sun by Sandra Tan

Working Notes

Color, Light, Technology

The Ten Steps to Digital Happiness 1. The goal of digital photography is the same as film: to make and share great images. The path may be different but the goal is the same. Learn the aesthetics of photography, not just digital techniques. Apply the unique qualities of digital photography to create photographs that expand your boundaries. 2. Understand the abilities and characteristics of your equipment. Use the best quality your equipment, time and money offer. When practical always shoot the highest quality files, with the lowest ISO and least compression. Do a custom white balance when possible and shoot RAW when practical. 3. Have enough memory. Both in your computer (RAM) and hard drive, and in the number of memory cards you carry, so that you don’t have to compromise quality by shooting smaller files. 4. Practice risk management in your workflow, especially with memory cards. Always make sure images are backed up before erasing your card(s). Always format in camera. Never turn off the camera or remove the card while files are being written to the card. 5. Accept that there are no secrets, only things you have yet to learn. Follow a path of continuing education so that you can keep up with changes in technology and maximize the potential of your hardware and software. 6. Follow an organized workflow. It begins before you even start to shoot (preparation) and follows through every step, including printing and archiving. 7. Backup, backup, backup. Never work on an original file. Always keep an untouched original file somewhere and back up everything. And did we mention – BACKUP! 8. Understand the image size dialog box. Every editing program has one, and you need to know what level of resolution is needed for different types of output. 9. Practice image editing that creates the least amount of degradation in your image. Learn non-destructive editing techniques. Pixels are precious; respect them. Don’t waste them. Be nice to your pixels. 10. Use a color-managed workflow. You start with a calibrated and profiled monitor. Understand profiles and how to use them. Pay close attention to color space as it applies to shooting and editing. Make color management a part of every step of the process.

Preparation Preparation is a key element in almost all good photos. It begins with an understanding of your subject, whether that’s a person, animal or place. If you’re taking the time to go on a photo trip, then spend a little time learning all you can about where you’re going. There are great resources from libraries and bookstores to the web. Search sites are great for gathering information, but even better are the photo sharing sites. Places like Flickr and SmugMug let you search by topic and you can see what other photographers have done. It’s a great way to get new ideas and a good perspective on where you’re going. Don’t forget to try Google Earth, an application that lets you zoom in and get a feel for geographic features. A big part of preparation for a photographer is what equipment to bring. No one wants to carry more than they have to, but being halfway around the world, or an hour from home and saying “geez, if I’d only brought that lens,” isn’t a good thing. Consider the whole laundry list, from lenses and cameras to filters, batteries, memory cards, perhaps computer and everything else you use. Pack a few days ahead of time, then go back and un-pack and re-pack. That will help you figure out what you might be able to leave behind, and what you’re forgetting.

Lenses When considering your lenses, think about how you’ll use them. Everyone knows that a telephoto will get you closer, but many people don’t think about where they place themselves. Subject placement and photographer placement are two keys to composition. This is especially true with wide-angle lenses. If you get close to your subject with a wide-angle, then they become a much more dominant part of the scene. You can also use this technique to create a photo-with-a-photo, having a foreground subject with a background that also contributes to the picture. Telephotos don’t just make the subject larger in the frame, they also have the ability to throw the background out of focus by using the wider apertures (such as f/5.6). With the introduction of Nikon’s D1 digital SLR in late 1999, Nikon also introduced the DX sensor. Being smaller than a frame of 35mm film, DX sensors cropped away the outer area of the image, making lenses feel longer than they actually were. The crop factor was 1.5, which meant that a 50mm lens on a D1 felt like a 75mm, even though it was still a 50mm lens. Over the years, every Nikon digital SLR since the D1 also had a DX-size sensor, so Nikon starting building DX lenses. Since they didn’t need to throw as large an image to the back of the camera (remember the 1.5X drop?), these lenses could be built smaller and lighter. And because of the crop factor, many of them were wide-angles. Now Nikon is making two cameras (D3 and D700) that have what Nikon calls FX sensors that are approximately the size of a 35mm piece of film. With these cameras there’s no crop factor, so the field of view of a 50mm lens looks just like it did on a 35mm film camera. Using a DX lens on an FX might cause vignetting at the edges, so Nikon’s added a menu item that’s on by default, reducing the capture area of the sensor when a DX lens is used on those cameras.

What’s all this mean for Nikon photographers? More choices. The larger sensor used on the D3 and D700 are great for wide-angle lenses and offer superior highISO performance. The DX bodies, such as the D300, D200, D80 and such allow photographers to get even more reach out of telephoto lenses and take advantage of smaller DX lenses. Beyond standard lenses are specialty ones that can expand what you can do. The 10.5mm fisheye (DX) is great for super-wide shots, and by tilting it you can emphasize the curvature. Nikon’s Capture NX 2 software can also “straighten” a 10.5mm shot, and has to be seen to be believed. Any lens that has a very wide aperture (f/2.8 or lower) is called a “fast” lens by photographers. There are two big advantages to these lenses. One, by being able to let so much light in through the lens, they can use higher shutter speeds. This is very handy if you have to shoot in low light, such as indoor sports or theater or dance performances. They also give the ability to use very little depth of field, meaning the background can be thrown almost completely out of focus. Some telephoto lenses can use teleconverters, extending their reach. Nikon makes three, the TC14, TC17 and TC20. They extend the lens by 1.4X, 1.7X or 2X. Therefore a 300mm lens using the TC14 would now be a 420mm lens. The downside to using teleconverters is that they reduce the amount of light coming into the lens. The TC14 by one stop, the TC17 by 1.5 and the TC20 by 2 stops. Only certain lenses work with Nikon’s teleconverters, so be sure yours will before buying one.

Tripods Often forgotten when discussing camera gear, a good tripod should be a part of every photographer’s kit. There’s no better way to get a good sharp photo than a tripod, but not all tripods are created equal. There’s only one real test of a tripod – it has to be steady. That’s why the good ones are either heavy or expensive (such as carbon-fiber). The lower a tripod is, the steadier it will be. And when shopping for a tripod, remember that the head is as important as the legs. A good one will move smoothly and lock down tightly. Most serious photographers buy a head that can cost nearly as much as the tripod.

Bags If you’re going to carry more than one camera and one lens, then you need a bag. And a good bag should be both comfortable and functional. Shoulder bags, backpacks and waist belts are personal decisions photographers make. For travel, nothing beats a good backpack. If you’re traveling very far, then you might want to consider one with wheels. If going by plane, check luggage allowances, number, weight and size, and plan accordingly.

RAW vs JPEG or TIFF There is no doubt that RAW format (NEF for Nikon) is the highest quality file your camera can create. However, that doesn’t mean you always have to shoot RAW.

