D80 Portrait Setting

Hi,

 

I recently tried my D80 on a wedding event. I use the programmed portrait

setting all the time. However, in some occasion, I need slower shutter speed,

and then I turn to A mode.

 

I notice that the color of peoples faces not as good as portrait setting no

matter how I set my camera in manual mode (A, S, M, P), although I use the

same shutter speed, exposure, color setting, metering, white balancing and ISO.

 

Can anyone tell me what do I miss or tell me what portrait setting does?

 

PS. I use SB600 flash (TTL) point to white ceiling.

 

 

Thanks.

Go via your menu you can choose a lower shutter speed. Many times if you are not in S mode, it just won't let you go to a slower speed under A moder or auto or such.

 

For portraits I would think, unless you are in very dark places like nightclubs, you may want to get a non zoom lens or a professional zoom lens with f.2.8 so that it lets in more light so you can handhold it better.

 

I don't know what the way is but for low light weddings, generally some pple can use the flash and use a longish shutter as the flash will freeze motion, on the other hand some pple may use f.1.8 on a non zoom lens or a 2.8 on a pro zoom and just blur the background if need be. In dark settings, it a quite a tradeoff. Asking the church to turn up the lights is not very possible :) Don't be afraid to shoot ISO 400 or 800 inside.

 

 

For the color, I think just play around with it with someone in the day. Many pple tend to shoot RAW and photoshop the colors on the computer. For the portrait setting they will use their own color setting as well and WB I think. If you choose portrait setting it will override many settings you have prior. Portrait is something about a lower f#, a softer sharpening and warmer WB setting I think. It uses one of the sRGB setting.

I would set the color mode as "I" (portrait), sharpening in "normal", Tone in "A", Saturation in "A", and color space "RGB", Adobe RGB. If you use RAW your prior settins has no effects in programs like Photoshop or so, but Capture NX preserves the settings even in RAW. Try to shoot NEF + JPEG and use a fast lens to blur the bottom. Cheers.