Complete Guide to the Nikon D200- P9 pptx

V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 241 can apply exposure compensation after the fact. However, note that due to the way digital images are captured, noise is more prevalent in the “dark” areas of your image than it is in the bright areas F 78 . Normally you don’t see the noise as it is buried in very dark areas that print at or near black, but when you use post processing techniques to “boost” shadow areas in an image, you’ll also be boosting noise, perhaps into visible range. Note: Photoshop histograms are calculated a bit differently than those the camera shows. One thing that confuses many NEF shooters is that Photoshop histograms only show the top 8 bits of data. If you use Capture to output 16-bit images to Photoshop, be aware of that! The D200, like the D2 series, has the ability to show individual channel histograms. So what have we been looking at? Well, something called a luminance histogram, which doesn’t take color into account. If, as I suggested earlier, you primarily use the RGB Histogram instead of the plain Histogram display, you’ll get four histograms on the screen at once: the luminance histogram (white) and a histogram for each of the Red, Blue, and Green channels. 78 Why? Because the signal to noise ratio for a pixel value of 1,1,1 is lower than one with a value of 254,254,254. Let’s examine a hypothetical example to find out why. Let’s say that your camera has random noise “base” that averages 2 photons. Further, let’s assume that the 1,1,1 value represents a photosite that’s captured 100 photons. The signal to noise ratio for that pixel is 50:1. The 254,254,254 value represents capture of perhaps 10,000 photons, so the signal to noise ratio is 5000:1. V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 242 All the same things I said about the luminance histogram apply to the individual channel histograms. Spikes at the right edge are blowouts in the highlights (in the case of an individual channel, which would be called a “channel blowout,” as in “I blew out the Red channel”). Spikes at the left edge mean shadow detail is lost. The example histogram shown here is a little underexposed. I’ve left valuable room at the right where highlight detail should be, and the shadow detail is pushed to the left margin, near black (especially true of the blue channel—and that glacier has a lot of blue in it). So why are channel histograms important? Remember those nuclear colors I mentioned before? Well, channel histograms would be the one tool on the camera that might alert you to the fact that you’ve got one. But even in some situations where you might not be expecting it, the channel histograms can save you from an exposure error. The classic example for my type of photography is the red rock country of the US Southeast (Northern Arizona and Southern Utah, for example). If you take a picture of a landscape feature that’s in bright sun, all that red in the rock has a tendency to push the red channel up, often enough to blow the channel out completely. This has an impact after the fact: when you go to post process that picture and perhaps try to alter the white balance a bit, the blown red channel will prohibit you from many manipulations you might want to do, and the tonal ramp in the areas that have been blow out may be compromised. Red rock isn’t the only thing you have to watch out for, though, which is why you just have to pay attention to the channel histograms. Any red or blue channel blowout means you need to reduce exposure. Green channel blowouts are a little less problematic F 79 , but if you have a large expanse of 79 That’s because most color manipulations you’d make after the fact impact the blue and red channels more than the green, which is in the middle of the spectrum between the two. V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 243 green (like a lawn on a golf course) you still need to bring the tonal value down. Exposure Modes The D200 has four exposure modes: P Program—In this exposure mode, the D200 automatically adjusts both the aperture and shutter speed to create a properly exposed image. The combination picked is based upon a predetermined table in the camera (see “Program Exposure Table” on page < H246>). You may override the selection chosen by the camera by rotating the Rear Command dial (called Flexible Program by Nikon). For most new-to-DSLR users, this is probably the exposure mode you should start with. It gives you “semi-smart F 80 ” automation backed with the flexibility to override. Warning: when you start using flash you’ll want to avoid this exposure mode, though. A Aperture-preferred—You control and choose the aperture setting (using the Front Command dial) and the D200 automatically picks the correct shutter speed to create a properly exposed image. Note that the shutter speed the camera picks is incremented in 1/3 stops with