Like the other controls on your camera, it’s another tool you can use. A choice you can make. There are times that make sense to use it and times that don’t. When shooting film, did you shoot Kodachrome 64 all the time, because it was the best film? Probably not. There are three main advantages to shooting RAW: You have flexibility to change things like white balance after the fact, and you have 12-bit capture (and with new cameras like the D3, D300 and D700 14-bit). Not everyone needs all of these, certainly not all the time. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether RAW is worth the extra time, storage space and learning needed to use it. As with much of digital, you should experiment and see what works best for you. When you shoot in the RAW format, the image you see on the back of your camera is merely a representation of that scene with the current processing parameters (color, tone, sharpening, etc.) being applied to it. RAW data is just that – RAW, essentially unprocessed data from the sensor. While the settings when shot are first applied to that data, you can change that processing from within a RAW editor (such as Nikon Capture NX 2) without any harm to the original data. This is often considered the greatest benefit to RAW – you can make some mistakes during capture and not pay for them. Perhaps the least understood of the above-mentioned three advantages of RAW is bit depth. A color image is made up of three channels of color – red, green and blue. A standard JPEG or TIFF image is an 8-bit image, which for RGB means three channels of 8-bit color. 8-bit information contains a range of 256 tones. 256 X 256 X 256 = 16.8 million colors. If that sounds like a lot, it is. In fact, it’s more than you can see on your monitor or in your prints. What’s the use of having them, then? You’ll likely never be able to capture all of those colors. It’s the range of color available that’s important here. 16-bit color (sometimes referred to as 48-bit – three channels of 16) offers a possible total of 281.4 trillion colors. If you can’t use 16 million, why would you want 281 trillion? The value is not in the number of colors, but in the smaller steps within that range. The real advantage to a 16-bit file is the manipulation you can do to it before creating such large gaps in the tonal range that the image is posterized. Most digital SLR cameras create RAW files as 12-bit files (and newer ones are up to 14-bit now), but editing software doesn’t natively handle 12-bit files. Therefore that 12-bit information is interpolated up to the 16-bit space, which is what you’ll get when you take a RAW file into editing software. While it’s not native 16-bit files, there is still a considerable advantage to be had in working with a 12-bit file in that space. The last advantage to RAW is that unlike a JPEG file, it’s not compressed. Compression can create what’s called “artifacts,” most commonly seen in solid areas of tone, such as a clear blue sky. If you zoom in far enough, you might see a blocky pattern in that area. Normal-sized prints rarely ever show the results of JPEG artifacting, but once the size is around 16 X 20 or larger it’s possible it will be noticeable. The TIFF format also avoids compression, but it’s the only advantage over shooting JPEG (and few cameras offer it anymore). For most people, the question will come down to JPEG or RAW (NEF).

Color We live in an RGB world, see things in RGB and capture RGB with our cameras. RGB simply means red green blue, and they are the additive colors. That means that not only do you create additional colors by adding them in different intensities, but all three together create a neutral. If all three are 100%, then you have white. Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are the subtractive colors. They are the colors that are used to simulate RGB in the printing process. These colors also create additional colors when added together, but all three together at 100% create black. What’s most important for us about RGB and CMY are their relationships with each other. The six create a color wheel, where adding to one takes away from its opposite. Here are those relationships: red – cyan green – magenta blue – yellow It’s important to keep these relationships in mind when adjusting color in editing software. If you want to fix cyan, you’ll need to know that red is its opposite and so on.

Advanced Camera Menus Most menus in digital cameras allow you to customize the camera to work in different ways. Those that affect the processing of the image are the key ones. Each manufacturer varies how it sets up these menus, and even within the same manufacturer’s cameras the type and location can vary. Let’s start with those that affect the processing of the image Picture Control Some of Nikon’s newer cameras (D3, D300, D700 and D90) take a departure from how their DSLRs handled color processing before. With these cameras selections are made from a Picture Control menu that gives you four main choices: Standard, Neutral, Vivid and Monochrome. The D90 adds two more selections: Portrait and Landscape. Choosing one can further tweak its settings. For most people Standard or Vivid will likely be what they select. Most photographers will choose Standard, and sometimes switch to Vivid when doing nature/landscape work. Once you’ve chosen one, you can then vary the amount of sharpening, contrast, brightness, saturation and hue. It’s important to keep in mind that all of these settings, if you’ve chosen to shoot in the NEF format, can be changed later using Nikon’s Capture NX 2 software. If you’re shooting JPEG, then what you choose in the camera is what you’re going to get in your image. Therefore these settings are more important to JPEG shooters. Having said that though, you can save yourself a lot of time if you set the camera to process the way you prefer, so you don’t have to do that later at the computer. Most people leave Sharpening at the normal setting, occasionally moving it up a bit (more sharpening in-camera). A lot of pros actually turn the sharpening off, since their workflow has a step for post-capture sharpening.

Knowing that contrast is easy to add to an image in software, but can be hard to reduce once captured, many photographers choose to use a lower contrast setting. You may want to leave Brightness, Saturation and Hue alone, preferring to make those types of adjustments, if necessary, at the computer later. Optimize Image Other Nikon cameras manage image processing settings from the Optimize Image menu. The same choices exist as above in the Picture Control settings, except that Brightness is missing. Those cameras also offer Color Modes of I (or Ia), II and III (or IIIa). Mode I’s color processing is biased for skin tones, so good if you do a lot of portrait work. Mode II is considered the most neutral, and often only available if you’ve also chosen the Adobe RGB working space. Mode III is biased towards colors found in nature. Mode Ia and IIIa are found in the more entry-level Nikon DSLRs and are for skin and nature, but with a bit more boost in color. Note on Processing settings It’s worth saying again that many of these settings (either in Picture Control or Optimize Image) are the same ones that can be changed later, if the image has been captured in RAW (NEF) format. Therefore, if you’re shooting in RAW format, it makes sense to set these properly before shooting (which can save you time afterwards), but you can also change them anytime afterward with Nikon’s Capture NX 2. Remember, when shooting RAW it’s important to get the focus right, and the exposure close. The rest can be dealt with later, if need be. Other Menu Options Color Space – You have a choice of sRGB or AdobeRGB as color space choices in all Nikon DSLRs. There’s more about this in the color management section, but the basics are that sRGB is a more consumer-friendly space, designed for people who don’t plan to spend much time working on their photos afterward. Adobe RGB can be thought of as a professional color space, because it has a slightly wider color gamut available, but also requires more knowledge to get the most out of it. With some cameras Mode I and III are sRGB and Mode II is AdobeRGB. Check your manual for exactly how to set this on your camera. Highlight – One of the easiest ways to check for overexposure of an image is to check the Highlights on the LCD display. Areas that are flashing are overexposed, and if they’re large or important areas, then you need to adjust your exposure. Nikon’s entry-level cameras have this feature on by default, and you just need to page through the information for a photo on the LCD to find the screen that says “Highlight” at the bottom. Nikon’s upper-level cameras give you a choice of having that on or off. I strongly recommend ON, and you turn that on in the Display Mode menu. Quality (or Image Quality) – This is where you can set the camera to record NEF (RAW), JPEG, or both at the same time. Some of the cameras have a “Quality” button on the outside to make it faster to do that.

ISO – With any digital camera, you’ll get the best quality at its lowest ISO setting. Increasing ISO builds noise in images, though newer cameras are making that less and less of an issue. A good rule of thumb is to shoot at the lowest ISO you can and still make the photo. Set the ISO you need, but don’t push it above that unnecessarily. White Balance – Since the camera’s doing the processing of the images, it needs information on what type of light is illuminating the scene. Auto white balance works well enough for most people, but to get the most accurate color, try using one of the other settings. Daylight is a good standard for any type of natural light, and the Preset white balance setting is a great way to get good color out of artificial or mixed-light situations. To create a Preset white balance you need to follow specific steps, outlined in your user manual, and use a white sheet or paper, or better yet, a gray card. Nikon’s higher-end cameras offer up to five “slots” for saving White Balance Presets. File Naming – Your files don’t all have to start with “DCS.” If you’ve got a File Naming menu in your camera, you can change those three letters to anything you want, such as your initials. Easy Exposure Compensation – If you like shooting in an auto exposure mode and using exposure compensation, then you’ll love this. Turning it on means you can adjust compensation with the dial without having to hold the +/- button down. Timers – The newer cameras let you adjust everything from meter-off time to selftimer display through this menu. Function Button – Several of the buttons on your Nikon camera are programmable. This lets you make the Function button give you spot metering, pre-flash exposure reading or a number of other options. Auto ISO – If you don’t want to have to remember to adjust your ISO when the light changes, this may be a menu for you. The newer cameras let you set thresholds, so the ISO will only change when certain conditions are met. High ISO NR – As you push the ISO up on a digital camera, there’s an increase in digital noise in the image. This menu lets you set a level of noise reduction to be applied during the processing of the image. If you regularly shoot at high ISOs, then you should experiment with these settings to see if you like the end result. Format – The best way to avoid having card problems (being unable to write to a card, or read from it) is to get in the habit of formatting the card regularly. This is best done in-camera, and all digital cameras offer the ability to do this. What happens is that a new directory structure is written to the card, rather than simply writing more to the existing one. Just be sure that you’ve already downloaded any images from the card that you want to keep. Firmware – The firmware in your camera is what makes it work. Occasionally new firmware is released for a camera, which either adds new features and/or fixes a problem that wasn’t discovered earlier. It’s a good idea to check Nikon’s website every few months to see that you have the most recent firmware.

