and crop the image into a rectangle. Save it under a new name. The example demonstrates several things. Notice that the linear details look proportionally correct, but the objects at the edges may seem stretched a bit compared to the way they originally looked. This would be the exact same effect youʼd get from a superwide lens. Objects parallel to the image plane read proportionally correct, but threedimensional images near the edges are progressively distorted. Itʼs not an artifact of the process, itʼs an artifact of rectilinear perspective in extreme wide-angle shots. Panoramic images made this way spread the image detail at the right and left sides of the outer segments when they are expanded to appropriate perspective and scale. That causes a certain amount of lost resolution. Itʼs unavoidable, but it does yield an extremely wide shot. This resulting shot is equivalent—horizontally, at least—to a 18mm lens on a 35mm camera. Super wide-angle indeed. In hand-held panoramics, extra corrections will be needed due to slight rotations—hand twists that occurred during shooting. Often these can be corrected with small Skew Transform adjustments. Sometimes you just have to slightly rotate the whole panel before stitching can begin. A special iNovaFX Action utility, iPanoGrid&Rotate, facilitates this, too. Itʼs included in the iPanoD70 folder. i Not all panoramic images can be shot with the camera pointing straight out from its axis of rotation. But be warned. Images that are shot at an angle to the axis of rotation are harder to correct.

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Do ten easy ones like the example here before trying these more difficult ones. i The tripod alone worked well for the example shot, but with subjects nearer to the camera, a pan head that rotates the camera around the lensʼ nodal point (optical center) is better. Many architectural images will be shot from street level at a pronounced upward angle. The Skew Transform effect will help here immensely by pre-distorting side images into a rough correspondence before applying Perspective and Scale Transforms. i Often with complex images, you will have made so many tweaks that the image feels like it will never come together. It happens to everybody. This is a good reason to go into Photoshopʼs History file and start over at an earlier stage. It is amazing how fast a correction can be made by starting over and how much time can be lost by trying to adjust an image panel after several mistakes creep into the process. i If memory use becomes an issue—and it can easily bite you with three or more full size pictures in the same file—you may have to minimize the number of steps it takes to achieve a Perspective and Scale Transform. Jumping backwards in the History file lets you redo a series of tweaks as a single, more accurate first adjustment. This practice will save scratch disk space for other operations.

Photoshop Elements has a simple feature that lets you put all the segments of an image into a file, pull all those shots into PSE and hit the Stitch Panoramic button. Like magic, the program does all the hard work and even gives you control over shots that were not made at the same exact exposure. It does not always work the way you might expect, and it is not as precise as doing it by hand, as outlined here, but it gives you a preview faster than doing it using the instructions in this topic.

The final superwide image. Compare this to the center, wide-zoom coverage on page 5-28. It is nearly three times the span.

Ultra wide angle images can be made with this technique using Kit Lens at its 18mm mark.

The Ultra wide result is almost four times wider than the Center Segment alone. You will need a huge work space 12,000 x 9,000 pixels big.

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Second sight. The full color scene on top hides the infrared view under all that color. With the right IR filter, you can capture the invisible world of high frequency heat.

HOW DO I SHOOT INFRARED IMAGES IN DAYLIGHT? Infrared (IR) images are very cool. They give you a way to experience the world that isnʼt directly visible with your eye. Infrared photons are longer, weaker photons and they react to vegetation, atmospheric dust, dyes and skin in novel ways that make for some pretty interesting images. The infrared spectrum starts below visible red and extends down toward radiant heat. Usually, IR light is a nuisance, and an internal filter cuts it out of the light coming into the lens, but for some shots it defines a new way to see. The D70 reacts to IR light, but not strongly. You must coax it to get infrared shots. When the camera is set to ISO 200 and an appropriate R72 infrared filter is used, a daylight white balanced image will require about 1/8 sec at f/3.5 for exposure and the image will look completely red! Itʼs not usable in this form, so heroic measures are needed to get the white balance and exposure right. It gets worse. With an IR filter over the lens, there is no such thing as seeing the view through the viewfinder. You must set up the shot without the filter in place, then add the filter to take the shot. Tripods help. One good thing, though. Everything you need except the IR filter itself is already in hand. Still, a four-part strategy is needed to let the camera shoot daylight scenes in infrared. Strategy number one is selecting the appropriate IR filter. The Wratten 87 series are IR-pass filters that block visible light. The 87 lets in the most IR and the 87A, 87B and 87C filters let in less and less of the shorter wavelengths of visible and near-infrared light. All of the 87 filters look black to your eye. The easiest filter to use may be the Wratten 89B which is also labeled as an R72 filter. i Some places offer filters with a different nomenclature. An “093” is equivalent to an 87C and appears quite black to the eye. IR filters are usually found in B&W film filter collections in camera stores. They likely wonʼt know what you need if you say itʼs for a digital camera. Strategy number two elevates ISO. At ISO 1600, outdoor shots at f/3.5 still only produce about 1/60 sec exposures wide open and you really want to close down a stop or two for depth of field. A fast f/1.8 50mm Nikkor lens helps bring this up to 1/200 sec. Strategy number three is white balance. Make a manual white balance off the bright red patch of the iNovaFX Off-White Balance Color Filter iChart that is on this eBookʼs cover insert. Keep that picture on your CF card so you can come back to that WB setting when you want to recycle it. By using this special WB, your infrared shots will be more neutral in color. i One way of turning any of the IR-mode shots into neutral B&W is to grab the Green Channel in Photoshop and paste it into the Red and Blue channels.

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Strategy number four occurs during shooting. View through the camera without the filter in place and hold the filter between your left thumb and index finger. Just before you engage the shutter button, hold the filter over the lens, then half-press to focus—surprise, the camera will focus on the IR light, approximately—and shoot. i Conveniently, the outlined procedure works well for me when using the Nikkor 28-200 mm f/3.5-5.6G zoom lens. The filter I use is 58mm, but it doesnʼt vignette. Kit lens IR images will need a much larger and more expensive 67mm R72 filter (about $77, from 2filter.com). i For more accurate IR focus, manually adjust it slightly closer.

D70 IR images with deep red adjusted white balance arrive as sepia. Rollover for neutralized image. Click for color.

HOW DO I SHOOT FOR SPECIAL EFFECTS? With so many iNovaFX Photoshop Actions to deliver special effects, it may seem dauntingly difficult to decide how to shoot for a specific effect. In-camera effects are nonexistent. Well, you could pump up color with a combination of Shooting Menu > Optimize Image > Custom > Color Mode > IIIa + Tone comp. > High Contrast, + Saturation > Enhanced combination, but thatʼs as extreme as you can create without playing with the image later in an editing program. So the iNovaFX Photoshop Actions contain over three hundred (!) themes and variations of special effects to help you manipulate images in Photoshop 6, 7 and CS. When shooting for more complex special effects, you will need to first understand the effect at a visceral level. Try several images youʼve already gathered and use the iNovaFX Action (or any new effect) just to see how it behaves and how effective it is. Pun intended. i Not every image works well with every kind of effect. An oil-painting-like special effect (such as the iCanvasPainting series of iNovaFX Photoshop Actions) usually works better on a close-up portrait than on an image of small detailed objects, for instance. But until you try, you may never know. I often find images that work with effects I would have dismissed as being inappropriate. Once you understand what the result looks like for a given special effect, you can plan your image to fit the subject type, tonal range, contrast ratio, lighting and composition format that work best for it. Then shoot. i Chapter 8 shows a number of special effects results using various iNovaFX Photoshop Actions on the same image. Sometimes an image will lend itself to manipulation by many different techniques. Often the best effect is not the pre-packaged version, but one you invent from scratch. Far from the original image, a special i No matter how good you are, trying to memorize the exact sequence of steps to bring effect may bring out a new way of about a complex task is painful. Photoshop Actions memorize steps. Study the Photoshop appreciating the subject. iPSSketch > iStampArt (top), iDimroomArt > manual to learn how to record and save your own actions. Itʼs not as hard as it might iBloomArt2 (bottom). seem at first, and a recorded action will let you apply its many steps to other images. i The insert in the CD supports ideas in this eBook. Look for the Shooting for Effect booklet.

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It takes two to tangle. Two images shot from slighly different lateral positions give your brain the perception of volume. Here the left eye image is on the right side and mild convergence of your eyes is needed to pull the shot into 3D. Baths of Caracalla, Rome. Hand-held.

HOW DO I SHOOT IN 3D? The essence of 3D is that our brain sorts out the view we get from two eyes and reports it to our conscious awareness as an unambiguous volume of visual material. The phenomenon of 3D perception is all in our mind, but clever Mother Nature has found a way to simulate volumetric visual perception with just two eyes parked a few centimeters apart. This makes it fairly straightforward for us to capture a volumetric image in 3D with just two exposures, one for the left eye, and one for the right. Shooting an image pair might be simple, but how would you get these shots into your head? To create a true 3D effect, you would need to shoot images at the same instant and from two places about 65mm apart horizontally. Then you would need to view the two images in a way that delivered only the left point of view to the left eye, etc. Well itʼs not easy to lash two cameras this close and trigger them to the exact fraction of a second perfectly, but that all only applies to a true 3D capture. If you put some liberal tolerances around the idea, you can shoot very realistic, revealing 3D images with nothing more than one extra shot. But only if you accept some limitations: 1. The subject canʼt move, wiggle, distort or change for about five seconds. If the dog wakes up after the first exposure, it will move, and there goes the shot. 2. You must be able to shift left or right from the position at which you take the initial shot. It really doesnʼt make much difference which goes first, but you might shoot in Left > Right order to avoid confusing yourself later. 3. You must frame the scene exactly the same way—same exposure settings, focus settings, framing and composition—for both shots. Locking these attributes as you set the shot up is a Good Idea.

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Well, that lets out fast, moderate and slow action shots. The subject must be stock still. Or you must be so far back from it that it doesnʼt appear to be moving from shot to shot. Things like clouds in the back of a scene donʼt make much difference, but waves in the foreground will ruin the effect. So will leaves fluttering on trees and plants, birds flying by, kids making faces and tourists milling around a monument. Donʼt let that stop you, weʼre not finished. If you limit your shot to the parts of an environment that stay still, you can make 3D images. Architecture doesnʼt move, museum exhibits donʼt move, either. Still life subjects are fair game and so are aerial images. Excuse me? Did you mean shots from an airplane? Yep. Of course, there is no way you can be precise with many of these situations on a candid basis; the left eye/right eye distances will not

be controllable. That turns out to be something of a non-problem. As long as the two images are not “relatively” far apart, your brain sorts it out and gives you a volumetric view anyhow. It isnʼt technically correct but the only thing that is in jeopardy is the actual scale of the 3D effect. On large scale scenes, you can move a foot or several meters from one shot to the next and create a convincing 3D result. Your brain is more accommodating than you may think. From an airplane, you simply aim the camera out the window and shoot a stream of images in Continuous frame mode. Now when you press the shutter, the camera quickly gathers three or more shots in a row over about one secondʼs time. Images have now been taken about 400 and 800 feet apart (roughly 120 and 240 meters) at passenger liner jet speed. Thatʼs such a small fraction of your eye to ground distance that a modest 3D effect will be in the most extreme shots. If the plane is inside nearby complex clouds, you may find that two closer together shots create the best effect. i High altitude images are best gathered using Daylight white balance. Haze builds up with altitude and an iNovaFX Photoshop Action set called iAerialShotCorrection.atn will cut through the haze and give you images that make ground colors look right.

SEEING IN DIMENSION Once you have a left and right eye view of things, how do you see it? Wouldnʼt it be cool if you could simply put two large images side by side and see them in dimension? It can be done, but I fear it is not for everybody. The method I outline here canʼt hurt your eyes or ruin your vision, but it will feel strange to your eyes at first. First, a brief refresher in vision dynamics. We know that our eyes focus from near to far and that we can angle our eyes inward to view objects close to our face. It isnʼt a stretch to hold something up to our face eight inches from our nose and inspect it for a long time comfortably. What is not immediately apparent to us is that by habit, we have linked the focus and convergence circuits of our eyes in a

Aloft! Two shots made out of an airplane window can become a dramatically deep vista. Alps at dawn.

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Sunk into the page, top, and lifting out of the page, bottom. Notice how the position of the flower is centered equally on the top example. That makes it appear near the plane of the page. The background plane of plants is cropped more equally in the bottom version.

coordinated effort. If we transcend that coordinated state, we can view pairs of images in 3D with relative ease on computer screens, in eBooks and as prints. Hereʼs the trick: The most convenient way of seeing 3D from pairs of images is to lightly cross your eyes, superimposing the images on top of each other in your brain. It will help at first to hold a finger about seven to ten inches in front of your nose, and focus on your fingertip while observing the image pair shown here on the computer screen. Bring your finger up over the images until you see what looks like three images in a row behind your finger. Then try to focus past your finger to the center image. In practice, many people learn to do it in less than a minute. Other people will have to try to see it several times before becoming successful, and still others wonʼt even need the finger technique. Now itʼs time to bring up the idea of the viewing plane. With a 3D image there will be the choice of where the depth of the image should be; in front of the page, behind the page, or somewhere in between with some elements seeming to protrude and others seeming to sink behind it. Any subject matter that is exactly cropped the same in both shots will appear to be at the depth of the page itself. To the degree that an object is farther from one side of the picture in successive shots, it will appear to be in front of, or behind, the plane of the page. You can fix this in editing the image if you crop the two images with the exact framing and lateral placement. The easy way to do this is to layer one image over the other, and make the top layer 50% transparent with the Opacity Slider in the Layers window. Slide the top layer until it matches up with the unmoving bottom layer. Some details will match perfectly, others wonʼt. The ones that you make match perfectly will be at the plane of your image after you crop the two layers together. After cropping the pair so both images occupy the same frame, make the top layer 100% opaque, and double the canvas size horizontally with the Canvas tool. Now slide one layer to the left, one to the right, and use the viewing technique to see if you got left and right images correct. Flatten the image, and print it out, or store it for viewing on your computer.

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HOW DO I SHOOT WIDER-ANGLE SHOTS? While the Kit Lens does a great job of achieving wide-angle images, it covers just a tiny bit wider angle of view than a 28mm lens on a 35mm film SLR. Its 18mm setting delivers a 27mm wide equivalent. Call that a very wide image. If one turns the camera 90° for a portrait orientation image and shoots two segments of a stitched Panoramic with the resulting vertical components, Photoshopʼs File > Automate > Photomerge feature can take two vertical images and make a wider, squarer image out of them if the program sees a generous 40% overlap. With three frames in a sequence, the view gets even wider, and the program gives you the option of mapping the image in rectilinear perspective or in cylindrical form that preserves vertical straight lines while curving Nikon’s 10.5mm Fisheye-Nikkor horizontal perspective lines. can be processed into rectilinear hyper-wide images with an iNovaFX Action.

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i How well does it work? I give it a five out of ten. The required overlap needs to be large, the precision is low, and its success with the 18mm setting on the Kit lens is not terribly encouraging. Too many times the result does not mate adjacent subject matter without overlap artifacts. Nikkor optics include the AF-S 12-24mm f/4G DX zoom and at 12mm, this lens wins the prize for capturing the widest direct rectilinear view. Balancing its ability is its cost. Get ready to spend around $1,100 for this amazingly good optic. The lens is so good, however, that you might start a savings account. Then there is the full frame fisheye, the Nikkor AF 10.5mmG DX full frame fisheye. Nikon Capture includes a software option to spread its curvilinear fisheye perspective into straight line perspective and while it does a pretty good job of straightening out the shot, sharpness is not as good as can be expected from the 12-24mm zoom. Price of the fisheye is usually around $600 US from Internet sources. i Making an image look wide angle is something that can be done with the Kit Lens quite easily. Much of it is in the way the shot is composed and framed. Since the native image is 3:2 in aspect, sliding the center of interest in the shot farther into the corners of the image has the psychological effect of emphasizing perspective. If the shot includes a person, simply taking a step back, thus reducing the personʼs image size, can make a picture feel wider. i Cropping the top and bottom off a horizontal image forces a wider aspect ratio on the result. The more cinemascope the frame appears to be, the wider its lens seems to be, too. i Include a perspective vanishing point. When the straight lines of man-made objects appear to converge at a seen or unseen vanishing point, especially if that vanishing point is slightly closer to the corner of the frame than the rule of thirds would suggest, then the shot will feel like the lens was wider. i Move the camera to a slightly—or dramatically—different apparent eye height. Shots made a foot from the floor looking up or from a balcony looking down appear to be wider due to their unusual points of view.

Super wide-angle lens? No, just the 18mm end of the Kit lens at an exaggerated point of view.

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HOW DO I SHOOT CANDIDS? There is no single way to shoot candids. Candid images are, by their very nature, unexpected, unposed, impromptu, unrehearsed, surprise shots. Sometimes you can predict that a good candid situation will likely shape up, but for many candid images, you have only a brief window of opportunity to capture them. In the greatest number of candid shots, the subject will be entirely involved in their own world of concerns, and you wonʼt be a part of it. Preferably, they will ignore you or simply be completely unaware of you and your camera. Remember that people inside businesses, on private property and in special circumstances may be protected from being photographed by law. Candid faces canʼt be used for advertising. With the camera up to your eye while using the viewfinder, you will look like a photographer zeroing in on your subject, and nobody will go back to what they were doing if they see you aiming the camera this way. Avoid looking like a photographer by first recognizing the potential candid situation, then turning away to check that the D70 is set to the right exposure mode, EV+/– setting and white balance. Once you are certain the camera is in shooting shape, the delicate process of fast image gathering can begin. Sometimes the moment when your subject discovers you is the most interesting. When the subject ignores you, a candid image can be achieved— perhaps several. But when they spot you, donʼt simply give up unless the entire situation has gone away. Things that may help: • Shoot in the Continuous frame mode. Expressions and gestures change quickly. • Look away from your intended subject as if they don’t interest you. • Shoot from waist level, lap level, table level or from a pose that doesn’t suggest you are aiming the camera. Since your framing can only be approximate, zoom wider. • Yawn. Look like a tourist. • Smile, making an acknowledgement that you saw how they looked, but oh, well, the moment is over. It may not be. En garde. • Move the camera off them, but only until they lose interest in you. • Take the picture anyhow. A glare, even if it is confrontational, can be interesting. • Shoot from cover. If you hide your face or the camera, or both so your intended subject doesn’t connect with them, they will move on, and a picture may happen. • Recognize that many shots will get away, and be prepared to move on to the next idea. Shoot something else near them—as if that was the thing interesting you all along. • Telephoto settings will give you extra invisibility. Shoot from afar. • Wait for it. An attractive setting may just produce an attractive moment. • Become a photojournalist. Keep shooting as if the subject is a story you are supposed to be covering. Try to be positive, showing that their participation was appreciated. Urge them to continue naturally and nod gesturing that this is your job to take pictures. • If they object—back off instantly. Apologize. It is sometimes better to apologize to a dozen people than to miss an amazingly engaging shot pulled from real life.

i Remember, you and you alone can determine if you are being too pushy as you shoot candids in public. Also keep in mind that most people, if asked, would not give you permission to take their picture but would be thrilled to see their candid in a newspaper.

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HOW DO I SHOOT BLACK AND WHITE IMAGES? Many digital cameras include a monochrome B&W shooting mode, but the D70 has no such trick up its sleeve. To achieve B&W images, you must alter with the image in an editing program. Almost every editing program these days offers a B&W option or three. The trick to getting a good B&W image is first seeing in terms of tonality rather than in terms of a full color image. In Photoshop altering an image into Luminance or draining its color is fairly easy. Just lift Luminance from the L channel of L*a*b mode. Or drain saturation to zero in the Hue and Saturation window. Both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements allow you to manipulate the individual color channels so you can view the Green channel by itself, and copy it to the Photoshop clipboard. Now you can paste the Green channel onto the Red and Blue layers of your original shot, thus turning the color image into a completely neutral monochrome result. But the shot will contain only what the green filters saw, so reds will be black and greens will be rather too light. One other way to shoot for B&W images is to derive the B&W image in your computer. Special iNovaFX filters are included on this CD that derive several different types of monochrome film looks from your color images. The advantage to shooting color is that you can print the image either way. The disadvantage is that you canʼt see your image as a monochrome assembly of tonalities as you shoot. i The iNovaFX iBWColorGel filter for Photoshop allows you to manipulate the RGB channels of a color image to create the effect of strong glass color filtration on B&W film. Itʼs just a convenient setup for Photoshopʼs Channel Mixer feature. With it you mix the percentages of RGB that make the picture, keeping track of each channelʼs percentage contribution. Many tasty tonal effects are available. HOW DO I SHOOT FAST ACTION? Action photography in general takes a lot of practice and experience to gather with a high degree of success. Professional photographers specialize in sports and action with good reason. It takes a specialistʼs eye and experience to anticipate, respond to, and accomplish good action photography. But there is nothing that says you canʼt get good at it, too. You will need to be aware of several principles, though. High shutter speeds freeze fast moving subjects, but not all fast action images need to be frozen. Slow shutter speeds of 1/30 to 1/8 sec are useful for showing the blurred, streaked dynamics of movement that action often brings. For things like football or baseball action, higher shutter speeds and longer zoom settings are your first choice. For situations like auto racing, shooting while panning

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dSLR: Nikon D70

with your subject will allow longer exposure times to blur the background while keeping the subject relatively sharp. Bursts of images made with motor drive cameras are the mainstay of sports photographers. The Continuous frame mode in the D70 gives you a fast way to take many shots in a row at three per second. Large frame, Fine compressed images are guaranteed a camera buffer of at least nine shots in a row, even with the worldʼs slowest CF card. With the SanDisk Extreme cards, this lifts to around 18 shots since the card accepts images so quickly. At Normal compression, the camera goes at minimum through 25 images before slightly slowing. Basic compression inhales images at full speed until the card fills to the top. Equipment response time is more desirable in action photography where unpredictable events can happen at any time. To optimize the camera shutter response timing, eliminate the exposure preparation systems that slow things down. Disable the Auto-focus system by using Manual focus mode. That will speed things up a bit. Now set the camera to Manual exposure mode and shoot test shots so you know how the camera handles before the real action begins. Prepared this way, the camera is now responding as fast as it can, but donʼt forget to half-press in anticipation of the coming fast-moving event. i For higher frame rates, thereʼs always the D2X with its 12.4-megapixel image at five fps that also takes a cropped image of 6.8 megapixels at eight frames per second.

HOW DO I BRACKET EXPOSURES? A bracketed exposure includes over and underexposed versions of the same shot. So it is really a cluster of exposures seeking one to be perfect. One of the exposure variations may be significantly better, for one reason or other. Entering Bracket mode with the BKT button and Main Command dial gets you into Bracket mode. Choices in CSM #12 select among AE, Flash and white balance bracket combinations. Bracket combinations allow two and three-shot bracket strings of up to ±2 stop exposure differences. i When bracketing, switch on the Continuous frame mode. Now one button press will capture all the shots of the bracket, politely stopping at the end of the bracketʼs two or three shots. i Bracket shots respect any EV+/– compensation youʼve dialed in, so you can bias the exposure first, then shoot the bracket string around that new center exposure. i Of course, you can always perform a manual bracket using any of the shutter or aperture controls in full Manual exposure mode. You could also use the EV +/- system to shoot a string of images above and/or below the cameraʼs indicated light reading. i Differences of just ±0.3 EV can be fixed in editing. No need to shoot brackets this close. Try ±0.7 or 1.0 to get some range from the shots.

Bracket for critical exposure. Here 3 images were captured -0.7EV, 0, +0.7EV.

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The Nikon SB-800. Direct flash vs. bounce flash. Each has advantages and drawbacks, but in general, bounce flash looks more natural and less paparazzi.

HOW DO I USE EXTERNAL FLASH? Nikon has designed these cameras with a TTL (Through The Lens) double flash system. It works well, but it emits what feels like a double pulse of flashes in order to compute the proper exposure. The first flash is read by the camera through the lens and that reading informs other camera systems how to expose for the second flash. Since only the matrix meter array is observing the pre-flash, nearby reflective objects that are not in the frame canʼt affect the exposure. However, the TTL mode doesnʼt trigger most slave units. Those operate by detecting the camera flash with a photocell and triggering their own flash tube, thus adding their light to the shot from wherever they are positioned. No wires are needed, but the synchronization of all the slave units and the camera flash unit is quick enough to appear as though they were all wired together. The double camera flash confuses most slave units, but Nikonʼs own SB-600 and SB-800 flash units enjoy an unprecedented degree of remote triggering and exposure accuracy. See the special flash unit operation subchapter for details. For triggering low cost slave flash units a second flash option is available. Select CSM #19 Flash Mode > Manual > (power from Full to 1/16th). Manual mode doesnʼt double flash, so you can use it to trigger a whole studio full of slave units. This is a good thing, since inexpensive slave units can be $20 or less. Itʼs not uncommon to use more than four slave units for a picture. Backlight, set light, fill light, main light, rim light—all these and more can go into a complex shot. Better that they cost less per each. i The camera flash has a third mode, Commander Mode that uses the camera flash as a pulse-code transmitter to remote SB-600 and/or SB-800 units. In this mode the camera flash fires but only as a signal device coordinating the operation of remote SB-600/800 units. Test flashes come from them and the camera signals them back how bright actual exposure flashes should be. i Nikon calls their flash units “Speedlights” and they can be used to flash with every exposure in Continuous frame mode. i When you disconnect a Nikon Speedlight from the camera hot shoe, it gracefully goes to sleep—for weeks, if needed—and stops draining its batteries, even when you have left the switch in the On position. When that unit is re-attached to the camera hot shoe, it wakes up with the cameraʼs on/off switch. i The D70 has a center-pin hot shoe that can be used with direct mount inexpensive flash units. But the on-camera flash is quite good, so the real reason you would wish to attach an external flash is to produce bounce flash lighting effects. Bounced light avoids the harsh paparazzi direct flash look. Both of the Nikon SB-600/800 units are extremely flexible and bounceworthy.

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5-44 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

HOW DO I TRIGGER SLAVE FLASH UNITS WIRELESSLY? It sure would be nice to fire off extra slave flash units without seeing the camera flash in the shot. For this, you would need to prevent white light from flowing out of the flash tube and onto your subject and still be able to use the camera flash to trigger those slave units. Can it be done? Yes! Slave units—including Nikonʼs own, and many others—respond well to infrared light. So the simple technique is to filter the single pulse, Manual mode camera flash unit to emit only infrared (IR) light. How do you do that? You filter out the visible light. Kodak Wratten Infrared Filters in 75 x 75 mm size (3” square) cost about $50 each, but a small chunk of this over your camera flash will filter out visible light and allow infrared pulses to pass, triggering slave units. Hang on. It gets cheaper. Long ago film designers realized that the dye in slide film should be transparent to heat (infrared) but opaque to visible light. Todayʼs transparency film dyes are almost totally transparent to infrared. This means that you can make an infrared filter out of black slide film! What you want is slide film that was processed but never exposed. The darkest black film is what you want. Buy a roll and send it off for processing without shooting anything on it. Or go to a lab that develops slide film and strike up a conversation with the person behind the counter. A five minute conversation might get you some reject strips of blank transparency film for free. Cut a rectangle of black film 15 by 23 mm and make two slices 4mm deep following the pattern seen here. Bend the outer corners back 90° and insert them into the small gaps just above the camera flash tube. i Some small amount of visible light will penetrate the slide film, but not enough to make a difference in your shot. If you are lucky, portraits made with slave unit light will include a tiny white spot in your subjectʼs eyes—a small accent light that scarcely participates in the actual exposure. HOW DO I KEEP DIRECT SUN OFF MY LENS? Most Nikkor lenses come with lens shades and they work over a wide range of situations. Unless the lens you are using is one of the digital DX-series, the lens shade that comes with the lens is less protection than that optic could have tolerated. i Lens shades that come with non-DX lenses are shade protection for 135 format cameras—full frame film cameras that cover about 2.3 times the image surface your D70 uses—lie well outside the field of view the D70 intercepts. Thankfully, Nikkor lenses are extremely well protected from glare and reflection with lens surface coatings. Your chances of having a noticeable reflection problem are quite small. HOW DO I LEVEL MY IMAGES? Even with the grid lines switched on in the viewfinder, you will find it impossible to perfectly level the camera when you are shooting a dynamically changing situation. Typical level errors are under two measley degrees of tilt, but that can seem wrong if the photo includes obviously level subject matter like architectural details or the distant horizon.

Look closely. Something is on the face of the flash tube. It’s a piece of black slide film that converts Manual camera flashes into slave flash triggers.

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Twisted. The horizon is running downhill. Rollover to see the corrected version, slightly cropped. Click to see how to setup the crop tool to verify level.

Consider fixing the level of images in Photoshop. Its cropping tool twists around its center point if you ask it to. i When you first apply it to your image, the crop rectangle is square to the image—but when you move your mouse cursor just outside a corner, it changes into a rotation tool. Now you can rotate the crop rectangle to fit the level of the image. i Move any border up into the image so it acts as a tool for comparing the straight side of the crop rectangle with a level feature within your image. Readjust the angle of the crop, then pull corners of the crop rectangle to the maximum limits of the image before cropping. i Pull the nearest corner to each edge. If you have told Photoshop to allow Snap to Bounds (View menu) then each corner will lock to an edge. i When you make the crop, the entire image is twisted back to level and very few pixels are lost at the outer edges of the original picture.

HOW DO I DISABLE FEATURES? Certain features are inappropriate for certain situations. If you are shooting a dignitary in low light, the focus assist light could be mistaken by security guards as a threat. You and your camera could be suddenly wrestled to the ground. CSM #04, AF-Assist > Off. In some lighting situations, the constant display of the last shot captured can be a distraction. Itʼs right under your eye, and if the ambient lighting is low the sudden appearance of the image can startle or slightly blind you. CSM #07, Image Review > Off. Do you really want the AE-L/AF-L button to lock both exposure and focus? Maybe not. CSM #15. HOW DO I AVOID BLINKERS? Blinkers are shots with people in mid eye blink. Sometimes shots of this are funny, but the joke wears thin. i Since TTL flash can cause subjects to blink, spoiling the flash shot, set CSM #15, AE-L/AF-L > FV Lock OK and use the AE-L button to fire the pre-flash before making the shot. The subject may still blink due to the pre-flash but the camera has just made its determination about flash exposure for the coming shot. i The FV (Flash Value) lock stays in place until you dismiss it. Since only one pulse is emitted by the camera with each FV locked exposure, inexpensive slave units will now behave the way you want them to. By preparing the camera to perform a i To make another test flash for the next subject you will test TTL flash, all following shots are have to frame them and press the AE-L button twice. The first press dismisses the single pulse, hence, no blinkers. previous test result and the second press makes a new test flash. i Adjusting the flash strength alters the FV value the camera is holding allowing you to tweak exposure after the test exposure was made.

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5-46 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

HOW DO I USE A UV, HAZE OR DAYLIGHT FILTER? UV filters are neutral in color but Daylight and Haze filters have a small color tint. Get UV and make sure it is multi-coated on both sides. Those avoid any extra flare or reflection in the optical path. A good multi-coated 62mm UV filter will cost from about $40 US to as much as $90 US. Price is not a guarantee of quality, durability or anti-reflective characteristics. UV filters are like bodyguards. Their job is to take the “hit” instead of having it slam into the front element. HOW DO I PRINT IMAGES FROM THE CF CARD? Marking images for printing is similar to marking them for protection except it must be done from within Play Menu > Print Set > Select/Set. After you scroll to a picture you want to print, mark it with the up/down segments of the Multi-selector button and remember to check the quantity each image will produce. Confirm your order with the Enter button > Done. Remove the CF card and insert it in the media slot of a printer that recognizes DPOF format printing instructions and follow the instructions for that printer. Your images will soon be ready.

Definition of “protection money”— whatever you spend on a good UV filter.

HOW DO I PLAY IMAGES ON TV? While dSLR cameras have no live viewing, you can play back shots you have taken as soon as the shutter finishes the exposure. Hook the D70 up to a video monitor that accepts either PAL or NTSC video format. Choose the correct output format in the Set Up > Video Mode > NTSC/PAL menu and any time the camera monitor would normally become active, the image will appear on the video monitor instead. All the chimping operations like enlarging the image, seeing arrays of thumbnails, displaying menus, inspecting the image by scrolling around on it, observing the EXIF data, watching the histogram and gauging tonalities can be done on the big TV. i Caution, unless the TV produces a very refined color and tonality display, it may deviate from the way the same shot will look on your computer screen. It may look quite a bit better than on the camera monitor and the resolution will be higher, but TV sets are not as good as your computer to for inspecting and quality controlling your image. i The electronic video image from the camera can be recorded onto video tape or any recorder that takes a video line input. Resolution of these images is limited, but the contents of your camera slide show can be committed to video tape for archival content tracking, insurance record keeping, legal inventory or simply distribution to Aunt Susie whose technology talents stopped at VHS.

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HOW DO I ADD THE ACCESSORIES NIKON FORGOT? Well, Nikon didnʼt really forget them. They just didnʼt include them in the box. The Cobra or Giottos Q-Pods are primary—a distinct “must-have” accessory. With three telescoping short support legs, they become a crude pistol grip (legs together) or a short monopod (center leg extended) while weighing next to nothing. Other accessories to review include: A hand strap made from hikerʼs nylon strapping. Get it from a sports supply store. This is not a wrist strap. It just circles your palm. Better yet, look for a quickly removable camera strap system that loops fabric to the camera attach points while providing quick disconnect hardware an inch or two away from the camera. Pro straps have features like this that you may wish to work with—slippery and non-slip surfaces, wide dimensions for weight distribution comfort and cool fabric colors and graphics, for instance. Quick release strap clips—not the complex loop and tuck system of the provided camera strap—can be attached to the camera strap so you can shoot with or without it dangling from the camera. A PCMCIA card adaptor or dedicated Memory Stick card reader for your computer will allow you to download images at breakneck speed. A wireless remote release. Nikonʼs own ML-L3 will trigger exposures from over seven feet away from the camera. A LensPen is worth its weight in gold. But it really doesnʼt cost much. It will keep your lens clean and dust free every day you use it. Use it only on the lens and never finger its bristles. Eyeglass cleaner is fine for the LCD and Finder optics, but these surfaces collect grit, and you donʼt want to pollute the LensPen with grit. Another battery. You need at least two. Third-party batteries are becoming available for slightly less $/€ than Nikonʼs own. I canʼt swear to you that they are “as good as” Nikonʼs, so the roll of the dice is yours. Also, fill up that MS-D70 battery holder with CR-2 cells for that eventual rainy day. Another CF card. Prices on these are eternally dropping. If you have a SanDisk Extreme card, you are covered for high demand situations like fast sequences at Continuous frame rate. Your next card may not have to be so extreme. That could save you money.

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5-48 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

HOW DO I PLAY SLIDE SHOWS? Itʼs easy to make the contents of your CF card play as a slide show. For best effect, hook the video connection cable to your TVʼs video in jack. Put the camera into Play menu > Slide Show > Frame Interval > (duration) and click on Start. Durations for each image can be 2, 3, 5 or 10 seconds per shot. Images play in the order they were captured. i Vertical images display vertically only if Play Menu > Rotate Tall > Yes is selected. You donʼt have to have this on before shooting an image since the camera keeps the camera body orientation information with each shot at all times. i When the show ends, a screen menu overlays the last shot asking if you want to ReStart the show. Or you can change the display duration at that time. i Shoot a blank black frame or two before running the slide show. Now the final image is just a black screen and the end menu doesnʼt drop on top of the last picture. HOW DO I ADJUST FLASH STRENGTH? The camera flash—Speedlight in Nikon vernacular—can be changed in its output by pressing the flash deploy button and turning the Main Command dial. Inside the viewfinder you will see a display reminiscent of an EV± adjustment, but the icon for +/– adjustment is oddly doubled up. When the flash button is pressed, all EV± information disappears. Only flash compensation information will show up on the right side of the data display. If compensation is dialed in with the camera front Sub-Command dial, the +/– icon nearest the numbers will cut itself in half showing only +/ or /– next to a numeric readout. Odd, that. i Compensation range is from +1.0 stop to -3.0 stops. i Changes made here also affect any Nikon SB-600 or SB-800 Speedlights that are attached to the camera. i If the camera is in Manual flash mode, the flash strength is determined from the power options list, not with the compensation setting. HOW DO I TAKE THE CAMERA ON VACATION? Plan ahead. Make sure you have the charger and at least two batteries. You will likely wish to be able to view images along the way, so take the video cord with you in case your hotel room has a TV that accepts a video input. Find out what plug adapters you may need for the battery charger. The Nikon MH-18 charger works with any AC voltage from 100 to 240. Bring your collection of CF cards. Vacation shooting may not need the extra fast response of the Extreme card but it will likely need a lot more memory than casual shooting around the home.