the default camera settings in this mode. As you get more serious about your photography you’ll discover that the aperture you select has a great deal to do with what is in and out of focus. Most serious amateurs gravitate towards this exposure mode as they master concepts like depth of field. Many professionals use this exposure mode. S Shutter-preferred—You control and choose the shutter speed (using the Rear Command dial) and the D200 automatically picks the correct aperture to create a properly 80 If you have either my D50 or D70 eBook, you may remember this as saying “smart.” Yes, those consumer cameras are smarter than the D200 and D2 series in one way: their programs try to preserve shutter speeds that would minimize camera shake. The D200 (and D2 series) use a simpler program that does not change with focal length, figuring that the camera operator is smart enough to override the program is shake might be an issue. V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 244 exposed image. The aperture chosen is incremented in 1/3 stops in this mode with the default camera settings. When you shoot sports or other fast moving action, Shutter-priority exposure mode gives you the ability to set an action-stopping shutter speed and let the camera do the rest. Professionals who shoot sports tend to use this exposure mode. M Manual—You control and choose both aperture (Front Command dial) and shutter speed (Rear Command dial); the D200 advises you on exposure by activating an analog metering bar in the viewfinder and top LCD showing what your current choices would produce: underexposure correct exposure overexposure The number of bars indicate how much under or over exposed the image may be (in the default settings, as shown here, each bar is 1/3 of a stop, so the under and overexposures shown here are 1 1/3 stop—four bars from the center correct position). Manual exposure mode gives you full control, much like the older “match-needle” cameras that were prevalent in the early days of SLRs. Many users gravitate to Manual exposure mode when they want to make sure that a particular combination of aperture and shutter speed is used (as when they meter off one area and compose in another). Some professionals use this exposure mode because it forces them to deal with both their aperture and shutter speed choice and can be a pragmatic way of “locking” exposure. Note: The references to Command dials in the previous and following descriptions can be reversed by using Custom Setting #F5 (see page < H474>). õ To select the exposure mode, press the Mode button on the top of the camera (behind the shutter release) and use the Rear Command dial to chose the desired exposure mode V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 245 (displayed as P, A, S, or M on the top LCD; a * indicates you’re in Flexible Program exposure mode). Top LCD: Note: If the lens mounted on the D200 does not have what Nikon calls a CPU F 81 (i.e. it is an AI or AI-S lens) and you are in matrix metering with Program, or Shutter-priority exposure mode set, the camera won’t take a picture. Switch to Aperture-priority or Manual exposure mode. Flexible Program As noted earlier, the Program exposure mode uses a predetermined combination of aperture and shutter speed based upon how much light is in the scene and the maximum aperture of the lens. I call this the “program.” You can override the program by rotating the Rear Command dial when the meter is active. Note, however, that the overall exposure remains the same; in other words, if your override increases the shutter speed, the aperture is decreased, and vice versa. A small asterisk appears next to the ] (e.g. ]*) in the top LCD when you’ve overridden the camera’s program settings. Note also that once you override the program, it remains overridden my that same amount until you change the exposure mode, turn the power switch to OFF, or perform a camera reset. 81 It’s not actually a central processing unit as the name implies, but rather a chip that passes on a set of values that describe a few pieces of data about the lens (maximum aperture, focal length, focus distance). V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 246 Program Exposure Table (at ISO 100F 82 ) EV Aperture Shutter Speed 0 f/1.4 2 seconds 1 f/1.4 1 second 2 f/1.4 1/2 3 f/1.4 1/4 4 f/1.4 1/8 5 f/1.7 1/12 6 f/2 1/15 7 f/2.4 1/23 8 f/2.8 1/30 9 f/3.5 1/45 10 f/4 1/60 11 f/4.8 1/90 12 f/5.6 1/125 13 f/6.7 1/180 14 f/8 1/250 15 f/9.5 1/350 16 f/11 1/500 17* f/13 1/750 18* f/16 1/1000 19* f/16 1/2000 20* f/16 1/2000 * Not possible with matrix metering, as it exceeds the meter’s brightness range; camera reverts to center weighted Students who’ve been to my workshops know that I’m not a fan of Program exposure mode. That’s mostly because Program exposure mode has some hidden liabilities when using flash, but also because most users don’t take the time to understand