Histogram - The histogram is a visual readout of the exposure of an image. It’s an incredibly useful tool for understanding whether you need to make changes in how you’re capturing a scene. With some cameras it’s always on, but others require you to turn it on in the menus. Also, many cameras now offer an RGB histogram as well. While it’s pretty, the standard black-and-white Luminance histogram is generally easier to use. It’s also one of the several screens of information available on each image from the back of your camera, similar to the Highlight alert. Custom Banks – Many of Nikon’s cameras will let you create Custom sets of menus from both the Shooting Menu and the Custom Settings menu. That lets you set the camera for different types of shooting situations. You can change everything from autofocus to image processing, and save that group out so it’s easy to choose it whenever you want. For example, a Portrait set might have autofocus set to Single and use Mode I with Less Sharpening and Less Contrast in image processing. A Sports set would probably take advantage of Continuous, Dynamic Autofocus, with more contrast and sharpening. Creating Custom banks for these makes it easy to switch between two very different shooting situations.

Color Management Practicing good color management will help you achieve predictable and consistent color in your digital photography. Whether your goal is to achieve accurate color or pleasing color (the two are not always the same) good color management will help get you there. 1. Use a hardware-based system to calibrate and profile your monitor. X-Rite (www.x-rite.com) makes a number of excellent packages. The Huey and Huey Pro are good entry-level units; the Eye-One Display 2 is a step above them. All three of these are colorimeters, for screen use only. The ColorMunki and EyeOne Photo packages use spectrophotometers, which are higher quality and can be used for printer profiling, scanner and projector profiling. You’ll need some target values to tell the color management package what you’re trying to do with the monitor. Usually a white point of 6000K (or 6500K), Gamma of 2.2 and Luminance of 90-140 (depending on monitor) are good starting points. The software will help guide you in this, and your experience will also help you realize which setting works best for you. If you’re still using an old CRT monitor, let it warm up for about an hour before profiling, so it can come to full operating temperature. LCD’s, which are becoming universal, do need to warm up as well, just not as long. Calibrating and Profiling are two steps, and both are necessary. Calibration guides you in adjusting your monitor to certain values (see above). Then Profiling reads how your monitor displays a range of colors and tones once properly calibrated. Once your monitor is calibrated and profiled, do not touch the brightness or contrast settings again until the next time.

Re-calibrate and profile on a regular basis. For a CRT monitor this means at least every four weeks (more often if you’re critical of color, or you notice a shift). LCD’s can go longer, though once a month is a nice schedule to stick to. 2. Create a good working environment. Keep room lights low and neutral and keep daylight away from your work area. Use a neutral background on your computer’s desktop. 3. Shoot in the appropriate color space. Your camera may not have a choice, only offering sRGB. But most digital SLRs will often offer versions of AdobeRGB and sRGB. If your images are headed to the web or to a commercial photofinisher that does not practice good color management, you may be better off setting your camera to sRGB, or converting to sRGB before delivering image files to them. AdobeRGB is a wider color space, and therefore better suited for people who plan to work on their images later, or want the absolute best quality. If you are shooting RAW, you can choose your Color Space later if you like, when working on your image in Nikon Capture NX 2. 4. Make sure your image editing program’s color settings are properly set for your workflow. If you are using a software package that has color management (such as Capture NX 2 or Photoshop) you can choose a workspace of sRGB or Adobe RGB (among others). In most cases you’ll want to set it for whatever color space your camera is set for. With Capture NX 2, simply go to the Preferences, Color Management tab and set the Default ICC profile to what you prefer (AdobeRGB or sRGB). With Photoshop there are two main ways to set up its Color settings (ControlShift-K, or Command-Shift-K for Mac): - Adobe RGB – If your primary images will be Adobe RGB, choose North American Prepress 2 from the Settings pull-down. This will set your working space as Adobe RGB and set the Color Management Policies properly (to preserve and warn of mismatches). - sRGB - If your primary images will be sRGB, start by choosing North American Web/internet from the Settings pull-down. These defaults will force all images to sRGB. A better alternative would be to go to the Color Management Policies area and change RGB to Preserve Embedded Profiles and check the Missing Profiles: Ask When Opening checkbox. 5. Feel free to use Adjust – Color Profile in Capture NX 2 to whatever color space makes your image look best, providing that look can be carried through to output (not all spaces are designed for printing). In Photoshop you do that through Edit >Assign Profile. In most cases you’ll want to stay in the space that you shot in. Hint: Try toggling between sRGB, AdobeRGB and ColorMatch RGB to see the different looks they give.

6. If your editing space is different from what your output space needs to be, you’ll need to Convert your image to that output space. If your image is headed to the web, a non color-managed application or a non color-managed photofinisher, your image probably needs to be in sRGB. You’ll need to convert it (Capture NX 2 – Adjust – Color Profile, Convert, or with Photoshop, Edit - Convert to Profile) to the appropriate profile before saving. A good starting point in the Conversion Options is Relative Colorimetric, Use Black Point (and Dither with Photoshop). Occasionally you may see a color shift during the conversion, in which case you should try changing the Intent to Perceptual. If you are printing using an inkjet desktop printer you do not need to convert out of your working Color Space, as that will be done during the printing step without you. The most important thing to remember is that your image needs to be tagged properly so that Capture NX 2, Photoshop, or other color-management savvy programs know with certainty what Color Space the image is in. You can accomplish this in Photoshop by being sure the Embed Color Profile: … is checked in the Save As dialog when saving the image. With Capture NX 2 the profile is automatically embedded in the saved file. Remember that “Apply” or “Assign” does not change the file. It changes the way the file is interpreted by your software and therefore changes the way it looks. “Convert” DOES change the file, but in a way that tries to retain that same color look in a different Color Space. 7. Make sure that all of your color management settings are properly set when printing. If using Capture NX 2 to print to a photo-quality inkjet printer, turn ON Capture’s “Soft Proof” option. Then choose the right printer/paper profile, Relative Colorimetric and Blackpoint Compensation, and that information will be carried on to the Color Management tab in Capture’s Print dialog. Note - Soft Proofing is an incredibly valuable tool for photographers. It forces the computer and software to simulate how the image would look once printed on the chosen paper. Once you see that, you can leave it turned on while making further adjustments to the image, to get it how you want it to look. Not taking advantage of Soft Proofing is throwing away time and money. In Photoshop use the Print (or in some versions the Print with Preview) window. Be sure to have “Color Management” selected in the pull-down, and choose “Photoshop Manages Colors.” If not, the image will be double color-managed, which will cause problems. To Soft Proof in Photoshop, you use the View-Proof Setup menu.