Some pictures observe things. Lion in Florence.

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Some pictures tell stories. “Help, I’m Surrounded by Youth!”

Some pictures happen over time without being images of motion. Traffic Ballet.

Carry a LensPen for cleaning lenses and filters. Include a small sensor cleaning kit with spatula, Pec pads (5) and cleaning fluid. Insure your camera and all your lenses. For me, downloading each dayʼs shooting is a must. If you canʼt take a portable computer with you loaded with Photoshop—and I for one would never leave home without it—then a large capacity image bank storage device is called for. Check out the battery operated Nikonʼs CoolWalker (40 GB) or a NixView Vista. These have screens on them larger than the D70 monitor for easy reviewing at the end of the day. Check the Appendix under Portable Storage. The Q-Pod stays with me 100% of the time and never slows me down. Now every post, table, railing and wall becomes potential tripod legs. You can take a bigger tripod with you but it will slow you down. Become a National Geographic photographer. In your dreams. Go for the shots you think tell stories, capture interesting details and observe the inevitable relationships of people, places and things. My own attitude of “shoot pictures first and ask permission later” captured more images in interesting places than asking first did. Flash photography is to be avoided as much as possible, and longer exposures under the prevailing light will meet with greater success in museums and public places. No sense looking like every other tourist with their ever-flashing disposable cameras! Re read the item on shooting candids. The single most useful piece of advice I would pass on to a vacation photographer might be this: the images you gather are more about remembering the place, the artifact, the environment, the building, the vista and the experience, than about creating yet another picture of family members standing with their backs to the thing that you came to visit. Shoot like you were on an assignment to portray the place and reveal its stories.

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5-50 CHAPTER 5

dSLR: Nikon D70

Itʼs okay to include your family in your memories, but you will never sell a picture of Rowena with her back to the Trevi Fountain to a travel magazine. But you might sell a picture of other tourists engaging in this predictable behavior. In all new places you will find visual stories that appear to your fresh eyes. As you gather these novel impressions, you will be capturing your authentic sense of surprise and delight. In other words—shoot the thing to capture its essence, its story, its place in your memory of it. Shoot it from many angles. Include people in your shots, not as posed-looking artificial records of folks having their pictures taken, but as living, interacting candid elements that are a natural component of the place you are visiting. The camera in your hand is capable of making outstanding large prints that could grace the pages of any travel magazine. It is capable of crystallizing a moment that can never be repeated.

As a tourist, we see things that seem commonplace to the locals. In this case, the Vatican in Rome.

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Learning Digital Photography


Chapter 6

Shooting for Experience

You may think that the D70 is a camera, but it’s really a computer with an eye. Since there is no film to buy and no waiting for developed images, errors can be headed off before the situation fades, and the entire process of learning how to take pictures is new.

Y

ou have the camera. You have the knowledge to make it operate. Now letʼs get some experience and practice under your belt. The first thing you do is make new images from old. (Weʼll get to the new pictures soon enough.)

BECOME A CROPAHOLIC Armed with your new found appreciation of the center of interest rule of thirds (and iNovaFX = iRuleOfThirds Action), look at some of your old images and fool around with cropping them to InfoBite better fit that rule. No matter which edit program you use, if it can crop your pictures, it will help. Do this only with duplicates, not originals. The image in your camera starts out with a rectangular After cropping twenty pictures, you will begin to develop a aspect. Nobody said it has to stay that way. feeling for clustering important elements in your frame, and you will notice that many images actually get a whole lot better by concentrating on less of the original than you captured with the lens. Architect Mies van der Rhoe always used to say, “Less is more.” (I think it came from his diet coach, but he found that it applied to the field of design as well.) Pretty soon his students were chanting it as if it were a mantra on the Zen of composition, and in the field of retail discount stores, it found a permanent home. In photography, cropping is the first level of post-production. Less image = More picture. As you are cropping the bad parts out of your old images, that inner voice will soon be whispering, Hey, if you had been thinking like this when you were taking that picture, you wouldnʼt have to do this now. The louder that voice whispers, the more you will be shooting bettercropped images right in the camera.

i

GET OUT Now we push you out the door and into the surrounding neighborhood. A flower here, a puppy there—get them out of your system. Ah, thereʼs someone who will be only too glad to pose for your new camera.

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6-2 CHAPTER 6

dSLR: Nikon D70

FIRST EXERCISE, A PORTRAIT Now fully aware of light, shadow, composition, cropping and framing, you shoot at least ten images of your subjectʼs head and shoulders. Some fairly straight, some to the side, perhaps even a profile. As you shoot, tell them how good they look (in the new camera—somehow different, somehow special), how the digital camera actually makes them look younger, slimmer, or prettier. Interestingly enough, although it may seem like the least sincere thing you could say, you are not lying. You are predicting. The more you tell people this, the younger, slimmer, and prettier they begin to BE for you. After as little as two minutes of this you can get them to “work with me” trying for a really nice picture, “you know, something like you see in print. Something with real personality.” Now it is time to collaborate. Find some shade or any good place to review the last few images. “Hereʼs a good one. This didnʼt work—I was too far back. This would have been the best if you had been looking here and your chin had been lower...” Analyze the images with your subject enlisting the person in your pursuit of a more interesting image and before the light changes, shoot twenty more. When the pose gets stale or too forced, back off and take a mini-break. Tell your subject to relax. “Letʼs try it a different way.” You are not just getting them to freshen up, you are getting you to freshen up. Walk around them looking for angles, changes in the light or changes in the background. Set the camera to manual focus so the background canʼt steal focus from your subject and ruin the shots. Some of the best portraits are done with a slightly telephoto lens. In 35mm photography many photographers prefer 85mm, 105mm, or 135mm lenses for head shots. With the D70 Kit lens you are covered easily into portrait territory. Stay at the upper range of the zoom, and try to shoot verticals at least half of the time. Spend part of the time in Aperture priority exposure mode and the rest with Portrait DVP mode. In Aperture priority mode, keep the apertures large. By the time you have spent 30 shots on your subject, you will have probably shot at least two very good pictures and half a dozen pretty good ones. By shooting the full 30 exposures, you will be acquiring a visceral understanding—something every professional photographer has always known—the more moments you capture, the better your odds of getting the Best. When your subject sees the good looking result, obviously the camera is the reason. Stifle that chuckle and keep moving. Note: Images in this section came from a variety of digital cameras. No film was used in the capture of these images. Wherever possible the best picture to illustrate the point was used and many of those have come from several models of Nikon and Sony compact digital cameras.

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NEXT EXERCISE, GEOMETRY

Now you are looking for one thing and one thing only: Interesting shapes. The curve of a railing, the abstract nock of a tree limb, the pattern of texture, the legs and feet of somebody sitting, a reflection, the texture of peeled paint, a bunch of birds on a wire, a leaf, a row of books, an architectural detail, a carʼs grill… There has been more than one award-winning photo of each of these ideas and you may find a billion other interesting shapes in nature, the city, people, and things around you. If you must shoot a flower, shoot for the radial symmetry, if you must shoot something square, find an angle on it that lends a certain abstraction of its form to the photo. Capture 20 subjects. Keep thinking “Form. Shape. Pattern,” repeating this mantra over and over in your mind. When you review the shots, separate them into three groups, Junk, Hmm, and Okay. Then go out and repeat the exercise. Keep in mind that practice is what you did when learning how to speak and learning how to arrange things in a photographic frame is a form of speech. With every click, youʼre a thousand words further along in your expression of visualizing the world. This time the review will have about 50% improvement in the Okay category. Quality, quantity, or both will have gone up. When you feel stale, do the geometry exercise. The film is free, the shapes donʼt need coaxing and often the results are rewarding.

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6-4 CHAPTER 6

dSLR: Nikon D70

NEXT EXERCISE, THE SKY Most inspiring at dawn and dusk, the sky can be interesting at any time. Donʼt just think of the sky as a cloudy thing. Think of it as a light or a backdrop. How does the sky interact with trees, buildings, windows, light poles, clouds, horizons, mountains and people? At noon you might have to get real low to put people up into the sky. At sunset, you might have to get up high to see how the sun casts shadows across the ground. With flowers, you might just have to put them against clouds or vast expanses of blue. The more you look, the more often you will see an oddly shaped cloud, a blotch, a wisp, or a plume that might someday be useful. Shoot it now, use it later. And on those days when the sky dresses up and just begs to be photographed, take out the camera and oblige her.

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NEXT EXERCISE, ROUND Things that are round. Things that suggest roundness. Circles, semi-circles, ovals, curves, round things against jagged things, round things inside square things. Christmas ornaments, watches, bowls of food, wheels, eyes, signs, architectural features, roseate windows, grapes, baseballs, and knobs—whatever works. Now advance the lesson. Shoot them in such a way that if you were to dissolve from one to the next, the “round” would carry concentrically from shot to shot. This, like the geometry exercise, is a good refreshing activity for times when you need a cup of photo java. Alternates; Square, Pointy, Triangular.

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6-6 CHAPTER 6

dSLR: Nikon D70

NEXT EXERCISE, BUILDINGS As subjects rather than elements, buildings are full of opportunity, inside and out. Their architecture has form that compels us to enter, love, hate, or ignore them. They try to look appealing, professional, industrious, graceful, practical, bold, comfortable, utilitarian, and secure. They are ornate, bland, weathered, exotic, dominant, retiring, and/or stunning. Whatever impression a building makes on you, try to find the time, lighting, weather, angle, and composition that causes your image of the building to convey its impression to others through your photograph. Interpret it with different zoom settings and optics. You may go back to this building several times in the course of the next year, and each time you will find something new about it to reveal in an image. If the whole building doesnʼt fit, make shots of it into a montage. Use the camera slide show to review your work as a visual essay. A good way to start is to catch a straight-on flat symmetrical shot of the entrance. Good, you got that out of your system. Now find the ways of interpreting the building that cause it to have character. Notice, at no time did I say you had to have the WHOLE thing in each shot. If straight lines become a barrel-distorted problem, the iBC Photoshop Actions on this CD will help.

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NEXT EXERCISE, PANORAMIC VISTAS

The specific form of this image will most likely be wide. Vertical vistas are possible, just not terribly vista-like. In order to make the image you will stitch several overlapping images together, so you will have to shoot all of the segments within a few moments of each other from the same point of view. Now would be a good time to use manual exposure because panoramics need matched exposures for each segment. Two- and three-panel panoramics are common. Five and up are downright challenging. You may wish to shoot the center panel first, noting on the monitor, or in the Finder, where the edges of the picture fall on the subject. This will help you slide the view to the left and right catching matching side framings. As you shoot, give a generous overlap to the pictures. A third of an image-width is good. Twenty percent of an image-width is skating on thinner ice. Rectilinear wide-angle images make straight lines look straight, but objects at the edge of the picture are now size-distorted by perspective. The more shots you have available for stitching with major overlaps, the greater your chances of stitching them together in ways people wonʼt detect. Telephoto vistas are particularly interesting; if you shoot enough segments you have a superdetailed wide angle shot. The longer the lens (more tele), the lower the perspective distortion.

Yes, a tripod will help here, too. So will careful study of the topic in Chapter 5. Back at the computer you can use any of a number of panoramic stitching programs to marry the shots together. (After you apply the appropriate iNovaFx iBC and iDSL Actions, of course.) As you work, you will become aware that features often donʼt line up just right from panel to panel, and double images in the overlaps are becoming obvious. The trick is to make them go away completely while maintaining apparently correct perspective across the blended seams.

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6-8 CHAPTER 6

dSLR: Nikon D70

If you have Photoshop, the Transform function will give you control of rotation, size, perspective distortion, corner pinning, skew, keystoning, and position all within one control. By applying this single tool to the images adjacent to your central image, all sorts of geometric flaws can be finessed into place to not just make an overlap area work, but to make the side images into true extensions of

the central image. Again, explicit details on how to use this tool are in Chapter 5. If a panoramic isnʼt quite making sense today, put the originals away and approach it with fresh eyes later. Finessing a panoramic isnʼt always easy, and starting over can often be better than endless tweaking. A good way to work is to put the adjacent images into layers over a single starting image. One layer is turned off, the working layer is set to 50% transparency, and the Transform tool is used to manipulate it into place. Often, the side image wonʼt fit perfectly, but you will be able to get a vertical-column area of it to match the underlying image quite well. It helps if a feature like a tree, or any strong vertical linear object, dwells in this area. If a straightline object like a building or street cuts through the seam, you must pay quite a bit of attention to correcting or minimizing perspective changes from panel to panel. When a panel just doesnʼt fit or shows disproportional stretching (top and bottom details work, but whoa, the middle details arenʼt a linear fit) occurs, use the Photoshop History palette to start over.

Your first attempts will guide you into seeing how easy it is to make mistakes. Your second attempts will be better. If you do this ten times, you will start teaching other people how to do it.

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NEXT EXERCISE, REPETITION Here you are combining experiences gained from a number of previous exercises and adding a new X-factor. Repeating similar elements are the target. There must be three or more similar objects in a creative relationship to each other. They can be as similar as fence staves, windows of nearly identical shape, palm trees all in a row, uniformed people, feet, whatever. There is no limit on things like having them all face in the same direction or be in the same light. Points are subtracted for factors like “too dissimilar” and “too far apart to connect the similarity.” “All boys” doesnʼt count. A good thing to try for is dramatic direction. All the flags were blowing straight out, all the cops were looking at the same thing, all the birds were pecking at once, all the palm trees were the same shape, etc. Then there is the special factor. The counter point. All the cops were looking at the same three-year-old in the red dress, all the birds were pecking the same eight inches of birdseed; all the windows were the same except for the one with a person sitting in it. Symmetries of repetition are many. Certainly the things-all-in-a-row idea is easier to find than the things-all-radiating-from-a-point is. But in photography, odd relationships can form symmetries of balance in which “birds of a feather flock together” is counter balanced by “thereʼs one in every crowd.”

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6-10 CHAPTER 6

dSLR: Nikon D70

NEXT EXERCISE, MICROVISTAS Letʼs get small. Not every lens will do it but if you have a Micro Nikkor, hereʼs your chance. Auto-focus may not help, especially with subjects that stand out from a more distant background. Remember the principle of Stolen Focus. Detailed backgrounds will steal many autofocus situations. But manual focus will let you move the whole camera in and out of sharp focus. Thatʼs how I got the ant on the flower. Microvistas can be any subject, but the area you are going to shoot is 2-1/2 inches wide or small enough to cover with your hand. Shooting in nature—or even a window box—you never know who is going to show up to have their picture taken. Keep an eye peeled for small-scale textures. If you take a picture of a telephone keypad, get a real grubby one or an exceptionally interesting lighting pattern into the shot. If itʼs the contents of a pocket tossed on a table, include clues to a crime. People have macro parts, too. If you shoot an eye, make sure it is projecting an emotional attitude.

Who done it? And with what? And where in the world was it done?

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NEXT EXERCISE, AVAILABLE DARKNESS With the ISO of the D70 set to 1600, its electronic film is working within the realm of “available light” photography. Knowing that you can drop images in the computer and manipulate the exposure upward there, donʼt be shy of underexposing. The iNovaFX iISO2Taste filters will allow you to recover up to two stops of detail in many cases, so your available range is higher than your camera may think. Photoshop CSʼs Shadow/Highlight recovery tool will help pierce the night. Street light offers plenty of usable lumens. Candle-light will work if the candle is close enough to the subject. Night shopping areas are lit well enough to shoot. You have the option to make black and white images. Your subject will be the darkness of the environment and how only available light could have made them possible. Include the glare of background lights; go for the signs, the deep shadows, the halfrevealed surfaces, and the unseen faces. Night is kind of spooky, and your pictures may show this. The blur of movement will become a treasured dynamic element adding to the effectiveness of the shot. Donʼt be surprised when you find yourself not only lightening the images in the computer, but also darkening some to accentuate the effect.

NEXT EXERCISE, THE CHARACTER OF... Pick a character-filled entity. Go for a noun: a person, place or thing. Here is your chance to portray that character in a series of images. Dog, cat, mother-in-law, stranger, tree, city, team, whatever. Think of it ending up as a layout on a single page or spread, as in a magazine, and must contain from four to eight images. The character of the piece must be easily perceived by casual viewers once they hear its title. Some subjects beg to be shot over great expanses of time. This Tree Throughout the Seasons, for instance. Try for something more immediate. Hereʼs my own take on Hidden Venice.

NEXT EXERCISE, INFRA-RED Here you are doing a See Differently exercise. The scene in front of you and the scene you end up with will be radically different. For this exercise you will need, at minimum, a black-looking IR filter like an R72 (89B Wratten). You will be looking for situations in which the unusual black sky, white vegetation, or both play a part in the composition of the image. Outdoors, exposures will tend to be 1/30 sec at f/3.5 while using ISO 1600. Manual white balance for the D70 should be performed on something bright, saturated red before shooting. Remember that you canʼt frame or compose with the IR filter over the lens. Either use a tripod or practice holding the IR filter momentarily in place in front of the lens for the exposure. In the darkroom, later, you will have the opportunity to drain any remaining color, float color into an otherwise monochromatic image or add special tints and printing preparations that may enhance the strange world of white leaves and dark skies.

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6-14 CHAPTER 6

dSLR: Nikon D70

NEXT EXERCISE, BLACK AND WHITE Think monochrome. Erase the color from your mind. What you are shooting is tonality, not technicolor. White balance off of a deep color patch so the image looks like it was shot through a strong color filter. It will help fool your eye into seeing in monochrome. Set ISO to 1600 and youʼre shooting with fast film. The world is a rich gray scale of tones and shadings. You are seeing them with a tint, but in the computer later, you can make them color free, pure monochrome by simply copying the green channel to the red and blue channels. An iNovaFX utility action facilitates this. Now, go outside into the daylight where the great photon generator is doing her job. The things you will be shooting are the things that will teach you the most about contrast, long gray-scale, and exposure. Bracket some shots. Shoot them a bit under- and a bit overexposed, as well as at the exposure the meter picks. BKT + Continuous frame rate will shoot a fast 3 image bracket, and you can set the exposure differential on the LCD display. If the shots blow out due to overexposure from the elevated ISO, you can bring the camera sensitivity down to better acquire the image. Back at the computer, the realities of B&W is a whole different world. Paul Simon to the contrary, not everything looks worse in black and white.

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NEXT EXERCISE, FOUND OBJECTS Things that are local items or arrangements but not microvistas—as-is without digital darkrooming. A bracelet in close-up. Furniture or ferns in a group. A jar of preserves; a door ajar. Things you might never in your life have considered to be photoworthy are now your subject, and you must make these photos worthy of existence by their composition, unmanipulated lighting, pose, silliness, seriousness, scale, drama, juxtaposition, or by the attention you have called to the objects simply by photographing them.

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6-16 CHAPTER 6

dSLR: Nikon D70

NEXT EXERCISE, SKEW Hereʼs a new twist! Every subject in this exercise will be non-level. Either the camera is twisted, or the subject itself will be in a physical orientation that isnʼt a normal, expected angle. People lying down doesnʼt count. People upside down or oddly slanted does count. The goal here is to portray the world in a way that causes it to be seen both from and with a new angle. Photographs are usually viewed level, cameras are not nearly so formal. Your mission is to move through a situation (city, country lane, garden, family reunion), gathering at least a dozen good skewed pictures that force the viewer into a new appreciation of the subject because of its non-level presentation.

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NEXT EXERCISE, PICTURE IN A PICTURE Sometimes the world conspires to give you an image inside a larger image. Not just a picture of a picture, but a pictorial image in an unexpected place. You are looking for pictures in frames that are made of reality. An alley frames a distant skyline. A public mural is all the more poignant because of the people or events surrounding it. Find a half-dozen of these in the next week. Look back on the situations that presented the PIPs as they change with the time of day or seasons. Keep trying to improve on the first shots you make by topping your previous shots. Widen the definition. An otherwise photographic situation filled with unexpected photographs or images—or even photographers and their subjects.

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6-18 CHAPTER 6

dSLR: Nikon D70

NEXT EXERCISE, INTENTIONALLY BAD PICTURES Get trees to grow out of peopleʼs heads. Arrow signs to stick out of their ears, poles to start at the bottom and stop exactly at the borders of the image. Make too much head room or crop people at the eyes. Crop out the dogʼs face, just get his feet. Twist the camera two degrees on a sunset that is dead center without a cloud in the sky. Make some nice blurred shots from too-long exposures. Shoot pictures that are too dark, too light, and capture things you would hate to photograph. Now look at your stuff. It looks like lots of images you have seen other people produce, doesnʼt it? If you can do it on purpose, you can undo it on purpose. The weird thing is—some of them actually arenʼt that bad. Hey! Ponder this as you drift off to sleep tonight. Then go out tomorrow and shoot a bunch of intentionally action-smeared images.

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NEXT EXERCISE, IMPROVEMENT As shot, it was a picture, all right. But now itʼs about to become something more than the camera could have ever envisioned it. Where the perspective was ordinary, the new perspective is assertive. Where the original subject was nice enough, now itʼs art. Your arsenal consists of everything you can do to make this image into something that transcends its humble beginnings. A casual viewer should be able to look at these results and feel like something new has definitely taken place here, especially if presented with the “before” version. Special effects, filter treatments, distortions, crops, color changes—all that stuff is fair game here. The more oohs and aahs you get from people, once they see how far you have taken it, the more points you acquire. Top: Perspective correction as with a 4x5 view camera. (See the tutorial on page 10-21.) Middle: Tonality improvements plus Photoshop QuickMask creating artificial long shadows to dramatize the situation. Bottom: Abstraction of an already very abstract still life using a thirdparty plug-in with Photoshop; Kaiʼs Powertools Version 6.

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6-20 CHAPTER 6

dSLR: Nikon D70

NEXT EXERCISE, LIFE’S STORIES. The world is full of stories. They are playing out in front of you every day. Some are simple, others complex. Some are laced with tragedy, others with humor. Often the juxtaposition of polar extremes come together in a single frame or within a single subject. You will be lucky to find an image that connects opposing forces in a single shot, but you know it can be done as you study the work of photographers. Now it is up to you. Find the situation, or allow it to find you. Open mindedness is the subtext. Then shoot for the single image and/or the story telling sequence—whichever is right.

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NEXT EXERCISE, IMMERSION. Surrounded-ness. We started this chapter by shoving you out into the world. Now dive into the subject. Get into the middle of something and allow it to seem all around you in the shot. It could be a bush, a bunch of tangles, a cluster of items, anything that seems to surround the camera or some innocent bystander. Something special about the shot should make it seem that the camera is on the inside looking out, or some subject is up to its neck in its environment.

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6-22 CHAPTER 6

dSLR: Nikon D70

NEXT EXERCISE, FORMAL EDUCATION. Now you are to shoot a design piece that might have been a high-end catalog image. Not that the two are indelibly linked, but that much of our photographic experience these days is in the very tight world of objects intentionally composed and lit to convey the interesting qualities of their presence. Can you turn your cell phone into a thing of beauty, the way the catalog cover or advertisement for it would have shown it? Can you take a piece of fruit and tell a visual story about perfection, taste, and desire? Can you make a visual pun? (See A Salt and Battery lower left.) Challenge yourself with the limitation of photographing things on an unbroken sweep of paper. No matter what the light, you can always perform a manual white balance to achieve color neutrality. Food is always a good subject. The Japanese cookies in this small brandy snifter were photographed under fluorescent light in my kitchen. Total setup and shoot time: seven minutes. The limits for this exercise are that you must organize small things on some sort of background, light them intentionally to bring out features, textures, surfaces, and mass, and with a single exposure create a rather formal image of the object(s) that has a story-telling or illustrative subtext or context.

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NEXT EXERCISE, PORTRAIT Say, didnʼt we start here? Not exactly. Now you are more experienced, wiser and capable of greater things. Because youʼve changed, this has become a different exercise. Get the same friend to pose for another portrait. The lighting you choose this time will be more interesting. The background more controlled, the pose more a part of a composition. Things you applied to simple objects, vistas, night shadows, geometric shapes—all will be in your head competing for a place in this portrait. Now shoot twenty shots and review. You are getting better, arenʼt you! By now you are ready to make your first gallery, maybe even your first digital portfolio.

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6-24 CHAPTER 6

dSLR: Nikon D70

NEXT EXERCISE, PORTFOLIO Are you ready for an on-line portfolio? Photoshopʼs features will help you prepare files of thumbnails that link to files of full-size images ready for the Web (File > Automate > Web Photo Gallery). Other programs perform this function, too. And this is as far as most people take the idea. But the core of an on-line portfolio has much more to do with the content and showing it in a good setting, than with the simple mechanics of allowing access to a collection of images. With a print portfolio, the context is fixed. Itʼs a book. Pages can be arranged and composed and the book itself can be quite impressive and customized. Sequences of images can be arrayed over several pages creating a scene-to-scene reveal, but it wonʼt have the interactive flexibility of a Web page. To show oneʼs best work on the Internet, a new approach will help. The cluster of images below would not make a good portfolio page, itʼs too busy. But it might make a good table-of-contents page in which a click to a picture causes a jump to a larger image or series of images. The exercise is this; create an on-line portfolio of your best images. Animation, flash, and dazzle are optional. It should become a good, solid review of images in a form that readily communicates a particular style, eclecticism, broad or narrow range, vision, and/or competence in the type of photography you enjoy most.

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Printing Digital Photographs

Chapter 7

Printing Digital Photographs Custom Prints on your Desktop

The digital darkroom needs no plumbing, but just like a chemical darkroom, it needs understanding, technique, and experience. That last item you’ll have to get on your own. Here’s some help with the other two.

E i=

rgonomics is about things that work. Effort spent. Ergs are measures of effort, and noemics are things you understand. Ergonomics is the study and application of things that understandably (self-evidently) fit human-scale activities and needs in logical, efficient, even effortless ways. Small, one-hour photo prints fit our scales of low-cost, easy-to-put-in-an-album, and minor-importance. Eight by ten prints fit our human scales of easy-to-look-at and moderately-important at the same time. Substantially larger photos fit our scales of this-is-so-very-important, to-be-viewed-at-a-distance, and ready-for-framing-as-art. These cameras certainly conquer the first two domains and have a well-defined role in the third.

SIZE MATTERS AGAIN The ergonomics of prints begs the question of what is the right size print? For most people, the 4 by 6-inch, one-hour photo print is what their film camera produces, end of story. Many people accept a panoramic blow up from an APS film camera that is about ten inches wide and think of it as big. These images are relatively sharp and colorful and widely The standard 4 x 6-inch (100 x 150 mm) print. It takes up accepted even though they are viewed at a distance that is way a nice chunk of space on a page and fits our hands well. out of scale to the angle of view of the taking lens. Native 3:2 aspect images, such as those from the D70, fit this standard print shape exactly. But no other standard print size Out of scale? What could that mean?

InfoBite

does, requiring crops for 8 x 10s, 5 x 7s, 11 x 14s and 16 x 20s.

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7-2 CHAPTER 7

dSLR: Nikon D70

Try this (even if only as a thought experiment): Shoot a picture from the comfort of your favorite chair and have it printed into the regular 4 x 6-inch print. Later, sit in the same chair and look at the print the way you would normally. Your eye/brain system will compensate for the discrepancies between reality and photography, and no doubt everything will seem just fine. The fact that a 45°-wide field of view is sitting in your hand occupying 12° of your eyeʼs field of view wonʼt seem odd. We are used to it. Now hold the print up to one eye until it matches in size with the view you shot. Close to your face isnʼt it? Is that a comfortable viewing distance? It will float five to eight inches from your face if you used a normal or wide-angle lens on the original picture. Can you comfortably focus that closely? A 5 x 7 print of the same shot will line up further from your eye and an 8 x 10 print will feel downright comfortable, being quite close to your normal reading distance. Under a magnifying glass, the 8 x 10 will reveal surprisingly little extra detail when closely compared to the 4 x 6, so why bother making the blowup? We like the larger prints because they meet our need for easy viewing. Sharpness isnʼt the ergonomic issue, comfort is. But, large prints cost more. A dozen times more expensive than the one-hour print 30% of their size, and the wait is much longer for the 8 x 10 to be produced photographically. Oops! Waiting, spending extra money, and not being able to control the process feel a lot like non-ergonomic qualities. What if you could have the 8 x 10 print delivered to your desktop in three and a half minutes for about 95¢? With your D70, computer, and photo-quality printer, you can. DIRTY PICTURES Another factor adds to the enjoyment and usefulness of digital images. Gradue. Schmutz. Dirt, dust, fingerprints, scratches, and emulsion flaws. They donʼt add, they detract! But theyʼre rare on digital camera images. If you have ever photographically printed 8 x 10s, you know that it is almost impossible to get the negative COMPLETELY dust free. With a D70 image and a clean image sensor, you wonʼt even have a chance to get the image dirty unless you put the dirt there for effect. Digital cameras do, however, show a new kind of flaw: digital artifacts. Noise hanging around high contrast details, color banding, non-continuous blends of colors, steppy edges, video-like halos surrounding bright point sources of light, artificial sharpening effects. Maybe even a blown pixel. Fortunately, the camera designers are learning how to minimize or mask these flaws below the threshold of being noticed. Ergonomic factors drive the incamera processing of an image and the compression scheme that reduces its size for storage. As you create images, you will be able to do things that optimize your storage space, print size, costs The compression direction. These 1:1 images show the difference from the camera capture on the left and the worstof printing, and appro- case compression example on the right. Notice how sharp detail breaks down, causing alternating zones of contrast, priateness for later use. as contours extend out into surrounding areas. Yet, when you back away from the images far enough, (or shrink them on your monitor to 50%) they look virtually identical. Compression is all about balancing storage space with the ergonomics of human perception.

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IF YOU PRINT IT, THEY WILL COME Computer color printers complete the digital photography cycle by producing the hard copy people can handle. Fortunately, printers have been moving toward truly photographic-appearing results, and today you can get surprisingly good color prints from several different kinds of printers, most notably the photo-quality inkjets from Epson, Canon, and HP. New models are appearing almost every month, and the new ones always seem to surpass the older ones. Inkjet images are produced with micro droplets of liquid color that have nothing to do with the chemistry of photographic printing paper or the dot screen techniques of magazine photos. At the micro level, the dots are scattered pesudo-randomly in what is called a stochastic dither. Theoretically, inks and dyes may create a wider range of reflected colors than light-sensitive chemicals can produce. Stunning results can be achieved with printers costing well below $300.00. For example, today I regularly print digital images up to 22 inches long on panoramic stock (8.3 x 23.4 inches) in six colors of ink at 1440 microscopic printing dots per inch. This particular printer is an old Epson EX, 1998 technology, yet it is still running strong and making lovely images. (New models capable of page size photorealistic images cost as little as $69US.) Magenta, cyan, yellow, and black inks are joined by two extra colors, light magenta and light cyan, to produce greater subtlety. Total cost: around $2.50 for each panoramic print including ink and special paper. For the largest images, Two image panoramic. The rarefied blush of the coming dawn I make 11 x 17-inch prints on the same printer for around the completes with a delicate late-night haze in this panoramic image of the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. When one wants custom same cost. Letter-size prints, roughly the equivalent of 8 x 10s, print quality that will hold this level of delicate tonal subtlety, a cost only about a dollar or so and can often beat twenty dollar premium ink-jet printer is the tool of choice for both digital phocustom prints once you gain the right combination of skills and tographers and film photographers. experience. The most recent Epson in my long-evolving collection makes 13 x 19 inch (Super B) prints with archival pigment inks that use no less than seven colors, including one that is called “light black.” Silly though that may sound, this printer, the Stylus Photo 2200, also has an optional extra dense matte black ink perfectly matched to their heavy matte photo paper. Three Epson printers use this “UltraChrome” ink system but their prices start over twice the cost of other 13-inch wide machines. Years ago, when I used a chemical darkroom, my color prints maxed out at 11 x 14 inches, and the cost of each of these was in the range of $5.00 for the one-shot chemicals and paper. The process was labor intensive, smelly, wet, and uncertain. A considerable dread factor built up before each printing session. What a bunch of Work. Making a test print for exposure and color was just as hard as making a final print, and a whole dayʼs effort would result in very few finished images.

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7-4 CHAPTER 7

dSLR: Nikon D70

PORTABLE DIGITAL DARKROOM Now I prepare my images in Adobe Photoshop in my laptop Macintosh. Itʼs not a darkroom, just a dimroom, but it never spills anything on me. Here I add a bit of electronic enhancement to the color, contrast, brightness, and/or sharpness and my prints look predictably close to the screen images. i Most portables have “millions of colors” screen images. I canʼt recommend trying this on a “thousands of colors” viewing screen and a CRT monitor is better than the portableʼs active-matrix LCD screen. The printer is much more consistent than chemicals ever were, so prints made months apart look like they were made during the same session. THE FIX IS IN The digital darkroom gives you wide ranging control over brightness, contrast, and finesses of color that would have been incredibly difficult to achieve in chemical photography. With experience, you can look at a picture and decide to add chroma and emphasize the greens while de-emphasizing cyan. But green and cyan are right next to each other on the color wheel, yet with Photoshop, they can be manipulated separately. Changing the exposure and color balance is definable over a wide range. You can stretch the highlights and compress the shadows while preserving the middle tones of an image faster than you can read this sentence. Images on letter-size paper printed at 170+ camera pixels per inch often look better than chemical-print 8 x 10s. To fool everybody all the time, you can use premium glossy print papers, producing photographic results that look and feel like double weight glossy photos. PHOTOGRAPHY AT THE SPEED OF LIFE The time from camera to print has shrunk to mere moments in some cases. Click, download, print. On a video shoot, I photographed eight actors playing characters from the year 3000 using the existing cinematic lighting. Each player received a handsome glossy print before they left the building, and each was amazed with the image quality and speed of the experience. I probably spoiled them forever. Iʼm still waiting for the system that downloads all your shots wirelessly, spits out the prints, then stuffs them into

The computer image will never exactly match your experience of the print. The trick is to have them close enough to serve as a basis for relative adjustments. If the print seems to need a tiny bit more red, the computer image should look like it needs a tiny bit more red, too.

Actor Rick Fitts took a moment on the set to pose for a still photograph shot with an older Nikon CP 950. A page-size print was in his hands before the makup came off. KinoFlo 3200° K lighting. Your D70—with 313% of the pixel count of the 2-megapixel image here— will be even more detailed.

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an envelope, but Iʼm sure somebody has it in the works. With these tools, a threshold has been crossed forever. From here on, it will only get better-faster-chaper. The word “photograph” has changed its meaning. The photo is where—in the computer or on the paper? Access to it is where—the file or the print? Does the term “photographic reproduction” include the inkjet print the photographer considers to be her master reference image? Our desire to have a print in our hand immediately was initially answered with the Polaroid cameras. Many printer models today allow you to take the CF card out of your camera and plunk it into the printer for immediate results. One Nikon option for their D2series dSLRs establishes a secure wireless data link to the nearby computer and printer, and as soon as you finish shooting your session, you may go over and take a look at all the 8 x 10 glossies. PAPER CHASE The kind of ink you choose to put in your printer should be limited to the inks that wonʼt clog it, and that generally means the inks sold only by the manufacturer. When you bend that rule, you are risking the health of a finely tuned electromechanical-hydraulic system, and when it gums up, donʼt go running around complaining. A very few places are reliable sources for alternative inks, and the Internet is a good place to find upto-date information about this. See the Appendix for details. My own experience has been excellent with the printers, papers, and inks from Epson, Canon, and HP. Iʼve owned five different models of the Epsons and each has been better than the last. Print quality on the latest models has achieved results well above the threshold of “photographic,” and speed has increased to the point that the best quality color images take only a few minutes to make. i Epson manufactures papers that are ideally suited to their inks, and their own heavy glossy photo paper gives the best results. I recommend spending the extra money (usually about $100 more) and getting a model that will make images at least tabloid size (11 x 17 inches) or larger. Most of your prints will be smaller, but the oohs and aahs that big images generate are worth it. The HP PhotoSmart printers seem to work with a wider variety of paper formulas, including many that donʼt work nearly as well with the Epson printers and inks. i Red River Paper makes a paper that has the double-weight feel of high quality color prints. They even make a very heavy paper with glossy The Red River papers come in a variety of surface treatments, materials, and printing surfaces on both sides. Check the weights. Their inexpensive sample pack with two sheets of each type is a very Appendix for details. handy way for you to discover how they work for your prints.

