How do I get the best from my D200?

[steve_gabbett]

Although I've been a photographer for more years than I care to

remember I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to digital and I've

just received my new D200. Before I go out shooting do any of

you folks out there have any tips or advice on how to get the best

from this (or any digital) camera?

 

I think I'll mostly be shooting RAW files, is there any real benefit

in shooting RAW + JPEG?

 

What are the advantages of the two colour spaces and what do

you folks use?

 

I've heard it's best to turn off all the sharpening in the camera

and apply it in PS. Would this be best done in the RAW dialogue

or using USM (or a mix of the two)?

 

I take it that if I shoot RAW files that any selection I make in the

colour mode menu etc. will be ignored?

 

What's your digital workflow like with D200 files?

 

Any other tips or advice that you can offer would be very much

welcomed.

Thanks in advance!

[elliot1]

RAW is great if your exposure or white balance is off. I have found in my own testing that that there is virtually no difference in picture quality from RAW to jpeg basic (there is a very slight difference, but unless you make big enlargements or crop extensively, you won't see the difference, especially in 4 x 6's or 5 x 7's - you need to try it for yourself).

 

I used to shoot raw/jpg with my d70 because the exposures were not consistant. I find the d200 right on the money 99% of the time and don't shoot raw anymore.

 

The good thing about shooting raw/basic is that if the exposure is off, you can easily correct it without loss of image quality. (You are better off underexposing than overexposing).

 

I guess it depends on how much time you want to spend fiddling with your images and how many images you take.

 

I leave all my settings on automatic (a Ken Rockwell recommendation). I find they work well. I have taken close to 20,000 pictures with my camera.

 

The best recommendation I can make to you if you want to make your images the best they can possibly be, is to try the multi award winning program DXO (www.dxo.com). They have a free 30 day trial. It batch processes images and improves everything (too much to explain here - check out their website). You can even easily change exposure and white balance on jpg files as if they were RAW images.

 

DXO does in minutes automatically what could take 10 or 15 minutes in Photoshop, and does it better! A good friend of mine bought his d200 the same time as me. We have done side by side comparisons (he is a Photoshop expert - he agrees that the DXO software is better, but he enjoys playing in Photoshop so he has not bought it.)

 

Good luck!

[nino]

Shooting raw and jpeg is a convenient way to proof your shots quickly on a computer, Rawm files requires much more processing power which equates to much more waiting as well as limited software to browse. The general rule for jpeg and raw is ' proof with jpegs, pick the winners and then work on them in raw.

 

Adobe RGB provides a wider colour gamut (more colours) as opposed to sRGB. as well as being Photoshops native colour space, so you'll always get a closer match in PS.

 

The D200 definitely benefits from +1 sharpening in-camera. If you leave sharpening off, you'll have to post-sharpen most shots. (thats how the D200 is designed)

 

Workflow? Proof the images, delete the mistakes, fix the ones that need improving pick the best few, print 'em, show them to as many people as will look, until you bore them to tears!

 

The D200 is a complex beast, with many,many,may user adjustments. Leave most of the settings that are really deep in the menus on 'normal' or auto and enjoy shooting pictures instead of trying to out-smart a computer. I have tried adjusting every little setting for image quality, thru thousands of images, and have realised things like 'tone compensation' are best left on auto, because otherwise you have to adjust these setting everytime you change the type of picture you make. Auto wont give you spectacular results straight out of the camera, but will give you all the information you need to achieve spectacular results with a little PS tweaking.

[ross_wilson1]

"How do I get the best from my D200?"

 

Sell it and buy a film camera. MWHAHAHAHAHA!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

(*for all those with bugs residing in their rectums, it's a joke)

[seanb]

Shooting RAW + JPEG at least gives you a file you can use straight from the camera, which is handy if you shoot a lot. The downside is storage - a 1GB card can store 44 RAW + highest quality large jpegs.

</P><P>

As an alternative you could shoot RAW + small low quality jpeg, and use the JPEG as a handy thumbnail for deciding which shots are worth processing as RAW. For some shoots, large/fine JPEG might suffice - shooting an event, for example, where you might want high volumes of files and not want to spend hours post processing.

</P><P>

If you shoot RAW you can ignore in-camera colour modes, white balance, sharpening and so on - you set colour mode and white balance in the convertor and leave sharpening to Photoshop (note that Adobe's RAW convertor applies sharpening by default - switch it off if you want to do sharpening later).

</P><P>

Standard advice is to leave all sharpening to the very end and keep a copy without sharpening. This is because the amount of sharpening you apply will depend on the output device. There is a more sophisticated workflow that involves three stage sharpening (input device dependent capture sharpening, image dependent local sharpening and finally output device dependent sharpening - you can find an article <A href="http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/20357.html">here</A>).

</P><P>

I'm still working on my D200 workflow, so hopefully I'll also pick up some tips from this thread!

[paul_sokal___dallas__tx]

I see no reason to shoot RAW+JPEG. It just takes up valuable space on your CF card. Nikon View, which is free is a quick way to view NEF files. If you want JPEG, just run a batch action in PS and then you'll have all the JPEGs you want for previewing. Personally I turn everything off in camera, shoot only RAW compressed and do all my tweaking on the computer-mostly PS, occarionally Capture (I think it's better with NEF but is way too slow-eagerly awaiting Capture NX). But I enjoy playing in PSCS2. If you don't, use the auto finctions in camera. I use ProPhotoRGB which is better for an R2400 because the printer has a wider gamut. Adobe RGB is fine otherwise and sRGB for web and many commercial printers.

 

Paul

[paul_sokal___dallas__tx]

More random thoughts: It's more than just mastering your D200, but learning digital photography in general. I just finished Scott Kelby's book on PSCS2 for Digital Photographers and recommend it highly. It does assume basic working knowledge of PS but will take your understanding and abilities to the next level. Back tracking abit on my comments above, I do use auto white balance. It's not perfect but often does a good job. Since I'm shooting RAW, it gives me a good starting point and if I need to tweak, I can do it easily in ACR or Capture. For relatively controlled settings, I'll do a custon WB if I can.

 

My typical workflow is to copy the shoot to a folder on my hard drive, rename appropriately, then back up to DVD (number of copies depending on the importance of the images-use archival DVD's). I'd copy to another external hard drive too but don't have one as yet. I then usually scan and flag the images in Nikon View because it's easy and fast. I then open the flagged images (I put them in a separate folder using View) in ACR. I find the auto settings are usually pretty good. As mentioned above ACR applies sharpening by default but you can turn it off so that it is only applied in the preview. Once in PS I usually convert to B&W (95% of my images) then adjust levels, add a little contrast with a curves layer and save as a PSD file. If necessary, especially for fine art output, I add a dodge and burn layer. I sharpen as the last thing before printing using USM, Smart Sharpen or High Pass filter depending on the image. I use an Epson 2400 printer.