Light As photographers, it’s hard to underplay the importance of light. After all, we photograph light, not subjects. In the absence of light, there are no pictures. Our goal

in this class is to delve deeper into light and its qualities, like color and strength, and how to control and create it. We’re going to break down light into four primary characteristics: Quantity/Range, Direction, Size and Color. Of course these often overlap, but for the purpose of explaining how to look for, use, control and create light, we’ll use these. Quantity and Range is a key for us both in terms of exposure and aesthetics. It can create heavy shadows and scenes with such a wide range from dark to light that the camera can’t capture the entire range. To work with those problems we have various tools, from filters to flash to editing (Active D-Lighting). We go into those options below. In addition to Quantity, light has Direction. Front light (that coming from behind the camera) tends to be flat. It can give you lots of information, but no feeling of depth or mood. Sidelight and backlight usually make for much more interesting images because of that. The Size of your light source also plays an important role, both in its distance from the subject and their relative sizes. A cloudy sky, or the period before sunrise or after sunset, gives you a very large, soft light source – the entire sky. Once the sun is out, you now have a much smaller light source that gives an edge to the light and more definition to the scene. With harsh overhead light you can make use of diffusion, putting something between the subject and the light source to soften the light, or again, add flash. Finally, all light has Color. It may look white to us, but all sources have some color cast to them. From different times of day (morning, evening) to indoor lights, it’s simply a question of what we do with that color. Do we remove it, accentuate it, or change it? All are possible once we understand how to control the white balance settings on our digital cameras. As digital photographers, we have more control over color than ever before. The white balance settings in our cameras let us capture light naturally, without color, or with color no one ever saw. By default digital cameras are set at “Auto” white balance. That means that they make an educated guess as to what color the light is, and how to correct for that. For many people that’s enough. For a serious photographer, though, the ability to change white balance settings is an incredibly powerful tool. You have two choices – to either capture the color as it is, or to change it, perhaps radically. The first step beyond auto white balance is to tell the camera what light you’re working in. If you know, why not tell it? The primary choices are Daylight, Flash, Incandescent and Fluorescent. There are multiple choices of Daylight (Sunlight, Cloudy, Shady) and with some cameras multiple Fluorescent settings. Daylight and Flash are very close, and can almost be used interchangeably. Cloudy and Shady are warmer variations of Daylight, so I only use them when I want that yellowish warm tone.

Beyond the choices you have in the camera is the White Balance Preset. This is the most powerful of the white balance choices. By using the camera to take a white balance reading off of a “neutral target” (preferably a gray card), you can get neutral color processing of your images in almost any type of light. That means whites will look white, skin tones will look natural and your color will be generally very good. This is a great tool to use in any mixed-light (various light sources in the scene) situation. Different models of Nikon cameras can vary slightly in how this is done, so check your manual. The one time to avoid either Auto White Balance or Preset White Balance is if you’re working in light that has color and you want that color to show. A good example would be while shooting in warm, early-evening light. In that case the Daylight white balance setting would do a good job of showing the warmth of that light. Lastly, you can set the Kelvin temperature manually on some of the cameras. To use that properly you need either a well-calibrated color temperature meter or involved testing with editing software.

Controlling Natural Light Once you begin consciously thinking about light, there are times you’ll want to start controlling it. The most common tool to do that is a reflector. The job of a reflector, not surprisingly, is to reflect light where you want it. Most of the ones you can buy are round and collapse into a smaller ring. However, a sheet of white cloth or even aluminum foil wrapped on a piece of cardboard can be used as a reflector. Whatever reflector you use, it can serve two jobs; adding light or removing light. To add light reflectors are most useful when it’s sunny out. You simply use the reflector to shine light onto your subject. You’ll find reflectors with different surfaces, from white cloth to gold, silver or a mix of colors. The more reflective the surface, the brighter the light it reflects. What makes reflectors great is their ability to provide a constant (as long as the sun’s out) light source for very little bulk and weight. You’d also be surprised how far they can reflect light. Your subject can be lit in the shade by a reflector a hundred feet away. Reflectors are also great at shading a subject from the sun or other light sources. In this way they’re much like Scrims and Gobos. Scrims are placed between the light source and the subject to reduce the intensity of the light. Gobos are used to block light or create patterns with it.

Filters With film, there were a number of effects that could be achieved primarily by adding filters to the front of the lens. The ability to do much of that today in software has lessened the number of filters we might use. There are two types, though, that many of us still consider essential: polarizer and graduated. The two primary uses of polarizing filters are to darken the sky or reduce/remove reflections from a scene. To get that effect on the sky, its best if the sun is to the

left or right of the scene. With it behind or in front, there’s little if any effect to be had. Be cautious when using them with extreme wide-angles, though, as the effect can be heavier at one side than the other. Also, with wide-angles, be sure the filter is designed for that type of lens (often referred to as a “slim” filter), to avoid vignetting (darkening at the edges). Neutral Density filters cut down on the amount of light coming through the lens. Their primary use is to allow photographers to shoot at lower shutter speeds than otherwise possible. This is one way to do long exposures during daylight and have extreme blur (shooting a waterfall or crashing waves is a classic use). Graduated neutral density filters start dark at one edge and either gradually go clear or do that at a mid-point in the filter. Their use is to help manage the contrast range, for example when a sky is much brighter than the foreground. Some graduated filters also have color in one half, to force a different look on the sky.

Creating Light You create light by adding it to a scene. This can be accomplished by reflectors, but more often it’s done using flash. There are many different ways to work with flash. It’s important to understand that using flash involves Proximity and Intensity. Proximity means the closer you are to a subject, the more light it receives from your flash. That also means that whatever’s behind the subject receives much less light. If you want to try for a closer balance of light, you can “bounce” the light into the ceiling (or a nearby wall), spreading that light over a wider area. To do this, of course, you need an external flash that can be pointed away from the camera. However, making the light travel a further distance means there will be less of it. Intensity is all about how much light you’ve got, and how much of it gets to the subject. This can affect you in several ways. If you’re going to bounce the light, then you may need to raise your ISO or open your aperture to compensate for the reduced amount of light reaching your subject. Or you could opt for a more powerful strobe, especially if you tend to work in environments where you’re far from your subject. Remember that when using flash the key exposure value is often the aperture. That means you can use the shutter speed to control the exposure of the background. Many people prefer to work in Manual exposure mode when doing this, as it gives them more control over the exposure.

Off-camera Flash To be more creative with flash, you want to get it off the camera. And that means getting an accessory flash. Nikon’s made that easy to do with their Speedlights and Commander Mode technology. Many of their cameras now have the capability to control other flashes with their built-in pop-up flash (turn the feature on through the menus). With Nikon cameras that don’t have that feature, you can use an SB900, SB-800 or SU-800 to trigger other appropriate Speedlights (SB-600, SB-800 and SB-900). Check your camera/Speedlight user manual for details on how to set that up.

As you work more with flash, you’ll realize the importance of using gels on the flash to achieve proper color. Remember that flash puts out light in the daylight range. Therefore if you’re using flash indoors, in artificial light (generally fluorescent or incandescent), you’ll end up with mixed lighting that results in color casts. Adding the proper gel (green for fluorescent and orange for incandescent) and then setting the white balance for that light (or doing a white balance preset) will match the light sources to avoid unwanted color casts. You can do the same thing with an incandescent gel (orange) in that light. Gels come with Nikon’s SB-900 and SB-800 Speedlights. They are also available to order from Nikon third-party manufacturers (such as Rosco and Lee) and gels can often be found in theater lighting stores. There are also other accessories to help you control light when working with accessory Speedlights. Umbrellas and softboxes can be found at most camera stores, and Photoflex (www.photoflex.com) is one of the leaders there. HonlPhoto (www.HonlPhoto.com) makes an entire series of scrims, snoots, straps and grids for small strobes. Lumiquest (www.lumiquest.com) makes a number of light modifiers like barndoors and bounce reflectors. Westcott makes some nice mini-softobxes (www.fjwestcott.com) and there are many, many other tools/toys available. If you get serious about creating light, you’ll eventually end up with a light kit. That would include stands, brackets, clamps, umbrellas, softboxes and other accessories. Please consider using rechargeable batteries, and NiMH (Nickel-metal hydride) are the best in that category right now.