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7-6 CHAPTER 7

dSLR: Nikon D70

For daily use, Epson Photo Quality Inkjet paper does well and is available in a variety of sizes. With this paper 8 x 10s will be quite inexpensive, around 50¢. Inkjet papers, when you think about it, are designed for water-based inks. What other kinds of paper might work well in these devices? Copier paper? No, it is designed to accommodate powdered toner heat-fused onto its surface. i Would you believe art paper for watercolors? This can be found in 12 x 18 pads in art supply stores, and the Strathmore Cold Press Watercolor 140 lb. paper works well in straight-path Epson printers. The textured surface accepts the inkjet images with good contrast and subtlety. If you treat your photo to have a watercolor look before printing, the effect is quite charming. i The inkjet papers from Red River include a number of similar style papers including woven cloth-like and several “toothy” surfaces. If you have an inkjet printer, their sample pack costs very little and gives you some preliminary experience using all of their paper formulas. PANORAMASCOPE i For large panoramic images you need large panoramic paper. Itʼs available, but why not make some yourself? You could print tiled images and cut them together, but here is a better way. • Take two sheets and lay them face down on a clean flat surface. • Carefully butt them together, and weigh them down as you tape the seam that will hold them together through the printer. The precise cut of the sheets lets them line up, and weights will hold them in place as a 3/4-inch-wide strip of frosty tape is dropped carefully over the seam. • Burnish the tape into the back of the paper sheets after laying it in place so the sheets donʼt separate during printing. The microscopic seam created this way will probably not be very visible in your print, but the result can be stunning. Until people put their faces almost on top of the picture, they wonʼt see anything but a huge image. A carefully prepared mosaic panoramic of a cityscape or QuickTime VR image can be printed nearly four feet long with this method on Epson printers (some have a 44-inch limit). Other brands of printers may allow longer prints. PAPER CUTS Suspend your sense of right and wrong, good and evil, appropriate and inappropriate, and start looking at different kinds of paper for special images. What kind of effect would printing on tracing paper produce?

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What if I printed on paper ripped from a yellow pad? An image on butcher paper? An image on a Post-It™? (Stick it onto a larger sheet of paper first, and feed it into the printer with the sticky seam feeding in as a leading edge.) Wrapping paper and anything fragile like a paper towel could jam in your printer. Experiment, but with caution. Some of these may work. I actually got a cheap hand-towel from a paper towel dispenser to feed through the straight path of an Epson printer. Once. Paper towels off of a roll donʼt seem to work at all. Too flexible. Once you start playing with the idea, you will be in uncharted territory and may create completely original results. If you look for odd papers, donʼt overlook the special papers that let iron-on transfers roll out of your printer. Images here must be printed backwards with the image flipped left to right. After printing, a white or very light T-shirt (or any compatible cloth) is laid on an ironing board, and the print is placed face-down on the fabric. An iron is used to heat the image, and it transfers to the cloth taking the picture (and the waxy carrier layer) with it. Most people use the process for personal images. You could be the first person on your block to wear an art photograph, a panoramic, a photo montage or a self-portrait with eyes looking up from your chest at your own (real) chin. It might be a good idea to take a picture of the intended wearer wearing the blank shirt before making the print. On this image you can drop a miniature copy of the photo under consideration to preview what it will look like in place. The ultimate version would be a picture of the person wearing the shirt with a picture of him or her on the shirt wearing the shirt with a picture on it, ad infinitum. You can think of the shirt transfer paper in original ways, too. It really isnʼt about shirts, after all, it is about cloth printing. The transfer sheet can be used for more than one item. You can put logos, images, graphics, textures, and patterns on the same print, and cut the elements apart before ironing. Turn the entire family into a string of little faces that band around the chest-line of the shirt. Shoot a belly button, and frame the shot with a jagged edge and inner shadow so it looks like it is being seen through a rip at life size. Add the images of exaggerated zippers all over the shirt in impossible places and configurations. And it doesnʼt even need to be a shirt. How about a handkerchief with a hand on it? There is a lot of untapped territory here.

Memory Stick in— images out. PC-card (lower right on the face of the printer) plus menu choices make prints like this easy to generate.

INSTA-PRINTERS? What could be simpler? Just take the CF card out of the camera, slip it into the slot on the printer, and punch in the size and number of images you want. Some printers actually have this sort of interface, and for their owners, they deliver a steady stream of 4 x 6, 5 x 7, and 8 x 10 prints with just a few button pushes. Look for the super quality HP Photosmart 7350 and Epson 785EPX (pictured) or R300M (M for monitor on board) printers with their borderless printing on print-size paper. Youʼre gonna love ʻem. For those of you who might aspire to custom-print quality, the road from lens to print is a little bumpier, but like any drive through the countryside, the views make it all worthwhile. Youʼve already shot the images and sent them into folders in your computer; now itʼs time to make prints that raise eyebrows.You may never outgrow the insta-printer aspect of the ones that read images from your Memory Stick, but itʼs comforting to know that the same printers hook up to your computer and achieve custom prints from it, too.

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7-8 CHAPTER 7

dSLR: Nikon D70

PREPARATION SEPARATION i First, you cull the bad images out of your file by looking at them large on your computer screen. Anything marginal or better should be kept, at least for the time being. Future generations may come back to these files, scrub through them and wonder why you hung on to so many turkeys, but sometimes a piece of an image is useful. i You might want to start a separate collection of seconds. Everybody produces a lot of junk. Itʼs how we get to the good parts. Rodin, Picasso, Congress—all have produced garbage they later retracted, why should you be any different? i Once you have a folder full of images that you wish to keep, you can use Photoshopʼs handy multi-print feature to create a quick reference page. It is found under File > Automate > Contact Sheet II in Photoshop 6, 7 & CS, and it gathers the images, sizes and spaces them according to your choices, prints them out in any quantity you wish, and even allows you to save the sheet as an image file. With a little planning, you can make vertical or horizontal sheets. The cropped image (right) gives you an idea of how the page looks with five shots across by six shots deep. Any file name you have given an image will be on the sheet—if you choose. Without names on the sheet, the images can be 30% larger. I rotated vertical images before running this folder through Contact Sheet II, but if you donʼt, you end up with a page of all horizontal printed thumbnails. Just like a film contact sheet. QC ON THE QT Now you know the shots you want to see as prints. Study the images to see which need improvements. Open them in Photoshop (or your favorite editing program), and let the gains begin. You did calibrate your monitor, didnʼt you? This is more important the closer you get to printing. Windows and Macintosh computers have their own special techniques for calibrating the monitor/print results. Some programs, like the Monaco Systems software, can take advantage of a hardware component that lets you set up the monitor to absolute, perfect color and density. Their system connects a special color meter to the screen that coordinates software tests in an automated process which then delivers calibrated results. Other aspects of their system will calibrate scanners and printers as well. i With a calibrated monitor, you can predict the behavior of the printer and see the results on screen in high fidelity before touching the print button. If you donʼt have a sophisticated setup, you can still get into general alignment by printing out some images without altering them in the computer, then using the prints to guide you as you make monitor adjustments that bring its look more in line with the prints. This is a tail wagging the dog approach, but if it is all you can do for the moment, it will help until a more sophisticated procedure can be applied. If it helps, know this: the print / correct & adjust / reprint method is historically THE custom printerʼs usual method.

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IMAGE CONDITION The image on your screen will likely be imperfect. No image, on any film negative, transparency, or digital file Iʼve ever experienced, was literally perfect, but the vast majority of them were filled with opportunity. My tastes and your tastes arenʼt the same. Nor are our retinas, our aesthetic sensibilities, or our fondness for contrast. Thatʼs why each of us would make a print differently. Itʼs our chance for self-expression. i What does that image look like to you after you stare at it for thirty seconds? Is it too bright or dim? Are the colors the best imaginable? Is anything pulling your attention to the wrong part of the shot? Now the image manipulation tools you learned in Chapter 3 will find their place in your work. Careful testing with Photoshopʼs Levels, Curves, Hue and Saturation, Variations, Color Balance, and cropping tools will allow you to chop, dice, and renovate the image to taste. i If you are uncertain as to how the image will hit the page, make a test print. Fortunately, a software plug-in for Photoshop called 20/20 Color MD, will take you right to the point of being able to judge results in one fast, easy step. The program is extremely flexible. It lets you home-in on color and density adjustments by very broad or fine degrees, and with every print you make, you will be learning more and more about the behavior of color on paper from your printer and how it differs from color on your computer monitor. Every combination behaves differently. i Once you have a segment or small print version of your shot in hand, that looks right to you and meets your criteria, Test Strip lets you save the image with all the code hooks it takes to print it later with the same improvements. Your original is not altered, and you can print it differently later if you wish, but the “master print” qualities of tonality and colorimetry are there for you, preserved for the future. In this series of images we can see the steps of preparation for printing that is typical for the custom-print look your camera and printer can achieve. The original is at the top. Itʼs a bit underexposed and was shot with the camera set to Low Sharpening. The middle image shows basic Photoshop Levels adjustment that brought the white point down and moved the gamma to about 1.1. Because the original was too soft, an application of Unsharp Mask with a radius of 0.25 at an intensity of 220 with a threshold of 0 brought up eyelashes and fine detail. Due to the Levels adjustment, some chroma was compromised, but here it has been brought back +10%. The bottom image was first Unsharp Masked at a radius of 60 pixels using an intensity of 14—a local contrast enhancement technique—then burned and dodged to bring out subtle things like the defining line of his right shoulder, hair detail, eye values, and lowering the glare on the back of his hand.

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7-10 CHAPTER 7

dSLR: Nikon D70

THE ARTFUL DODGER Photos prepared in a darkroom are produced entirely with physical manipulations of time, light and chemistry. Photos prepared in the digital dimroom are not physical but are very precise. The same sorts of tools appear in both, and Photoshop gives you the physical touch with its Burn and Dodge tools. You met them in Chapter 3, now itʼs time to play for keeps. Dodging a film negative involves holding back enlarger light in some area, and that lightens the area. Its icon is a paddle on a stick—a lollipop—just like the darkroom tool that does the same thing, except in Photoshop you can see the effect instantly, and if you donʼt like what you see, you can undo it. If you dodge a number of areas with a series of gestures, you can back up several steps at once using the History palette. Burning does the opposite. Here, one adds light, thus darkening the local area of the print. Photoshop lets you attack the highlights, midtones, or shadows of the image with either command for control you could never get in the chemical darkroom. In the example at the right, the excessive glare on the back of his hand has been slightly reduced by burning. These tools are so much fun that you will likely get lost for a whole Saturday afternoon just playing with them while filling your mind with experience and ahas. But wait, thereʼs more. Adjacent to these controls is another one that looks like a sponge. This control lets you do a different type of burn and dodge; saturating and desaturating. With this tool you can heighten the color here and drain it there. CROP CIRCLES Cropping the image can be done before or after color and tonal adjustments, itʼs up to you. Sometimes, the very core of the composition of an image changes due to these adjustments, so waiting until after they have been revealed has its benefits. But simple cropping is more flexible these days. No longer need it be simply trimming the edges of the picture, it becomes an opportunity to apply a more advanced concept: print framing. Not the physical ones, the technique ones. One of the most basic framing techniques is to fade the edge of the image. Photoshop offers several ways to do this. Each surrounds the picture with a feathered edge that transitions from the image to white or another selected color.

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A simple way to do this in Photoshop is to create a selection rectangle around your image on a layer over the shot. Feather the selection with an appropriate number of pixels, then invert the selection. Now the area outside the soft selection rectangle is chosen. Hit the Delete key in combination with the Command key (Mac) or Control key (windows), and this surrounding area fills with whatever the current background color is. And it can be anything you want. It doesnʼt end with selection rectangles, either. Circles, ovals, irregular shapes—they all work. Frames can be purchased on CD from collections sold by Auto F/X with Photo/Graphic Edges, Extensis Photoframe, and others. These generally are more artistic and have more clever looks and interesting possibilities than a simple blend, but you can make complex frames yourself, too. One of my own original favorites is included on the CD. It simulates a matte board that has been bevel cut, readying it for a 5 x 7 print. Itʼs the one seen at the bottom of page 8-1. You can place it on a layer over your target image and resize it, change its color, and print it out with your image inside as an 8 x 10 page. A nice picture frame would be an appropriate finish. From about two feet back, almost nobody will notice that the matte board bevel cut is a photographic effect. i Check out the new iNovaFX D70 film and stamp frame borders on page 10-14. TRANSFER FUNCTIONS You may notice, after a few prints that the darkest parts of the picture arenʼt “open,” and this means the printed image reaches black before all the darkest detail has been revealed. Some printers do this without provocation, but Photoshop has a tool that will work around the effect. Itʼs called Transfer Functions, and you will find it under File > Page Setup or attached to the Print command (in PS 7). By simply moving the dark end of the Transfer Functions line from 100% to 95-92%, additional instructions flow to the printer ordering it to not print so darned dark. It works well but has to be done for each print. Of course, each print needs to be set up in this dialog box anyhow, and a few extra seconds to improve the shot are worth it. Notice that a Transfer Functions line can be complex in the same way that a Curves control adjustment presents a complex graphic change in the tonal range of an image. Your favorite Transfer Functions results can be Saved and re-Loaded. Beyond this basic use of this control lies a deeper world of printer manipulation that can be used to perfect the output of Photoshop images in profound, but subtle ways.

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dSLR: Nikon D70

PROTECTION MONEY Inkjet images are made with water-based inks sprayed onto paper. Water droplets falling on a print can be fatal. Some paper and ink combinations work well to avoid problems like this, but many inks will smear, blend, or smudge with water or other solvents unless protected. Mounted prints behind glass will last for years, depending on the paper/ink combinationʼs archival qualities. Images displayed next to a soda fountain need definite help. Water- and moisture-proofing techniques used by fine artists to protect watercolor paintings work here as well, and for the same reasons. Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic sprays, fixatif, lamination, varnish—each has its advantages and drawbacks. Sprays that permeate the upper surface of the paper will usually change the color of the printed sheet. Often this actually enhances the contrast of the print. But, as they dry, the surface could shrink causing the paper to curl. Worse; dust imbeds into drying surfaces. Thick papers and prints that are already bonded to a stiff backing can avoid some of these symptoms, but you will need to run tests before settling into the right printer/ink/mounting technique/protective spray combination. Krylon, long regarded as an appropriate source for protective spray materials used with artwork, has several glossy, satin, and matte surface products. The UV-Clear spray, Item #1305, is particularly good for photographs. Lamination has advantages. It generally makes the print look more like a print on glossy stock, and the surrounding laminate curls the page in both directions equally, resulting in a flat sheet. The laminator and materials arenʼt cheap. Some of the best photo quality printers cost less than lamination presses. On the plus side, laminated prints are extremely durable and well protected. You can make very fine looking prints that are almost bullet proof. Iʼve used laminated prints as photo place mats. The Ibico laminator pictured here heats as it presses, fusing the lamination material surrounding the print. The one trouble heat can cause arises from moisture in the print or its ink. That can create bubbles. As long as the page is dry, a heat lamination is the best. But the laminator device is not inexpensive. Heat-free laminators from other manufacturers such as the Cool Laminator system from Brother® are less expensive and also give good results with their own pressure-sensitive materials.

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Special Effects

Chapter 8

Special Effects Beyond Photography

Special effects seem so “ordinary” these days. Every time you open an image for manipulation, the boundary dividing normal from special can be crossed. Digital photography is the special effects medium, so here’s how to get your digital FX feet wet.

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eorge Lucas considers the digital medium to be vastly superior to film, so what does he do? What any sane producer these days should do. He makes films digitally. The level of special effects production in the digital arena is limitless, and by starting with a digital image right from the camera, his Star Wars films are now digital from lens to screen. The problems for motion picture special effects are the same ones for still image special effects, plus the added problems of movement and animation. For chemical film images to enter into this realm they must be digitized into it. Fortunately, the D70 camera does this directly. Once digitized, exposure, contrast, and color correction are only starting places. They all are mere density management exercises. Digital special effects include the ability to blur, sharpen, distort, morph, tile, overlay, tint, matte, double expose, stack, pixelate, stylize, texture, frame, and combine images. Photoshop and Photoshop Elements will give you the tools to do all this and more. i The Photoshop Tryout program on this eBookʼs CD will help you experience some of the concepts here. If you find that you enjoy transforming pictures into more than they were in the camera, I recommend that you start saving your quarters to acquire the full version of Photoshop. i I wonder whatʼs on eBay tonight?

This frame and several others are on the CD.

I’VE BEEN FRAMED Printing a photo onto a page is fine. Adding a frame around the image signals people that the picture is special. Even a simple drop shadow under your image sets it apart from an ordinary print. A border that looks like a bevel-cut matte board is surprisingly effective. When people notice that the attractive matte board is the image of a matte board they will think you are capable indeed. You will hear this a lot: “Can you do that with my picture?” Printing is a form of expression, and there are a number of border-generating techniques available as plug-ins, shape modifiers, and standard pre-generated edge and frame images made for this, plus an infinite number you can dream up on your own. i Several unique Photoshop frames are on the CD. To inspire. Colorizing a black and white image has been a special effect since the dawn of photographs. Today it is an interesting way to make images refreshing while testing your basic kindergarten skills of coloring within the lines. With a paintbrush loaded with color, you can paint over a black and white image using the blending mode called, appropriately enough, Color. Anything

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8-2 CHAPTER 8

dSLR: Nikon D70

under the brush becomes colorized without being painted over. Conveniently, only middle tones take on the color, so highlights and shadows are preserved. Use a low opacity (about 10~15%) to build up color slowly. Photoshop also allows you to de-colorize selectively (Desaturation tool), and you can easily generate the image of a full-color person in a completely black and white world. Turning an image into a retro version of photography by sepia toning or fading back the color to a 1950s look will allow you to fill your walls with neo-history. Remember that old cat we used to have? Hereʼs an old sepia print of him made way back, oh, I dunno, maybe two months ago. i A few moments playing with the Colorize controls in Photoshopʼs Hue and Saturation tool will make you expert at achieving sepia (and other color) variations. BLUR FOR SHARPNESS Many images look more effective when the background is tastefully out of focus. The Japanese photo word for this is bokeh pronounced boe-kay. It doesnʼt mean flowers. Bokeh happens naturally with wide apertures and long lenses or with modest apertures in extreme closeups. It happens less in photography of people-size subjects. With about ten minutesʼ work you can change all this. The person in this shot was goofing with me over lunch. Can you tell? The background was blown out of focus days later by isolating the silhouette of the guy with Photoshopʼs Quick Mask feature, followed by a Gaussian Blur filter. The framing treatment locks in the whimsey. With a 35mm camera you can shoot an image while zooming the lens for a streaking effect, but only if you think of it at the time and can shoot with a long shutter speed. Yet here is a shot of a toy with a much better controlled version of that sort of effect. The image was copied

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Special Effects

into a new layer and “zoomed” with Photoshopʼs Radial Blur filter, then made 66% opaque, allowing the sharper, underlying layer to mix into the shot. Now the image has dynamics and detail in the same frame. Not all images need to depend on clarity. Blowing away the sharp focus in parts of images creates a form of directed center of interest that tonality, geometry, cropping, and color intensity canʼt achieve. Selective blur lets you direct the viewerʼs attention just where you want it to be. Advertising photography uses this technique to direct the emotional content of images and you can, too. Itʼs almost quicker to do than to talk about. For a directed-focus image, Lasso-select an area around the subject you wish to keep in focus, invert the selection and Feather the selection edge 10, 20, or more pixels. This selects the balance of the image and makes the edge of your selection notably soft. Blow this area a bit out of focus. Gaussian Blur at a radius of three pixels should do it. Now select a wider area farther away from the subject and repeat the process with increasing blur. After three to five iterations, the blown-focus effect should look smooth and increase with distance from the sharp area. Hereʼs a DeLorean shot that only took two minutes to treat. With this treatment a surreal quality enters the picture. It would be hard to distinguish it from a miniature or model instead of the real full-size car that it is. i Other effects that destroy clarity can add mega-doses of interest. The entire filter set within Photoshop that is labeled Artistic is good for hours and hours of investigation and play. Try to establish this habit: open an image and immediately save it under a new name (to avoid accidentally saving over the original), then copy it to a new layer. Perform the filter operation on this new layer. Not only does this let you get back to your unaltered original when an experiment goes sour, it lets you immediately use the upper layer in combination with the original so you can try out lots of overlay blending modes such as Screen, Soft and Hard Light, Color Dodge and Exclusion. i You can erase soft holes in a treated upper layer allowing untreated areas of the original to appear in select parts of the image. Tool Palette > Eraser > (any soft brush).

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8-4 CHAPTER 8

dSLR: Nikon D70

DOUBLE VISION A very large part of film special effects depend on layering images over other images. The general process here is achieving a matte, or selectively transparent means to isolate one part of a photo, then place another image into or around the matte. Blue sky is an especially good matte target. If you have an image of a relatively simple object against a nice rich blue sky, you can start playing with this idea right away. See the CD for my shot of the Las Vegas Venetian Hotel tower if another shot isnʼt handy. (This image has been tweaked to make it especially easy to work with the sky.) In Photoshop, use the Select > Color Range window. It presents you with a miniature of the photo and an array of tools and adjustments. Set the Fuzziness control to about 40, and use the eyedropper that has a + symbol next to it. Now anything you touch will be added to the selection of colors making the matte. Often, the image looks like something was selected before you opened it, so use the unmarked eyedropper to touch into the sky of your shot, and that should get things started. With the Eyedropper + tool, run the tip over the blues of the sky. On the Venetian shot this easily can be done up through the range of blues on the right side of the tower. The goal is to achieve an image that looks very much like this silhouette. Once this effect is approximated, a whole world of possibilities opens up. The sky alone is selected, and anything can be pasted into it using the Edit > Paste Into command. A new sky can be substituted, the original sky can be lightened or darkened. Forget your polarizer? Never mind, you can darken the sky later (lower left). Or add other sky images until you find one that suits your subject (lower right).

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Special Effects

If you get a halo in the edge, you may have to retouch the boundary of the matte using the stamp tool. Since halos are generally lighter, consider using the Darken blending mode with a small diameter soft brush. Now anything being picked up by the stamp will only darken the lighter part of the matte boundary, and detail wonʼt be covered over. TELL A FRIEND OR TELEPHOTO Telephoto images are an in-camera special effect, sort of. Our eyes donʼt see that way, and images from long lenses rarely feel like the views we get from binoculars. Shooting with the Kit lens at 70mm, then cropping the center 1504 x 1000 pixels out of the picture gives you a 140mm equivalent result. In 35mm camera terms the shot feels like a 210mm lens made it. But longer tele lenses bring even more drama. i Nikonʼs 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G AF lens behaves at full tele the way a 300mm lens does in 35mm terms. This is a very telephoto perspective. i High shutter speeds make for sharp tele images. The picture above was made with an 8-inch Meade LX200 telescope at 1/250 sec. The trees are over two miles away. i Since very long tele lenses are tripod fodder, resign yourself to shooting not hand-held. Unless, that is, if you have a VR series lens with internal computer-controlled motion compensation. VR lenses typically add two or three full stops of slower shutter speed to your ability to hand-hold them. TWIN PEEKS Special effects fall into two basic camps: Those done to disguise their presence and those done to be strikingly obvious. How would you characterize the image below? Erasing a shadow, covering a flaw, smoothing a texture, and covering a thumb that made its way into the side of your shot are examples of disguised special effects. They simply will never be noticed or appreciated by the viewer. Included in this category are the image manipulations most people call retouching. One of the most useful skills you can develop in Photoshop is the art of making masks. Like the previous sky example, this Retouching can add story elements. The straight image is the one, left, could largely be done by selecting the brighter colors of special effect, but no gondolas (rollover) were in the shot to add a human element. Months later, part of a different image the exterior area, but fine work was needed to clean up the arch was added to lend the missing touch of life. and mask out the nearby bright areas.

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8-6 CHAPTER 8

dSLR: Nikon D70

Creating artistic textures, combining matted elements, and manipulating isolated elements can be visually obvious techniques that strengthen images. All three images here, from three different digital cameras, share this quality. A popular technique (top ) is to stack blurred and sharp images together and combine their percentage of participation. It creates an effect similar to using a fog filter on the enlarger lens during a portion of the exposure when printing from negatives. Contrast manipulation of the sky and shirt were emphasized to create slashes of heavy color intended to pull your eye around the shot. The motorcycle was masked while the back- and foreground were blurred (right). Large areas of isolated focus like this are usually only achievable with large format view cameras. Below, five shots were layered in alignment and blended by erasing image material on the right side of each shot with a soft brush that followed the contour of the figure. Everything to the right of that layer was then erased completely allowing the next lower layer(s) to appear. The originals were all hand-held. Retouching by using the Stamp tool removed the images of redundant silverware, replacing it with plausible table place mat texture.

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Special Effects

Original without any treatment.

iAngledStrokesPainting

iCanvasPainting

iColorDream

iContrast(UM)2

iColorPencilSketch

iFilmGrain2

iPlasticWrap

iPoster

iSponge

SPECIAL EFFECTS À LA MODE Photoshop is, among other things, Special Effects City. Its filter complement is extensive. Perhaps dauntingly wide in scope. Newcomers to Photoshop can be intimidated by the full range of filters and effects that are available. Never fear, iNovaFX has come to the rescue. The iNovaFX Photoshop Actions include nearly a hundred iPS variations for your computer. These must be used with Photoshop 6, 7 or CS. They load into the Actions palette, not the Plug Ins folder. These filters have only one purpose, to widen your ability to use the various artistic effects on your photos using Photoshopʼs own filters. Many are merely our tested and helpful settings for various Photoshop plug-in filters, which are already included with the full version of the program. They may help you avoid a lot of trial and error and generally produce good results with a variety of original images. Some have several degrees of variation representing a light, modest, or strong version of the filter. The names on each of these includes the name of the Photoshop filter being employed marked with a leading lowercase “i.” All of the iNovaFX versions feature plug-in filters that have several of variables. Once you see what choices the iVersion has produced, you can use the History Palette to jump back to the original state of your image so you can play with new settings for that filter. The you-versions. Some of the iNovaFX iPS actions are more complex. These produce orchestrated adjustments that employ not just filters, but a fuller array of Photoshop adjustments, to achieve a particular effect. All of the images on this and the next page were made by applying some of these iPS actions to the same image. The label on each steers you to the action in question.

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8-8 CHAPTER 8

dSLR: Nikon D70

iWaterColor2

iAccentedEdges

iSpatter

iTwist-90

iGlassRipple

iRipple

iZigOut

iExtrude3

iBasReliefColorReverse

iCraquelure2

iContéCrayonColor

iChalkNCharcoalColor

iPhotoCopyColor

iEmbossColor

iChromeChroma

dSLR NIKON D70 EBOOK Vexing Frequently Asked Questions

Chapter 9

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9-1

Vexing FAQs

Frequently asked questions are frequent because digital photography often is not intuitive and doesn’t fit prior experiences. When that happens, it’s good to have a peek at some of the underlying principles. Here is a bit of help;

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etting stuck on a basic idea can be frustrating. Anything fundamental that hangs you up can be embarrassing if the solution turns out to be, “First, plug it in,” but in all-electronic digital photography, things pop up that arenʼt in our habit structures yet. When that happens, the forums on the Internet are the first level of help, because a whole community of interested people at all levels of discovery and expertise hangs out there and will willingly answer your questions. Better yet, go to the Internet and open up http://www.digitalsecrets.net/ to see if there are serious recent issues that have cropped up. Take comfort in knowing that youʼre not the only one who ever raised these questions. Here are a few of the most frequent.

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO FOCUS THE CLOSEST? There isnʼt one. There are three—Auto, Manual and assisted. #1 Auto-focus operation is generally positive and quick, provided that the active focus zone(s) contain subject matter that visibly begins to tighten as the focus motor starts moving. Many lenses like the 18-70mm Kit Lens will deliver nominally close focus of .33m (about a foot), and at full 70mm tele, that lens will cover a field of view five inches (125 mm) wide. Thatʼs a field of view smaller than a 4 x 6 print. The Nikkor 28-200mmG AF will focus to about 15 inches (380 mm) covering an area just about three inches (75 mm) wide, but the 60mm Micro Nikkor AF will capture images that are the size of the image sensor, making a field of view 23.4 x 15.6 mm; a 1:1 field of view. Ants become gi-ants. If the camera is in AF-S mode (CSM #02), focus will lock once it has been Worker bee. The D70 can get closer than achieved, but if the lens is in AF-C, it will attempt to continuously update based this, but only with the right optics. Micro on subject or camera movement as long as the shutter release is held in halfNikkor 60mm prefocused. press. Since very close focus subject matter is accompanied by minimal depth of field, it is common to witness AF-C struggling to keep the subject focused when working at near maximum close distances. If the subject matter wanders out of the focus zones—or worse, you move so close to the subject (or it to you) that no focus can possibly be achieved—the lens may start a search that can take several seconds to resolve. i Switching the AF mode to Closest Subject (CSM #03) is helpful, especially when the plane of possible subject matter is not deep. Shooting a flower, for instance, brings in the variable of a deep background, and if the camera is in continuous focus mode

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9-2 CHAPTER 9

dSLR: Nikon D70

and disengages focus from the flower, focus may be stolen by more distant subject matter. Closest Subject option works more positively with AF-S. i With a Micro Nikkor 60mm AF you can get so close that the lens becomes its own biggest lighting compromise, causing shadows from many viewing angles. i By pulling slightly back, you allow more light to make it into the scene. If you are blocking direct sunlight, orbit the camera around your subject until light can make it in. The Micro Nikkor lenses are the royalty of close focus, but keep in mind that an 8 x 10 print from the Kit Lens represents a 2X enlargement Small leaves, lens prefocused. The of the original subject. camera was moved closer / farther #2 D70 cameras will manually focus to the closest distance the current lensʼs zoom to find the point of focus. position can handle. Manual focus may be your best option when working ultra close. No possible auto-focus wander will slow you down and the distance relationship between camera and subject is locked. Now focus either becomes a matter of adjusting the lens focus ring or moving the camera in and out to bring the subject into sharp view. #3 Assisted focus has you intervening with a focus target—a small swatch of printed paper will do— held in the shot during shutter half-press, then it is withdrawn for the shot. It avoids macro-level stolen focus. i If you are set up on a scene that will have a transient subject—a bee at the mouth of a flower, for instance—you can assist the camera to focus at the point you think the bee will most likely occupy by pre focusing at that spot using the assisted focus technique. ARE SOME MEMORY CARDS BETTER? CHEAPER? WILL THEY WEAR OUT? Speed kills. Slow speed cards, in this case, will slow the camera down, killing some situations. SanDisk Extreme cards are recommendation #1. Lexar Pro Series 80X with Write Acceleration cards work nearly as fast. SanDisk Ultra II cards work quite speedily, too. i Avoid slower cards. The SanDisk Standard 1 GB card can be found at bargain rates ($100 US recently), but you will dream up new curse words trying to work with them. D70s need speed. Some people are concerned that CompactFlash cards might have a limited service life. In strict, technical terms this is true. But you would have to go out of your way by an impractically wide margin to come close to wearing one out. i Each memory cell in the card can be rewritten in the neighborhood of 300,000 times. (Thatʼs right, once a day for the better part of a thousand years.) But if you really get busy, you could wear the card out in about five years if you simply filled it up 60,000 times a day. Ironic and ridiculous, but true.


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9-3

CAN I USE OTHER FLASHES? The D70 is a camera with two flash options; the on-camera flash and the Nikon SB-800 or SB-600 external Speedlights. Well, thatʼs not every bit of the story since you can use flash units with a simple center pin in their hot shoe base, but these only work manually, requiring you to compute the f-stop from a guide number (guide number divided by distance equals f-stop), or shoot test shots and adjust exposure by trial and error. In camera TTL mode exposures are tested through the lens from a pre-flash. Alas, people may react by blinking, spoiling their expression during the shot. To disconnect the TTL pre-flash from the image flash, set the AE-L/AF-L option (CSM #15) to FV Lock and make the test flash with the AE-L/AF-L camera button. The external Nikon SB-800 flash unit is a stunningly good option. On the camera it can deliver high power, fast repeating flashes and several modes of auto exposure. The SB-800 is fairly expensive at $350 US, but worth it. SB-600 is about $100 less. The tops of Nikon SB-800/600 units pivot upward, facilitating bounce flash at several angles, 0° straight out, 45°, 60°, 75° and 90° straight up. A retracting diffuser drops over the flash tube for extra wide coverage and a small white card, also in the diffuser well can be used for partial key light when using the flash primarily for bounce. i With the internal flash you can trigger inexpensive slave flash units by covering the flash tube with some black slide film, turning it into an infrared flash transmitter for remote flashes. Some visible light will come through the slide film, but not enough to provide illumination to the shot. Virtually all of the IR light will pass through, and that will trigger all the slave units. WILL MY PRINTS FADE? Sure they will—in time. But it might be measured in decades, centuries, or eons. Recent ink-jet printers measure print life in decades. Some up to 100 years or more. Light is the great killer of the dyes and pigments in photo prints. Ultraviolet light is particularly effective in promoting fading. After that, oxygen is the next culprit. Prints stored in books, portfolios and drawers tend to last longest. i Keep the UV off the print, and most printer-brand inks should last for years. Hollywood films have a similar problem. Old color movies are fading. Several organizations are spending megadollars to preserve them, and their first defense is the one already built into your camera; digitization. Once the image exists as digital data, it will never fade. Of course, this puts the burden on you to effectively preserve the storage media. Load data onto a CD-R or a DVD-R disk, and itʼs very safe as long as the disk isnʼt scratched, melted, or used as a frisbee. i For critical image collections, make more than one disk, and store them in different places. Note that CD-R materials are somewhat light-sensitive. A laser light “burned” them. So store them in dim areas.

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9-4 CHAPTER 9

dSLR: Nikon D70

DO MULTI-ELEMENT LENSES LOSE LIGHT? Years ago, lenses with just a few elements were the norm and designs with more than six elements were thought to be extreme. People were concerned with more elements creating substantial light loss because some light is reflected at every extra surface in the stack of elements. Modern coatings reduce reflection on every surface, allowing even 15-element designs to pass 94% of the incoming light. Youʼll never miss 6%. i The UV filter you use to protect the front element of your lens is likely to represent the biggest reflection loss in the system even when it is multi-coated on both sides. CAN I SHOOT AT HIGHER “FILM” SPEEDS? Would you like ISO 3200? The D70 will give it to you and produce quite good looking pictures, even though it isnʼt directly selectable in the ISO list. As the sensitivity is boosted—and this means literally amplified, the way you would turn up a quiet passage of music—the only place that extra brightness comes from is the shadow detail of the image chipʼs full response range. Internally, the camera is dealing with an image in 12-bit format which has 4096 tonal levels. It can amplify the lower levels and stretch the remaining ones up to the full range from black to white, thus boosting effective sensitivity. i Only the camera sees this 12-bit image internally. A slightly truncated version of it is stored in NEF (RAW) format files. If the top 3000 levels of brightness were thrown out, 1000 would still remain, and if this were stretched (amplified) to cover the tonal range from black to blow-out white, an ISO-lifted image would be the result. i As ISO rises, so does grain, noise, and color uncertainty since each photosite receives a statistically lower sample of photons. Just like it does in high speed film. Fortunately, D70 can achieve ISO numbers upwards of 4+ times its top marked number. There will be grain and loss of quality, but the image will be recognizable. Shooting at high ISO is easy. Just tell the camera to intentionally underexpose. With the EV+/- function, set the camera to expose at EV -1.0 while shooting at ISO 1600, and the exposures you make will be exactly the same ones you would have made for ISO 3200. The EV -2.0 setting will effectively produce expoThis would never happen to your images, but if you accidentally shot a picture way underexposed, how would sures equivalent to those appropriate for ISO 6400. you fix it? i The picture on the camera monitor may be dark to the point of unreadable, but the appropriate ISO boosting iNovaFX action in Photoshop will bring the picture back to nearer where you wanted. The only thing you lose is the ability to judge the image in the camera. A special action called iISO2Taste is included for experimentation with even higher realms of ISO boost, and still others pull severely underexposed images back to life, no matter what the original


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9-5

ISO, meaning that rescuing a relatively decent image from a four-stop underexposure at ISO 200 is not impossible. See Chapter 10ʼs action operation instructions for details. I rather like the grainy, crushed colors of ISO boosted images. They have a somewhat painterly quality, and as with super speed color films, the character of the image can be abstract and artistic. Thatʼs what I tell myself when there is no other choice. CAN I MAKE PHOTO PRINTS? Several on-line photographic digital print services have appeared to address exactly this question, so the answer is, yes. Pushing the limits of ISO boost, the image was recovered with Ofoto, ShutterFly, DotPhoto. Print Room, and others like the iNovaFX ISO2Taste action. Nikon Net all want you to send your images to them over the Internet, so they can make photo-paper prints and mail them back to you. The cost of prints is quite reasonable, and some will print a sample number of your images free, just to demonstrate to you how good they make them. Not as fast as local photo finishers, they do deliver the pictures to your door, and the images look just like photos from film cameras. A few, like EZPrints, make crowd-pleasing enlargements as big as 20 x 30 inches (at less than $20 US). I feel a poster coming on. All over the world, digital photography is becoming a normal part of your local photo finisherʼs service mix. Fuji, Agfa and Sony make super-quality digital printers that are appearing in many photo finisherʼs stores. CAN I MAKE GIANT PRINTS AT HOME? If you have a large format ink-jet printer, you can make prints up to the maximum size paper that it will take. Letter-page printers max out at 8.5 inches wide but panoramic prints on Epson letter printers are possible. Look over the wide body printers from Epson, HP and Canon. Epsonʼs 13-inch wide models are especially good looking these days, and they have a line of A group of prints from Ofoto and Shutterfly. While they’re not the level professional printers with 13-inch (Stylus Photo 2200, of custom tweak you can make for yourself and print individually, they’re extremely good and often better than the one-hour photolabs results with a.k.a. 2100 in Europe), 24-inch (Pro 7600) and 44-inch film. (Pro 9600) paper widths. These are very expensive, ($700, $3,300 and $6,600 respectively, US) but they make fabulous, completely photographic (2880 x 1440 dpi) large prints that use archival inks and paper. But donʼt fret the price; Epson also makes wide printers in the under $400 price range, too. Epson downside: clogged nozzels take time and ink to clear. Iʼm rather partial to HPʼs image process. Their cartridge printers place the spray tip on the cartridge itself, meaning that when a new cartridge is installed, a virgin—clog free—spray tip is installed. Youʼd think this might generate alignment problems, but Iʼve never had a failure over several models. You will hear the term giclée prints (zhee-clay, itʼs French for “spurt”) and this refers to high-quality ink-jet prints of superior longevity. Digital photo-finishers are awakening to the growing desire for large digital prints, and your camera will produce exceptionally good giclée large images.

