Nikon D80, heeelp!!!

[Andreas Fast]

Hi to all, I have now a Nikon D80, but I need some help to configure my new camera, night shots, overcast pics...

Nikon users, can all give me some help?

[z740]

Have a look through this thread.

http://forums.jetphotos.net/showthread.php?t=44752

For night shots I would contact the world renowned Vishal Jolapara. He is a master in the dark.

For overcast, etc, look through the EXIF data of photos in the DB to see what settings work when.

Best of luck!

-Chris

[seahawk]

Let me give you a run down :

day

- center-weighted mode for metering
- AF continious mode AF-C
- AF single field
- I would start with "P" mode and use the P* to adjust aperature and shutter speed as you need (it is much saver than using Aperature priority)
- set everything to normal in the shooting menue
- WB auto
- D-Lighting off (VERY important) (editing menue)
- turn on the GRID
- set the "func" button to "Matrix metering" so that you can quickly switch between spot and matrix
- ISO as low a the light allows (200 is always ok)

For night :

- metering to Matrix
- AF to AF-S
- use M Mode for exposure (aperautre around 8 or higher)
- get a shutter realeas cable and tripod
- ISO as low as you can go
- D-Lighting off (VERY important) (editing menue)

[PMN]

A quick idea for cloudy days that works with any camera is to try using a technique known as 'shooting to the right', something I've heard many non-aviation photographers discuss but oddly never heard anyone in the aviation world mention. At least not by that name. Most of the information the sensor takes in is in the brightest stop and a half of your cameras dynamic range; it isn't spread uniformly over the full brightness range, and because of that it's generally easier to darken the darks than lighten the lights.

Using exposure compensation, try and get the histogram as close to the right side of the graph as possible without overexposing. You'll probably find you need to increase the ISO in order to keep your shutter speed acceptable as obviously in Av mode, as you add exposure compensation, your shutter speed will decrease. You shouldn't worry too much about noise doing this. If you shoot at ISO 100 but add one stop of brightness in processing, you'll have a similar amount of noise to that you'd get by adding +1EV exposure compensation and going to ISO200 to compensate. I had a particularly dull day at Manchester the other month and used this technique to get the images as bright in camera as I could, and even though I was shooting at ISO250 or 320 and F7.1, the vast majority were accepted. They were certainly noisier than ISO100 on a clear day, but it wasn't too detrimental. You'll generally end up with more natural looking images if you just have to increase the shadows a little as opposed to brightening the entire photo.

Hope that made sense, but feel free to PM me if I can explain it further!

Paul

[Diezel]

Try to shoot RAW and take the time to have a good look at your pictures in Nikon Capture. In that program you will be able to change most settings of your camera afterwards and you will get a better idea of what settings to use in certain circumstances. The settings Seahawk suggested are excellent to start with imo.

And just like Paul said. The histogram is your best friend. Try adjusting the exposure and metering mode so the histogram is equally spread over the whole area but absolutely not clipped at the right side.

As a rule of thumb:

- lots of space at both sides of the histogram -> contrast problems
- clipped at the left side -> too dark
- clipped at the right side -> overexposed (candidate for the trash bin)
- lots of space at one side -> difficult editting job!

Roel.