FP Flash FP flash, if supported by your camera, allows you to shoot with flash above the camera’s native sync speed (generally from 1/160 to 1/500 second). That means you can use flash while shooting at shutter speeds of 1/1000 second or faster. The amount of power is less (you may need to use a faster f/stop than usual) but it’s a great way to work with fill flash in sunny situations. Check your camera’s manual to see if it supports this feature through the menus.

Digital Workflow The big difference between a professional digital photography workflow and an amateur one is that for the professional, time is money. This means the workflow needs to be as fast and efficient as possible without sacrificing quality, and color management has to be used throughout. The three key steps can be broken down into: - Capture – this includes the decision of what format to shoot, good use of exposure and white balance controls and smart decisions on camera menu settings to make the most of the photos being shot. - Process – starting with downloading, processing means finding ways to not only move images through the system quickly, but also adding metadata, backing up, sorting and using an organizational structure that facilitates the entire process.

- Enhance – this is the step where what you shot and what you envisioned come together, using software that lets you make those changes in a non-destructive way without adding unnecessary overhead to the entire process. And to make the most of this work, you have to understand the keys to printing. Workflow can be a trap, though, if you spend too much time thinking about it, and not enough on finding ways to expand your creativity. The two should go hand-inhand, and you should always be alert to new ways to approach photography.

Organization System For serious digital photography, a fast computer with plenty of RAM (minimum 2GB, preferably more), large and fast hard drive (minimum 500GB, 7200RPM), and fairly recent system software are a must. In fact, plan on having several hard drives for saving/shuffling photos, and forget CDs. DVDs, with their dropping prices and greater storage capacity, are the best option. Don’t use ballpoint pens or sticky labels for your CDs/DVDs, because those can ruin them. Marking pens made for CD/DVD are easily (and cheaply) found at office supply and computer stores. If you need something nicer, some inkjet printers will print on inkjet-printable disks, which have a white surface. That’s harmless to the lifespan of the media. The keys to having DVD’s that last are using good quality (name brand) media, handling it carefully, and storing it properly (in good cases/sleeves away from extreme heat). Software We’re big fans of finding the best tool for each job we do. We like that philosophy when working with software too. There are four main steps we take in processing images, and each has software associated with it. Some software packages do more than one job. Those steps are: Process – This includes downloading, organizing, renaming, captioning and backing up photos. Some of the common software packages for doing this are Nikon View NX, Photo Mechanic, Aperture (Mac only) and Lightroom. Enhance – Making global and local changes in color and tone. Those that allow a lot of control includes packages like Nikon Capture NX 2 and Adobe Photoshop. Other popular programs such as Lightroom and Aperture have recently added some ability for local changes, and other third-party RAW processors allow only global editing changes. Display – At this stage the discussion moves to printing, prepping for email, web galleries and slideshows. Common applications for that are Nikon Capture NX 2, Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, Photo Mechanic, Expression Media and Extensis Portfolio. Archive – The key here is the ability to search for images, so this involves programs whose strength is their database capability. That means Expression Media, Extensis Portfolio and Canto Cumulus.

Cards Not all cards are the same, which is obvious from the prices charged. The best manufacturers speed-rate their cards, which indicates better quality memory and controllers being used. The speed rating indicates how fast the card can move images from the camera’s buffer to the card itself. This can be an important issue if you shoot rapid sequences of images. In SanDisk’s case, their cards are grouped into three levels. “Ultra” are designed as quality cards at a lower price. “Extreme III” is the mid-range, with speeds of 30MB/second. “Extreme IV” are the top of the line, with speeds of 45MB/second and rated for extreme temperatures. Newer model cards are now taking advantage of something called UDMA (Extreme IV in SanDisk’s case), which can dramatically improve download speed. And remember also that card readers play a large role in download speed. Some are fast, some are slow. Be sure that at the very least you’re using a USB 2.0 or FireWire reader, and FireWire 800 readers have the fastest throughput. There’s a table on the website www.robgalbraith.com that gives card and card reader read and write speeds. Recovery Software There may be times when you’re unable to get the images off your card. Some of the reasons that can happen are because the directory of the card has gotten corrupted, you’ve shot a card full, formatted a card accidentally or due to a dying battery. In those cases you’ll probably need card recovery software. There are a number of programs out there that will recover the images 90% of the time. SanDisk sells RescuePro, and it also comes bundled with their Extreme III and Extreme IV cards (as a coupon for download or the software itself). Image Rescue and Photo Rescue are two other popular programs. Formatting The best, simplest and easiest way to avoid card problems is to get in the habit of re-formatting your cards in the camera when you’re finished downloading the images. This puts a fresh new directory structure on the card the way the camera wants it and is better than deleting in-camera or from the computer. Image Management A key to being able to work quickly and efficiently is a well-planned organizational structure for your images. Look for a folder structure that makes sense to you and the type of work you do. Consider a date-based system (date shot) or one that uses job numbers that you assign. It’s sometimes easiest to sketch it out on paper before trying to implement it. Think about how it will handle large amounts of images over time, and plan for different versions of the same image (by adding numbers or letters to the file name). The most important thing is that it makes sense to you and saves you time in the long run. Browsers Browsers are tools for fast viewing and organization of images. Look for one that will help with the download process, including renaming and captioning during download. Come up with a simple system for organizing photos on your computer and stay with it. Be sure to rename your files, since the default name out of the camera tells you nothing about the photo itself. Naming systems that use the date

the photo was shot as well as a simple name for the assignment/subject work well. For instance, a photo that was shot on October 28, 2008, on a trip to Austin might be re-named â&#x20AC;&#x153;20081028_Austin_001.jpg.â&#x20AC;? Software that will do this renaming for you will automatically sequence the numbers up. Most good browsers, such as Nikon View NX and Photo Mechanic, offer this capability and more, and Bridge, Lightroom and Aperture can do this as well.

Image Editing When you first open an image you want to work on, take a moment and figure out exactly what you want to do. Have a plan. Then decide which tools will do that in the best way with the least amount of image degradation, preserves as much of the image information as possible, and always lets you go back to the original file. Our workflow with Photoshop was always to work on a copy (never the original) and do everything in Layers. The introduction of Nikon Capture NX (and now NX 2) has changed that workflow. Nikon Capture NX 2 lets you work on JPEG, TIFF or NEF (RAW) files, and nearly all of its tools can be used on each of those file formats. There are only a few adjustments, in Camera Settings and Camera and Lens Correction, that can only be used on NEF (RAW) files. All of the other tools can be used with both JPEG and TIFF files. One of the great advantages to Capture NX 2 is how it keeps track of changes, through the Edit List, and makes those changes always available for re-working if the file is saved as a NEF. In other words, even a JPEG or TIFF file can be saved as a NEF from within Capture NX 2, and any adjustments done in NX 2 are then saved with that NEF in a form that lets them be changed again and again in the future. This also means that file sizes, even with all of the changes, remain fairly small. When working on an image with editing software, we generally follow the same set of steps: Crop Fix/Enhance Tone globally Fix/Enhance Color globally Selective tone and color changes Save file as a master (layered TIFF or PSD with Photoshop) or Version (Capture NX 2) Size for output method Sharpen appropriately based on size Soft proof if printing Most people using Capture NX 2 will do the majority of their work using the options found in the Adjust menu or using Control Points. The Adjust menu is home to familiar tools like Levels and Curves, LCH, Color Balance, Contrast/Brightness, Saturation/Warmth and some unique tools like D-Lighting. They can be accessed directly from the Adjust menu, or from a New Step in the Edit List. What really sets Capture NX 2 apart from other editing applications, though, is the U-Point interface.