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9-6 CHAPTER 9

dSLR: Nikon D70

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO LIGHT— Lighting is a subject worthy of a whole book and your bookstore will be glad to show you some. Iʼve picked a few examples here that are widely different, and each brings up a consideration that shows an unusual series of problems to be solved. —A PORTRAIT?

People look good with key light from the front, above head high, and slightly to one side, plus back-light that catches their hair, shoulders, cheeks, and contours, plus a little fill to keep the front light from looking too contrasty. People also look best at mild telephoto settings. Mid to long zoom settings are called for. All of this is an overgeneralization, but it is the basis for finding the framing and light for your subjects. Outdoors the sun can act as a back light, camera or external flash can become the key (main) light, and the sky and surrounding reflected light can act as the fill. When the sun becomes the key light, which is the way too many images are shot, the people often look quite contrasty. Worse, they squint! Indoors, the diagramed sort of lighting setup (above) is quite formulaic, but it does work. This is a good place to use the IR flash trick with inexpensive slave flash units. Direct flash is almost always too direct and harsh. If you can, point the key flash at a large chunk of white foam core board, white poster board, or a nearby wall to create a big, soft bounce light. Backlight and rim light from the back and/or sides can be aimed directly about 45° from the rear, giving a crisp edge of light to the head and shoulders of your subject. The picture here used four small inexpensive slave units and one major flash unit, all triggered invisibly with black transparency film subtracting visible light from the primary flash. i For a dramatic image, you can use side light and color gels on back and rim lights. Sometimes, eliminating the fill light will enhance a sense of drama by creating unlit, negative space in the image. In all portraits the background is important. Outdoors it can easily become too detailed and distracting. When you are aware that the blobs of background detail are important to the look of the scene, you can start using them as helpful elements in your shot. i Long focal lengths and open apertures are the portrait photographerʼs best friends. At 50-70mm, the Kit lens achieves nearly ideal portrait focal lengths. An inexpensive 50mm f/1.8 AF Nikkor is a good choice.

A basic three light system uses the camera as a wireless IR trigger with Maual flash mode’s single pulse. The main light here is bounced for softness while the backlight is direct. Set lights or rim lights can be bounced soft or direct. Similar setups are easy with the Nikon SB-800/600 units.

dSLR NIKON D70 EBOOK Vexing Frequently Asked Questions —A ROOM?

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9-7

All rooms are different. Some need to be shot using ambient light, and this probably means a tripod and longish exposures. Some may look quite good if you bounce a bright flash unit off a side wall or the ceiling above the camera. When windows let in a lot of exterior light, you will need to be aware that interior and exterior light make a warm/cool combination. Perform a manual white balance on a piece of white paper equally illuminated from these opposite sources to help you record the actual colors in the room. With wide zoom lenses, you may need an iNovaFX barrel distortion correction action to straighten linear features. Sometimes hand-held in natural light is the only option. Often rooms have an extreme range of contrast. Windows show the outside, and the difference from outside to inside can be easily many more stops than the camera can capture. Your eye, with its 30,000:1 adapted sensitivity, sees things the tonal range of the camera simply canʼt. Tripod interior shots can capture greater tonal range through RAW (NEF) exposures. —A PAINTING?

Any flat graphic surface can be captured with the D70. Instant scans. Big objects, like paintings on a wall, are a good example. Photographs in scrapbooks or notes on white boards can be captured routinely. For best results, shoot at mid-zoom. Flat surfaces can glare, so the camera flash is useless much of the time. Sometimes you must use it, however, and Photoshop offers a workaround. If you shoot a painting or flat graphic with the camera flash—but do it at an angle to avoid reflections—you will have an image of the painting at a perspective angle. i Photoshop has a Transform tool that will allow you to correct the perspective and straighten up the image. Many images in a museum, or large permanent wall graphics, Only one chance to snap this image will have to be photographed from opportunistic positions. With available light and a under available light. Photoshop’s skewed point of view, this tool will help. Transform tool in Perspective mode i Classic lighting for flat objects uses two symmetrically placed lights, either flash rescued it. units or incandescent lights, that are along the 45° line extending from the center of the subject on each side. This angle has some flexibility. In cramped quarters, polarization filters can cover the lights and can be rotated to stop the glare before it starts. Another circular polarizer on the camera will eliminate any residual lighting glare at the edges of your flat subject. i The farther the lights are from the subject at 45°, the lower your chances of introducing glare to flat surfaces. —AN AQUARIUM?

Here the questions are 1, how a flash affects the fish, 2, how to control glare from the glass on the camera side of the tank, 3, focusing on moving fish in dim light, and 4, how the tankʼs structure may create shadows that canʼt be seen until the flash goes off. i With halogen or fluorescent lights, some problems disappear because you can see the lighting coming together. But with flash you will have to learn things through a series of test exposures. The good news: test exposures are free.

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9-8 CHAPTER 9

dSLR: Nikon D70

The fish: try a flash out on them. They probably wonʼt dart around too much, or theyʼll probably get used to it fairly quickly if they do. After all, theyʼre used to glints of sunlight from the surface. Wrangling them into position might be a tougher problem. i Have a laser pointer handy. Theyʼll follow the spot around like itʼs an egg or food. Pose that fish! The glare: Make sure the camera itself isnʼt being illuminated by external lighting units, thus causing its own reflection. Control the light, and keep it in the aquarium. Donʼt use the camera flash at all, not even as an IR trigger; any light straight out from the camera will bounce off the glass into your lens and ruin the shot. External flash units, incandescent, or fluorescent lights would be your best bets. If you can, try to pump as much light directly down into the tank from the top with all the upper top-oftank equipment cleared away. i The option of lighting this at 45° angles from the front is not particularly good because the seams at the edge of the front window will now cast shadows into the fish. Side lighting and top lighting will be better approaches. WHAT’S WITH A POLARIZER? Polarizers are filters that look gray to the eye but have the extra physical attribute of being able to darken light that is polarized at a 90° angle different from the filterʼs own angle. Light becomes polarized as it glints off of water, polished surfaces, camera body components, glass, leaves, graphics, ceramics—anything that can create glare except for one thing: metal surfaces. Blue sky also polarizes light, and the portion of the sky that is 90° from the sun is quite responsive to a polarizing filter. Polarizing filters are neutral gray and tend to make colors look more vivid when the glossy reflection from surfaces is canceled. The way you use it is straightforward. You must be able to see through the viewfinder well, otherwise the effect may be lost to your eye. The filter is attached normally and rotated in its free-wheeling mount. Glare reflections and sky color will brighten and dim as you turn the filter. Turn it to where the image of the sky looks darkest, and you will have the effect in your shot. If you are shooting into water at a steep angle, about 45°, you can erase the reflection of the sky to a marked degree by turning the filter until the water looks clearer. Ah, the drama of a polarizing filter! Wait a minute. This isn’t i “Circular polarizers” are filters that have a special material on a polarizing filter at work. It’s another one of the iNovaFX the camera side of the filter called a retarder plate. It tumbles the actions from the iPolarizeSky.atn folder. emerging photons in a way that canʼt be seen with your eye, but which is helpful inside the camera. Light passing out the back of a circular polarizer is effectively no longer polarized, so it bounces around viewfinder, prism and mirror surfaces without accidentally encountering extra polarization effects that can fool meters. i Two linear polarizers can be crossed to extinguish the light flowing through them, but two circular polarizers behave differently. In fact, a single linear polarizer held up to a mirror will look merely gray to your eye as you look through it at its own reflection, but a circular polarizer reflection will look gray only when observed from behind. Flip the filter over and the reflection will darken the way two crossed regular polarizing filters do. Amazing but true.


A good coated filter, like the lower one, will show a glare reflection that is darker than the reflection from an uncoated surface, the upper one. The reflection is notably darker because more light is passing through it instead of being bounced off the glass. Both test filters here are backed by neutral dark filters so only the reflection shows prominently.

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9-9

DO I NEED A UV FILTER? A UV, Haze and/or Skylight filter is a nearly clear pane of ultraviolet light-absorbing glass that prevents ultraviolet light or slightly blue haze from contaminating the image. Thatʼs nice, but adding extra layers of glass increases reflections. An additional feature: protection. If you are in an environment that throws sand, tree limbs, dog noses, and unexpected fingers toward your camera, a UV, Haze or Skylight filter is cheap protection for your cameraʼs lens. i Uncoated UV filters lose about 8% of the light by reflecting it away from each air/glass surface. Coated filters lose less light and wonʼt create strong reflections when pointed at bright lights. Try to get a multi-coated filter if you can. i The best protection will come from a filter that lives on the lens all of its life (UV, Haze, Skylight). You can remove it at any time to replace it with another filter—a polarizer for instance. i UV filters are neutral in color but Skylight filters have a slight warm tint to them. Haze filters (Nikon L37C) are no different from UV filters.

HOW LONG WILL THIS CAMERA LAST? High precision mechanics and electronics will likely outlast your use of them. It seems that well-designed digital gear doesnʼt break very often until it gets dropped very hard. As with most high tech tools, if it doesnʼt break in the first few months of heavy use, it probably will run longer than you will. i If your camera is functioning well right now, donʼt be afraid of wearing it out. Sure, you will rub the finish off a strap loop in the first year, or scratch the LCD, or ding the surface, but there are no professional cameras in use that donʼt acquire this patina of having lived a full and adventurous life. For a small percentage of owners, a switch can wear out or a tiny component can fail, and at times like these you will get to know Nikonʼs repair service. Most repairs are made in less than two weeks, and some happen in mere days. i Shutter cycle expectancy is well over 100,000 shots. Will you shoot 100 shots every day for the next three years?

Like many good high tech items, digital cameras tend to last, providing you don’t traumatize them. Nikkor lenses are particularly long-lived. Dirt and moisture are the enemies of switches, but if the camera stays relatively free from environmental distress, it will last well past your next camera body purchase. Just in case—you did insure the D70, didn’t you?

WHAT DATA IS IN THE IMAGE FILE? EXIF (EXtensible Image File) data is connected to every image and follows it through duplication from camera or CF card into the computer. All of the data seen during review on the camera monitor is here, providing that the editing program can decypher it. i Photoshop 7 & CSʼs Browser window reveals much of this stream of data and it documents many aspects of the image. Image Format, Width, Height, Date Time (to the second), F-Stop, Exposure Time, Metering Mode (Pattern,

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9-10 CHAPTER 9

dSLR: Nikon D70

Spot, etc.), Flash (did it fire?), Exposure Program (priority mode), Focal Length, ISO and File Size are all faithfully tracked and documented, but not all items are reported by every program. i Nikon Capture presents a very complete range of data in every image header (above). Armed with all this information about the circumstances of the image, one can reconstruct much of what was happening technically during the exposure. CAN I SHOOT A COMPUTER OR TV? Computer and TV CRT images have a frame rate. They scan a tiny intense electron spot from left to right, top to bottom, in a small fraction of a second, scribing a picture onto glowing phosphors. LCD screens, like you find on laptop computers, donʼt do this. You can shoot those at any speed you wish because instead of a frame rate, they have an update rate, meaning that their pixels are on all the time until told to transform into something new. TV in the USA is in the NTSC format, and that means 30 frames per second. Computer monitors display anywhere from about 60 to over a hundred frames per second, depending on the setting from the computer and the ability of the monitor. An exposure that is too short can fail to get a whole frame (see inset) and have a dark bar across the image where the electron beam couldnʼt catch up to where it started during the exposure. An exposure just a hair larger than the frame rate may produce a slight overlap of the scan and cause a light or dark bar across the shot. i The best way to get a clear image is to acquire several video frames in the exposure and let the light average out so no bar can show. This means setting the shutter speed to Shutter Priority mode and gathering images at 1/15 or 1/8 sec. i White balancing off a TV must be done manually. The camera has no native TV color setting, and each TV has slightly different color. So how can you make a good white balance from a color TV? 1. Turn the color (chroma) to zero. Drain it out. Now you have a Black and White TV image. Oops! Too quick! A shutter speed of 1/30 sec might work for an NTSC display, but 1/15 or 1/8 sec would be better. For PAL 2. Do a Manual white balance on the B&W image. Thatʼs all displays, 1/25 sec might work, but 1/12 or 1/6 sec would be there is to it. You donʼt need a pure white image to do a white better. balance, just a neutral gray image. Restore the color to the TV and shoot the picture. i Itʼs easy to add too much color to a TV image. Be careful. Same process for a computer screen, except here you can open a white sheet of “paper” in Photoshop or a word processor page, and use that for a white balance target. i Believe it or not, some people try to shoot images from their TV with the camera flash. (Worse, they try to shoot cozy fireplace shots with camera flash, but thatʼs another story.)


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9-11

WHAT IS THE BEST GENERAL SETTING? If there is one, it would be the fully automatic mode. Point and shoot. Most of the time your images will be just fine—or close enough to optimum to produce custom results in the digital darkroom. i In manual mode, Matrix Meter, Auto White Balance, middle Sharpening (0 setting), Color Type I, AF-S and AE-L/AF-L set to FV Lock (avoids blinking subjects but requires you to press the AEL/AF-L button to make a test flash) will do the trick. Other considerations are strictly personal. Only you can possibly answer these yourself. DOES RE-COMPRESSION HURT THE PICTURE? It does, but not as much as you may think. Yes, every time you recompress an image it grows less detailed and contains more artifacts. In Photoshop you can save any image as a TIFF, a Native Photoshop .psd file, or as an uncompressed PICT, all of which do NOT degrade in any way with subsequent re-saves. But actual re-save degradation can be microscopic and completely irrelevant. I tested an image by opening, re-saving with compression, opening again, etc. ten times. Each time I made changes to the image to see how multiple sessions would damage it. Interestingly, the biggest damage came early, and subsequent generations showed less accumulated artifacts. In the test detail shown below, the image was saved initially at the 70% compression level using Photoshopʼs excellent Save For Web option. Generations two to ten were saved at 60% quality to supposedly accelerate compression artifact build up. No changes were made to the image between saved generations. As you can see in this blowup, the artifact build-up is minor, if not invisible, even over the nine generations of 60% quality. Excuse me, isnʼt each generation only 60% of the previous one? At that rate generation #10 should be only 1.18% of the quality of the original, right? Clearly, it is not. A print from either file shown would be nearly impossible to perceive as being different. So what is really happening? Compression is rigidly consistent. Without new differences Generations two and ten of a compression save/open/resave/reopen in pixel values to re-compute sequence. No changes were made between generations. Which is the earlier generation #2? Without testing I could not tell, could you? from one generation to the next, the compression engine puts ( ) pixel values right back into the same digital number, with only very minor mathematical rounding errors. Generations two and ten have stayed virtually identical. Test it. Layer two identical images. Make the top one negative (Image > Adjust > Invert) and use the Opacity slider to make it 50% transparent. The monitor image turns pure 50% gray. But, substitute the original and compressed copies layered, and any differences—such as ones from the compression processing—show immediately as tonal changes from the medium gray result. When tested this way, generations two and ten above show almost no differences. It’s on the left.

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9-12 CHAPTER 9

dSLR: Nikon D70

i The moral to the story: If you make changes with each save, artifacts do build up. Any crop, color or density change, geometric transformation, or retouch provides an opportunity for re-saves to build new artifacts on top of old artifacts. If you just add a touch up here and there, only the new areas are susceptible to re-compression artifacts. Changes are present from generation to generation, but they are nearly always invisible. As you can see in the example, each generationʼs cumulative loss is minor. i The iNovaFX actions on the CD include a special action, iDeJPEG, for reducing the effect of strong JPEG artifacts, but using this action will not solve the recompression artifacts. Its purpose is more for preparing a highly compressed image prior to printing and only for pronounced artifact suppression. Look for it in the iColorDeNoise > DeJPEG.atn file. CAN I CLEAN THE LENS? MONITOR? Any photographic store will have lens cleaner and lens cleaning tissue. These work well. Some industrial supply places may have lint-free linen cloth pads about three inches square. Eyeglass stores have lens cleaners and these are generally less expensive than the photographic version but do just as good a job. In a pinch, use Windex to dampen a cleaning cloth. i Never squirt or spray anything onto the camera directly. i The lens is a special case. Never scrub the lens hard, never use repeated wet/dry operations to clean tough fingerprints and uncooperative smears from the glass. A recommended device called the LensPen costs more than lens cleaning fluid but cleans up fingerprints (the biggest offender) easily and reliably without fluids. Use it only on the lens, not the monitor, eyepiece or image chip. Preserve its purity. Buy a new one each year. HOW BIG IS THE IMAGING CHIP? In the D70 the image chip is called a “APS size chip” by manufacturers and specification writers. While the image chip in the D70 is 23.4 x 15.6 mm (365 sq mm), APS film is really 25.1 x 16.7 mm in the size of its image area. Close enough. i The full chip has more photosites than end up in the final image. A black frame is printed on top, bordering the center field of photosites to give the cameraʼs computer a peek at what unilluminated photosites look like at the top, bottom and sides of the active pixels. i Overall, there are 3110 by 2030 sensors on the chipʼs face with only 3008 by 2000 used for photography. Of the total, only 3032 by 2016 are effectively used to take readings with every shot. i Each photosite is only 7.8µm square (think 1/12th of the diameter of a human hair) and is topped off with a microlens that steers most of the incoming photons into the photositeʼs sweet spot.

dSLR NIKON D70 EBOOK Vexing Frequently Asked Questions WHAT ACCESSORIES ARE AVAILABLE? Every day somebody comes up with a new accessory for these cameras. At press time the list includes:

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9-13

D70 Accessories Item

Source/Manufacturer

Approximate cost

Filters, 67, 62mm

Kenko, Hoya, Marumi+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 12 ~ 80 2filter.com CKC Power

Lens Cleaning Device

LensPen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 10

InfoLithium Batteries

Nikon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 50

Step Down Rings 58 > 52

2filter.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 9 ~ $ 40

Camera Bags

Nikon and many others. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 20 ~ $ 150

Slave Flash Units (single pulse)

Cobra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 16 ~ $ 50+ Ritz Camera

Optics Normal 50mm f/1.8 Zoom Fisheye 28-200mm AF G

Nikon. . . . . . . . . . . . . Nikon and other third parties Nikon 10.5mm AF DX. . . . Nikon . . . . . . . . . . . . .

External Flash External Flash cheap

Nikon SB-600 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 230 Nikon SB-800 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 330 Most hot shoe triggered units . . . . . . . . . . .$ 10 and up

Wireless Remote Control

Nikon infrared ML-L3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 20

Form Fit Camera Case

Nikon CF-D70 (for camera + lens) . . . . . . . .$ 40

Right Angle Finder

Nikon DR-6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 250

Replacement Monitor Cover

Nikon BM-4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 10

Replacement Lens Caps

Nikon LC-(mm size) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 15 ~ 18

Replacement Eye Cup

Nikon DK-16. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 7

eBook w/CD full of stuff

This is it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 50

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

.$ 95 .$ 180 and up .$ 600 .$ 300

(more information like this is in the Appendix.)

i In general you can take the supplierʼs name and add “.com” to bring up a Web page or use the entry here in an Internet search engine. I suggest using www.Google.com as your first Internet search engine to find a supplier.

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9-14 CHAPTER 9

dSLR: Nikon D70

CAN I TRIGGER THE CAMERA REMOTELY? The very inexpensive ML-L3 infrared wireless remote control can trigger the D70 from up to 10 feet (3 meters) away—as long as the camera can “see” the control from its IR receiver on the camera front. i Alternative hands-free triggering of the camera can occur through a third-party device made by Harbortronics, the DigiSnap D70. This is a proven intervalometer remote that has been available for other cameras and is now outfitted with an infrared optical fiber cord that delivers its camera release signal right into the D70 IR receiver port. Not only will it release the camera, but it will gather time-lapse frame sequences. DO SOME FUNCTIONS “TIME OUT”? Some do. The obvious ones put the camera to sleep after 4 sec, 6 sec, 8 sec, 16 sec or 30 minutes (CSM #23), switching off the exposure meter, Digisnap IR trigger. Remote button the internal display and part of the camera top LCD data. and time-lapse trigger from 1 / sec to A separate timer allows the monitor display to stay active (CSM #22) for 10 sec, 20 1 / day. sec, 1 min, 5 min or 10 min after the last button press. i If the monitor is active with a playback image or menu display, the Meter data display isnʼt lit up at all inside the viewfinder. Monitor time-out will take its time and shut down the camera to standby sleep. If a half-press activates the exposure meter timer, the Monitor timer is completely dismissed, quenching the monitor intantly, and the Meter timer takes over. Since the longest Meter timer is only 16 seconds, you can set the Monitior timer long and use a quick halfpress to send the camera to slumberland. No off switch is needed. i A good all-around setting is for the Meter timer to last 8 or 16 seconds, allowing you enough time to make adjustments and decisions while things are active, and set the Monitor timer to 1 minute, allowing chimping sessions that keep the screen active long enough to show an image to several people. i You wouldnʼt want a slide show to switch off in mid-image, so when Playback is showing slides in a continuous loop, the camera wonʼt turn off until you tell it to. i Self-timer timing can be set to 2 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec or 20 sec from the time that the shutter release is fully pressed. i Meter Off time and Monitor time-out clocks start ticking when the last button pressed is released, not when they are pressed inward. Meaning that you can hold the camera in half-press for as long as you like. Or at least longer than is comfortable for your shutter finger. i Remote triggering with the ML-L3 can be set for instant release, or for a two-second delay, allowing you time enough to move your trigger finger (thumb, probably) out of sight before the camera fires off the shot. i Sleeping D70s awaken so quickly that you probably wonʼt think of them as truly dormant. So the effect of “timing out” to dormant standby mode is quite minimal.


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CAN I PUT MY IMAGES ON THE WEB? Lots of ways. Public and private. Free services like Nikonʼs own Nikon Net membership will hold onto your images in albums of your design for up to 90 days past your last activity there. You can post shots on any of a number of services such as Ofoto, Webshots, and FotoTime (all found by adding .com) and they allow you to upload them to the host site and immediately see them as collections of images under uniquely named portfolios. Check for features like public and private albums, quick upload, unrestricted number of images allowed, indefinite storage, and tracking of “hits” that the photographer can reset at any time. Digital on-line photo finishers like DotPhoto, Ofoto, and Shutterfly also will let you store and display your images from their site. They also want you to order more prints, and most will allow friends and family to order prints of the shots on display. i For the greatest control, you can make your own Web page in Photoshop. Use the File > Automate > Web Photo Gallery function. It will read every image in a folder, make a thumbnail of it, reduce the original to some appropriate size, and generate all the web pages with captions, interactive controls, and easily browsed folders of organized images—all in one step! In order to prepare to use it, you simply create a new folder full of images, give the images names for captions, run the Automate > Web Photo Gallery function, and stand back from your computer for a few moments while it creates everything neatly organized into a single folder. The sample D70 site seen here took about a minute to generate after the images were edited in a display order with Photoshopʼs Image Browser feature. Upload that folder onto your own Website in the normal manner. You can view the above instant D70 gallery here—http://www.digitalsecrets.net/secrets/D70/Gallery/

Some images are just right from the camera needing no manipulation before printing. Prints from these can help you set up your monitor.

MY PRINTS DON’T LOOK JUST LIKE THEY DO ON THE COMPUTER Nor will they ever. Glowing phosphors can only approximate the look of ink on a piece of paper, but getting the estimated image on the screen to be close enough to work with is the first step. While nothing can fully replace the idea of accurate monitor and printer calibration, most people simply donʼt have the time, equipment, software, and experience resources to achieve this. Most technologies will have you calibrate your monitor to a standard, then apply the corrections to your printing process that bring it in alignment with that standard. There is a more practical way of creating consensus. Itʼs not as accurate, but it helps.

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9-16 CHAPTER 9

dSLR: Nikon D70

Principle #1: The camera (unless it is broken) will generate files that look like Very Nice Photos under bright light or direct sunlight. Good color, good shading, good contrast, and good brightness can be achieved readily by setting the Shooting menu > optimize Image to Normal. The color pattern test file under this eBookʼs dust jacket is a good example. A photo of it should look just one jump duller (on a scale of ten, for example) than the original when viewed next to the original file on your monitor. But since this isnʼt from your printer you must print the original file; shoot that print as a photo with your camera. Print the image of the print. Then compare the two. Now some real evaluation can begin. The difference between the two is the sum of all factors from camera to print as experienced by your camera, your computer and your printer uniquely. Keep in mind that the page has only the range of ink on white paper, a mere whiff of real lifeʼs visual dynamics. Principle #2: Photorealistic printers these days can make a good file into a good print unless something between input and output messes it up. Chances are good that the overall look of the print of the test image will be nice, but certainly not perfect. It will have nicely stepped gray scale containing a general tint, but the white will be darker and the black part of the gray scale wonʼt be fully black. The colors, while colorful, will be not as vivid or well delineated. Typically, the magenta will be less distinguished from red, and the green and yellow, duller. Remind yourself that this is a photo of a print, not the original file that spans the full brightness and color range that the computer can produce. Note the image on the right. Itʼs one picture of the test pattern along with a print of the test pattern all in one shot. The top test pattern is “live” while the print is what I refer to as looking “a full step duller.” Since the image here is a second-generation image, the tint shows here about double the strength it appeared to contain live. If you can shoot a picture, put it into your printer via your computer, and make a high quality photograph pop out of your printer, all while your monitor looks very different from the picture, donʼt fix the input and donʼt fix the output. Theyʼre probably fine. The chief offender is either your computer monitor or software that somehow is re-interpreting the image before it is displayed. The computer monitor, its drivers, or the displaying software are either set to the wrong brightness, contrast, gamma, or color settings—possibly a bit of each of these. If it is the software, you will have to dig into that to neutralize the effect. Photoshop contains a set-up utility called Adobe Gamma that should get your display much closer. For the example shown, the eBook color chart was pulled out of the package (avoids glare) and photographed directly. Since the dynamic range of the camera is greater than the page, a Photoshop Levels adjustment (bottom) was made to the file before it was printed to the 7.25-inch width of the original. No other adjustment was made. The print was then photographed with the original chart. The sum of all color and tint artifacts from the computer, the printer software drivers (Epson 2200), glare on the original chart and the glossy print add up to the differences seen. i Are you seeing a tint in gray areas on your monitor? Then your monitor is producing the tint or something else has colored the image. Check it in the Info window of Photoshop (Info > Pallet Options > First Color Readout > HSB) to be sure that any saturation (S) in the gray areas is a low percentage. My file shows 9% on the top chart, 12% on the lower chart.


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i If you shoot with a Skylight or UV filter over the lens, that may add a very slight warm tint on the image when using a factory preset white balance. If you manually white balance for accuracy, any filter tint will disappear. CONFUSED ABOUT PHOTOSHOP’S COLOR CONVERSIONS?

Unless you are involved with a sytem that needs strict color management, the best thing to do is to turn that feature off. Now it becomes a matter of adjusting the look of your monitor to better match your printed images until you get “predictably close.” See that Profile Mismatches box that is checked? It forces a dialog window with every image you open. If you uncheck the box, it will stop asking you each time. But the top Settings: window will now read Custom. No worries. As long as Acvanced Mode is not checked, color management will still be off.

Photoshop 6, 7 and CS can confuse you about color set up. Here is how you get back to a level playing field: In Photoshop under the Edit > Color Settings set up. This window should be filled out with these entries. Most of them are automatic after selecting Color Management Off. Close the window and open a new image on the screen. Photoshop will no longer “convert” files upon opening. It will not compensate for the monitorʼs set-up file either. If it looks different from before, it may look closer to correct. This would be a good sign. But the monitor itself still may not resemble the tonalities and colors you are seeing on that reference print. At least you will have confidence that the variables

from Photoshop have been neutralized. Your options are several. 1. You can carefully use Photoshopʼs own set up steps to tune your display. 2. You can use a third party calibration system like the one from Monaco Systems to zero in on the color. 3. You can use the iNova Approximation Method to simply get close enough to judge some things. INOVA APPROXI-METHOD

Simply stated: Use whatever means you can to make the computer monitor agree with the print. Most higher quality monitors have a degree of color finesse that will get you closer using the controls of the monitor alone. Photoshopʼs own basic set up program, Adobe Gamma, may benefit from this manual intervention tweak, too. (Providing it helps.) If your computer will allow you to have several setup files for the look of your monitor, name this new one “Photo.” If you are using lots of photographic images in a program like PowerPoint, the Photo file may be useful here, too. If the process of changing your monitorʼs setup file is too complex or does strange things to the look of other programs, go back to the Photoshop Edit > Color Settings > Working Spaces RGB: window and try different settings. Weʼre desperate here, but it is only approximate. i Get lost? Take it from the top. Photoshopʼs Color Management Off followed by Adobe Gamma program followed by manual tweaks compared to prints in hand. Try to match the print viewing light color to the white point of your monitor. Indirect daylight or desk fluorescent

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9-18 CHAPTER 9

dSLR: Nikon D70

lamps are approximately correct. Warm tungsten lamps are the worst thing you could judge prints under; they are just too warm. Then try the Photoshop color calibration controls (File > Color settings > Working Spaces RGB:) to see if you can get closer. Principle #3: The first print is almost never the final. Ansel Adams said that, “a print is never done.” Okay, itʼs not really a principle, itʼs more like a theory, but it seems to hold true. If you can get comfortable with making a small print first to test the picture, you may be saving yourself lots of ink and paper in the long run. i An exceedingly helpful program, 20/20 Color MD—now in its fourth generation having evolved from a prior incarnation as Test Strip—is a Photoshop Plug-in for Color Correction, Proofing, and Calibration, made by PhotoTune. It is THE program to use when attempting custom results and it will allow you to make non-destructive variations that show you exactly what this or that alternative color or density will look like. It will give you more experience in a weekend of printing than a college-level course in the subject (except that the cool schools use it, too). i 20/20 Color MDʼs tryout version is on this CD. Not only that, but it is fully functional for 30 days. Thank you, PhotoTune! After a while, even if your monitor always shows a tad too much contrast or imperfect gamma, you will begin to anticipate how the print will look anyhow and your judgements will improve. Many images will be just fine in the first print with minimal post production. You will rarely, if ever, get it perfect at first. i You will know that you have passed a threshold when you look at a shot and immediately see that it was made in the shade and has a subtle layer of bluishness on it that a quick touch-up will fix up before printing. Most of your viewing audience wonʼt be as sensitive to the colors the camera produced and would look at a straight print and say “fine.” When you show the print with the minor fix, they will naturally prefer it, but most folks are used to seeing what the one-hour photo store produces and subtle corrections just wonʼt be on their horizon. MY PICTURES ARE TOO THIS OR TOO THAT Welcome to the club. Mine are always too this or that. Too blue, too warm, too contrasty, too dark, too tilted. So I crop, change the white balance and tonal curve (Curves), or change the gamma (Levels), punch up or down an area of color (Saturate/Desaturate sponge), sharpen an area (Unsharp Mask filter), blur an area (Quickmask followed by Gaussian Blur), or shift the color of shadows, midtones, or highlights (Variations or Color Balance windows). Often the most useful tool is the one that punches up the color (Hue/Saturation). Here you can attack individual zones of color or the color of the entire image

Original file lacked color, so I tweaked.


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9-19

at once. Shifting hue in the + direction will turn yellows greener, blues more magenta and magentas redder. Boosting chroma can go as high as +40 in some shots, and you might want to drop chroma to zero to preview shots as B&W images. Some may even look more dramatic this way. HOME IN ON THE RANGE

As I work through these operations I am asking a digital image to do things that have an analog result. It is all too easy to go beyond the limits of digital manipulations, and often some aspect of a shot simply canʼt be saved. Fortunately most off-color corrections are minor. i One of the most common is the slightly blue image usually shot in shadow. This too often fools the Auto White Balance into missing the color. Hereʼs how it is easily fixed: open the image in Photoshop and open the Image > Adjust > Color Balance window. This is the color control that lets you treat highlights, shadows, and midtones separately with three numerical sliders for each domain. If you enter a number sequence of 20, 0, -20 the picture will warm those blues away. You thought it was supposed to be totally computerized, thus perfect? When that truly happens, science fiction movies will come true, and the computers wonʼt need you or me any more. If you feel that your camera just isnʼt producing good color due to a failure of some sort, try to find another owner, and team up shooting several things at the exact same settings. Compare shots, and if your camera is still deficient, call up Nikon. (The chances of two cameras being brain dead in exactly the same way is almost nil.) Nikon warrantees the D70 for a year, and since camera and “film” are the same device, it will be up to them to get it right. But before you call, try the Reset button on the extreme left rear corner of the camera base. COLOR SPACE: THE INFINITE FRONTIER

The gradient on the left is made of 256 steps each of red, green, and blue. The one on the right has been squashed and unsquashed several symetrical ways. The bands in each color are places where data has developed missing continuity. It is easier to do this in a photo than you may think. And if your display shows both sides with banding, then you’re not seeing the full 24-bit, 16-million colors available in this image.