exactly how the camera is making its exposure decisions or even that once they’ve overridden the “program” it stays overridden. Don’t be a “lazy” photographer and use Program exposure mode casually. If you’re serious about controlling depth of field, camera shake, subject motion, and a host of other 82 I believe the Nikon manual is wrong. The program seems correct for the base ISO of the camera, and would therefore be the same as the D2x program. I suspect the “ISO 200” in the Nikon manual is a cut-and-paste from a previous manual that didn’t get caught in proofreading. V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 247 factors that come up while making photographs, get out of Program exposure mode and take more direct control over what the camera is doing. ISO Sensitivity The D200 allows user controllable ISO values from 100 to 1600, in as little as one-third stop steps (you can alter the settings to half or full stops using Custom Setting #B2 [see page < H436>], but I’d suggest just leaving the camera at the default) F 83 . The D200 also has settings of H0.3, H0.7, and H1.0, which are approximately equivalent to ISO 2000, 2500, and 3200 respectively. These last three values are not labeled with an ISO value because they’re not finely calibrated and thus only approximate values F 84 . õ To set ISO values on the D200: 1. Press the MENU key to show the menu system. 2. Use the Direction pad to navigate to the SHOOTING MENU (the camera icon tab). 3. Use the Direction pad to navigate to the ISO Sensitivity option and press the > key on the Direction pad to select it. 4. Use the Direction pad to select an ISO value and press the > key on the Direction pad to select it. 83 If you set Auto ISO, the camera actually uses 1/6 stop increments. 84 As you’ll see in the examples, noise starts to impact color intensity as you boost ISO value, and color intensity is something we would interpret as an exposure cue. Above ISO 1600, the color impacts of the noise are intense enough that you might not feel like you got the full benefit of the boost. V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 248 õ Alternatively: Hold down the ISO button and use the Rear Command dial to select an ISO value. Top LCD: While it may seem that you should simply set the camera to the highest ISO value and leave it there (or use the Auto function available in the Custom Settings), don’t. As you increase the D200’s ISO value, your images gain considerable digital noise. Much as using a higher ISO film in a 35mm film body results in increased visible grain, added digital noise makes an image look rougher (most noticeable in large areas of a single color). Worse still, digital noise added by the D200 is not truly random, as is film grain. The D200 has a variety of noise reduction schemes, some of which work automatically, some of which are user controlled. Long Exp. NR (on the SHOOTING MENU) has nothing to do with ISO: it controls a type of noise that builds up when a sensor sits collecting light photons for long periods of time (8 seconds or longer on the D200). High ISO NR (also on the SHOOTING MENU) is a setting that does apply to noise caused by ISO settings. Because higher ISO values are caused by amplifying data, small inconsistencies in data are amplified as you increase the ISO setting. High ISO NR is a setting used to combat that; it V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 249 begins working at ISO 400 if turned on by you, but it always is always active in some form at above ISO 800. But noise reduction routines aren’t perfect, and they also have a tendency to reduce edge definition. All of the detailed examples in this book were taken with a Nikkor 70-180mm Nikkor lens, and use standard test charts (there’s a non-proprietary sample chart on the CD; kids, do try this at home!). The small samples I’ll show are taken from the area towards the bottom. White balance was set to Pre and measured with a gray card. The camera set to AdobeRGB color space. Sharpening is set to Normal in these examples. Histograms were carefully examined to insure that the full range of the chart fit within the boundaries. All shots here are post-processed JPEG images. The only Photoshop processing is setting white and black points and then cropping. Note that these samples are only a few of the ones I examined to make my comments. Go by what I write, not necessarily by what you see. ISO 100. Look carefully at: (1) how well the resolution holds up; (2) whether broad color patches show any grain or unevenness; (3) whether hard edges are being “damaged”; and (4) are colors staying accurate and vibrant, even in the shadows. Note that some of the colors are intentionally going out of gamut in this example. V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 250 ISO 200. Not much to note so far. ISO 400. Still not much is happening in our image. If you look carefully at the color swatches (bottom sample is at 200%) you can see some noise is starting to appear, and that it is more visible in the darker patch. This is typical for the D200: noise first appears in shadow tones, but highlights, even at higher ISO values tend to stay relatively noise-free. [...]