A good starting point for most pictures would be to use the Double Threshold feature of the Histogram. Turn that on, then pull the right slider (white) in until you see small white areas start to block up. Do the same with the black slider on the left. Then put a White Control Point in one of the small white areas and a Black Control Point in one of the small black areas. Now turn off Double Threshold. This will set the dynamic range for the image (generally adding some contrast) while also clearing some color casts that may exist in the highlights and shadows. In addition, if there’s an objectionable color cast to the image (as opposed to one that’s due to a natural condition like warm late-day light) use the Neutral Control Point to click a neutral area (spot that shouldn’t have any color) to correct that color cast for the entire photo. With the U-Point technology used in Nikon Capture NX 2, making changes to a file is as easy as clicking the area you want to affect and then dragging a slider to make that change. While there are several different types of Control Points, the Color Control Points will get the most use. When you drop a Color Control Point onto an area, it takes into account color, texture, tone and detail among other things, and gives you a number of ways of changing that. Open the Advanced area in the Color Control Point dialog box and check the Show Selection button to see the area being affected. With that turned on you can fine tune both the placement of the Point and the size of the area you want it to control. You can then work the tone, color, warmth, saturation and other variables. Capture NX 2 also offers a number of tools for making selections, to let you further refine the area you want to adjust and the amount of that adjustment. Whether using one of the adjustment tools or a Control Point, when you have it open you can use the Brush to selectively remove that effect, or even to selectively paint it in. Remember, you have to have the tool open to do that, or Colorize will automatically step in. There are other selection tools (gradient, lasso, and marquee) to help you get just the look you want from your photos. And to take that look further along, Capture NX 2 has complete color management built in. New in the release of NX 2 are improved selection tools, for those who prefer to make a selection first and then work on that particular part of the image. Also new is the Auto-Retouch Brush, for cleaning up an image. Applying profiles, converting profiles (covered in the Color Management section), Soft Proofing (in the printing section that follows), Unsharp Mask – Capture NX 2 has all of the high-end tools to help you make the most of printing your images. You can re-size from within the program as a New Step in the Edit List that you can then go back and change anytime you want. Set your sharpening based on size, but feel free to go back at any time and re-work that sharpening step in the Edit List. The places you can go with Capture NX 2 are almost endless. To help you on that trip, there’s information for Nikon Capture NX 2 available at www.capturenx.com. Also, well-known digital imaging author Ben Long has written a book, Real World Capture NX, and his new version, Capture NX 2, in bookstores fall, 2008. In addition there’s an ebook available, by Jason Odell, called “The Photographers Guide to Capture NX 2.”

We’ve been fans of Adobe Photoshop since the early days, and while we don’t use it as much as we used to, there are still a few things it can’t be beat at. Cosmetic Surgery – Whether you’re trying to smooth out wrinkle lines, help Uncle Ted shed a few pounds or just trying to clean up a photo with some dust, Photoshop has tools to help you do that. Capture NX 2 now has the Auto Retouch Brush, but Photoshop offers a larger variety of this type of tool. The Clone tool samples pixels from one area and puts them in another. It’s good for cleaning dust out of the sky. There are better tools for working on skin problems like blemishes, wrinkles and scars than the clone tool. The first step should be to make a copy of the Background Layer (Control-J) so that all of your fixes are taking place on a Layer, not the original image. New to CS2 is the Spot Healing Brush, which tries to automatically figure out where to sample from. While it normally works well, it sometimes picks an area too close to where the fix is being made, and so is noticeable. If that happens, try the regular Healing Brush instead. Use these options -- Mode: Normal, Source: Sampled and Aligned. Now choose a brush about the size of the blemish you’re fixing, then hold down the Alt key (Option, Mac) and sample a clean spot away from the blemish. Remember that what’s being taken from the area you’re sampling is the texture, not the color. Now click and brush over the blemish. For wrinkles or scars, the Patch tool is sometimes better. Set its options for Source, then make a selection of the wrinkle or scar. Once you have the selection, drag it to a cleaner area nearby, and see how that works. The problem with these fixes is that you can end up with a face that’s almost too smooth. Use the Layers palette Opacity slider to back off the effect so the person looks normal, but with softened wrinkles and blemishes. For slimming (or having a bit of fun) try the Liquify tool (Filter – Liquify). “Forward Warp” can be used to remove a spare tire or slim down a neck or cheeks. Merging Images - There are times where you’ll want to combine two (or more) photos. If you have a RAW file, you can acquire it with different white balance and exposure options (among others). For instance, you can acquire and save one image as a TIFF with normal white balance, then a second time with a different white balance. Open both photos into Photoshop, then choose the Move tool (V) and hold down the shift key while dragging one photo on top of the other. The Shift key forces the image to align to the first one. Now choose the Eraser tool and white or black as the foreground tool to paint the color from the one layer onto the other. To combine two different photos, you first need to create a selection in one photo. Open the second image and select all (Control-A) and Copy (Control-C). Go back to the first image and choose Edit – Paste Into. The first selection will be pasted into the second selection. Framing - An added touch for a special photo is to add a framing line to it and a title, or credit. It’s easily done, again using Layers. To create a white edge, first select the image (Control-A, or Command-A). Then choose Edit – Stroke and set for 6 pixels, color white, Inside. Now create a New Layer (Layer – New – Layer) and

go to Image – Canvas Size and check Relative and change the Width and Height boxes to 2-inches each. Make the Canvas Extension Color black, and click OK. Now your photo will have a white edge around it, with a black border. For a final step, choose the Type tool and type in a title, a credit (your name) or both. Control – Return to accept the type, then use the Move tool (or hit the V key to make it active) and put the type where you want it. Of course, there are many variations on this, where you can use different colors or add more combinations of frames, borders and type.

Output Resolution and Sharpening Resolution is determined by the number of pixels in an image. The more pixels, the higher resolution. The higher resolution (more pixels), the larger an image can be used without seeing the pixels. Even a simple digital camera with low resolution has enough resolution for computer screen display. Where you really need more pixels (resolution) is when you want to make large prints (16 X 20 and above) or need to crop in on an image. For screen display, images should be resampled based on pixel dimensions. If the person viewing the image has a monitor with a resolution of 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels deep, resampling the image to a maximum dimension of 600 pixels will allow a full-size view. If you save that image as a JPEG and choose an appropriate compression level (5 Optimized), it will be less than 100K in size, easy to email. Resampling an image for printing is a bit different, because the method depends on the final size needed. You need to resample it to a PPI that is best for the printer. Today’s good-quality inkjet printers can create beautiful prints with as little as 160 PPI. You may prefer to use 200 PPI, 240 PPI or higher. You’ll know for sure only by doing print tests yourself at varying PPI and deciding what you like best. You’ll need to experiment to find settings that you like, and don’t be surprised if you use different PPI settings for large prints than you do for small prints. Sharpening is the final step for every image and should be based on size and image detail. Sharpening doesn’t make an image sharper – it makes it appear sharper by creating edge contrast. Done too strongly it creates a visible halo around parts of the image. The Unsharp Mask filter is the traditional tool for doing sharpening, found both in Capture NX 2 and Photoshop. It has three controls. Amount is intensity of the sharpening, Radius is how wide the halo is and Threshold is how much difference needed before it takes effect. While those numbers may differ between programs, the end result is the same. Much has been written about Unsharp Mask, and it’s very dependent on personal preferences. What one person likes for his photos another may hate for hers. Recent versions of Photoshop added a new tool, Smart Sharpen, which offers new ways to implement sharpening. Due to its lack of a Threshold control (which is especially helpful to avoid sharpening smooth tonal areas, like skin), many people still prefer to use Unsharp Mask. The strength of Smart Sharpen is the option to reduce the sharpening in shadows and highlights, which can give a better end