Your eye has about a billion-to-one brightness range, and the print you are making has only about 250:1 from darkest to brightest as displayed on a sheet of paper under ideal conditions. In order to push good results into this narrow range, you must be aware of how changes can pile up on each other. Each type of change is easy to manipulate on its own—sometimes, too easy. As these 256 levels of available range in each of the red, green, or blue channels of the image are lifted, contrasted, darkened, distorted, blurred, and sharpened, the relationships between the values becomes non-linear. The potential 16,777,216 different variations of tonality and color will begin to have gaps due to multiple rounding errors. We can understand that an image which is made to have a contrastier look must do so by stretching its gray scale. In a typical case, a 50% increase in contrast, values from 0 to 170 are reassigned and redistributed from 0 to 255. Original values 120 and 121 now become values 180 and 181.5. Of course, there is no such thing as value 181.5, so this one jumps to 182. The original range of some numerical values are now separated by 2/255 , nearly one percent. This is about as far as you can push the values in an image before your eye starts noticing artifacts. Higher compression starts making itself obvious, and fully saturated solid blues and reds are the first to suffer. Going further really hurts the image. At 2.5% separation between values, the entire gray scale has been reduced to just 40 steps, and the color palette has

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dSLR: Nikon D70

dropped to 0.38% of the original imageʼs range, just 64,000 colors. With fewer tonal steps, each color channel becomes less capable of fine discrimination. i Fortunately, for many operations Photoshop has the ability to work internally with a range of more than 8-bit, 256 gray levels. A menu choice allows you to adjust grayscale sensitive operations as 16-bit changes instead. Check the Image > Mode > 16-bits/channel option before doing heavy changes to a picture. Now when gamma, contrast, curves, or color changes are made, the original values are being shuffled up and down a scale with not just 256, but 65,536 gray levels between the darkest and lightest values. As a last step, after several manipulations, these 16-bit images are resolved to their closest 8-bit equivalents for storage and printing. In doing so, you are imposing only a single instance of rounding error, not the total of many. Not all images are to be representations of exactly what the camera saw. By violating the rules of "good" image handling, very interesting effects can appear. I would encourage you to chew up images as much as you can, making test after test to see what you can get away with and what you canʼt. MY PICTURES AREN’T SHARP Question number one: How are you viewing the image? A 100% scale crop on a computer monitor? Is each pixel of the original displayed as a pixel of the monitor image? A 66.7% scaled image in Photoshop? A print that was made at 72 ppi? There are lots of ways of diminishing detail. Camera movement is common, faulty optics and focus mechanisms are less common. Poor viewing conditions are very, very common. Often, unsharpness is a result of misfocus. Something is sharp, just not the thing you wanted. Other times—AF-C mode, for instance—the auto-focus hadnʼt locked, but the shutter button went all the way to exposure. Remember, itʼs a two-stage process; try to pre-focus before the decisive moment comes along. i Sports DVP mode uses AF-C auto-focus, so it will get the shot on demand. P, S, A and M modes, when used with AF-S auto-focus will wait for focus before releasing. i Manual focus may be needed for situations where the auto-focus isnʼt efficient, like dark and uncontrasty situations. Twenty minutes of fooling around with a meterstick and a tape measure can do wonders for your ability to estimate short distances. Or let the camera teach you by creating an informal Estimation Lesson. Set the lens at a focus distance using its distance markings. Then try to position yourself at that distance by estimation. Question number two: What are you looking through? A JPEG viewing utility with limited capability or a well-scaled display program that carefully interpolates the image into place? With 33% and 67% images, even Photoshop does a far poorer job of displaying an image correctly. At 50% and 25%, the images are much better looking on screen. Exact divisions of two are easier to display with precision. At 66.7%, three pixels of the original are trying to squeeze into two pixels of your monitorʼs display, and the fast display scaling routine wonʼt do it perfectly, so you will see jagged detail to a certain extent.

No children were harmed. Enhance the apparent sharpness in Photoshop with the Unsharp Mask control. Look close and you will see that this makes the desperate child look like a cutout. Why? Because it IS a cutout.


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When you first open an image on your computer screen and view it at 100%, left, the image seems soft. No wonder, it’s a detail from an image 37 inches the right has more detail per displayed pixel because it was downconverted. Both are 72 ppi on this page.

Question number three: How close is your nose to the picture? Are you observing the image at a position that makes sense? Are you trying to look at a tabloid-sized print at normal reading distance? If all of these questions reveal answers that indicate you are doing everything just right and the picture itself doesnʼt seem sharp you may need some Sharpness Helper. FOCUS POKUS

At full-size on the computer monitor you are witnessing the pixels directly as the largest image your camera can make. Unless you have a monitor that displays 3008 x 2000 pixels (extremely rare and with very small pixels), or 2240 x 1488 pixels (almost unheard of and larger than HDTVʼs best), some of the picture is off the screen. If you look at a large frame image at half-size (1504 x 1000 pixels) it will look much sharper due to downsampling. Millions of colors only, please. Photoshop has the filter called Unsharp Mask, and it masks the effect of unsharpness. For images on the border of sharp, it can be just what the doctor ordered. For whacked-out, blurry pictures, it simply wonʼt help. Used too strongly, it can exacerbate grain. And I bet that sounds painful. So using it becomes a balancing act between pain, grain and gain. i Select the image and set the filter to give you an 80% to 120% effect over a pixel radius of only 0.3 to 0.4 pixels. Use this number as a starting point. Rarely will you need to go over a pixel radius of 1.2 at an effect strength of 120%, but you can always go too far on purpose. For fine work, try small radius numbers and large strengths. 0.2 pixel at 300%, for instance. Threshold defines tonal

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dSLR: Nikon D70

difference between adjacent pixels that must be in place before UM happens. Keep this number low (2-ish to 5-ish) and grain will not be sharpened, but large scale image features will benefit. Because the image chip in a digital camera is doing the work of all three primary colors, the images wonʼt be as sharp as a high quality scannerʼs version of a photographic original. So what are these images good for if theyʼre not the absolute maximum sharpness? At 160 ppi on a printed page—a number that will present satisfying detail—the Large frame option ends up covering 19 x 12.5 inches (476 x 318 mm) of real estate and looks quite good. WHAT’S WITH THIS PIXELS PER INCH/DOTS PER INCH THING? Confusion often sets in with three little letters: d p i. In inkjet printer language, dpi means dots per inch or, more realistically, indexable places per inch that the printer could fill with a dot if it were asked to. As a measure of printer precision it carries weight and meaning. As a measure of how sharp your picture will look, it means less. When you think about it, the number of printer spurts is nowhere near large enough to perfectly portray each camera original pixel with precise color and tonality. In Photoshop, the Image Size control not only lets you scale the image by enlarging or reducing the number of pixels, it lets you scale the output by changing the number of pixels per inch the output will use to print the image. A lot of people miss the dpi versus ppi meanings. These pixels per inch, Ppi, are completely independent of the printerʼs dots per inch, Dpi. A shot with 144 pixels per inch that is fed to a 1440 x 720 dpi Epson printer will be interpreted on the page with only 50 total ink dots (10 x 5) available to define the color of each original camera pixel. To be completely faithful to the original, it would require a minimum of 256 dots per pixel to cover the 256 levels of Dots vs. Pixels. The dots per inch are the ones that look like dots. Book and magazine prints brightness for that color. use variable size dots to deliver ink to page. The inkjet printer uses tiny dots but varies the It is short by a factor of five. So the number of them statistically. Either way, the dots interpret the underlying pixels of the image. printer has to cleverly re-interpret the More pixels=better image. Unless there are too few dots. For the full effect of this image, view shot in order for the print to survive. it at 300% or larger. It dithers the pixels pseudo-randomly to cause your eye to see, in effect, what really isnʼt there. It works so well that over 99% of the people who see this kind of print will immediately take it to be a photograph without question. The other 1% say, “Nice ink-jet print.” Photoshopʼs Image Size window also lets you re-sample the image if you wish. With the Resample check box activated, changes to the image size are also changes in the number of pixels the image will become. With the Resample check box unchecked, any changes made to the size of the image will only change the pixels per inch inversely. Larger prints will have fewer ppi, smaller prints will


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9-23

have greater ppi. In other words, ppi is a distribution or scaling number, not a file size number as in, “Bigger pictures = bigger files,” which, as we can see, isnʼt always the case. i At 300 ppi in Photoshop, a full-size 6M image will be almost exactly 10 x 6.7 inches (246 x 170 mm) in size. On a letter-size piece of paper it will be surrounded by a border of white, and with the right printer and paper, people will remember it as an 8 by 10 print. But it will be sharper and more detailed than virtually any print from a film camera that theyʼve experienced. I NEED TO DOWNLOAD THROUGH THE USB CABLE Itʼs easy. Connect the camera to the computer with the provided USB cable. You have to do this through the special port on the D70ʼs left side. Now power up the camera. A special icon will appear on the desktop. Your computer thinks you just attached a USB hard drive. You can open it up and see folders inside. They can be dragged to other folders or dragged to the icons of programs like Photoshop, JPEGView or any compatible application. i When you are finished, eject the USB “drive.” Turn the camera off. Then disconnect the cables. Downloading is quite rapid—as fast as a USB hard drive. See the camera manual for details. I NEED TO DOWNLOAD THROUGH A CARD READER Now youʼre cooking. Card readers come in a variety of sizes, costs, cable connectors, and compatible types. If your laptop has a PCMCIA card slot (also called a PC card slot) youʼre 92.4% of the way home. The CompactFlash cards fit into a special carrier the size and shape of a PC card that simply inserts into these slots and magically shows the card on your desk top as a new disk drive. Copying things out of this drive is just like moving any other data file around. Desk computers and more sophisticated workstations usually donʼt have these handy card slots built in, so you must attach a card reader device. Card adapters are very inexpensive. i Some computers can handle FireWire connections, and SanDisk makes the Ultra ImageMate Reader (pictured) for the fastest card to computer transfers. HOW BIG DO THESE PICTURES PRINT IN A MAGAZINE? In the dot-screen world of magazine reproduction, different sized dots are used to deliver ink to the page. Newspapers often use screens as coarse as 85 ~ 100 dpi, and high quality reproduction rarely is made with screens finer than 180 dpi. Screens of 133 dpi are common for magazine and book reproduction. If your image has more detail than the dot, the effect of over-sampling kicks in and the image instantly rises to the maximum quality that size screen could ever reproduce. Factor in the idea that the immediate output of these cameras isnʼt absolutely 100% pixel-perfect, and the maximum size for a 133 dpi screened image might be only around 22 inches to appear at maximum reproduction sharpness. Even a National Geographic Magazine page at 180 printing dots per inch could spread a D70 image over two pages. i Those are the numbers, the practical answer is this: as big as they can. Full-size files can fill a typical magazine cover with an image nobody will spot as having come from a digital camera. Images from the D70 are especially compatible with full magazine page, full bleed reproduction.

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dSLR: Nikon D70

CAN I USE THIS CAMERA PROFESSIONALLY? If you were a client and heard, “No really, these things are nearly as good as 35mm!” coming from your photographer, would you buy into it? If you show a portfolio of results—prints with depth and color and interesting images to a client and then say, “...and your stuff is going to be just as good as this,” the question evaporates. When an art director or photo editor hears that you shoot with Nikonʼs highest resolution digital SLR, the argument is over. Two years ago they were still hesitant to accept digital images, but now they canʼt get enough of the D word. Show example prints and let the photography sell itself. i If the only thing they see from you are compelling images, the question may never arise. These cameras compete head to head with 35mm film and are a whole lot easier to work with.

I NEED TO SHOOT THROUGH A TELESCOPE OR MICROSCOPE Telescopes and microscopes work well with adapters that project the scope image into the camera body directly. No camera lens is involved, just adapters that connnect the scope to the camera. Live viewing in the camera viewfinder completes the picture. T-mount camera adapters are common and quite inexpensive. They adapt standard tubes and scope eyepieces on one side of the adapter and lock the other side to the Nikon F-mount of the D70. i Exposure will be manual only. The focus switch will be on M and shutter speed is your only exposure control. i Remote triggering of the camera shutter with the ML-L3 remote or the DigiSnap remote will help diminish scope vibration. i Microscope vibration is not a problem, but remote shutter release will avoid any movement in the adapter tubes. i Telescopes are particularly prone to vibration. For critical shots itʼs not unusual to block the scope tube as the shutter opens, then open the light path after all vibration has faded. A rather large piece of black foamcore—or a big black hat— may become your “shutter”. Mars meteorite seen in polarized light through a Leica i Which reminds me. Why did they call it a “shutter,” when microscope at 100 power. It takes the right tool for the job to its job is to open the camera to light for a while? Do you take shoot successfully through the eyepieces of telescopes and microscopes. a picture or make a picture?


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9-25

I WANT TO TURN PHOTOS INTO ART Boy are you in luck. Who among us hasnʼt looked at a particularly appealing photo and suddenly realized that it would look very much better as a painting? Sometimes we can see this shaping up right in the viewfinder. Some of the artistic tools in Photoshop will help, and turning an image into a sketch, water color or painting is a fun way to learn how various filters affect the image. Beyond Photoshop, a specialty program is helpful. On the Web you can find a demo version of a program called Artist which is designed to turn any sort of image into natural media artistic renderings. Suddenly photos become chalk drawings, paintings, line art, crayon, airbrush or sketch art as rough or finished as you can make. (www.synthetik.com) It is a lot of fun to play with, especially when applied to portraits, vistas, small objects, flowers and things best seen somewhat abstracted. The range is great, the demo is free to play with and who knows, it may unleash hidden talents within you. As you experiment with it you will find that not all images work the way you think they would. Combined with the creative resources of Photoshop, you will develop skills of perception and image manipulation that produce more pleasing results. i Also on the CD are the iNovaFX Photoshop Actions, one group of which, the iPS actions, have variations that make a range of art and painting transformations of your photos. i The iNovaFX PS Actions View this at a 200 ~ 400% blow up to see the canvas texture and brush stroke detail. What began as a completely candid digital also include a group of complex art generators photo now feels very painterly. iNovaFX iCanvasPainting3 action that go far to produce very artistic results. in the iComplexArtFX actions file achieved this result with a Variations allow you to select the best result for single mouse click. your individual image.

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9-26 CHAPTER 9

dSLR: Nikon D70

I MUST SHOOT A LOT OF SMALL OBJECTS One solution is a small, table-top copy stand. Models from various manufacturers will do the job. It should be capable of mounting the camera over the center of the base. An example would be the Bogen Mini-Repro, a five pound base, column and extension arm that centers a camera up to two feet (61 cm) above its base. B&H Photo Video in New York usually stocks them. Another one is the CS-14 from Bessler. i OR, you could find a tripod with a reversible center column. Many designs allow you to invert the adjustable column for low level work. Mind the shadows from the tripodʼs legs, now. i Micro Nikkor lenses, 55mm and 60mm versions make excellent copy stand optics. i You probably wonʼt need to shoot all subjects at the exact same field of view, but remember that with zoom optics, as you zoom toward telephoto, slight pincushion distortion sneaks in, and as you go wider, barrel distortion begins to show. i Fixed focal length lenses require moving the camera toward or away from the subject to tune the field of view. Copy stands that let you make easy height Testrite CS-7 mini copy stand is only 18 inches adjustments are valuable. high, and the base serves i Instead of moving the camera closer to the subject, why not lift the subject closer to the as an under-art support. camera? This is an adaptation of a motion picture scene staging technique, but it works. On Very inexpensive, simple, straightforward. the set, a common tool is the “apple box” and it comes in several different sizes from small shims to boxes sturdy enough to lift Orson Welles a foot above the ground. For copy stand images, that means having spacers that will support the object closer and closer to the lens. Books and magazines work well. i If you want a blank white background behind your target subject, use several paper sheets or an opaque sheet of cardboard underneath. Paper leaks. It shows a ghost or shadow of underlying materials that will show up in your image, but might not be noticed by you before the shot is taken. Copying from a publication? Back the page with a black sheet to cancel the effect of imagery or type on the reverse side of the paper. i You will see “close up lenses / close up filters” advertised. These are actually single element magnifying glasses in a convenient filter ring. They may help, depending on the type of close view you wish to achieve, but as their power increases (+1/2, +1, +2, etc. in diopters), flatness of field and freedom from chromatic aberrations decreases. Image corner detail is the first to suffer. i They can be stacked, making a +1 & +2 combination equal exactly +3 diopters of magnification. A +1 diopter lens causes infinity focus on the lens to become one-meter focus, and +2 diopters produces 0.5 meter focus. With a +1, you can still focus the camera lens from whatever nearest point is achievable on out to one meter but no further. Since most macro subjects are much closer, the temptation is to use +2 or stack them for an even closer view. This may work for small three dimensional subjects where field flatness is ambiguous. Because of they add power as they are stacked, theyʼre often sold in sets of three with +1, +2 and +4 diopter lenses. Bessler CS-14 Copystand with optional i Apochromatic close up lenses are rare and expensive, but those have much less lights. When you need to shoot many pages, small objects, flat graphics or chromatic aberration. artwork, a stand this versatile could i Buy close-up lenses/filters from a place that will take them back for a full make your life easier. Most copy stands refund if you donʼt like the results. look like variations on this basic plan.

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iNovaFX Photoshop Actions

Chapter 10

iNovaFX Photoshop Actions Supercharging the Digital Darkroom

Photoshop allows you to make Actions—each a sort of procedure that orchestrates many Photoshop operations and settings. They’re like macros on a word processor. Hours of trial and error, or inspiration and tweaking, can hide beneath a single button press. The 460+ original Actions offered here are tools I use all the time. Some grew out of curiosity, and others grew from immediate need. In general, you will have to load these “.atn” files into the Actions palette before you start (see page 10-30). Then open the image you wish to work on, and immediately save it under a new name so you won’t cover over your original. Some, like the Extreme Noise Reduction and Deep Dynamic Range actions, require you to layer images in a particular way before running them. Others work best on a certain type of image. They all invite experimentation.

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NovaFX actions do a number of memory-intensive steps. In general, many iNovaFX Actions clean up after themselves by purging the History file of steps they have left in their wake. See the Photoshop manuals for performance tips.

i Most iNovaFX

Actions work equally well with all digital images. BARREL DISTORTION CORRECTION i= i These iNovaFX Barrel distortion is inevitable. Zoom lens designers are fighting focus, color, magnification and Actions work only InfoBite linearity all at once—so as they try to optimize everything, residual barrel distortion is better than within the full version of lower sharpness, less zoom or excessive chromatic aberration. Photoshop 6, 7 and CS. Meet the iBCD70 series of barrel distortion fixers. They work on HORIZONTAL 3:2 ASPECT They do not run within IMAGES ONLY, so if you have turned your picture vertical, put it back to horizontal before run- Photoshop Elements or ning the iNovaFX Action. Theyʼre computed to work with frames that have not yet been cropped. other editing programs. i Donʼt crop the image first. The barrel distortion correction is computed to the performance of the actual lens with a Large frame. Before correction, smaller Before and after running the iBCD70KitWide-∞ Action on an image shot with the Kit Lens at 18mm. files will be expanded to Large frame size so the final result will be bigger than it started. Then Note that the distortion is not a simple spherical arc. you need to run one of the iBCLarge>(Medium or Small) reducing Actions to drop them back to Straight yellow lines highlight the actual degree of original size. barrel distortion, revealing its complexity. Rollover to i You choose the correct action for the conditions of your image and simply run it with the see the fixed image. Click to remove the reference lines. full version of Photoshop. The image will undergo a series of operations—some unseen—then suddenly drop back to where it started with the correction in place. It will be inevitably slightly smaller than the Large frame, because barrel distortion involves pinching the barrel inward, then trimming to the maximum result. The trim throws away the distorted corners and loses some of the original image height. Size loss is minor. Typical iBC Actions reduce image width by around 3%. i iBCTele Actions produce images that are slightly larger than the original frames because they correct pincushion distortion by un-pinching (expanding) the image. i Similar iBC Actions are supplied for many popular Nikkor zoom lenses. Several variations are included for the Kit Lens. i Experiment with the variations before shooting critical work. See page 10-23.

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10-2 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

iNovaFX Barrel Correction Actions (iBCD70.atn) The actions are:

12 Actions

Practical effect:

iBCKitWide & -∞ . . . . iBCKit24 -∞ . . . . . . . iBCKitTele. . . . . . . . iBC28.200GWide/Tele . iBC24.120VRWide/Tele .

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Corrects Corrects Corrects Corrects Corrects

18-70 DX Kit Lens at widest (18mm) zoom. Version for ∞ focus. 18-70 DX Kit Lens at 24mm zoom. Optimized for panoramics. 18-70 DX Kit Lens at full telephoto (70mm) zoom (pincushion). 28-200G Kit Lens at widest (28mm) zoom. 28-200G Kit Lens at full telephoto (200mm) zoom (pincushion).

Scaling Utilities: iD70Large>Medium. . . . . . . . Returns fixed Medium frame back to appropriate size. iD70Large>Small . . . . . . . . . Returns fixed Small frame back to appropriate size. iBC2Taste . . . . . . . . . . . . . A convenient setup that lets you dial in the amount of Spherize +/for your specific image. You will have to crop the resulting image yourself with the crop tool. NOTES: Use only 3:2 not-cropped, HORIZONTAL images to begin with. Works with any D70 native file size. Image is enlarged to 3008 pixels wide before conversion. You must reduce it to original scale with the right iBCLarge>[Medium/Small] actions (included).

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See page 10-23 for special iBC Actions for the Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm DX lens.

CHROMATIC ABERRATION REPAIR Chromatic aberration (CA) happens when a red or blue or both color channels are graphically too large or too small. The green channel is assumed to be arbitrarily correct. Different parts of the spectrum focus at different distances behind the lens—something you canʼt control directly. These numbered actions slightly enlarge or shrink individual color channels leaving a labeled snapshot. Often both a Red and Blue action will be needed together for a complete fix. One will be of the Expand variety and the other will be a Shrink version. Nikkor lens CA is virtually non-exThe iCrAbGeneral action series are made for any lens that shows the effect. Several strengths are available. istent. Other lenses and close-up i These actions work on any size originals, but since every lens CA is unique—it can change with focal length of “filters” may show CA. For them, zoom lenses—you will have to test to see which is appropriate. Usually the numbers will match, so a RedShrink2 will these utilities may help. Rollover. pair up with a BlueExpand2, but thatʼs not always the case. i The channel that has been shrunk will be absent from the bordering few pixels. You will have to crop those away, so the image will become slightly smaller than the full size, Large frame, e.g. 3002 x 1996 or something similar. For Flare CA that shows up from extreme contrast lighting (silhouettes, light sources), suppressing the offending color is done by isolating its narrow range, then desaturating and reducing its lightness with Photoshopʼs Hue/Saturation control. The labeled iFlareDeColor Actions (iFDC[color name] series) perform this function and the iFDC2Taste version gives Night lights can produce color flare effects as in this tiny crop. iFDC2Taste suppressed much of it. Rollover. you interactive control over the color selected.

iNovaFX Chromatic Aberration Actions (iCrAbGeneral.atn iFlareDeColor.atn) 24 Actions The actions are:

iCrAbRedShrink1-4 . iCrAbRedExpand1-4 . iCrAbBlueShrink1-4 . iCrAbBlueExpand1-4

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For use in shots made with:

. Shrinks Red channel. Progressively stronger. . Expands Red channel. Progressively stronger. . Shrinks Blue channel. Progressively stronger. . Expands Blue channel. Progressively stronger.

The above actions do not address the “purple fringe” effect from extreme high contrast lighting. These iFlareDeColor Actions may help: iFDC - series (7) . . . . . . . . . . . . Reduces color bloom chroma effect in high contrast transitions. iFDC2Taste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Permits color bloom selection isolating the offending color. i iCrAb Shrink/Expand simply reduce or enlarge the color channels by small increments. You will need to crop the result by a few

pixels to avoid odd edge color effects. iFDC Actions may cause other areas of the image to desaturate, so compare results against the original frame (click back and forth in the History Snapshots).

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COLOR RESCUE

A friend and good photographer was lamenting that he had shot a number of JPEG images outdoors not noticing that he had left the camera in Incandescent white balance. It happens. And who among us has failed to switch to Incandescent white balance for a few shots as we step into indoor lighting after making pictures outdoors? I notice that everybodyʼs hand is up on that one, too. When all-blue and cyan images look hopeless, they are really quite salvageable with the right series of Photoshop steps. These iCC—Color Corrector—actions are the memory of those steps. The iCC actions have names that tell you what went wrong. iCCIncWBshotDay means Incandescent White Balance was When white balance isn’t in balance, grim colors appear. This set on the camera, but the image was shot in Daylight. The is what shooting with Incandescent WB looks like when the name identifies the camera setting, then the real lighting. Images end up too blue. light comes from the sun. Rollover to see how the iCCIncWBPutting the image through this action is like putting an 85B (gold) filter on a shotDay-IAlt Action fixed the color. Click to see what a correct WB original looks like. camera loaded with indoor film, then shooting outdoors. Except here, you get to put the filter on after the shot was made and no filter reduced the available light. i The actions arenʼt perfect, but theyʼre way ahead of looking like mistakes. You may have to tweak the image into perfection after running the action to cover up certain obvious shortcomings, but a surprising number of images will look very good after being fixed. The Color Balance control will help, but for obvious large color areas like the sky, you may have to isolate color with the Hue/Saturation control and do some extra manipulation. WB Setting / Light. Thatʼs the formula for the actionʼs name. On the left, the errant camera setting, on the right, the light you shot in. Pick your error and click the mistake away. Shooting in fluorescent light isnʼt a mistake, just a condition we are faced with from time to time. There are many formulas of color balance available with fluorescent bulbs. For those situations, use the color balance recovery technique called Insta Fix found on the DigitalSecrets.Net web site. i Each Color Mode (Type Ia (sRGB), Type II (Adobe RGB), Type IIIa (enhanced sRGB) has its own trio of Actions. One is for normal exposures, one is for light exposures and one is labeled “-q/d” for “quick and dirty.” The last ones operate faster, and for many subjects, they will bring about okay results. i If your shot has a neutral gray object in it, you can often fix much of the color with the neutrality eyedropper in Photoshop Levels or Curves by simply clicking on the target gray object. i The cameraʼs factory preset Fluorescent white balance may not give you satisfactory results directly. Light tube formulas differ and many settings have mixed color balance lighting.

iNovaFX Color Correction Actions (iCCD70.atn) The actions are:

iCCDayWBshotInc-I series (5)* . iCCIncWBshotDay-I series (3) . iCCDayWBshotInc-II series (3) . iCCIncWBshotDay-II series (3) . iCCDayWBshotInc-III series (3) . iCCIncWBshotDay-III series (3) .

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Image shot in -- light:

20 Actions

. Incandescent & Quartz light . Sunlight . Incandescent & Quartz light . Sunlight . Incandescent & Quartz light . Sunlight

* Some alternate versions appear that are tuned to more effectively portray sky blue colors. All of these work at any size and any orientation.

Camera WB set to:

Type Ia mode. Sunlight WB. Type Ia mode. Incandescent WB. Type II mode. Sunlight WB. Type II mode. Incandescent WB. Type IIIa mode. Sunlight WB. Type IIIa mode. Incandescent WB.

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10-4 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

ISO PUSH-PROCESSING These create the effect of high ISO exposures from what normally would be perceived as greatly underexposed images. Theyʼre called iSO3200, iSOLift+1stop etc. for convenience in the iSOD70 Actions folder. i To shoot in ISO 3200 on the D70, set the camera to ISO 1600, and intentionally underexpose with an EV correction of –1.0. Metering will be consistent with ISO 3200, but the shot will look dark. To shoot ISO 6400, set the camera to EV –2.0. For good looking final images (and I realize how subjective “good looking” can be), this represents the practical limit of electronic “push” processing. i The very lowest tones in the dark end of the scale have trouble tracking accurate color and shading. Grain is everywhere. But unlike film that has been push-processed, the darkest part of the image will remain almost perfectly black. i The best help you can give images destined for push-processing is to lower their contrast and increase their saturation before capturing the image. On the D70 this means Shooting Menu > Optimize Image > Custom > Tone Comp -1 or -2 plus Color Mode IIIa and perhaps Saturation +Enhanced. Before you shoot critical images, test with these settings to see which one you prefer. i Severely underexposed images in the camera will look very, very dark. Only when you run the appropriate action on them will they perk up into useful shots. Since color detail is first to be lost, very high ISO images actually benefit from It’s too dark. Intentionally exposed at EV-2 using ISO 1600, being made as B&W later by using Photoshopʼs Hue/Saturation control to drain the color the exposure computation is the same as one ISO6400 would expect, but the shot is two full stops darker than out by moving the Saturation slider to zero. For such high ISO images, the iNovaFX normal. Rescuing it from near oblivion, the iSO6400 Action B&W actions (described later) may help. With high ISO, more grain and contrast appears. ISO 6400 represents a practical limit retrieves most of the image. Rollover for the rescued result. for images that might please most. Just so you can experiment, an action called “iSO2 Taste” will tell you right on the Photoshop screen how to manipulate it for best effect. One action, the iSOfix-OneStopOver, can be used to bring an image into normal values even though it has been shot up to one stop overexposed. This represents about the practical upper limit on overexposure recovery. i It is better to slightly underexpose than overexpose a digital image. Highlights donʼt recover as well as shadow detail does. i Photoshop CS offers an alternative with its Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlight feature. See iD70Set Actions on page 10-29. These actions work on any size image at any orientation. iSOExtreme at work. A second group, iSOExtreme is numbered in f-stops of exposure boost from 1 to 6. These Rollover to see the arenʼt for shots made at ISO 1600, but try them on severely dark images shot at ISO 200. rescue.

iNovaFX ISO Boost Actions (iSOD70.atn & iSOExtreme) The actions are:

For use in shots made with:

11 Actions *most often effective

iSO2Taste* . . . . . . . . . . . . Any underexposure. Allows color adjustment. Tunable. iSO3200 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shot EV-1.0 (Color Type IIIa & -2 Low Contrast recommended.) iSO6400 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shot EV-2.0 (Color Type IIIa & -2 Low Contrast recommended.) iSOLift+1stop . . . . . . . . . . Shot EV-1.0. Alternative. iSOLift+2stops . . . . . . . . . . Shot EV-2.0. Alternative. iSOExtreme (1-6). . . . . . . . . For pulling images out of low ISO original underexposures. One to six stops.

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COOLER/WARMER iCF Cooler/Warmer.atn folder.

This is just a pair of symmetrical actions that slightly cool (bluer) or slightly warm (golder or redder) the image with each application. They can be applied several times, if need be, to adjust the color of mixed lighting conditions. The images show 2 clicks cooler on the left, normal in the center, and 2 clicks warmer on the right. i These are good for quickly fixing daylight-illuminated shots when Flash or Cloudy WB was inadvertently chosen (or the opposites).

EXTREME NOISE REDUCTION Not all pixels are created equal. Each one is its own electronic circuit and some of them fail to report what they saw as accurately as their neighbors. Some few of them fall apart at very long exposures and show up on the image as bright spots of varying brightness. Often called blown pixels, most are just extremely noisy pixels revealed by time exposures. The D70 has built-in noise reduction (NR) but itʼs so good that you may never encounter the problem of long exposure noise. But a warm camera and extra long exposure can produce the problem on occasion. The remedy is to shoot a duplicate ISO speed and shutter time exposure with the lens sealed from ambient light. The supplied lens cap—tightened—should be enough in a dim area. This blank shot becomes a special flaw frame that you can use for masking dotted pixels in subsequent long exposures. File it away in a safe place on your computer. A 30-second exposure will potentially reveal pixel flaws. Longer exposures with the ML-L3 remote can be up to 5 minutes. These may be pixel-flawed and require iFF Actions. i You must stack the Flaw Frame over the original image in Photoshop before you run the action. This produces a stack with the original as the Background layer and the Flaw Frame in the Layer 1 position just above it. i These actions are made for full-size images, only. Images smaller than full frames will have their blown pixels scaled down making them not repairable. i Note: The D70ʼs imager is slightly susceptible to noise from heat. If you shoot long exposures at over 85° F (30° C), capture a flaw frame along with your shots. Shoot it at the same shutter speed(s) as the image exposures. i The cameraʼs NR will control noise from heat on longer expoAt ISO 1600 with very long exposures, some pixels may fail. View this at 200+% to see the sprinkling of white dots in the shot on the left. The sures, but heat can show up on images. iFFLum2 action was used to produce the noise-free image on the right.

iNovaFX Noise-Correcting Flaw Frame Actions (iFlawFixD70.atn) The actions are: iFFLum 1 . iFFLum 2* iFFLum 3 . iFFRGB 1 . iFFRGB 2* iFFRGB 3 . iFFRGB 4 . iFFXtreme

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Descriptive guide:

8 Actions *most recommended

Basic luminance technique. Smooth grained exaggerated luminance technique. Aggressive luminance technique. Basic RGB technique. Each color channel handled separately. Stronger RGB technique. Separate Channels. For problem pixels. Aggressive RGB technique. More aggressive RGB technique. The MOST aggressive version. Can soften detail. Caution.

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10-6 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

GLARE ENHANCEMENT In the real world, highlights are often piercingly bright. In photography of all kinds, the extra brightness of these spectral highlights is lost to overexposure. To your eye, that sun glint or reflection may be dozens of times brighter than the rest of the scene, but you canʼt see its extra brightness in a print, slide or digital image. With diffusion or cross star filters, the extra brightness of spectral highlights spreads out from the light or glint. Cinematographers are especially sensitive to this, and by using low value diffusion filters, they can make very bright areas glow in a way that tells our eyes that the source of the glow is extra bright. The tiny spectral white highlights of digital images can look a little strange. Sometimes the in-camera sharpening puts an artifact—a contrast line—around them producing the look of a thin black border surrounding the very brightest white highlights. In many images this isnʼt a problem, but for some, it looks simply wrong. The iGF actions attack only these highlights. Seven different iGF, (Glare Flare) actions are available. They each give a slightly different effect, so you should try each of them out on several photos and see which ones suit you best. They add some soft spreading to the “trapped highlights” that camera sharpening produces without affecting the lower tonalities at all. The weakest ones simply reduce any surrounding black outline. The strongest versions give the appearance of a low-value fog or diffusion filter and produce an ethereal soft highlight effect that can be of artistic benefit. The iGF7 action actually goes the extra distance and produces a halo effect similar to the more exotic diffusion filters used in cinematography. StarCrossed. Eight iCrosstar Actions are here, too. They make cross star effects that are much more controllable than the glass or resin (a super clear, tough optical plastic) filter variety. These actions work on any size image at any orientation. All of their activity is limited to the top 2% highlight range. All are tuneable, so you can change their opacity or access to their gamma and tonal curves without affecting the original scene. iCrosstar5 allows each streak to be separately tuned, colored or changed.

Original

iGF4

iGF6

iGF7 + layer manipulation

iNovaFX Glare Flare / Crosstar Actions (iGFGlareFlare.atn, iCrosstar.atn) The actions are: iGF1. . . iGF2. . . iGF3 - 6 . iGF7. . .

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iCrosstar5 (rollover)

15 Actions

Practical effect: . . . .

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Precise removal of surrounding dark line. The weakest variation. Small amount of flare extends past highlight. Modest flare increasing with higher number. Strong halo flare surrounds original highlight. Tunable. Can be colorized.

iCrosstar1-5 . . . iCrosstar30° / 15° iCrosstarHex . . . iCrosstarCarnet .

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Cross star effects, 45°. Effect layer(s) can be tuned to taste. Tilted cross stars. Variations: Mirror/Flip/Rotate image. Run. Re-level image. Six pointed cross star. Usually best at lower intensities. One click runs all variations, leaving named snapshots in the History palette.

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COLOR RESCUE AND RECOVERY

iRescueFadedTrans Pre/Post iXRedEye at work iSodium at work

iNovaFX Color ReVector Actions (iColorReVector/XRed-Eye.atn) The actions are:

Theyʼre called CRV for “Color ReVector.” They steer the colors back to a more natural, less-distorted result. Perhaps the most often used version is the red eye fixers, the iXRedEyeSetup and iXRedEyeFast actions. Simply open up any image with a red-eye effect showing in the subjectʼs eyes, and run the iXRedEyeSetup action. It will guide you through your first steps and may even complete your whole photo. i The iXRedEyeFast action can be used when you donʼt need to setup the mode. With it you can select one eye or a whole group of eyes at a time for fixing. i iCRVʼs arenʼt for every photo, to be sure. Images with strong, high chroma bright colors from nature, such as flowers, can benefit from them. You may have to test run these actions on a photo to find the one that best suits your shot. Fortunately they are fast. Be prepared to Undo or back up in the History window when they donʼt quite achieve the results you seek, then try another. Two other revectors are here. iSodium1, 2 & 3 causes images shot under sodium streetlights and area lights (as are often found on airport tarmacs and parking areas) to look more natural. Perfect color under these imperfect spectra is impossible, but we can try. iRescueFadedTrans variations may help revive old, faded transparencies. You may need to tweak rescued images and not all faded images will improve with this action, but if it helps, it helps.

8 Actions

Practical effect:

iXRedEyeSetup. . . . . . Initiates red-eye removal mode. You must use Oval Tool, select eye, re-run action. iXRedEyeFast . . . . . . Quickly pulls the red out of any already selected eye(s). iSodium1 . . . . . . . . . Revectors image shot under Sodium (yellow) street/area lighting. iSodium2 . . . . . . . . . Revectors image shot under Sodium (yellow) street/area lighting. Variation. iSodium3 . . . . . . . . . Revectors image shot under Sodium (yellow) street/area lighting. Variation. iRescueFadedTrans1 . . Rescues faded transparencies. Pinkish original variation. iRescueFadedTrans2 . . Rescues faded transparencies. Magenta original. Higher contrast variation. iRescueFadedTrans3 . . Rescues faded transparencies. Magenta original. Lower contrast variation.