... the tonal patches Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 256 V1.03 at the bottom are starting to have a curiously mottled look to them Here’s High ISO NR set to On (High) at ISO H1.0 That green face has cleaned up a bit, but the price is a small loss of detail Note also that the 200% view of the sample patches, at bottom, isn’t perfect There’s quite a bit of mottled look to the darker tonal... the ISO value won’t change One nice touch is that you can set the maximum ISO value (between 200 and 1600) for the camera to use when AUTO ISO is active Plus the camera sets the ISO value in sixth stop increments when this feature is active Another nice touch is that D200 shows the ISO value being used in the viewfinder (and blinks the ISO-AUTO indicator) The Top LCD only shows the ISO-AUTO indicator:... values, try using Nikon Capture to convert the image to 16-bit TIFF Open the resulting file in Photoshop to make your color and image adjustments Convert the image to Lab Color Then use the Median filter (on the Filter/Noise menu) to remove noise on the A and B (color) channels Don’t sharpen the image until you’re satisfied with the results A Photoshop Action that does this is on the CD that came with... Compensation, etc.) What you generally don’t want to do Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 260 V1.03 on a D200 is to fail to use the full range of the histogram to the right of center (i.e underexpose) • ISO 200 is actually quite close to 100 in quality, so don’t be afraid to use it Normally you don’t want to give up any image quality at all, but the very slight increase in noise at ISO 200... Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 258 V1.03 400 (f/8 is one stop underexposed compared to f/5.6 in this example) • In Shutter-priority exposure mode, the ISO is changed when the camera runs out of aperture range to use For instance, assume that the initial ISO value is 200 and the aperture set by the camera to the lens’ maximum of f/2.8 If the lighting changes such that f/2 is required, the. .. as Photoshop, anyway, why not go ahead and use different exposures for different parts of the scene? Here’s the bare outline of the steps needed: 1 In the field, set your D200 to 3F 1.0 bracketing In theory, this provides us another stop of detail in the shadows and another stop of detail in the highlights of our final shot when we combine the images later 2 You need to make sure that neither the focus... the ISO-AUTO indicator: Top LCD: Note: If you use flash, Auto ISO turns off and your previously set ISO is used! The ISO-AUTO in the viewfinder stays lit (does not blink) This is Nikon s subtle reminder that “more light” is better than “higher ISO.” To activate the AUTO ISO option, see the instructions for Custom Setting #B1 on page < 433> H Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 259 V1.03... focus point nor the aperture changes between shots The easiest way to do this is to use manual focus and Manual exposure mode Also, be careful that zoom lenses don’t shift Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 266 V1.03 focal length during the bracketing sequence (You may also want to make sure Tone Compensation and other Optimize Image controls aren’t set to Auto, as the camera may vary... set to bracket, a few details sometimes catch new D200 users by surprise: • In the Continuous frame shooting method, holding down the shutter release usually only takes the specified number of photos in the bracketing sequence (i.e either 2, 3, 5, 7, or 9) The camera automatically stops at the end of the bracketing sequence, regardless of whether you continue to hold the shutter release down • In the. .. can do the same thing by setting +3F 0.7 or +3F 1.0 on the D200, but I use the combo method because it works on every Nikon body that supports Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 265 V1.03 bracketing, while the second, direct method works only some of the cameras (D2 series and D200 at present) When bracketing is active, a quick peek at the Bracketing Progress indicators on the top LCD . values on the D200: 1. Press the MENU key to show the menu system. 2. Use the Direction pad to navigate to the SHOOTING MENU (the camera icon tab). 3. Use the Direction pad to navigate to the ISO. is active. Another nice touch is that D200 shows the ISO value being used in the viewfinder (and blinks the ISO-AUTO indicator). The Top LCD only shows the ISO-AUTO indicator: Top LCD: . and the tonal patches V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 257 at the bottom are starting to have a curiously mottled look to them. Here’s High ISO NR set to On