result. Remember that images for print require more sharpening than images destined for screen display. Nik Sharpener (www.nikmultimedia.com) is a plugin that automates the sharpening process and is widely used and liked by photographers. Printing Inkjet is the most common type of printing these days. With inkjets, you need to understand the difference between dye-based inks and pigment inks. Dye-based have in the past always given the brightest colors and saturation, but at the cost of lifespan. Newer ink formulations used with certain papers can now create prints that, properly cared for, can last 20-to-50 years or more. Pigment inks have a longer life, some combinations estimated to last as long as 200 years. In recent years, the introduction of new inks was the answer to many photographers’ prayers – bright colors and saturation using a pigment ink, with a slightly reduced lifespan. Using that type of ink and the manufacturer’s paper, prints are expected to last in the range of 40-100 years or more. For more on print permanence, look at www.wilhelm-research.com. Paper choice is critical to long life and good print quality, so the easy answer is to use the manufacturer’s paper and ink combinations. Third party papers can be used, but do a little research on longevity and be prepared to spend some time getting the settings right for good-quality prints. Some people find the fine art papers to be well worth the investment in time and money. Printer Dialogs When sending an image to the printer, the most important choice you make is telling the printer driver what type of paper you’re using. If running color management, you have to be sure to turn off color management in the driver, because doublemanaging the color will mean poor results. In Advanced Settings there’s usually a button that’s something like “No Color Management.” With Capture NX 2, if you use the Soft Proof feature, those settings will be automatically transferred to Capture’s Color Management pane in the Print dialog. If using Photoshop, be sure to use Proof Setup to get an idea of how the image will look when printed on the chosen paper. Go to View – Proof Setup – Custom…, then set the “Device to Simulate:” to the paper profile you’re using. For the other boxes, start with Relative Colorimetric and Use Black Point Compensation. Try Perceptual instead of Relative Colorimetric for a different look (make sure Preview is checked). Lastly, turn on Simulate Paper Color to see how it’s likely to look when on paper rather than a monitor. Whether using Capture or Photoshop, once you turn on proofing you can do further work on the image while keeping this proof view onscreen. If your color management is set up properly, your end results should closely match what you’re seeing on screen. Neutral Black and White For best quality black and white prints from an inkjet printer, be sure to leave color inks turned on. The printers use a combination of color and black inks to produce grayscale output. If the default settings don’t give you the neutrality you’re looking for, you can try adjusting the ink settings in the printer dialog boxes. There are also third-party drivers, like ImagePrint by Colorbyte software, that give tremendous control over the printing process.

We’ve had several requests for information on how we make the large prints (36” X 22”) that we’ve shown at past Nikon Schools. Here’s how we do those, and the steps are mostly the same for the smaller prints as well: All of the large mounted prints were done on an Epson 7600 Stylus Photo Pro using Ultrachrome Inks. Most prints are on Premium Semimatte, which has a wide color gamut and nice surface for display prints. 1. The image must be sharp, with no camera movement, and low ISO images work better than high ISO. Exposure needs to be right on, or a bit under. It’s important to remember that when you grow a picture to large sizes, the bad grows along with the good. If there are any areas of overexposure, where there’s no detail, that will become even more apparent. Same with any blur or missed focus. 2. Open original image (not a file compressed for delivery), check ISO. If the ISO is above the camera’s base setting (lowest available), noise reduction was applied either through Nikon Capture NX 2 on a NEF file or with Noise Ninja (www.picturecode.com). 3. In Capture NX 2 turn on Soft Proof, and choose the paper profile you’ll be printing to. Choose Relative Colorimetric and Black Point Compensation so you can see the image as it will print. Make tonal and color adjustments if necessary after that to bring the photo back to how you want it to look. 4. Resize to your chosen output size. In this case, the images were resampled up to 32-inches on their longest dimension. They were all done through the Size/Resolution dialog in Capture NX 2, generally at a resolution of 160PPI. When you have to resample an image, you’re adding pixels that aren’t native to the image. The more you add, the more detail you lose (image becomes soft). Larger prints are also viewed at a further distance, and those two reasons allow 160PPI to look good. Some people feel that high PPI settings look better, such as 360. It’s mostly a personal preference. 5. Sharpen – The last step is always to sharpen the image for printing. Large prints tend to require more sharpening, as you’re creating additional pixels when resampling up, which tends to soften an image. Capture NX 2’s Unsharp Mask filter was used, and then the Selection Brush was employed to lessen that sharpening in areas that didn’t require it (shadows, out of focus areas, skies, etc.). 6. Check Page Setup when sending to the printer, and check to be sure the correct printer and paper size chosen. Then in the Print dialog, under Color Management, choose: Use color management Printer Profile – Printer Profile for paper and printer being used Intent – normally Relative Colorimetric, with Black Point Compensation

7. Lastly, be making sure the correct Printer is chosen in the Print dialog, then go to: Print Settings Media Type – paper being used Color Mode – Advanced – 720 DPI High Speed ON (unless printing glossy, in which case it’s OFF) Color Management No Color Adjustment – since Capture NX 2 is handling color management, you don’t want the printer to also try to color manage the image. Cataloging For serious photographers, there are only a few real choices for creating powerful, indexed catalogs of their images. Expression Media by Microsoft and Portfolio by Extensis, are two of the tops in the field. The key here is that they’re true database programs and can keep track of all the metadata you build into your photos (captions, keywords and the like). That means they can do a fast and powerful search based on a single criteria or many, and allow you to keep your originals offline while having large previews instantly available in the catalog. There are a few key things to consider when setting up a catalog. First, decide what size thumbnails you want it to create. If you’re having the program create Previews as well, you can probably live with small thumbnails. If you choose to save space by skipping Previews, then a good-sized thumbnail, like 256 X 256, is a good choice. Have the program catalog as much metadata as possible, including the shooting information and any captions, keywords or the like you’ve added. You’ll also have the option of having the program use the built-in thumbnails or build ones from the data. Many people prefer the consistency of having thumbnails generated by the program. Finally, both Lightroom and Aperture (Mac only), while still early in development, look like they’re going after the cataloging area as well, and may be worth watching. Backing up Hard drive crashes are a fact of life in a digital world. You want to be sure you can recover from that event with a minimal amount of loss. Think about a multi-tiered strategy to protect yourself from image loss. Upon download, images should be quickly backed-up to a second hard drive (or even done during the download, which some software allows). Long-term, images should be backed up to two sets of DVDs. One of those sets should be somewhere off-site (away from the business or home), so that in the event of a catastrophe, one set will survive. There are more and more NAS (Networked Attached Storage) options becoming available, which are usually a big hard drive that sits on your network and can be used as a backup repository. Most of the major hard drive manufacturers are offering drives that do this, or units that hold multiple drives to work together. In the future, we expect to see more options being offered over the internet for off-site data storage.