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10-8 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

JPEG ARTIFACT REDUCTION & CHANNEL DENOISE Artifacts are the undesired side effects from some other, desirable operation; the negative consequences from doing something good. JPEG compression produces artifacts. In the Sony D70, compression is well-controlled, becoming readily visible only in extreme cases. Compression artifacts are more obvious in the red and blue channels, as are other forms of noise. i The first three actions let you selectively reduce noise in the blue and red. You might have to run these more than once in extreme cases. i The iDeJPEG action does a good job on Standard compressed images that show artifacts. Especially ones that have been saved in your computer at very high compression settings. If you shoot as I do, to gather a maximum number of images using Standard compression, you can run this action later if compression artifacts show. Usually they wonʼt show at all. Remember that JPEG artifacts tend to get lost on prints. You probably wonʼt even see them on images printed at 8 x 10 and smaller. i Images that are reduced before printing lose artifacts naturally in the down-conversion process and wonʼt need this. So on the one hand, hereʼs the cure for a disease your images might not even Original have.

iNovaFX JPEG Artifact Reduction Actions (iColorDeNoise/DeJPEG.atn) The actions are:

10 Actions

Practical effect:

iColorDeNoiseA, B, C . . . . . . . Degrees of color noise improvement. iColorDeNoise2 & 3 series . . . . 5 Variations. The 3 series is highly recommended. iPrimaryBoosts . . . . . . . . . . Lifts red, green and blue primary colors only. Only needed if these suffer. iDeJPEG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JPEG artifact reduction/grain replacement. Roughly equivalent to removing Basic compressionʼs artifacts to Normalʼs level.

AERIAL IMAGE RECOVERY Images shot from an airplane often have as much sky between camera and scenery as we see in the canopy of sky from the ground, hence all that extra blue. These two Actions recover a much more normal view of the ground. Since the contents of the atmosphere change from hour to hour, you must decide how much correction to keep or discard. So theyʼre tuneable. i Use the Opacity slider on the upper layer to dial-in the amount of correction needed. i It is often best to leave in some of the sky effect to create the suggestion of a high or distant aerial viewpoint. Original

iNovaFX Aerial (AerialShotCorrection.atn) The actions are:

2 Actions

Practical effect:

iAerial2Taste , , , , , , , , , , Recovers ground colors from high aerial images shot over 12,000 ft (3,500m). iAerial2TasteLow , , , , , , , , Recovers ground colors from lower aerial shots.

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DYNAMIC RANGE EXTENSION With the iDR series, a new kind of image can be built. I say “built” because it is created from three separate exposures, each up to two stops apart from each other. The camera must be absolutely rigid from shot to shot, so a solid tripod will be required and a remote release is recommended. The subject must be non-moving over the span of exposures. Slow moving clouds may work, but fast iDRD70+/-2Lab = Slices A, C, E. moving features like vehicles, flags, animals, waves, hurricanes or kids will give poor results. The trick, in any case, is to shoot all three images very close together in time without moving camera or focus. The BKT (bracketing) mode will do the job if the ± 1.0 EV option is chosen. i It is NOT possible to do this hand held. If you donʼt have a remote release, use the camera SelfTimer to trigger the shots. i Manual exposure mode requires you to touch the camera between shots. Careful! Lock manual focus. All three shots are then brought into Photoshop and stacked over each other with the darkest on top and the lightest on the bottom. At that point, simply run the action and wait for the result. The normal dynamic range of the middle image is now extended two iDRD70+/-1 = Slices A, C, E. stops upward and two stops downward by the action of the underexposed and overexposed elements. You will be given the opportunity to adjust Levels (Highlight, Gamma and Shadow values) and then Saturation. The -Lab variations preserve color extremely well. So well in fact, that you must reduce Saturation to achieve accuracy. There are four variations. As you can see in the examples, the normal, centered exposures (strips B & D on each) on a contrasty scene will lose highlight and shadow detail. As you work with them, you will discover how to balance the Levels and Hue/Saturation for your imageʼs needs. i Try this with a colorful subject you can re-inspect shortly after

By combining the range of exposures into one shot, greater tonal dynamic range and color depth is achieved. No simple chroma boost can do the same. During the run of each iDR Action, you have the opportunity to adjust image levels and color saturation. Each of these were tuned to a different result, but the +/-2 stop version will inevitably retain greater range and color dynamics. View these samples close-up.

you have performed this technique, and observe how it matches to lifeʼs perceived tonalities and color depth. i RAW format D70 images are superior to JPEGs, but before you settle into RAW work, test this technique on subjects with extended tonalities. It may deliver “beyond RAW” performance for certain static situations.

iNovaFX Dynamic Range Actions (iDynamicRangers.atn, ) The actions are:

Practical effect:

4 Actions

*best for general work.

iDR+/-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Camera -1/0/+1 EV bracket extends range. Tunable in Levels and color. iDR+/-1Lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . Camera -1/0/+1 EV bracket Lab Color mode. Greater range. iDR+/-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Camera -2/0/+2 EV bracket. Tunable in Levels and color. iDR+/-2Lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . Camera -2/0/+2 EV bracket Lab Color mode. Greatest range.

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10-10 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

SPECIAL EFFECTS PRODUCTION An entire cosmos of special effects plug-ins is built into the full version of Photoshop. But isnʼt that the problem? You open a filter for the first time, and several adjustable controls are staring you in the face with control names like

Brush Size, Length, Radius, Balance, Sharpness, Edge Simplicity, Range, Detail, Grout Width, Threshold, Scaling, Cell Size, Glow Amount, Paper Brightness, Highlight Area, Magnitude, Definition and many others. Where do you start?

Weaving through this maze can be daunting. The iPSxxx iNovaFX Actions show off these plug-ins by representing sane choices. You can retrace History steps and re-perform the plug-in filter with new adjustments if these choices donʼt match your desire. Each iPS folder of actions is based on the similarly named folder of plug-in filters in Photoshop. Not all Photoshop plug-ins are represented, just the ones that have variables that need to be selected. i Many iPS actions include extra steps, combinations of other controls, and/or marriages with other plug-ins to achieve their effects. i Nearly all of these actions clean up after themselves by purging the memory-hungry History file. If memory becomes a problem in Photoshop, try Edit > Purge > Histories to free up memory space. If you wish to avoid purging this list, disable the Purge. In list mode, expand the list (click the triangle) and un-check Purge. It will be near the bottom of the list.

iNovaFX Special Effects Actions (iPSxxx.atn series) The action folders are: iPSArtistic . . . iPSBrushStroke iPSDistort . . . iPS+Noise . . . iPSPixelate . . . iPSSketch . . . iPSStylize . . . iPSTexture . . .

. . . . . . . .

iPSSketch.atn group’s iStampArt Action at work.

8 Folders with 94 Action Variations

Practical effect: . . . . . . . .

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. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . .

19 Filter presets from the Artistic Filters collection. 7 Filter presets from the Brush Stroke Filters collection. 18 Filter presets from the Distort Filters collection. 2 Filter presets from the Noise Filters collection. 2 Filter presets from the Pixelate Filters collection. 29 Filter presets from the Sketch Filters collection. 12 Filter presets from the Stylize Filters collection. 5 Filter presets from the Texture Filters collection.

COLOR NEGATIVE DEVELOPMENT If you have an accessory slide copier (a Micro Nikkor + ES-1 is a minimum setup), you will eventually ask yourself, “Hmm, I wonder if I can shoot a color negative into the camera and then get a good looking color picture from it with a few post production steps?” There is a trick to this along with a warning, of sorts. The trick is to get the white balance right. Auto white balance works fairly well, and white balancing from a dark image (therefore mostly clear orange) works a little better. But it changes from shot to shot. i White balancing off the negative image of a gray card works best. Be aware that it will take just as much post-processing effort to finish the shot digitally as it would to print a color negative. Except that on your computer you can see it coming together at every stage. Inverse, Curves, Levels, Color Balance, and Hue/Saturation controls are needed to finish every shot. The actions here are the major tools for working with a negative image. Theyʼll get you roughly into shape, but you will have to finish the job on your own. You may notice that strong colors are exaggerated in the image coming from an inverted negative. Thatʼs why the iNegHighCrReduce action exists. It attacks ONLY very high chroma areas of the image. As such, it might find use for other sorts of positive images.

Many Undo-able. Most Undo-able. Many Undo-able. Both Undo-able. Both Undo-able. Most Undo-able. Some Undo-able. Most Undo-able.

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iNovaFX Film Negative Development (iColorNegProcess.atn) The actions are:

4 Actions

Practical effect:

iNegRoughConvert iNegLowContrast . iNegPerkContrast . iNegHighCrReduce

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. Inverts and roughly corrects image from color negative. . Lowers the contrast of the result. . Heightens the contrast of the result. . Reduces chroma of high-chroma areas of the image only.

COLOR TO B&W FILM CONVERSION

Original

The first B&W films were blue sensitive and red blind. Thatʼs why old, old photos can look so odd in their tonalities. In them, people often look perpetually sunburned. Panchromatic film improved the look of B&W images by including a fuller spectrum of color response, but all B&W film has its signature response to the color world. i Photoshop will let you drain the color from your image in the Hue/Saturation control. And the Lab color mode will let you isolate the L, luminance, channel which looks rather like a B&W photo. But neither of these have the substantial look of true B&W film images, because their spectral response is so very flat, and B&W filmʼs spectral response is not flat at all. B&W film sees color. It just doesnʼt play it back as color. These actions change all that. Six versions give you variations of color response the way B&W film formulas do. They are not tied to specific matched film emulsion characteristics the way some B&W conversion Actions are, but they give plausible and pleasing results that are a definite improvement over simpler methods. To use them, prepare your color image in the standard way. Shoot for a good-looking, correctly white-balanced image. Then run the iBW action of choice. Note that some are fine iBWFilmFX4+Curves for people colors and others simply are not. iBWFilmFX2 works best with scenics, for instance, but not with all skin tones. i If you wish to simulate the look of a light color filter on a camera loaded with B&W film, tint the color image before conversion. The iBWColorGel action facilitates this dramatically and produces the B&W result. After conversion, you still have the opportunity to change Levels and Curves, Burn, Dodge, or manipulate the image any way you wish. Who said B&W was simple?

Saturation Drained

iNovaFX Black and White Film Spectral Conversion (iB&WFilmEffects.atn) The actions are:

Practical effect:

7 Actions

*best for people pictures

iBWFilmFX1 . . . . . . . . . . . . Converts color image to B&W with blue/green emphasis. For landscapes. iBWFilmFX2 . . . . . . . . . . . . Converts color image to B&W similar to high ISO, contrasty, grainy film. iBWFilmFX3* . iBWFilmFX4* . iBWFilmFX4g* iBWFilmFX5* .

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. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

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. Converts . Converts . Converts . Converts

color color color color

image image image image

to to to to

B&W B&W B&W B&W

similar to average panchromatic film. similar to Tri-X. Grain free. similar to Tri-X. Adds grain to shadows. red brightening. Lab mode.

iBWColorGel . . . . . . . . . . . . Sets up a color effect as if the camera had a filter on it during exposure.

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10-12 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

ORIGINAL DIMROOM EFFECTS Iʼve said it before; itʼs not a darkroom any more, itʼs a dimroom that doesnʼt glare on your computer monitor. But it easily does some things that are difficult (read: impossible) to do in a darkroom. Take these, for instance. The iLumiBloom actions seem innocent enough, until we discover that they are multi-layered effects that produce artificial fog or pull detail out of highlights without affecting shadows. Then there are the variations on the iBloomArt effect. A graphic technique that turns a photo into a somewhat abstracted graphic. These can rescue slightly unfocused images, turning them into artistically sharp airbrush and ink results. iBloomArt2 In the contemporary world of B&W photography, a midtone emphasizing technique has become recently popular for illustration photos. The iBWFleshTona action orchestrates this effect for your images. Try gamma-adjusted variations of an image to get a feel for this Actionʼs sweet spot. All of these actions can be manipulated after the fact to your exacting standards. They work with any images. iFleshTona

iBloomArtInteractive

iNovaFX DimRoom Art Conversion (iDimRoomArt.atn) The actions are:

7 Actions

Practical effect:

iLumiBloom1 . . . . . . . . . . . . Creates low contrast fog-like effect. For landscapes. iLumiBloom2 . . . . . . . . . . . . Fog filter that does not affect shadows. Removes wrinkles. Tunable. iLumiBloom3 . . . . . . . . . . . . Fog filter that does not affect shadows. Blooms upper tones. Tunable. iBloomArt1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bloom Art effect mixes photo with graphic lines. Tunable. iBloomArt2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bloom Art effect mixes photo with graphic lines. Curves adjustable. iBloomArtInterActive . . . . . . . Complex Bloom Art effect. Multi-tunable. Self-explanatory. BWFleshtona. . . . . . . . . . . . Complex B&W effect emphasizing mid tones. Multi-tunable.

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COMPLEX ART EFFECTS Digital photos are immediately available for artistic interpretation. These actions orchestrate a series of steps that result in images that capture the look and feel of painting and illustration. Some are tools to be applied before or after running others. Not all photos work well with all actions, so a spirit of experimentation and discovery helps. i If the textures in images on this page look odd on your monitor, try viewing them at 200% or 400%. i Some effects look a whole lot better as a print. One way to simulate that in your eye is to view a portion of the image at 100% scale on your monitor and step back a couple of yards. You canʼt see it all, but at least you can see how the textures look to scale. i Generally, these treated images look best as a very large print, tabloid or A2 paper size or larger.

iAngledStrokesPainting The image at left (Strikers) is best viewed at maximum enlargement to see the scale of canvas texture and paint-like color overlay. The candid portrait, above, uses an action that purposely lowers detail and enlarges the effect of painted strokes.

iCanvasPainting2

iNovaFX Very Complex Art Tools (iComplexArtFX.atn) The actions are:

23 Actions

Practical effect:

iAngledStrokes1&2 . . . . . . PS Angled Strokes effect that produces a basic painting. iAngledStrokesPainting . . . . Angled Strokes Painting with bolder brush strokes. iHighlightTexturizer&Lite . . . Tools that add color grain into highlights only. A preparation for other effects. iCanvasPainting1 . . . . . . . Strokes, Canvas, and Conté Crayon in concert. Tunable. iCanvasPainting2-5 . . . . . . Variations. Brush strokes in highlights. iLandscape1-3 . . . . . . . . . Painting variations with detail overlays. Particularly good with landscapes. iWaterColorPainting . . . . . . High-technique watercolor effect. Completely surprise finish! iWaterColorPaintingEQ . . . . High-technique watercolor effect. Special low-contrast result. iWaterColorIllusration . . . . . High-technique watercolor effect. Illustrative balance. iColorDream! . . . . . . . . . . Sudden Tropical Warming trend. Tunable. iColorBlast . . . . . . . . . . . Color expands out of its boundaries. Sharpness unaffected. Tunable. iContrast(UM)1 . . . . . . . . . Tool to increase local contrast areas. Uses Unsharp Masking. Undoable. iContrast(UM)2 . . . . . . . . . Tool to increase local contrast areas. More aggressive effect. Undoable. iPencilSketch . . . . . . . . . Pencil Art version of image. Not for people images! iKodaChrome1&2 . . . . . . . The memory of Kodachrome from 1954. Or Kodachrome II from 1976.

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10-14 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

EXOTIC EFFECTS Beyond complex lies the realm of the truly exotic. These include things that you have every right to believe simply could not be created in a Photoshop Action. But as this group of iNovaFX actions shows, Photoshop can rise to some pretty exotic extremes.

Framed Again! iFilmBorders.atn drape a graphic border around your image producing the effect of a frame of film. Many photographers (Avedon, for instance) like to show the 35mm, 2-1/4, or 4x5 film frame intact with the image—a sort of proof that they got the image onto film exactly the way they wanted without cropping. Take a 3:2 cropped shot, of any pixel width—itʼs not critical—run the iBorder35 iNovaFX Photoshop Action from the iFilmBordersD70.atn group, and in very short order you will have surrounded your image with sprocket holes and edge markings that look like a single frame of 35mm film shot on iNovaChrome. All type along the margins can be edited. So yours can be UChrome. The action stops to let you do this. i Tip: when text edits are finished, you must use the Enter key—not Return—to accept changes. With 2-35mm variations, a 2-1/4 roll film series, and even a 4x5 sheet film group, hours of play and printing await you as you create images that give new meaning to the words, “digital film.” Thereʼs even a roll film example that adds plausible edge fog! (Sloppy photographer. He didnʼt wind his roll tightly. It happens.)

Help Stamp Out Digital Photos iStampBorders.atn creates the perforations around your image that it would have as a paper stamp. You need to start with a horizontal image, but the action will automatically size, border, perforate, and flatten your image into an appropriate drop shadow. Three sizes are available. Donʼt forget to add the wording that will complete the faux stamp effect. i Do NOT try to fool the Post Office. They wonʼt be amused.

iNovaFX Exotic Effects (iFilmBordersD70.atn & iStamp BordersD70.atn) The actions are:

13 Actions

Practical effect:

iFilmBordersD70.atn: iFilmBorder2.25x3.25 . iFilmBorder+Data . . . iFilmBorder+Data+Fog iFilmBorderUniversal .

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. Roll . Roll . Roll . Roll

film film film film

border border border border

like 60 x 85 mm film. For horizontal images (3:2 adjusted). with data type line that you can modify. with modifiable type and loose roll, edge fog effect. with many options. Even makes squares.

iBorder4x5Horiz . . . . . . . . . . Sheet film border. 4:3 crops only. Horizontal only. iBorder4x5Vert . . . . . . . . . . . Sheet film border for 4:3 images in vertical format. ID notches at top. iBorder35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Precise 35mm film border. Type editable. Cut between sprocket holes. 6M. iBorder35+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . Precise 35mm film border. Type editable. Cut through sprocket holes. 6M. iStampBordersD70.atn: iStampBorderSmall . . . . . . . . 10 x 13 perfs. Horizontal only. Image scales automatically. For 4:3 crops only. iStampBorderMedium . . . . . . . 15 x 20 perfs. Horizontal only. Versions for 4:3 and 3:2 images. iStampBorderLarge . . . . . . . . 22 x 28 perfs. Horizontal only. Versions for 4:3 and 3:2 images.

Images are FORCED to appropriate size before processing. You could use large or small files and the result would be the same size. Usually this has the effect of making reduced, extra-sharp images. You may wish to re-size these after running the action. i Cropping utilites are provided in iFilmBorders group to trim 4:3 images from 3:2 frames.

i

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PRINTING UTILITIES Photoshop 7 and CS allow putting several different images in its dandy File > Automate > Picture Package utility, but what if you want a quicker way of making a page of four small prints per letter-size page? The iNovaFX iFourPrint.atn group lets you simply open four images in either horizontal or vertical orientation and have them all become quadrants of a four-part page. The example, left, was made of mixed sizes but each was a 3:2 aspect image. The order in which you open them determines their reading order, just like a storyboard or comic book page. You can cut them apart later, or keep them together as a single story-telling page. Both US letter page and world-standard A4 pages are accommodated. Taking this idea a major step forward, the iMulti16D70.atn group has three more actions that arrange any 16 images into a closely knit panel of reduced-resolution images in a 4 x 4 comic-page reading order single image. Final pages are 3008 x 2000 pixels. One version exists for horizontal, another for vertical originals, and yet another that arranges the images twisted with a white border between shots. i A good way to organize this idea is to select your 16 images and throw all of them into a new folder. Then either open them in the order you want to see them in print, or arrange them in the Photoshop Browser as it displays the folder holding your sweet 16. i Photoshopʼs Browser function lets you rearrange the contents of the folder in the order you wish them to print. Then select all and Open all in one step. i With the files all open, perform any iShadowLift or iCC color corrections before running the iMulti16. Both of these utilities create a very high resolution result. Itʼs a pixel-perfect Large frame image and each smaller image is at maximum detail on the printed page. You can print it out quite large if you wish. Print at 12 x 18 inches (305 x 457 mm) is reasonable. i All the shots here came from 3:2 aspect D70 shots, but the pixel counts were different. Several were 3:2 crops but end up all the same size. I’m not sure what the linear story is here, but pulling a bunch of images into a single storyboard format print is easy with the iMulti16H.

iNovaFX Printing Utilities (iFourPrintD70.atn & iMulti16D70.atn) The actions are:

5 Actions

Practical effect:

iFourPrintD70.atn series iVertX4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Four images become one page. Vertical originals only. Any aspect or crop. iHorizX4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Four images become one page. Horizontal originals only. Any aspect or crop. iMulti16D70.atn series* iMulti16H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page with 16 scaled images is created. All must be horizontal. iMulti16V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vertical 16 shot version. All must be vertical images. Page “reads” vertically. iMulti16VTwist . . . . . . . . . . . Vertical 16 shots. Images may be twisted for an unusual effect. *iMulti16 instructions appear in the folder. You run the instructions as if they were Actions.

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10-16 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

FILTRATIONS & PRINTING TINTS Ever wish you could shoot with a graduated neutral density filter that cut the extra brightness out of sky areas without darkening the lower parts of the picture? Cinematographers wouldnʼt leave home without their set of square grad filters, and still photographers—including me—treasure their grad filters from Cokin. With the iGrad6meg.atn set you can shoot now and filter later. Neutral (no color), slightly warm and slightly cool versions are available in two functionally different versions each. Thatʼs the warm version operating on the bright sky image at the right. Try them all. Weʼve made them interesting. Grad filters are often used to keep tonality in the sky when values there are substantially higher than the tones in the rest of the scene. “A” versions of these grad Actions will darken even the most extreme highlights. Printing monochrome doesnʼt always mean Black and White. Photographic artists have a whole repertoire of subtle colors for tinting B&W prints, and now, so do you. The statue at right uses iTintCool for its subtle effect. Versions are available in four major colors, Cool, Warm, Metal and Green. These colors are selectable in three variations each. One variation lets you pick tint hue, strength and depth yourself. A superior Sepia version completes the set. Not all ink-jet printers do a superior job with monochromatic images, but if yours does, these actions will provide a nice sense of variety. Try them on color images, too, (!) for interesting color tint combinations.

iNovaFX Printed Filtrations (iGrad6meg.atn & iB&WPrintTints.atn) The actions are:

iGradCNeutral, above is a highly realistic grad filter effect. Rollover to see the original. Click to see the iGradCRed variation. Below, iBWTint2Taste. Rollover for iBWWarmWht. Click for original.

28 Actions + Instructions

Practical effect:

iSkyGradFilter.atn series iGrad (Neutral and Colors) iGradC series . . . . . . . iGradSetup (H & V) . . . . iGradCrop (H & V) . . . . .

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. Shades top of image like neutral density graduated filter. Transformable . Neutral and color grads that preserve highlights. Transformable . Prepares images for transformable grads that can be rotated, stretched, etc. . Slices grads back to normal.

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. Cool Duo-Tone in White/Medium/Dark variations. . Warm Duo-Tone in White/Medium/Dark variations. . “Metal” Duo-Tone in White/Medium/Dark variations. . Green Duo-Tone in White/Medium/Dark variations. . You-manipulate the Duo-Tone color and intensity . Dark cold tone sepia you can manipulate to taste.

iB&WPrintTints.atn series iBWCool . . . iBWWarm. . . iBWMet . . . . iBWGrn . . . . iBWTint2Taste iBWSepia1 . .

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THE MISCELLANEOUS GROUP These are single-concept actions that have occasional uses. Here you will find the faded, ancient photo effect that goes beyond simple sepia toning. The texture and aging of the paper itself is simulated to look like elderly photographic material that has had years to weather the onslaughts of oxygen and light. Want a grain free image? Combine a stack of three to six exposures made in-register, and all noise will cancel out using the iFrmAverage series. Great for making high-ISO images into noiseless shots, too. Tripod and external triggering required. Need that over-processed, digitally rescued look for effect? Try the RetNarRators and stand back. Theyʼre a series of actions that simulate the look of a NASA digital image enhancement technique. Need a panacea? An action that just makes everything better? Itʼs here. The iMprove Actions contain a combination of local contrast, sub-pixel sharpening and color boost. Dr. Feelgood in two strengths. The iColorDeNoise.atn actions for Photoshop 6/7/CS can be found on this CD as well. They do a very good job of smoothing out color grain, but be aware that they slightly reduce the fine detail of narrow colored objects. These actions first find image detail along contrasty edges, lift the zones of detail, smooth the color structure of the image, then replace the detail back to the place it originated. Here, too, you will find the ability to “polarize” blue skies that were shot without a polarizing filter. Seven variations add considerable drama to your images and let you zero in on sky colors without contaminating other shades of blue.

iNovaFX Miscellaneous Effects (iFXxD70, iFrameAverage, iPolarizeSky, iSharp) 31 Actions The actions are:

Practical effect:

iFXxD70.atn: * iRetNar1Lg . . . . . . iRetNar2Lg . . . . . . iRetNarHaze1Lg . . . iRetNarHaze2Lg . . . iRetnART . . . . . . . iOldTymie. . . . . . . iOldTymieDistressed iMprove1 & 1/2 . . . .

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iFrameAverage.atn: iFrmAverage-6 iFrmAverage-5 iFrmAverage-4 iFrmAverage-3

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. Overprocessed digital effect similar to Retinex™. 2 or 3 meg image. . Overprocessed digital effect similar to Retinex™. 2 or 3 meg image. . Super haze/smoke reduction similar to Retinex™. 2 or 3 meg image. . Strong haze/smoke reduction similar to Retinex™. 2 or 3 meg image. . Tunable iRetNarHaze effect with soft bloom. . Extremely abused old B&W image + paper discoloration. Any size. . Adds texture. Needs extra time and memory. . Panacea actions. Try them. Full and half-strength.

(In-register images from tripod + lock focus + remote trigger only.) ** . . . .

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. Stack . Stack . Stack . Stack

of of of of

6 5 4 3

in-register in-register in-register in-register

shots shots shots shots

averaged. averaged. averaged. averaged.

Reduces Reduces Reduces Reduces

noise/grain noise/grain noise/grain noise/grain

like crazy. extremely well. very well. quite well.

iPolarizeSkyFX6.atn: iPolar1, -2, -3, -4, -5 . . . . . . . . Turns sky darker and more dramatic. iPolar5 is strongest. iPolarPale . . . . . . . . . . . . . Turns sky darker and more dramatic. Works on palest skies & around clouds. iPolar2Taste . . . . . . . . . . . . Turns sky darker and more dramatic. You tweak to your liking. Nice. iSharp.atn: iSharp...(11 variations) . . . . . . Multiple ways to sharpen images with low artifacts. * Retinex™ is a patented process. This merely simulates much of its look using Photoshopʼs built-in tools. You will need to tweak most images further for final results. Look for http://dragon.larc.nasa.gov/retinex/ ** Some images shot in sequence do NOT fall in-register due to small movements that offset the shots a pixel or so. The best results come from manual focus frames. Tripod mandatory. Self timer or remote release are helpful.

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10-18 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

VIGNETTE CONTROL One of the inevitable effects of optical systems—including your own eye—is the phenomenon of vignetting. Itʼs a natural darkening of focused images as the film or sensor surface is closer or farther from the center of the lens. Other optical phenomena play a part and it is not unusual to see it in the best zoom or fisheye optics. At extremes, it paints a hard dark edge. In most photos it may not be noticed, but occasionally you may experience corners that are a tad dark that you wish to lighten. Or perhaps you wish to artistically focus interest toward the center of the image by intentionally darkening the corners (right). Two of these iNovaFX Actions accomplish both, the A and B variations. If your image already has slightly dark corners, much of that effect can be lifted using either of the iDarkCorner2Tastes. As the Action proceeds, it will stop on a Curves operation as in the above example. You can control the relative darkness of the corners by adjusting points on the curve downward as above, or you may lift points on the curve upward to decrease corner darkening. The B version is more corner-concentrated. Note: Photoshop CS provides this sort of vignette control in its RAW interpreter for shots made with the D70. These Actions give you access to the idea for any non-RAW images on any version of Photoshop 6, 7 and CS.

iNovaFX Vignette Control (iVignetteD70.atn) The actions are:

5 Actions

Practical effect:

iVignette.atn series iDarkCorners1. . . . . iDarkCorners2TasteA iDarkCorners2TasteB iDarkCorners+control iDarkCorners3 . . . .

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. Scales . Scales . Scales . Scales . Scales

any horizontal image to 3008 wide and applies a nominal soft vignette. the horizontal image and allows you to darken or lighten corners to taste. image & allows farther corner darkening or lightening. image & keeps layers for further manipulation via Curves and Opacity. image & overlays vignette which can be adjusted via Opacity.

CROP ’EM The D70 produces pixels that are superior to those found in 2, 3, 4 and 5-megapixel compact cameras. If you wish to snip a 2M, 3M, 4M or 5M image out of your D70 six-megapixel original perhaps to avoid softer or mildly vignetted corners produced by the odd optic, these utility crops will cut the exact slice from the middle. Cropping a 2M image out of your 6M original also makes a picture that looks quite a bit more telephoto—about double the apparent 135 equivalent focal length. A simple series of precise utility crops.

iNovaFX Cropping (iCrop.atn) The actions are:

4 Actions Practical effect:

iCrop.atn series iCrop2/3/4/5M b -series . . . Pulls an exact 2/3/4/5M horiz crop from the center of any frame.

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ADVANCED LINEAR ART Show of hands: Who has heard of or used the “Hayes Island Effect?” It was a popular digital-to-art conversion effect traded on the Internet recently and named after the restaurant pictured in the first example. The iLiner series of iNovaFX Actions convert your digital image into several realms of artistic interpretation that go beyond the Hayes. Five basic alternate approaches are provided along with a “Carnet” Action that runs them all. Start with only the target image appearing in the History palette. It will be renamed “Original” by the Carnet series. At the end of the series you will have all eight variations, plus, of course, the original for comparison. Some will only work well with certain images. All crops shown here are from the default Carnet results.

Original

iLiner2 iLiner5

iLiner3A

iLiner4A

iNovaFX Advanced Linear Art (iLiners.atn) The actions are:

7 Actions

. . . . . .Practical effect:

iLiners.atn series iLiner1. . . . . . iLiner2 . . . . . iLiner3+A+B . . iLiner4+A+B+C iLiner5 . . . . . iLiner5Prep . . iLinerCarnet . .

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Bold, mysterious effect. For use with lighter images. Very “graphic novel.” Bold watercolor effect with paper texture and strong delineation. (detail shown above) Graphic illustration effects with high contrast shadows + variation. (detail shown above) Rough paper drawing effect +2 variations. (detail shown above) Lighter pen overlay atop gentle coloration. (detail shown above) Desaturation and tonal values alteration to achieve a less photographic look. All eight at once. The prepared original must be the only thing in the History Palette.

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10-20 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

SPOTS BEFORE YOUR LENS In a highly visible advertising campaign, Fox Television employed a portrait enhancement effect that was reminiscent of a printing dot graphic texture without being obtrusive or disruptive in the way a real enlarged printing dot pattern would be. Their regular pattern of dots was backed up with airbrushed portraits of major on-air talent. With the iDots iNovaFX Actions you can achieve much the same effect on portraits of your friends and family. Dots of a scale you choose overlay your image in a visible, but non disruptive manner. These Actions take time to unfold. They are memory intensive and require you to interact with choices along the way. You may start with either horizontal or vertical images of any size, but they should be in 3:2 aspect to begin with. Do any retouching work on them before you begin. i Images are forced to 3008 pixels in their long dimension for this effect. Variations of iDots accommodate horizontal and vertical shots. Printed large, they impart a very interesting texture over the image. First you will be asked to decide dot scale. It appears as the size choice for a new window. Try 700 pixels for width and height at first. Make the dot size window square. i Rectangular dimensions are potentially fatal. The next instruction window guides you to select iDots 3V D70 After/Before a specific Pattern from the Photoshop window seen at right. If you select any other pattern the effect is iDots using a 400 x 400 pixel dot size. Rollover to see the original image. not as predictable, but you may find a use for that idea.

iNovaFX Textured Dots Effect (iDotsFXD70.atn) The actions are:

7 Actions (+ 3 utilities)

Practical effect:

iDotsFX.atn series iDots 1H D70 . . . iDots 1V D70 . . . iDots 2H D70 . . . iDots 2V D70 . . . iDots 3H D70 . . . iDots 3V D70 . . . iDotsExaggerator iDots 1A, B, C . .

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Equal size soft dots overlay the original image. Horizontal original only. Equal size soft dots overlay the original image. Vertical original only. Clears Pattern list. Brightness proportional dots @ 15°. Horizontal original only. Brightness proportional dots @ 15°. Vertical original only. Brightness proportional dots @ 30°. Horizontal original only. Brightness proportional dots @ 30°. Vertical original only. Exaggerates dots. To be used only after running an iDots Action. Utility Actions that are used internally by above iDots variations. Not directly useful.

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MASTERING PERSPECTIVE

Skew. Does what?

Perspective is a great way to experience depth in photos, because we perceive the world though our minds as much as our eyes. When you look up at a billboard or building, you think of what you are seeing as a flat, rectilinear surface, not as a wedge that has a vanishing point above you. Some photographs show you this geometric wedge all too clearly. People sometimes call it the “leaning building” effect. Itʼs most obvious when you angle the camera upward at a considerable angle with a wide angle lens. Now parallel upright features are aimed toward a vanishing point directly overhead, and while our brains are looking at a surface perpendicular to the ground, our photographs are seeing a surface in perspective. Un-wedging these perpendicular surfaces makes them feel like the upright surfaces that our minds are ready to accept as photographic reality. Photoshop has the tools to sort out and control photographic perspective, but theyʼre not terribly intuitive. Once you walk through the correct procedure, you can probably do it to any image you wish in just a few moments. Having a gut-level understanding of a technique like this is always helpful. So here is a mini-course in perspective control that lets you follow the steps necessary to correct leaning buildings. Simply open the file called GettyInterior.jpg inside the Perspective Tutor folder, which is inside the Practice_Demo_Images folder on this CD. In three guided steps you will have touched and manipulated the tools you need to perform this correction on any image. Now do it with shots from your D70. Use shots made at wide-angle. Run the iBCKitWide anti-barrel distortion Action first, if needed.

Perspective. How much is too much? Scale. Why?

iNovaFX Action Based Learning (iPerspectiveTutor.atn) The actions are:

2 Actions

Practical effect:

iPerspectiveTutor.atn iPerspTutor+Defaults . . . . . Walks you through the steps with default choices made. iPerspTutor (No Defaults) . . . Walks you through the steps leaving more decisions up to you.

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10-22 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

RUSTIC IMPRESSIONS Some photographs look better in black and white. Some would look better if something beyond black and white were added to their appearance to give them character and a presence that takes them out of the ordinary. The fine art photographer Linda Butler produced a book called ITALY In the Shadow of Time which presents 60 images in a unique monochrome treatment. Instead of simple black and white—or even sepia—her images were enhanced with varying degrees of ocher coloring that gave mid-tones and highlights a distinct flavor of the past. Now the realm of digital photographs can acquire some of this timeless treatment of images in three novel iNovaFX Photoshop Action Filters that was inspired by Lindaʼs work. iRustica 1, 2 and 3 each give various rustic interpretations to your iRustica1 image. Results will vary with different photographs and some will look best with only certain iRustica processing. Altering the contrast and gamma of an image before processing will produce very different looks in the final set of images. Artful results like these take practice and experience. At least the darkroom part is a simple button click. To help you sort through this, an iRustica Carnet Action is provided which performs all three variations at once for easy review and provides a black and white reference image for comparison. Your starting image will gain contrast in the final result and can be B&W or color to begin with. i The iRustica3 example at lower right has been custom perspective adjusted using the technique revealed on page 10-21.

iRustica2

iNovaFX Rustic Impressions (iRustica.atn) The actions are:

iRustica3

4 Actions

Practical effect:

iRustica.atn series iRustica 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . A monochrome rustic, ocher tinted image. Strongest color. iRustica 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Variation with more subtle color in mid-tones. iRustica 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Variation with greater subtlety. Color is limited to upper highlights. iRusticaCarnet . . . . . . . . . . . A one-press utility that performs all three iRustica filtrations and saves labeled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Snapshots in the History Palette for quick comparison and review.

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10.5mm FISHEYE HELPER

Barrel distortion is a wonderful feature of the 10.5mm Fisheye-Nikkor created exclusively for Nikon dSLRs. Its name comes from the curvilinear effect it produces, bending straight lines into amazing bubbles of imagery. Technically, the lens forms an equisolid angle projection on the sensor chip and covers 180° from corner to opposite corner in normal use. Images are quite sharp. This lens is more fun to monkey with than a barrel of fish. But its photographer appeal is greater than its photo editor appeal. Fisheye images appear in magazines far less than 1% of the time. What sends photo editors into Nirvana are super-, ultra- and hyper-wide-angle shots with rectilinear perspective—straight lines that deliver unusual and appealing points of view without bending the rules. So letʼs unbend the rules. If you were to flatten out a prime fisheye image, removing all barrel distortion and converting the image into a rectilinear perspective, you could show a type of image no other photographer could match. Unless, of course, that other photographer also had the right Nikkor lens and bought this book. Geometrically flattening fisheye images is possible, and Nikon includes a utility with Nikon Capture software that performs a version of a flattening operation on files shot through their 10.5mm FisheyeNikkor f/2.8 G AF DX lens. That utility produces an ultra-wide-angle result, but the finished image is cropped to the size of the original, keeping only about 80% of the lensʼ horizontal coverage. On this CD is an iNovaFX Photoshop Action that will work with any 10.5mm Fisheye-Nikkor image, whether it started as RAW or JPEG. To work with a RAW image, simply convert it to JPEG with either Nikon Capture or Photoshop CSʼs own RAW Converter plug-in (free from Adobe.com), and run the iNovaFX Action afterwards. When un-bending the field of view that a fisheye lens naturally acquires, perspective lines become rectilinear, but the huge reverse distortion takes its toll. Some pixels are definitely lost in translation, and much corner material is necessarily discarded. Rollover the example images to see the original shots. A second side effect is that the long dimension of the frame extends farther than one would guess. What begins life as a 3:2 image (1.5:1), ends up stretched to an amazing 5:2 image (2.5:1) spanning 3720 x 1488 pixels. Center pixels are sharp, but extreme edge detail is very compromised. Still, you have plenty of extra image “real estate” to crop. A third effect is that small chromatic aberrations show up. These iNovaFX Actions address that issue and the CA is significantly reduced. i Sometimes extreme end visual material is more valuable for its emotional contribution to the picture than for its detail. You be the judge. The examples shown here are not cropped after conversion. Two versions are provided, Ultra and Hyper. Ultra makes images 1800 pixels tall by 3250 pixels wide. Hyper is 3720 wide by 1488 pixels tall. i Run these Actions using the appropriate H & V version! If your shot is a vertical, the action rotates it during conversion and restores it to vertical as it finishes. i Fisheye conversion actions take time. These take over two minutes on most computers.

iNovaFX Zoom Nikkor Custom Helper (iBCFisheye10.5.atn) The actions are:

4 Actions

Practical effect:

iBCFisheye Helpers: iBCFish10.5-HyperH (&V) . . Extreme rectilinear correction for Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8 DX lens. iBCFish10.5-UltraH (&V). . . 1800 x 3250 pixels, 1.8:1 cropped variation retains more center detail.

i Note: Actions ending in H are for Horizontal shots. Ones ending in V are for Vertical originals.

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10-24 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

HALCYON DAYS There are photographic treatments that pull you out of your normal modes of viewing and put you in a frame of mind that reaches into other times and places. We speak with nostalgia about the “halcyon days of yore” as if that were part of contemporary speech (it ainʼt), suggesting an extra-wistful look into the past when things were peaceful and serene (they werenʼt). These Actions move images into the past, big time, and hopefully add a sense of peace and tranquillity. Uniquely, they add emotion by subtracting and restructuring color. Several versions interpret your full color shots into the modern equivalent of color memories. Where black and white shots may be treated as sepia or even the iRustica Actions to give them a less contemporary look, these actions make color pictures that seem to come from some distant color process in the past. The warm version looks a bit like the dreamy imagery from the motion picture Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow (right, matching the world of yesterday) and the others explore similar looks that evoke other dramatic, idyllic recollections. The train graffiti with iHalCool almost looks like a moonlight memory. Each one produces a three layer result, and each layer can be manipulated by you before committing to the final flattened image. You can change colors, intensify tonalities, adjust layer opacities and have a lot of fun making art with these effects. For an emotional snap back to reality, roll your mouse over these images to see what the original images looked like.

Clockwise from above; iHalWarm, iHalMix, iHalCool, iHalGold.

iLiner3A

iNovaFX Nostalgic Treatments (iHalcyon.atn) The actions are:

5 Actions including a Carnet

Practical effect:

iHalcyon.atn series iHalWarm . iHalCool . iHalGold . iHalMix .

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. . . . Warm effect with muted colors. Three effects layers. Highly tuneable. . . . . Cool effect with muted colors. Three effects layers. Highly tuneable. . . . . Sepia gold effect with muted colors. Three effects layers. Highly tuneable. . . . Dual tone effect with muted colors. Three effects layers. Highly tuneable.

iHalcyonCarnet . . . . . . . . A one-press utility that performs all four iHalxxx filtrations and saves labeled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Snapshots in the History Palette for quick comparison and review.

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OPTICAL BLUR EFFECTS Is your bokeh okeh? Photoshop CS has a new trick up its sleeve. A mode that throws images out of focus more like lenses do. Previous blur routines softened detail by spreading pixel values out according to models such as “Gaussian Blur” which blows focus on a bell curve mathematically. Why would you want to blow focus on an image? If you are using a shot as a background plate behind an overlay element you wish to feature as sharp, the softer background will give the picture depth and dimension. The iNovaFX Actions in the iOptiFocusBlurD70.atn series take sharp images and make them look like the lens was focused elsewhere. A sharp city background shot can become a blur that looks the way a lens would interpret it, not the way a mathematician would. Several different basic looks are available. While Photoshop CSʼs new Lens Focus plug can be tweaked with its interactive controls and crafty options, itʼs pretty slow to work with on D70 Large frames. Try these and see if they donʼt help. One advantage to the iNovaFX Actions: they work with Photoshop 6, 7 and CS equally well. i Two Carnet versions take clusters of effects, automatically running all of them while leaving named Snapshots at the top of the History Palette. i Repeatable iBlowFocus variations let you apply the same Action over and over for an increasingly blurred effect. If you float a “foreground” layer over a background, use the iBlowFocusM variation. It only affects the background.

Follow focus. Straw flowers were isolated from their background with Photoshop’s Filter > Extract technique, then laid over the city lights image. Each layer was blown out of focus using the iFocusOut4 Action and alternate versions were combined for the focus-through effect you see when you rollover the image. The result is far more plausibly realistic than simple Gaussian Blur, which is seen in the example on the right. Gaussian Blur is on top. Rollover to see the original focused shot, then click and hold to reveal the iFocusOut version, which reveals bright highlights as spreading, not simply averaging statistically into surrounding pixels. Real light out of focus has a very different behavior than just blur.

iNovaFX Optical Lens Out of Focus Effects (iOptiFocusBlurD70.atn) The actions are:

16 Actions including 2 Carnets

Practical effect:

iOptiFocusBlur.atn: iFocusOut 1-4 . . . . . iFocusCircConfuse1-4. iUnFocusHD1-4 . . . . iBlowFocus (+M) . . . .

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. Focus blur at 5, 8, 12 and 16 pixels softened proportionally. . Focus blur at 6, 9, 14 and 20 pixels with less added softening for night images. . Focus blur at increasing pixel sizes favoring specular highlights . Repeatable realistic focus blur. M version keeps upper layer(s) free from effect.

iFocusCarnet. . . . . . . . . . One button runs all 8 variations and deposits named snapshots in the History palette. iUnFocusHDCarnet . . . . . . One button runs all 4 variations and deposits named snapshots in the History palette.

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10-26 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

SHADOW VS. HIGHLIGHTS Photoshop CS has a new tool to lift shadows without touching highlights. These actions presage that function and provide it to PS 6 and 7. Where the Photoshop Shadow/Highlight utility accompanies shadow lifts with a large scale local contrast boost, these just lift shadows. You can add the rest if you wish using the Panacea filter. Shadow Lift. Series of actions that bring dark shadow areas up to greater brightness without crushing highlights. A wide range of variations allows you to brighten, contrast and lift portions of the shadow areas of an image in many different ways. Each creates its own named Snapshot, so you can perform a number of these actions in series from the same original and compare them in the History palette. Advanced ISO reduction. Higher ISO images show grain among the small details. These actions seek to reduce grain and color noise from high ISO images while retaining virtually all fine-scale color detail. They are designed as a subtle noise reduction about equivalent to the difference between ISO 400 and ISO 200. The iDeDigitize series gives the camera image some of the characteristics of film in the highlight areas at the expense of some fine line detail.

iShadowLiftXtreme, before\after, above brings out much of the dark detail. iShadowLift2TasteB on the left helps rescue images from dim museum lighting.

iNovaFX Shadow & Highlight Treatments (iShadowLifts.atn, iDeNoiseHiISO3.atn) The actions are: iShadowLifts.atn iShadowLift1~5 . . . iShadowLift2TasteA . iShadowLift2TasteB . iShadowLiftXtreme .

17 Actions

Practical effect: . . . .

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. Dual zone lighting lift. Shadow areas lighten & highlight areas donʼt. Three strengths. . Dual zone lighting lift. Tunable control variation A. . Dual zone lighting lift. Tunable control variation B. Reaches higher tonal ranges. . Major improvement to shadows but maintains subtle, honest look. Tunable.

iDeNoiseHiISO3.atn:* iSORemover1 . . . . . . iNR -series (A, B, C, C+). iNR -series (B+Flare). . . iDeDigitize1-3 . . . . . .

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. Advanced color/grain reduction. Peels off approximately 1 stop of ISO grain/noise. . Noise reduction with strong maintenance of fine detail. . Noise reduction plus spectral highlight treatment (subtle). . Treats highlights to feel more like film detail. Caution: eats bright fine lines.

*Does not lift exposure, just lowers grain and noise.

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TELEPHOTO PANORAMICS Hereʼs some practice with the presumably easiest form of a panoramic, stitched image. Three frames were shot with the Nikkor 28-200G AF Zoom lens at full tele zoom. A tripod was used and an approximate 50% overlap was targeted by using the center bracket and optional quarter-spaced viewfinder grids. Something to keep in mind: All zoom lenses are a balancing Practice files must be opened in 01, 02, 03 order and 03 (right) must be act between geometric, chromatic and focus considerations. In a sense, zoom lenses must solve image manipulation selected before iTelePano-Basic in an optical way that compared to simple lenses like the ones in your eyes is as advanced as calculus compared to can be run. addition. And they have to do this 24-7 without batteries, all while working with the speed of light. No zoom lens Iʼve ever seen was geometrically exact, so all three images were run through the iBC28.200Tele Action to reduce the telephoto zoom settingʼs slight pincushion phenomena. These files are slightly larger horizontally than the originals and are in the PracticeDemoImages > TelePanoPractice folder. Open them in -01Left, -02Center, -03Right order and donʼt have anything else open in Photoshop. Make sure -03Right is selected. Run the iTelePanoA-Basic Action to do the fundamental setup. The TelePano02Center image becomes the foundation. Its Canvas is enlarged and the side images are layered, inverted and Opacity altered to 50%. That makes them stand out in bas relief when they become aligned to the Center image. Run the iTelePanoB-Details Action and it steps along through several processes, each with a menu that allows you to stop at the current point and take it yourself, or to Continue and let the Action do the work. Invert + 50% opaque shows image differences revealing Refining the geometry of alignment means searching for a “through line” or linear area from top to bottom that mates alignment mismatches. overlaying detail quite well. For this, Photoshopʼs Transform tool grabs a side panel and lets you tweak its geometry until it fits. I used a small amount of Perspective Transform followed by a tweak using the Free Transform option. To move individual corners of the Transform panel, hold down the Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) key while using the cursor to slide the corner box sideways or vertical. As you make adjustments, the bas relief image will either accentuate the relief (you went the wrong way!) or cause the relief effect to become nearly bland, featureless gray (thatʼs got it!). Adjust the corners nearest the blend area. Quite often you must work one corner, then check the other and adjust it, only to go back and further adjust the first one. By the time you adjust back and forth several times, you will be close to perfect. Note in the window below, perfect isnʼt absolute. Some areas—especially foliage—will never be perfect. The Los Angeles at golden hour as seen from the Griffith Park hills. wind blows foliage around, but try to get hard elements like buildings and roads to line up. See text for Rollover and click On another layer, draw some arrows to show where the best blend should be. That will guide you when you stroke a significances. big soft Eraser tool down through each side panel layer. Rollover to see these blend strokes minus the center image. Notice the leftovers. Delete the arrow layer, clean up the side panel inner leftovers, crop to taste and flatten. The resulting image here is 6200 pixels wide! Big enough for a HUGE super sharp panoramic print. Click the image for the automated final.

iNovaFX Telephoto Panoramic Stitching Tutorial (iTelePanoPractice.atn) The actions are:

2 Tutorial Actions

Practical effect:

iTelePanoPractice.atn: iTelePanoA-Basics. . . . . . . Arranges, inverts & opacity alters the basic setup. iTelePanoB-Details . . . . . . Detail Transforms, finds blend path, marks image and lets you complete the shot.* *...or, you can elect to allow the Action to finish the whole thing. These actions ONLY work with the demo files.

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10-28 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

LAST ACTION HEROICS As noted in Chapter 5, How Do I... a special set of actions assist when shooting panoramic images with an exact 50% overlap in three segments with the D70. This is a more advanced, more difficult form of panoramic image manipulation since it requires so much perspective and scale adjustment. Before you attempt it, you should master the TelePano tutorial on page 10-27. Two actions are for 24mm and 18mm originals. One is a helpful alignment utility. To shoot this way and use these actions, you must be very precise in how you gather the images to begin with. A tripod is required and all shots must be made straight out from the axis of the pan. Any vertical tilt will create major headaches, and all three segments must be horizontal. The actions here are for full frame, 24mm and 18mm wide zoom images only. (You can shoot panoramics with vertical tilt and four or more segments at any zoom setting you desire, but you wonʼt be able to use these actions with those efforts.) iPanoGrid&Rotate. Your images are overlaid with a light cyan grid of 320 pixel squares so you may gauge level and barrel correction. If you donʼt see it immediately, switch it on in Photoshopʼs menu, View > Show > Grid. The handy keystroke is Command-[ʼ](apostrophe) for Macintosh and Ctrl-[ʼ] in Windows.

The action also selects the image in Rotate Transform mode so you can spin the image around inside the frame until you see that it is appropriately level. Human eyes are good at making things level, especially when a nearby reference (the grid) is available. By rotating the image within the frame, barrel distortion reduction can follow without problems of proportion. Once one image is successfully leveled, you should use the exact same rotation angle for the other two associated frames. iPanoProcess24mm. This Action creates a linear perspective, super wide angle image. With the Kit lens at 24mm, or the 24-120mmVR at 24mm, youʼre shooting 36mm equivalent wide shots—the standard for nominal wide angle. It is optimized for a grid line left to grid line right (roughly 50%) overlap, so the result is something like a letterbox crop from a 12mm rectilinear ultra wide-angle lens. Before orchestrating the overlay and stitching process, this action requires you to open your images in Left, Center, Right order. You can open all three segments at the same time, but as you click on them to multigather them as a group of files, follow the L/C/R order. If thatʼs not consistent on your computer, then open them one at a time in that L/C/R order from within Photoshop. The iPano24mm Action will create a large work space of 9500 x 4500 pixels, then it will move each of the individual segment files into place (roughly) and turn the outer ones 50% transparent. The demo files (24mmPanoLeft-01, etc.) are clearly marked. Then it stops for you to align the inner edges of the outer frames with the identical detail that coincides with the center frame. Rough distortions are added to straighten out the side segments while inviting you to make corrections as appropriate. Next the center image inverts and a bas relief effect permits fine tuning of the side frames. Once the sides are in good shape, the iPano24mm Action will create a large soft eraser brush, switch the side segments to 100% opaque and invite you to erase the inner edges, thus blending Left and Right Segments to the Center Segment. Following this, a snapshot is made of the image, preserving layers, just in case you wish to return to make any final adjustments. The segments are then flattened to one layer and you are invited to adjust a crop frame for the final image. iPanoProcess18mm will help you start to create a Hyper Wide image, but you will need to intervene and make much more radical adjustments. For use with barrel-corrected images from the Kit lens at 18mm that are shot with the same D70 grid line to grid line spacing. It reduces shots to half scale before assembly because the result is so large, appearing the way a 9mm rectilinear lens would see things. It ends up 6500 pixels wide.

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D70 HELPERS CS Photoshop rocks. With Photoshop CS (Creative Suite) some new tools become available and that means new Actions can be built to take advantage of them. Photoshopʼs new Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlight tool (S/H) combines a number of techniques in a handy single control. In a sense, itʼs a combination of shadow lift, highlight reduction and local contrast effects all rolled into one, and it deserves your unbridled attention. At a single click, the iPSShadow/Highlight Action opens S/H for you at a more plausibly useful shadow lifting setting than Photoshopʼs default. The D70 looks like a film camera, it shoots like a film camera, but it delivers a digital image which is a more direct scan of the photonic reality before the lens. Film “feels” real good. But it is generations (plural) away from the original subject in its portrayal of PS CS Shadow/Highlight control at work. Rollover for treated image. tones. The iD70Set of Actions brings more film into your digital images. They donʼt emulate film emulsions, they just manipulate tones to produce a bit more film-like result from D70 JPEG files. With iFilmLab1, a L*a*b manipulation lifts shadows, reduces highlights and extends the apparent tonal scale of the image. Next, iFilmLab2 performs the same operation with a film-like color lift, and iFilmLab3 provides a slight variation. Dark, Light and Severe D70 shadow noise moderation is achieved with the iShadowNoise(D, L or S) Actions. Multi-layer formatting is retained for custom finishing tweaks only you can provide. Nikonʼs Dust Off technique only works with RAW files. Tsk. But if you can shoot a JPEG dust frame, you can flatten dust bunnies on the image chip by using the iDustAway Action. Shoot the dust frame by pointing your camera at a clean, flat, white, blank, evenly lit subject 250mm (10 inches) from the lens, zoom to the same setting as the dirty shot, manually set the lens to infinity and shoot in Aperture auto exposure mode. The frame will look solid middle gray to the untrained eye. The histogram will have a spike in the center. It will be the dullest shot you ever make, except that it contains an image of the dust alone at a level of subtlety that you probably wonʼt be able to see on the camera monitor. Viewing the dust image on your computer will show it off. Worst case dust. It’s very big and very dark. Rollover to Paste that frame into a layer above your original shot and run see the dust reference frame. Click to see the fixed result. iDustAway and away goes the dust. Once again magic becomes simple. By shooting reference frames at different f-stops, you can fine tune the dust erasure. And unlike the built-in Dust Off, you can tweak the process, later. Now go clean your imager. A different set of image helpers is the iContrast group. These provide seven graduated contrast alterations, or “looks” to your images including lower and higher contrast formulas. Play with them and youʼll learn which images are best treated with specific variations.

iNovaFX D70 Specialties (iD70Set.atn & iContrast.atn) The actions are:

16 Useful Image Tweaks

Practical effect:

iD70Set.atn: iFilmLab1-3. . . . . . iShadow/Highlight . . iShadowDeNoise (3) . iDustAway1&2 . . . .

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. . . .

. . . .

. Produces film-like tonalities and color depth enhancements via Luminance. . Handy setup for Photoshop Shadow/Highlight (PS CS only). . Light, Dark, Severe. Reduces D70 shadow grain. . Uses layered “dust frame” to trigger dust removal on JPEG underlying image.

iContrast.atn: iContrast1-7 . . . . . . . . . . Film-like and enhanced contrast manipulations.

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10-30 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

Notes On Actions: These Photoshop Actions were developed during the course of my work in the graphic and photographic arts. The ones here work with Photoshop 6.0x, 7.0 and CS. If your version of Photoshop is 5.5 or earlier, they simply wonʼt run. Photoshopʼs internal “engines” were overhauled for PS 6 so more recently developed actions rare not compatible with older Photoshops. Photoshop CS is the best yet—worth the upgrade. Loading Actions: At the right you see the menu that drops down from the triangle on the Actions Palette (arrow). Click Load Actions. Like loading anything from within a program, you may have to hunt for the action files, but when you find them, they load quickly. Once in Photoshop, they save with the program when you Quit. You only need to load them once. If you alter an Actionʼs settings and Quit, the change is kept. To reset an action to its original performance, you must reload it. Action files with the same name can co-exist in the list. Avoid confusion; rename yours. Actions don’t run smoothly: One of the basic settings in the Actions palette is Playback Options. Step by Step shows you each and every step during the running of an action. Donʼt use it! It will slow you down with frustration. Select Accelerated before attempting to run the iNovaFX Actions. Step by Step should NOT be on. Stop or Continue: Within many actions, dialog boxes appear at certain times. These guide you through operations or inform you of specific conditions that are present either before, during, or after the action has been run. Often you have the option to Stop or Continue. Stopping an action quits at the current state while continuing completes the actionʼs effect and often causes it to “clean up after itself” by purging the History file of its past steps. History files can consume enormous amounts of memory and/or disk space.

i Note that the Stop command has a graphic of a dotted box to its left in the list view of the Actions Palette. If this

graphic is accidentally toggled off—and clicking the similar icon at the head of each action or collection of actions will do this as well—the action will run, but the desired stop wonʼt happen, and you will not encounter the option represents. For some actions this is fatal. Trash groups that donʼt work. Reload them from the CD. If the name of the action or action folder is adjacent to a gray icon, thatʼs just as bad. Reload.

it

Button mode: After you load the actions you need, you can select Button mode. Now each individual action shows up as a button. Clicking it starts it on its journey. In this mode you canʼt accidentally modify an action or its Stop icons, but actions are no longer organized into folders. The History Tab: The History palette is like a string of graphic Undoʼs laid out by activity over time. A number of options exist for this palette, too, and it is possible to turn the History feature down to a minimum of one Undo-able state. While this saves memory, it interferes with the operation of many iNovaFX actions. If you are experiencing difficulty with an action, a History state of 20 or more steps may help. See the Photoshop documentation for more about the History file and how to get the most out of it. Memory purges: The History file and intermediate computations build up invisible temporary files that consume disk space and memory in your computer. Photoshop has a control that purges the History or all memorized stages of all open documents on demand. The reason you donʼt want to Purge everything is to allow graceful recovery of earlier steps should something go terribly wrong. As humans, we make more mistakes than we wish to admit, and Photoshop is just looking out for us. But as memory is consumed, operations can run out of operating room and things can come to a grinding halt. The Edit > Purge > Histories command is issued by nearly all iNovaFX actions as they complete operations. None of them purge the historic steps of other open files. Special conditions: Some actions warn you of special conditions they need to operate right at the beginning of their run. You might have to stack images in a special order or have only the image in question open on your computer for them to execute correctly, for instance. If you havenʼt set the image up correctly, click Stop, fix the setup, and start over from the top.

Action FAQs: All of the actions in this collection work correctly on their development machines and have been tested for compatibility on Windows and Macintosh machines with Photoshop 6, 7 and CS, but no warranty or guarantee is claimed about their suitability to your images or your version of Photoshop or your hardware configuration. If any action shows an error message, check the www.digitalsecrets.net/secrets/inovafx.html page for information on updates, new functions, and modifications to actions. If any actions donʼt work for you, let us know. i New actions are being added all the time. The undocumented iHandyChanges.atn is an example. Some late additions are already in the action folder on this CD. Instructions are on the Web and this very eBook is the code book that gives you access to “owners-only” downloads should they become available in the future. That will be explained on the Web site when (if) it is needed.

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Actions written to D70 specifications include “D70” in their titles.

Artistic Conversions 67 iComplexArtFX.atn

23 original photo-to-art interpretations

iHalcyon.atn

5 nostalgic color tonal looks

iLiners.atn

10 extra-graphic looks + carnet

iDimRoomArt.atn

7 digital image custom looks

iDotsFXD70.atn

7 actions for Dots graphic looks

iFXxD70.atn

11 color and enhancement techniques and effects

iRustica.atn

4 actions with ocher monochrome effects

Border and Printing Treatments 34 iB&WPrintTints.atn

14 printing tints

iFourPrint.atn

2 printing utilities combining 4 shots on one sheet

iFilmBordersD70.atn

10 pseudo film borders-roll, 4x5, 35mm

iMulti16D70.atn

3 (h / v) 4 x 4 storyboard laypout + instructions

iStampBordersD70.atn

5 perforated stamp border effects

Digital Photographic Filters 80

Geometry Adjustments & Fixes 25 iBCD70.atn

12 barrel corrections for Nikon D70

iCrop.atn

4 simple cropping utilities

iGeometry.atn

5 geometric utility tweaks

iBCFisheye10.5.atn

4 custom lens curvature flattening actions made for the Fisheye Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G AF DX

ISO Alteration 10 iSOD70.atn

4 ISO increase actions for 3200 & 6400

iSOExtreme.atn

6 ISO lift actions for low ISO images (6 stop range)

Noise, Grain and Flaw Fixing 52 iD70Set.atn

8 unique D70 actions for shadow noise reduction, film look tonal adjust, dust reduction for any JPEG image and PS CS shadow lift

iColorDeNoise-DeJPEG.atn

10 chroma noise and artifact removal actions

iCRV-XRedEye.atn

9 color re-vector actions for special problem images

iDeNoiseHiISO3.atn

12 noise and jpeg artifact reducers

iFlawFix.atn

8 noise reduction tweaks for digital cameras

iCrosstar.atn

10 cross star actions and utilities

iFlareDeColorD70.atn

9 flare / fringe color reducers

iOptiFocusBlurD70.atn

16 optical focus effects unlike simple blurs

iPolarizeSkyFX.atn

10 sky polarizer effects

iGrad6Meg.atn

23 grad filter effects highly manipulateable

iGFGlareFlare.atn

iFrameAvg.atn

4 blending utilities to combine multiple exposures

Photo Color & Tonality Alterations 74 iAerialShotCor.atn 2 aerial haze lifting actions

iCCD70.atn

20 color correctors for daylight and incandescent white balance errors with three variations for each Color Mode (Type Ia, II and IIIa)

7 glare treatments and diffusion triggers

iVignetteD70.atn

5 vignette effects, lighten (fix) and add corner vignette treatments to your taste

(Continues next page)

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10-32 CHAPTER 10

dSLR: Nikon D70

Photo Color & Tonality Alterations (continued)

iPSDistort.atn

18 Photoshop distortion effects

iCCFluoroD70.atn

iPSPixelate.atn

iCFTinter.atn

iPS+Noise.atn

iCFWarmer-Cooler.atn

iPSSketch.atn

iContrast.atn

iPSStylize.atn

iContrastBump.atn

iPSTexture.atn

2 fluorescent lighting cc actions

2 tinting “gel” color filter actions, 8- and 16-bit 2 warming / cooling symmetrical filters 5 contrast alterations and “looks”

2 Photoshop pixelation effects 2 Photoshop noise presets 29 Photoshop art conversions and effects 12 Photoshop graphic sylizations 5 exotic Photoshop texture effects

6 lifts for underexposures

iCrAbD70.atn

2 chromatic aberration / purple fringe fixes

iCrAbGeneral.atn

16 chromatic aberration red / blue channel tweaks

iDynamicRangers.atn

4 image combining actions for long tonal scale

iShadowLifts.atn

Transformation Utilities 8 iColorNegProcess.atn

4 direct color negative capture processes

iHandyChanges.atn

4 utilities including rule-of-thirds overlay

8 shadow recovery actions

iShadowLiftsB.atn

5 metric shadow brightening actions

Tutorial Software 7 iPanoD70.atn

Photo Treatments 15

3 alignment processes for Kit lens precision panoramics from 24mm and 18mm zoom settings for the tutorial on page 10-28

iB&WFilmEffects.atn 7 B&W actions

iPerspectiveTutor.atn

iSharp.atn

8 low-artifact sharpening variations

Photoshop Preset Series 94

2 tutorials for perspective control tutorial seen on pg 10-21

iTelePanoPracticeD70.atn

2 tutorials for telephoto panoramics seen on pg 10-27

iPSArtistic.atn

19 Photoshop artistic effects

iPSBrushStrokes.atn

7 Photoshop brush effects

i This list covers 466 actions on this CD including some of the individually labeled Carnets and utilities. Of these, 142 are completely new or have been re-written for the unique specifications of the D70.

Some only work well with specific types of images. Not all actions will work with all images. Serendipity abounds. Special setup procedures may be required for certain effects. In general, open only the image(s) in Photoshop that the

current action is intended to work on, preparing them in the way instrutions indicate and closing all image windows that don’t participate in the current action. By doing this, many conflicts and errors will be avoided. Occasionally, an action can

become lost and ineffective. If it doesn’t seem to work, reload it from the CD and try again. Actions not listed here may also be on this CD. Actions are designed to work with Photoshop 6, 7 and CS (8).

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dSLR NIKON D70 EBOOK A-1 Links and Clues

Appendix Resources, Links, Suppliers, Fun, Tools An ebook is not cast in sheets of fiber that sit on your shelf and never change. Links and resources here are in constant transition. What works today may not, tomorrow. At least your experience can start with these...

B

y purchasing or receiving this eBook as a gift, you have a three-part experience in your hands. The eBook itself, the software included on the CD, and the connection to the wider idea of whatʼs current, interesting, and new via the Internet. Much of this Appendix is devoted to linking you to other ideas and resources that may assist you in your quest for greater understanding and wider experience. Links that start on this page are live. Click on one, and your web browser will attempt to bring it to your computer screen immediately—providing youʼre hooked up. While no list of these things will ever be complete, this list of suppliers will get you started on your journey beyond these pages. Being Internet addresses, they are subject to the whims of their owners. Most should be current, and all were on the publication date.

SUPPLIERS You would think that a digital camera with its lack of need for film was just about complete in every way right out of the box. But these Nikon cameras are system cameras, conceived from the beginning to be the anchors for add-on lenses, filters, tripods, cases, unique accessories, computers, printers, printing supplies, books, and many of the other peripheral resources that first were created in support of film photography.

CAMERA EQUIPMENT / FACTORY ACCESSORIES Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://nikonimaging.com/global/products/index.htm National Presences Nikon USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikonusa.com Nikon Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikon.ca/ Nikon Australia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.maxwell.com.au/ Nikon UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikon.co.uk/ Nikon Sweden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikon.se/ Nikon Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikon.de/ Nikon Austria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikon.at/ Nikon Schweiz (Switzerland) . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikon.ch/ Nikon France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikon.fr/ Nikon Czech Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikon.cz/ Nikon Espania (Spain) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikon-dpi.com Nikon Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nital.it/ Nikon Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.damkalidis.gr/ Nikon Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikon.co.jp/ Nikon Hong Kong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikon.com.hk/ Nikon History

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/portfolio/history.htm

Nikon Links

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikonlinks.com

Nikon Photo World (course) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/photo_world/ Nikon Mall On-Line Store. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.thenikonmall.com/

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A-2 Appendix

dSLR: Nikon D70

THIRD-PARTY ACCESSORIES Lenses Wide Angle / Tele Zooms and prime optics Sigma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.sigmaphoto.com/html/lenses.htm Tamron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.tamron.com/lenses/prod/autofocus.asp Tokina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.thkphoto.com/products/tokina/index.html Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.bythom.com/tokinadb.htm Quantaray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.ritzcamera.com Vivitar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.vivitar.com/Products/Lenses/lenspg1.html Lens Caps 52mm to 77mm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://gallery.bcentral.com/Gallery/ProductListing.aspx?GID=2025592&Dept=312938 Cases Tenba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.tenba.com/camera.htm Targus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.targus.com/ Tamrac. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.tamrac.com/5694.htm Remote Trigger / Intervalometer Harbortronics Digisnap Remotes (D70 fiber optic model) . . http://www.harbortronics.com Filters All sizes (highly recommended) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.2filter.com Mounting Hardware Telescope / Microscope kit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.scopetronix.com/mvp.htm T-mount for Nikon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.adorama.com/LNTMNK.html Panoramic Kaidan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.kaidan.com Manfroto. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.manfrotto.com Underwater Case Ikelite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.ikelite.com/ Ocean Brite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.oceanbrite.com/ Tripods Q-Pod (highly recommended). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.ckcpower.com Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Various photographic suppliers Computers Macintosh (highly recommended) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.apple.com Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Various suppliers

Ikelite 6807 for D70

Monitor / Colorimetry Resources Treasure trove of info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.thelawlers.com/essays.html Review of Monaco EZ color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.quiknet.com/~frcn/EZcolor.html Batteries NiMH AA Cells [LR 6 cells] (for SB-800/600). . . . . . . . http://www.thomas-distributing.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.4gdo.com/nexcellaa.htm Charger + car cord. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.notebookdrivesoutlet.com/en-el3-chgr-1.html Chinese EN-EL3 for D70 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.atbatt.com/getItem.cfm?ItemID=5309

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dSLR NIKON D70 EBOOK A-3 Links and Clues Cleaning Supplies LensPen (highly recommended) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.lenspen.com Pec Pads (for imager cleaning) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.calumetphoto.com/ Imager Cleaning tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning General Nikon Digital Camera Information Film and digital wealth of experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikonians.org/ Memory & Readers CF Card Suppliers SanDisk (highly recommended) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.sandisk.com Lexar (highly recommended) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.lexarmedia.com Portable storage suppliers Nixvue Vista / Vizor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nixvue.com/ Nikon Coolwalker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikonusa.com/ Epson P-1000 Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp Slave Flash Units (small and inexpensive) Quantaray MS-1 (highly recommended) . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.ritzcamera.com Cobra FlashMate (very low cost) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.ckcpower.com Flash Brackets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.adorama.com Printers Canon (highly recommended) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.canon.com Fast photographic results Epson (highly recommended) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.epson.com Wide format models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/WideFormat/WideFormatMain.jsp HP Photosmart Ink jet printers (highly recommended) . . . . http://www.hp.com CF-card direct printers / wide models Exceptionally photographic results Lexmark (high value) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.lexmark.com Printing Paper Red River (highly recommended). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.redriverpaper.com Pictorico Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.pictorico.com Software [Note: All software mentioned here is for both Mac and Windows] Viewers/Browsers Adobe PDF Viewer (free) . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.adobe.com/ Stitched Panoramic Manipulation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.fh-furtwangen.de/~dersch/ Panavue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.panavue.com/index.htm Photosuite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.mgisoft.com SceneWorx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.vrtoolbox.com Quicktime Toolbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtvr/authoringstudio/

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A-4 Appendix

dSLR: Nikon D70 Editing Software Adobe Photoshop (THE world standard) . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html Studio Artist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.synthetik.com Digital Darkroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.microfrontier.com/products/digital_darkroom10/index.html Paint Shop Pro (Windows only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.jasc.com/ Photographic Prints via Internet Ofoto (highly recommended) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.ofoto.com NikonNet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikonnet.com Shutterfly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.shutterfly.com DotPhoto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.dotphoto.com Spector (Belgium, Austria, So. Africa)(highly recommended) . . . http://www.spector.be FotoFun (Belgium) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.fotofun.be/ AgfaNet (Europe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.agfanet.com/en/ Large Photographic Prints (they do small ones too) 11 x 14 up to 20 x 30 EZ Prints (highly recommended) . . . . . . http://www.ezprints.com Slides from Digital Files Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.agfaphoto.com/magazin/9605/output_article.html Integrated Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.integratedphoto.com/slides.htm Flash-Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.flash-back.com/pptsfo.htm Digital Camera Web Sites / Books Digital Photography Review (highly recommended) . . . . . . . .http://www.dpreview.com Imaging Resource (highly recommended) . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.imaging-resource.com Steveʼs Digicams (highly recommended) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.steves-digicams.com Lonestar Digital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.lonestardigital.com Digital Camera Resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.dcresource.com Digital Photography Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.dp-now.com/ Digital Outback Photo (eBooks, too) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.outbackphoto.com/ Special DOP 2000 eBook offer ($10 off) . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.outbackphoto.com/ Thom Hogan (eBooks, too) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.bythom.com/ Short Courses (books). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.shortcourses.com/ Digital Photo Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.dpcorner.com Baron Sekiya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.mediabaron.net Belgium Digital (in English) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.belgiumdigital.com Megapixel (English/French) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.megapixel.net Digital Secrets (commercial free) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.digitalsecrets.net Major Internet Suppliers B&H Photo Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ Adorama. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.adorama.com

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FUN LINKS Must-See Photographers Hiroshi Kamakura. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/hiroshik/default.html Misha Gordin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://bsimple.com/newcrowd.htm Taki Bibelas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.takibibelas.com Aeternus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.aeternus.com/foyer.html Infrared Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.atsf.co.uk/ilight/index.html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://tedfelix.com/IR/ Panorama Tools Tutorial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://vr.albury.net.au/~kathyw/PanoTools/tutorials/ Astronomy Tips and Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://members.tripod.com/KLComer/Astro001.htm Personal Camera Guides D70 Report from Ewe Steinmueller . . . . . . . .http://www.outbackphoto.com/reviews/equipment/nikon_d70/Nikon_d70.html D70 Report from Moose Peterson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.moose395.net/gear/d70.html D70 Report from Chuck Harrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0406/harrity.html D70 Report from Yatish Kumar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.photo.net/equipment/nikon/D70/ D70 Report from Peter iNova . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.digitalsecrets.net/secrets/NikonD70.html Fisheye-Nikkor Report from Peter iNova. . . . . . . . . . . http://www.digitalsecrets.net/secrets/FisheyeNikkor10.5.html D70 CF card Report from Rob Galbraith . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-6816 D70 as seen by a Canon enthusiast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://onlyconnect.blogs.com/my10d/2004/05/nikon_d70_vs_ca.html Factory Tour by George Mann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.dpmac.com/factory/ Nikon D70 Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nikonlinks.com/equipment_digital_d70.htm Nikon D70 Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.ultimateslr.com/nikon-d70.html Color Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.ProfileHelp.com/ 20/20 Color MD Demo Download . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.vividdetails.com/ Digital Journalists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://digitaljournalist.org/feature.html Epson Ink-jet Prints Up Close. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.tssphoto.com/sp/dg/news/dot_comp.html

CAN’T FIND IT? I DIDN’T INCLUDE IT? I MISSED IT? Best Search Engine on the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.google.com

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A-6 Appendix

dSLR: Nikon D70

PROBLEMS / RECOVERIES

Occasionally the camera seems to freeze, fails to obtain auto focus, seems reluctant to shoot, the image wonʼt save, or the flash isnʼt behaving predictably. About 99.99% of these problems are Operator Error. But the rest of the problems stem from the nature of the beast in hand: a computer that thinks itʼs a camera. And what do we know about computers? They crash. Itʼs possible to confuse them with unforseen instruction ambiguities or internal states of logic that defy analysis. Fortunately for you the D70 is far more immune to confusion and hiccups than prior digital cameras. A computer without power is a chunk of sand. It isnʼt much use beyond the paperweight function. But when the power internally isnʼt enough to carry the computerʼs various memory states beyond the momentary power off/on cycle or even changing from Auto to Manual Rec modes, “issues” can arise. Under rare circumstances you may get an error message (E r r ) during an outright camera malfuction. Most of the time you will see quasi-error messages warning you that the camera is in some marginal condition right now due to circumstances you can control. When the light is too low or too great, L o or H i show in the exposure data read-outs. If an auto aperture lens that also has an aperture ring is attached without being set to the minimum aperture, F E E will blink on the LCD. If a non-automatic lens or T-mount device (no focus or aperture automation) is attached, the LCD shows a blinking F – – signaling you to use M manual exposure mode. If you are shooting though a telescope or microscope, this is the message you definitely want to see. If the inserted CF card is not formatted, you will see F o r on the LCD. If no CF card is inserted, the LCD will report – E – . When the CF card fills up so much that it canʼt take any more shots at the present size and compression settings, F u L L appears on the LCD (truncated to F u L inside the viewfinder). A blinking battery symbol is telling you to gas up. Most errors occur when power is nearly exhausted. The fix is new, fresh power, either from a charged EN-EL3 or via the back-up power supply, the MS-D70 filled with three CR2 cells. If you are confident that the power supply isnʼt the cause of a problem, switching the camera off and on may be enough to wake it up, but if that doesnʼt do the job, open the battery door and fully disconnect the camera from all power for five seconds or so before restarting. If that doesnʼt bring it around, thereʼs always the reset switch on the left side of the camera base. You will need a ball point pen, or straightened paper clip to press the recessed button, but that forces the camera into a hard reboot. Upon power-up, the camera starts its internal booting in the same way that a computer that has crashed re-awakens. It starts from scratch with factory presets installed in most of the CSM options. Since everything it needs to know on start-up is in either firmware or hard-wired memory (ROM), recovery from reset is instant. If a given problem recurrs frequently or fails to reset, the camera is due for a visit to the doctors back at the Nikon ER.