Backup on the Road It’s just as important to backup your images when traveling as it is at home. If you’re traveling with a computer, then burning DVD’s or using a small, portable USB 2.0 drive will allow you to have two sets of images (one on the computer, the other on the disk or drive). High-capacity MP3 players are essentially large hard drives, so it’s possible to use something like an Apple iPod to backup to as well. If you’re traveling without a computer, then you’ll want to consider a digital wallet. Epson’s P3000 (40GB) and P5000 (80GB) are popular units, and let you not only download your images to them but then view the images as well. A goof-proof backup strategy when using a digital wallet is to bring enough cards so that after backing up the card to the wallet, you then put the card away for the remainder of the trip. That card with images then becomes your second set. Photography Trips As mentioned earlier, a trip planned around photography is a great way to push yourself to shoot more pictures. However, it doesn’t need to be a two-week adventure, or even leave your hometown. Taking an hour to go explore an unfamiliar park or using your lunch break to walk the streets near your job can also be rewarding. Get to know your area as well as possible. Invest in a local map book and use it to keep notes of interesting places that may be best visited at a different time of day or season. If you do choose to take part in a workshop, here’s a list of Nikon-sponsored ones: Great American Photography Workshops (GAPW) - www.gaphotoworks.com Santa Fe Workshops - www.santafeworkshops.com Digital Landscape Workshop Series - www.digitallandscape.org Rod Planck Photography Workshops - www.rodplanck.com Mountain Light Workshop Series - www.mountainlight.com John Shaw Seminar Series - www.johnshawphoto.com Mentor Series Worldwide Photo Treks - www.mentorseries.com Digital Photography at the Summit - www.photographyatthesummit.com Slideshows A great way to show and share photos is by creating a slideshow and adding music. Lots of programs do this, but if you want to show this to a group of people, you’ll probably want to do it on a TV. In that case, for best quality, you really want a program that will help you render the show to DVD, which really means it takes those still photos and turns them into video. Windows Photo Gallery (part of Vista) does that really well using the Movie Make portion. On the Macintosh, using iPhoto and iDVD lets you do the same. For more features and flexibility, try ProShow Gold, by Photodex (Windows only) or FotoMagico, by Boinx (Mac only). Sensor Cleaning Dust is a dirty fact of life for most digital photographers. Features like Nikon’s Dust Off can help photographers who choose to shoot in NEF (RAW). Its best if you can avoid dust entirely, by being fast at changing lenses, never leaving a camera sitting without a lens or body cap attached, and by regular blowing off of the sensor with a blower bulb. Actual physical cleaning is best done by Nikon technicians at one of their repair facilities.

How do people view images? By understanding how people look at images, and what catches their eye, you can be more effective both in how you approach a subject and in how you present your photos. Here are some of the key things: - Focus. Sounds obvious, but our eyes are drawn to what’s in focus. That’s why selective focus, using depth of field, is such an effective tool. - Light. The visual system is drawn to light, so darkening some areas and lightening others can direct how someone sees an image. - People. If there’s a person in the photograph, that’s where people will look first. It’s human nature. - Dominant element. What’s in the foreground, or largest in a scene, will draw the eye to it. That’s why photos with large out of focus elements in the foreground rarely work. - Signs, words, letters. We’re a literate society, so if you have words or letters in a shot, know that people are going to look there right away. - Eyes. We’re always drawn to eyes, whether human or animal. That’s why it’s so important that they be in focus. - Contrast. Scientists have done studies proving that most people prefer contrast in images. For many photos, a little boost in contrast will give them extra “pop.” Expanding Boundaries One of the great things about photography is the number of different directions you can go with it. There seem to be an endless variety of new tools or techniques to explore. Infrared – For years photographers have been drawn to the unique look of infrared. The difficulty of working with it though, made it something only a few dedicated photographers did. With digital that’s changed. While you can use an Infrared filter on a camera, the best way to work with infrared is to have a camera converted. The process usually costs around $300, depending on camera model, and can cost less if you’re willing to do it yourself. A couple of us have used a company called LifePixel with good results. This process can be done to some compact cameras as well as DSLR’s, and is a great way to get more life out of an old camera. Camera Control Pro – This piece of software, made by Nikon, allows you to connect (or “tether”) the Nikon DSLR to a computer. Once connected, the computer can control the camera, including firing it. This is a common practice with studio photographers, as it lets the subject or art director see the images immediately after they’ve been shot. In addition, the camera’s settings can be saved to the computer, and you can create custom curves to be used in the processing of the images.

Panoramas - In the past, cutting and pasting together multiple photos to create a panorama was very difficult. With a digital camera and software, it’s now very simple. To do it right, there are a few steps that need to be followed. First, set the camera’s white balance manually, instead of automatic. That way the color will be the same in all the photos. Also, avoid auto exposure, as that can create a shift in tones across the shots. You need to overlap the photos at least 1/3, and if using a wide-angle, better still 1/2. In fact, avoid creating panoramas with a very wide-angle lens when possible, as the curvature can make it hard to stitch the images together. Once they’ve been shot, a number of editing packages have the ability to put them together. A good, simple program is PanoramaMaker from Arcsoft. Lens Baby – Who’d have thought that people would buy a lens that was intentionally hard to focus? That’s what happened with this device, which is essentially an inexpensive lens mounted on a rubber bellows. To focus, you push and pull on the front of the lens. You have to try it to truly understand it, but it’s a fun toy that lets you create a unique image with a narrow area of focus. Light Painting – Again, a technique that was very difficult with film cameras is now simple with a digital camera. All you need is a dark room, a tripod and a flashlight. Set the camera on Manual, then choose a long exposure like five or ten seconds. Set your aperture for perhaps f/8.0 and ISO at 400. Turn out the lights, click the shutter, then paint your subject with the flashlight. Fine-tune your exposure, opening the aperture if there’s not enough light or close it if too much, or simply do more or less with the flashlight. Multiple Exposure and Image Overlay – Some of the new Nikon DSLR’s offer these features through the menus. Both essentially allow you to shoot multiple frames and have the camera put them together into one. They’re a lot of fun to play with, and you can create some unique photos using them. Intervalometer – Again, some of the cameras (including some of the COOLPIX models) have this built in. You’ll need a fully charged battery, then find a scene that will change over time. Put the camera on a tripod, set the time between shots (five seconds, five minutes?), and let it go. For most people a low-resolution (perhaps Medium, Basic JPEG) is all that will be needed to put a movie together from the results. Quicktime Pro (Apple, $30) is the easiest tool to use to put them together.

Software and Tools Used A lot of different software packages are used throughout the day with Nikon School. All work on both Windows and Mac systems, unless noted below. While most have been listed above, the key ones used and/or talked about are below: Color Management Huey, Huey Pro, i1 Display 2, ColorMunki – www.x-rite.com Light Modifiers Photoflex – www.photoflex.com HonlPhoto - www.HonlPhoto.com Lumiquest - www.lumiquest.com Westcott - www.fjwestcott.com Browsing and Editing software Nikon View NX – www.nikonusa.com Nikon Capture NX 2– www.nikonusa.com Photo Mechanic – www.camerabits.com Adobe Photoshop CS3 – www.adobe.com Nik Color Efex – plugins for Capture or Photoshop – www.nikmultimedia.com CF and SD cards SanDisk – www.sandisk.com Image Recovery Software SanDisk RescuePro – www.sandisk.com Lexar Image Rescue – www.lexar.com Photo Rescue – www.datarecovery.com Image Resampling Nikon Capture NX 2 – www.nikonusa.com Adobe Photoshop – www.adobe.com Genuine Fractals – www.ononesoftware.com Image Sharpening and other Plug-ins Nik Sharpener – www.nikmultimedia.com Archiving Software Extensis Portfolio – www.extensis.com Expression Media – www.microsoft.com Slideshow creation software ProShow Gold (Windows only) – www.photodex.com Pictures to Exe (Windows Only) – www.wnsoft.com iPhoto, iDVD (Mac only) – www.apple.com

Books We Like - Real World Capture NX 2 (Long) - Speed of Light, (McNally) - Real World Photoshop - Color Confidence (Grey) - Photoshop for Photographers (Evening) - Photoshop for Digital Photographers (Kelby) - Photoshop Master Class (Caponigro) - Real World Color Management (Fraser, Murphy, Bunting) - Mastering Digital Printing (Johnson) - The Complete Guide to Digital Photography (Freeman) - Real World Digital Photography (Eismann, Duggan, Grey) - Photoshop Masking and Compositing (Eismann)