DUST AND SCRATCHES Under the front element of a Nikkor Zoom lens you can see the moving elements change position as the zoom setting is operated. In rare instances, a mote of dust can appear behind this glass. The chances are great that it will not affect your images, even when the aperture is closed down to the absolute minimum. In the past, photographers knew that actual bubbles (!) within the glass elements of prime lenses didnʼt degrade optical performance, so a few flecks of dust wonʼt make your pictures suffer. Scratches on the front element are a genuine problem. Theyʼll never go away, and they may introduce odd issues to night photos, either showing up as a light diffusion or producing a cross star-like effect.. The best fix is to never scratch that surface. That means cleaning it and protecting it. The LensPen (See Chapter 8) and lint-free cloth are your friend in this regard for cleaning and a multi-coated UV filter is your best protection from environmental trauma.

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DROPPING THE CAMERA The plastic shell of these cameras is rugged. Itʼs not your garden variety plastic, falling into the high-tech molded poly carbonate materials category, but trauma can take its toll. If a physical hard knock cracks the case, the chances are greatly increased that the inner mechanisms may have suffered damage. Immediately check the camera for these things: Zoom lens function. Does it hang or encounter rough areas throughout the zoom? Focus accuracy. Does the wide open lens, as seen via Aperture Priority, not focus where it used to? Check focus accuracy with near and distant subjects in full tele and full wide angle. Aperture action. Are exposures consistent or has “something” happened to them? Shutter action. The electronic shutter probably isnʼt affected but is there a shadow from any internal component showing up over images? Viewfinder. Does it center the way it used to? Is the image in focus to your eye to equal degrees in all corners? Flash. Does the camera speedlight behave normally? Are the exposures what you would expect? Auto Rec mode. Since the Auto mode is fully coordinated, it may reveal problems that the other modes may not. Erratic behavior. Is the camera failing to easily perform a function such as changing modes, pressing certain buttons, achieving focus lock, writing to the CF card, etc.? Control malfunction. Does one particular control fail to operate as expected? A switch, button or rotating wheel can sprout irregularities. Do the Command Dials always work correctly? New sounds. Experience will tell you if the camera doesnʼt sound quite right. Reset. If the camera seems to have problems, try fresh batteries or even a complete software Reset. If all is well, your camera will have earned a Purple Heart and you can continue shooting in confidence with a battle scar. This is the most likely scenario. Professional cameras collect knocks all the time and Nikon has spent much effort to make these cameras rugged, durable, and reliable, but they can be destroyed or crippled by traumatic events. Fortunately, they are modular, and Nikonʼs repair facility is generally a less-than two week turn. If the camera receives a hard blow, make sure the repair people understand this. Forcing them to play “guess the disease” is a good way to have your camera away from home for an extended hospital stay. If you have not attached, and more importantly, if you donʼt use a wrist strap or palm strap, then the moment of anxiety you will experience when you drop the camera will have been well earned. It may never have an air-bag, but at least you can install a seat belt. And if you are using this camera professionally, make sure it is on your insurance policy.

PHOTORESCUE On this CD handy utility is included that may save your day. PhotoRescue software for Mac and Windows allows you to recover images you probably thought were gone forever. It searches your CF card for files and revives images—even from RE-FORMATTED cards! You thought that re-formatting would dismiss those files forever, but not so. Formatting merely removes the cardʼs catalog of files; it does not zero-out all the bits. If subsequent shots have not actually written over the bits your lost image was using, the chances are excellent that it can be recovered by this utility. On my first try, PhotoRescue found pictures from photo sessions six months back. Numerous re-formatting operations had not affected them. I also found the more recent files I thought I had lost. The utility on this CD will show you the files it finds on any CF card that is directly attached to your computer. You may need a CF card reader to establish this relationship. The included utility will show you your images but you must buy the utility to actually recover what it has found. Within the program are the Internet links to acquire the program directly, once you see that valuable images can indeed be recovered. They have a money-back guarantee that what you see will be rescued. You will shortly receive an eMail message from DataRescue giving you all you need to unlock those lost, reformatted CF card images. The cost is low. $29-39US. PhotoRescue works with other media, too, including hard disks.

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A-8 Appendix

dSLR: Nikon D70

INOVAFX PHOTOSHOP ACTION FILTERS New filters appear with this version. Some are adapted from prior formulas, others are completely new. PRACTICE IMAGES

On the CD you will find a folder full of practice images called Practice/Demo_Images. These include several of the shots found in the book and include images referred to in the text that are used for certain examples. The Las Vegas Venetian Tower image and several sky shots are available for you to practice matting techniques with, for instance. A very underexposed images is here, too, for you to practice high-ISO recovery techniques with. FRAMES

Several frames are in a Frames folder. These are images of frames that fit images of a particular size but which are more detailed than procedural frames. New for Version 2.0 are the iFilmBorder iNovaFX Filters. These only work in Photoshop 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0 but simulate roll film, 4 x 5 sheet film, and 35mm single frame borders. CURVES

For Photoshopʼs Curves function only, these are saved curves that do a lot for something so simple. A Digital Secrets Web page provides a tutorial in their use.

MODEL RELEASES Included on the CD is a folder of Model Releases. In it you will find PDF and EPS files labeled ModelRelease2000.0 M and ModelRelease2000.1 F. The first with the M at the end is written to the neutral gender standard of the “assumed male” pronoun context, so every reference back to the photographer is expressed as “his” or “he”. Fine for guys, and probably wouldnʼt even cause a question in the minds of most. But what if that isnʼt your personal gender? Ladies, look at the second one, ModelRelease2000.1F. That second one is for female photographers and its pronouns (her, she) are amended to be appropriate. You can print these out and trim them to fit in the CD package. The best way of sealing the bargain is to give the model a minimum monetary payment. In the US, one of the new gold dollar coins is a good idea. It becomes an inexpensive souvenir to the model. As you hand it over, let the model know that, “This is your lucky day,” and that coin will become a lucky coin.

TEST CHARTS The iNovaFX color white balance filters on the package are included as a file which will allow you to print out the image on matte paper, if you wish. A printed version can also be folded and tucked away in a camera case. Try to resist printing them out for all your digital photographer friends. They took a lot of effort to make. Suggest that your friends buy their own copy of this eBook, please. You will note that your printer wonʼt exactly match the cover version. Different paper, different inks, different printer—not too surprising when you think about it. Still, theyʼll work quite well. You may wish to experiment before using the filters for critical images.

SHOOTING FOR EFFECT The booklet inside the CD case explains how to shoot for iNovaFX filter use.

DIGITAL VISIONS: A GALLERY OF COOLPIX PHOTOGRAPHY Here are images from half a dozen photographers who have embraced the digital medium for its strengths and abilities. There is genuine art here along with examples from many different mindsets. Your mindset will vary, and thank goodness for that.

ON THE CD

Index

Index Cross-Linked Ideas

YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANT BUT YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE IT IS HIDDEN.

Index Symbols 16-bits/channel 9-20 35mm 2-6 3D 5-35 3D images 5-36

A absolute EV 5-16 Accessories 9-13 accessory slide copier 10-10 Adams, Ansel 9-18 aerial images 10-8 Aperture Priority 5-17 Approxi-Method 9-17 architecture 6-6 artifacts 7-2, 9-11, 10-8 artistic tools 9-25 art paper 7-6 auto focus 5-42

B “best” shutter speed 2-5 B&W 5-33, 5-41, 6-14, 9-19, 10-4, 10-11 B&W conversion 10-11 background 5-8 back light 5-19 barrel distortion correction 10-1 battery 5-3 BloomArt 10-12 blue spill 2-8 Burn and Dodge 3-10, 7-10

C calibrating the monitor 7-8 Camera carry bags 5-9, 9-13 Camera controls focus ring 5-20 manual focus 5-20, 5-42 Shutter release 5-6, 5-10, 5-14 Camera grip braced 2-3

Canon printer 7-3 carry 5-9 Cartier-Bresson, Henri 5-11 CDR materials 9-3 Character of... exercise 6-12 Circular polarizers 9-8 Cloudy 5-12 Colorize 8-2 Color Balance 9-18, 10-10 Color Balance control 10-3 Color Corrector 10-3 Color Corrector—actions 10-3 color dynamics 10-9 Color Management Off 9-17 Color Range window 8-4 Color ReVector 10-7 Complex art effects 10-13 composition 2-4, 2-6, 2-8, 5-7, 5-8, 6-1, 6-2, 6-15, 6-23, 7-10 compression 5-5, 10-8 Compression artifacts 10-8 Contact Sheet 7-8 context 5-8 contrast line 10-6 Cooler/Warmer 10-5 copy stand 5-9, 9-26 crop 5-1, 5-31, 5-37, 6-1, 6-2, 6-18, 10-28 crosstar filter 10-6 Curves 9-18, 10-10

D darkness 6-11 Daylight 5-12, 5-16, 5-36, 9-17 Desaturation 7-10, 8-2, 9-18 diffusion 10-6 digital darkroom 7-1, 7-4, 10-1 dimroom 7-4, 10-12 dodge 3-11, 7-10 double flash system 5-43 Downloading images PCMCIA card 5-47 DPI 9-22, 9-23 dynamic range 10-9 Dynamic Range Extension 10-9

I-1

I-2 DSLR: Nikon D70

E

H

effects plug-ins 10-10 Epson 7-3 EV 5-16 EV+/- 2-2, 5-17, 9-4 EXIF 5-16, 9-9 Expanded Focus 5-20 Exposure Value 5-16 external flash 2-2, 2-5, 5-43, 9-6, 9-8, 9-13 Eyedropper tool 8-4, 10-3 eyes 2-6, 2-8, 5-12, 5-20, 5-35, 5-36, 6-5, 6-18, 7-7, 8-5, 106, 10-7, 10-28

half-press 5-6, 5-14 Haze filter 9-9 HDTV 9-21 highlights 10-6, 10-26 History palette 5-32, 6-8, 7-10, 8-7, 10-1, 10-7, 10-10, 10-26, 10-30 hot shoe 5-43, 9-13 How Do I 5-2 HP 7-3 Hue/Saturation control 9-18, 10-4, 10-9, 10-10

F f-stop 2-6, 5-17, 5-21, 9-9 faded images 10-7 FAQs 9-1, 10-30 Feathered edge 7-10, 8-3 Film as IR filter 6-13 dynamic range 2-6 negative vi, 5-11, 7-2, 7-9, 7-10, 10-8, 10-10 note to film photographers vi film 8-1, 8-4, 10-11 film camera 2-1, 2-5, 2-6, 7-1, 9-5, 9-23 Finder 5-14, 5-40, 5-47, 6-7, 9-25 Flash bounce 2-3, 9-3 double flash 5-43 IR trigger for slaves 9-6, 9-8 flaw frame 10-5 FleshTona 10-12 Fluorescent light 5-12, 6-22, 9-7, 9-8, 9-17, 10-3 Focus auto 5-6, 5-10, 5-15 manual 5-15, 5-42, 6-2, 6-10, 6-11, 9-20 focus zones (F717) 5-20 foot-candle 5-16 Formal Education exercise 6-22 framing 5-7, 5-28, 5-35, 5-37 Free Transform 5-30

G gamma 10-6, 10-9 Gaussian Blur 8-2, 9-18 Geometry exercise 6-3 giclée prints 9-5 Glare Flare action 10-6 glass/plastic filter 10-6 gray card 10-10 grid 5-31, 10-28 grip 2-3, 5-10

I image chip 9-12 image size 9-22 in-register images 10-17 Incandescent light 2-8, 5-12, 5-27, 9-7, 9-8, 10-3 infrared camera image 5-33, 6-13 filter stack 5-33 flash 5-44 ink-jet printer iv, vi, 7-3, 9-3, 9-5, 10-16 iNova, Peter ii–iv iNovaFX actions 2-7 aerial correction 5-36, 10-8 anti red-eye 10-7 artistic 10-10, 10-12, 10-13, 10-14 B&W 10-11 barrel distortion 10-1 bloom art 10-12 color correction 10-3 color grad filter 10-16 color mistake recovery 10-3 color re-vector 10-7 complex art effects 10-13 cooler/warmer 10-5 crosstar 10-6 dimroom art 10-12 duo tones 10-16 dynamic range boosting 10-9 film frames 10-14 flare decolor 10-2 flaw fix 10-5 fleshtona 10-12 frame averaging 10-7 frame effects 10-14 glare control 10-6 iPS series 10-10 ISO boosting 10-4 ISO grain reduction 10-26 lumi-bloom 10-12 multi-16 10-14 negative film 10-10 noise reduction 10-26

Index

old tymie 10-17 painting effects 10-13 panacea 10-17 panoramic assembly 10-28 Photoshop series 10-10 postage stamp frames 10-14 print tints 10-16 retnar 10-17 sepia to B&W 10-11 shadow lifting 10-26 sharpening 10-17 sky polarizing 10-17 special effect 10-10 warmer/cooler 10-5 watercolor effects 10-13 iNovaFX actions, notes 10-30 iNovaFX Photoshop Actions 2-2, 5-5, 5-17, 5-34, 9-25 Intentionally bad pictures 6-18 Internet portfolio 6-24 IR 5-33, 6-13, 9-3 IR-pass filters 5-33 IR filters 5-33 IR flash filtering 9-6 ISO 5-16, 5-17, 6-11 ISO To Taste action 10-4

J JPEG 5-4, 9-20, 10-8

L Lab color 10-11 Lamination 7-12 LCD 5-27, 5-47 LensPen 5-47 Less image = More picture 6-1 Levels control 9-16, 9-18, 10-9, 10-10 Load Actions 10-30 LumiBloom action 10-12 luminance 10-11

M manual exposure 5-18 EV indicator 5-18 manual focus 5-15, 5-42 Manual white balance 5-13, 5-27, 9-10 masks 6-19, 8-2, 8-4, 8-5, 8-6, 9-18, 9-21 matte 7-3 Memory Stick 5-11, 5-48, 7-7 Microscope shooting adapter 9-24 Microvistas exercise 6-10 Midtones 7-10 monochrome 2-7, 5-41, 6-14, 10-16 Multi-pattern meter 9-11

N NixView Vista 5-49 NR 10-5 NTSC 9-10

O Opacity slider 5-37, 9-11 Optical illusions 1-10

P Panchromatic film 10-11 PanoProcess action 10-28 Panorama Tools 5-26 panoramic images 5-26, 6-7, 10-28 PCMCIA card 9-23 PC card slot 9-23 Perspective Transform 5-30, 5-32 photographic talent 2-1 photons 2-4, 2-6, 5-1, 5-16, 5-17, 5-21, 5-33, 9-8 Photoshop 2-2, 2-7, 5-41, 6-8, 7-4, 8-1, 9-17, 10-10 Photoshop 5.5 10-30 Photoshop Elements 2-2, 2-7, 5-32, 5-41, 8-1 Photoshop plug-ins 10-10 Photoshop Tryout 8-1 PhotoVista 5-26 Picture in a picture exercise 6-17 Playback mode 5-22 Playback Option: Step by Step 10-30 plug adaptors 5-3 polarizer 9-7, 9-8 polarize sky 8-4, 9-8, 10-17 portfolio 6-24, 9-24 portrait 6-2, 6-23 Post-It 7-7 PPI pixels per inch 9-21, 9-22 pre-flash 5-43 primary colors 2-8 Print 9-3, 9-5, 9-11, 9-15, 9-16, 9-17, 9-18, 9-19, 9-24, 10-8, 10-13, 10-15, 10-16 printer 7-2, 9-16 Purge > Histories 10-10, 10-30

Q Q-Pod 5-10, 5-20, 5-47, 5-49 QuickMask 6-19, 9-18 QuickTime 7-6

R Radial Blur 8-3 recompression 9-11 rectilinear perspective 5-29, 5-31 red-eye 2-2, 10-7 red-eye removal 10-7 relative EV 5-17 remote release 5-20 Repetition exercise 6-9

I-3

I-4 DSLR: Nikon D70

Resample check box 9-22 rescued images 10-7 Reset button 9-19 retouching 8-5 revectoring color 10-7 RGB 5-5 Rotate Transform 10-28 Round exercise 6-5

V

S

W

Saturate/Desaturate 7-10, 9-18, 10-9 say cheese 2-1, 2-6 Scale Transform 5-30 seeing 3D 5-37 seeing and believing 2-8 segments of panoramic 5-29, 10-28 self-timer 5-10, 5-20 sepia 8-2 Set Up 5-20 ShadowLift action 10-26 shadows 2-8, 10-9 sharpening 5-12 Shutter priority 2-5, 5-17, 9-10 Shutter release 5-6, 5-10, 5-14, 5-36 shutter response 5-6, 5-42 shutter speed 5-16, 5-17, 5-20, 5-41 Skew exercise 6-16 Skew Transform 5-32, 9-7 Skylight filter 9-9 Sky exercise 6-4 slide copier 10-10 sodium streetlights 10-7 software 2-7, 7-8, 7-9, 9-16 special effects 2-6, 5-34, 6-19, 8-1, 8-4, 8-5, 8-7, 10-10 spot meter 5-19 Stamp tool 8-6 steadiness 2-3 stitching 5-29 Stitch Panoramic button 5-32 stolen focus 9-2

Web Photo Gallery 9-15

T Test Strip 9-18 TIFF 9-11 Transfer Functions 7-11 Transform tool 5-30, 9-7 tripod 5-9, 5-28, 9-26 tunable effect 10-4, 10-6, 10-12, 10-13, 10-17, 10-26 TV 2-6, 9-10

U Ultraviolet light 9-3 Unsharp Mask 5-12, 7-9, 9-18, 9-21 USB cable 9-23 USB Memory Stick Card Reader 5-6 UV filter 9-9, 9-17

van der Rhoe, Mies 6-1 Variations 9-18 Vatican 5-50 Video playback vi, 5-19 VR PanoWorx 5-26

Hyper Index One of the more helpful features of Adobe Reader is its ability to provide you with a hyper index that searches any term you enter, building a list of places you can interactively jump to. Simply click on the search icon —binoculars— and a window will appear allowing you to enter what you wish to find.

Digital Visions D70: A Gallery of Digital Photography Vision. We use the term to describe what and how we see and how we think forward of the present moment.

A Gallery that may inspire you to reach beyond the lens.

Notes and observations by Peter iNova

In the last half-decade our ability to capture and instantly review our photographs has leaped forward, casting away the limitations of past photographic technologies. Our vision expands, and we start to see differently. Our tools are still photons and lenses, but the approach we make to image gathering is changed forever.

Nikon D70, Kit Lens @ 18mm. F/3.5 @ 30 sec using ISO 200.

© 2004 Adam Skillings

Moon Over Parker Head At first one might think this was shot during the day, but the distant lights and glowing underbelly of the clouds reveals a shot made in moonlight. A long, thirty-second exposure turns the water into glass and slowly moving clouds seem to be streaking across the sky. “I approached this like any other night shot, framed the scene like I wanted. Upon reviewing the shot I adjust the exposure time, shutter and f-stop and fired off 10 or so more shots , till I was satisfied that I had gotten what I wanted. “The lights across the water are from a small town called Parker Head.” —Adam Skillings A Gallery of Digital Photography | G-1

Peter iNova ...expecting the unexpected Images I’ve been framed! Or composed. Or captured in the middle of a moment. Images have a wonderful way of forcing our vision into delineated observations, as if the world in the image was all there is to see.

D70 with (top to bottom) Kit Lens, 60mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor and Nikkor 28-200mm AF G.

G-2 | Digital Visions D70

© 2004 Peter iNova

“In reality, images are choices that cause the viewer to see things the way the photographer wanted them to be seen.”

Nikkor 12-24mm Zoom at full wide. Perspective corrected. Rollover for a crop of the original frame.

iNova... Fish eye images are curved. Everybody knows that! Yet the 10.5mm Fisheye-Nikkor DX lens is so geometrically precise that iNova has managed to straighten it out using Photoshop. “This is hyper wide-angle—a new kind of photographic vision. The distortions are extreme and the photographic situations become fantasy. “I captured a number of images at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, playing with the delightful architecture, then processed them through the iBCFish10.5 and iPolarizeSky Actions (on this CD) to create images not available through lenses and filters. “This lens has talents that lie beyond the obvious. I’m always surprised at its straight line results. Pleasantly.” —Peter iNova

Nikkor 10.5mm Fisheye-Nikkor corrected with iBCFisheye Photoshop Actions.

© 2004 Peter iNova

A Gallery of Digital Photography | G-3

Uwe Steinmueller ...raw experience

Iron Balconies Uwe and Bettina Steinmueller work as a team, making their images with many digital cameras, and they’ve gathered a huge repetoire of experience with various RAW formats. “The camera is only the starting place. “RAW lets one adjust everything within the image. White balance, tonality, shadows, highlights and color can be exquisitely tweaked. “In this San Francisco Chinatown image, perspective was adjusted after RAW conversion. It is always a good idea not to overdo the correction to keep some perspective view.” —Uwe Steinmueller


D70 with the Kit Lens at 40mm. 1/400 @ f/8 using ISO 200.

© 2004 Uwe Steinmueller

Uwe Steinmueller... D70 with the Kit Lens. 1/320 @ f/10 at 70mm.

D70 with the Kit Lens at 56mm. 1/10 @ f/11 on a tripod.

Lupines, Merced Cascades, Elkhorn Slough The hills are alive. “Lupines in Yosemite just near the Merced Cascades. Purple and unfortunately also green are colors that are hard to capture and even harder to print. The D70 did quite a good job here. “Cascades are fun to photograph but can be tricky. Avoid sunshine as the highlights hardly can be captured with any digital camera today, and use a shutter speed of 1/10 to 1/2 second to capture the soft stream with some details. This photo was taken in spring at the Merced river in Yosemite. “The D70 is also a great camera to produce excellent black and white photos. The picture was taken at Elkhorn Slough new Highway 1 in California.” D70 with the Nikkor 80-200mm AF S, 1/250 @ f/9 on a tripod.

© 2004 Uwe Steinmueller

—Uwe Steinmueller A Gallery of Digital Photography | G-5

Artem Kamshilin ...animal rescue Resting Lion Photographer Artem Kamshilin found this lion in the Munich Zoo, but the lion couldn’t decide whether to pace or snooze. Artem had little time to capture the shot. Cage wires had to be worked around, then conquered. “Quite a few steps were required in attempts to remove the wires from the final picture, and finally some color balance adjustment was applied to offset the mistaken automatic balance. Noise cleaning was intentionally omitted in order to keep the fine details of the beautiful fur.” —Artem Kamshilin


D70 with 70-210mm Nikkor. 1/500 sec @ f/5.6. ISO 640. Rollover to see the original camera image.

© 2004 Artem Kamshilin

Marilu Bishop ...fire

D70 with 70-200mm Nikkor VR. 1/320 @ f/18. ISO 200.

© 2004 Marilu Bishop

Bingo!, Air Tractor Canyon life in California can be exciting. Fire is always a danger. “We saw huge plumes of smoke over the ridge, grabbed the D70 and headed toward the fire. There was a Fire Authority helicopter adjacent to us, filling up with water from an in-ground hydrant. Watching the elaborate process of extinguishing the 13 acre fire was an amazing spectacle. “I had never seen an Air Tractor in action. I was excited to capture the retardant being dispensed from the airplane.” D70 with 70-200mm Nikkor VR at 116mm.

© 2004 Marilu Bishop

—Marilu Bishop A Gallery of Digital Photography | G-7

Snook ...Ninette Ninette 376, Ninette 381 Snook shoots rock and roll and has been published many times. He often haunts the clubs of Los Angeles capturing stage performances of Powder— one of the most spectacular LA stage groups. Powder features lead singer Ninette, and Snook has a definitive portfolio of images of this rock diva. In July, he converted from film to digital with the D70. “Stage photography is fast. You have to feel the moment coming. For publicity shots you can take your time and get things exactly the way you want. “Ninette is one of the best subjects a photographer could have—atheletic, daring, always glamorous.” D70 with 28-200mm Nikkor AF D. 1/160 @ f/6.3 using ISO 400. (www.powdermusic.com)


© 2004 Snook

—Snook

Snook...

D70 with Kit Lens. 1/40 @ f/4.2 using ISO 400.

© 2004 Snook


John DeSanto ...color

Liquid Glory Veteran Ron Hodgson wanted to make a patriotic statement following 9/11. Using flash and high shutter speed, a small flag and some water, Ron planned this image, even though he didn’t know exactly how it would come out. “I was inspired by a shot of droplets on a window that lensed, repeating images in the drops. I wondered if that could be done by smallscale, moving, splashing water.” —Ron Hodgson

D70 with Kit Lens.


© 2004 John DeSanto

John DeSanto...

Honey Sticks, Red Bench Color. Sometimes you put it there and sometimes it reaches out and punches you in the lens. “My daughters had purchased a package of honey sticks and left these six behind when they went outside to play. I figured there was a shot lurking somewhere, so I arranged them several times without success. I was just about ready to stash them on the window sill when I saw the blinds and arranged them standing straight up. Later that night, I downloaded the photos and liked what I saw. “The bench was re-painted recently by my grandfather so the bright red color stood out in the sun. It was covered with leaves, so I quickly swept them off with my hand, stepped back and took a few shots. “I realized I needed something else in the photo, so I replaced one of the leaves for interest.” —John DeSanto D70 with Kit Lens.

© 2004 John DeSanto


Keith McKane ...family

D70 with Kit Lens. RAW original converted to black and white in Photoshop.

© 2004 Keith McKane D70 with Kit Lens. RAW original.

Ryan, Erin Keith informally captured portraits of son, Ryan, and daughter, Erin, in gentle light. “Ryan was vaguely aware of dad taking family shots... he was more in tune with the playful barbs his older bother was aiming his way. With Mom, Dad and Grandmother all within earshot, Ryan had no verbal way of expressing what he really felt at that moment... instead, a simple smile upward toward his adversary would have to suffice for now. G-12 | Digital Visions D70

© 2004 Keith McKane

“Late Friday afternoon, Erin was in a ‘mood to be seen.’ She had a new blouse and was ready for her ‘Disco Night’ fundraiser at the elementary school. “Feeling wistful and pretty, she fluttered about the lawn as I clicked away, trying desperately to capture her mood. “(The crop) gives her enough space to “look away” while getting close enough to reveal those lashes and wisps of hair.” — Keith McCane

Cassandra Greashaber ...art

D70 with 70-210mm Nikkor D at 155mm. RAW original. 1/800 @ f/5.

© 2004 Cassandra Greashaber

Street Urchin, Prarie Wildflowers Grandson Cole became the subject of a studio portrait that evolved into the final seen here. Rollover and click for an earlier stage and the original. “Cole hammed for the camera, changing his poses spontaneously as I snapped away. I asked him to put his cap on sideways and I took this shot, my favorite of the day.” The Missouri wildflowers were treated in Photoshop with an Impressionist plug-in. Rollover to see the cropped original.

Nikon D70 with 70-210mm Nikkor D at 70mm. RAW original. 1/160 @ f/5. © 2004 Cassandra Greashaber

“ I’ll often spend two or three hours walking the grounds and taking pictures until my CF cards are full!” —Cassandra Greashaber


Todd Bennett ...splash Havana Jogger Stopping for gas with a friend in Havana, Todd noticed the extreme waves crashing against the seawall across the street. “There were a few kids playing along the wall enjoying the huge waves splashing down upon them. I never noticed the jogger in the first picture until I viewed the photo on my PC later. “I tweaked the photo in PS using the brightness/contrast, USM, Levels, and probably Shadow/Highlight. “I even dodged the light on the front of the jogger’s face..” —Todd Bennett


D70 with Kit Lens @ 70mm. F/14 @ 1/500 sec. ISO 200. Rollover to see the original frame with the same crop.

© 2004 Todd Bennett

Todd Bennett Refreshment Continuing to shoot, Todd noticed the wave splashes becaming more dramatic by the minute but exposures were becoming more irregular as the water changed the light. “This photo with the two guys wasn’t as easy to tweak as the first one. “I had to use the Shadow/ Highlight adjustment in PS to brighten it quite a bit.” —Todd Bennett

D70 with Kit Lens @ 70mm. F/9 @ 1/500 sec. ISO 200. Rollover to see the original frame.

© 2004 Todd Bennett


Uncle Frank ...opportunity takes flight Egrets Ascending Uncle Frank is a name known on popular Internet forums for his very helpful comments, and he knows that you have to be ready for whatever comes in front of your lens. He also knows that the game doesn’t stop with the exposure. In this image a single egret is making his take-off across a lake. “When a Great Egret began to fly away, I fired off a burst of three shots in continuous mode. I couldn’t decide which wing position I liked best, so I decided to create a composite. “I layered the three images in Photoshop, aligned them with the free transform facility, used a feathered eraser tool to reveal the bird on each layer, and flattened the layers. Since the exposures were identical and water doesn’t have much detail, some experienced photographers have mistaken this composite for a single picture of a column of Egrets taking off in formation.” —Uncle Frank


D70 with a Nikkor 70-300mm AF D at 210mm. Shutter speed; 1/1250 sec @ f/9. Rollover to see the lower bird’s original frame and click to see the original frame containing the top bird.

© 2004 FDR Photo

Uncle Frank Crab-Fest Noticing some seagulls in the shallows in Cape Cod, Frank trained his 70-300mm Nikkor on the action. “The gulls began pulling fairly large sized crabs out of the water, and battling them onto the beach. “I used a monopod for stability, and took a number of shots in continuous mode to capture this dramatic moment. “In the digital darkroom, I employed a color balance adjustment layer to remove the yellow color cast, and then adjusted levels, sharpened, and cropped for printing. ” —Uncle Frank

Nikon D70 with 70-300mm Nikkor D. F/8 @ 1/1250 sec. Rollover to see uncropped original.

© 2004 FDR Photo


Vince Crisler ...custom printing

The Plaza Vince goes for the ultimate image, the camera shutter marks only the beginning. In Prague, he climbed the tower of the Cathedral at the Prague Castle and looked down. “The day was overcast, so I pointed my lens down and captured this scene from a great vantage point. “For post processing, I simply cropped the image to an 11x14 aspect ratio and tweaked levels and curves. “I prefer shots that have a great sense of contrast and color, so I typically place an “S” curve on my images to add that extra pop. —Vince Crisler


D70. Rollover to see the original file uncropped in its original colors.

© 2004 Vince Crisler

Vince Crisler... Mezquita On a trip to Cordoba, Spain, Vince visited the famed Mezquita, the Great Mosque converted into a cathedral starting in 1236. “Tripods were not allowed inside, so I set the camera to F/4 and 1/20s after testing exposures to find the right setting. “To steady the camera, I placed the strap around my neck and put downward pressure on the camera with one hand. I used my other hand to trigger the IR remote, preventing motion from pressing the shutter. “For post processing, I simply cropped the image to an 11x14 aspect ratio and tweaked levels and added a little extra pop by adjusting to a slight “S” curve.” —Vince Crisler

D70 hand held at 1/20 second @ f/4. Rollover to see the original exposure (also cropped).

© 2004 Vince Crisler


Scott Smith ...moments Boy Running in Fountain In Seattle with limited time to shoot, Scott was surprised to find lots of kids in the Seattle Center Fountain. “A breeze was blowing mist towards me forcing me to constantly clean my lens. Another challenge was getting the right lighting with the reflections off the fountain, the water and the ground. “This is the beauty of shooting with the D70 which enabled me to instantly review my bracketed exposures and make adjustments on the fly. “Once I had the exposure settings established, I was able to focus on subject matter. While the final images captured my original vision, I am eager to return to continue to experiment with this location..” —Scott Smith D70 with 18-70mm Kit Lens. F/4.5 @ 1/1600. NEF + JPEG capture.


© 2004 Scott Smith

Scott Smith... The Photographer Remember film? With film cameras you might need one for color, another for high speed color and perhaps a third for black and white. Or perhaps different cameras for different optics. That means no fussing in the field—just grab the lens and shoot. Or maybe a tele color and tele black and white... When the most prepred photographer passed by, Scott was ready to document the moment with his D70. “I was at a practice round of the Ryder Cup golf championship in September of 2004 and came across a photographer. Not just any photographer, but one that had at least 5 bodies with huge prime lenses attached. “Some photographers make a living… this guy earns it!” —Scott Smith

D70 with Sigma 70-200 2.8 APO HSM lens. F/4 @ 1/2000. NEF + JPEG capture.

© 2004 Scott Smith


Digital Visions? No single gallery can show the complete range of image possibilities a particular camera can achieve. Digital photography is in a stage of rapid technological development yet it already brings a wealth of abilities into our grasp. Perhaps the most striking aspect to these Digital Visions is that they are not particularly digital at all. They just happened to have been recorded that way in the camera and enhanced that way in the computer. But Visions they are. And your images should be here, too.


As you master your own senses of image, design, timing, composition, color, tonality, and artistry you will experience the same type of joy and satisfaction these photographers have felt as they created the images seen here. Creative moments may catch you by surprise or touch you every day, but they always give you something extra, a smile.

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