How does D300 handle subtle colors of a sunset?

[roger_s]

<p>I'm going to central Australia for a holiday taking my new D300 which I haven't had a lot of time to use.<br>

Can you experienced D300 users fast track me on this one?<br>

How good is the D300 at handling subtle colors like dusk and sunsets? Any tips on how to tweak the settings of the D300 to capture the subtle colors of sunrise and sunset, so that the colors aren't either washed out in the highlights or dumped into the shadows?</p>

[photo5]

<p>Shoot 14 bit RAW.</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

<p>As Dave lee said; 14 bit per channel NEF. I use the lossless compressed setting.</p>

[bruce_margolis]

<blockquote>

<p>"How good is the D300 at handling subtle colors like dusk and sunsets?"</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Fantastic, but it is only as good as the lens and support you are using. Shoot base ISO and add a grad ND or HDR-bracket if that's your thing. To make it easier, I have a Landscape setup in My Menu. Defaults to 14-bit RAW, auto ISO turned off, WB cloudy, etc.</p>

<p> </p>

[oskar_ojala]

<p>in addition to 14 bit raw, do some bracketing.</p>

[rarmstrong]

<p>As above, 14-bit RAW...plus, watch your luminance histogram carefully and try to keep your exposures pushed to the right without blowing out any bright highlights in the scene. Be careful not to underexpose the shadows of your scene or you will pick up noise when you try to brighten them in post processing. Taking several shots across a range of exposure compensation(-2.0ev to +2.0ev) will give you a nice range to choose from when you get to reviewing the shots for post processing. You can set the camera to do this(bracketing). Keep all your shots at base iso(200) if at all possible. Use a good tripod and a quality lens. And most of all, have a great time with the new D300...it's a fantastic camera.<br>

Dick</p>

[SCL]

<p>If you're aiming into the sunset, beware of flare and if you're metering with the camera, remember to compensate.</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

<blockquote>

<p><em>watch your luminance histogram carefully and try to keep your exposures pushed to the right without blowing out any bright highlights in the scene.</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Just be aware that the camera's histoggram is based on a small gamut (sRGB) 8 bit compressed JPEG and that your 14 but NEF will hold a bit more luminance than the camera's histogram will tell you is there.</p>

[liljuddakalilknyttphotogra]

<p>Ellis - thank you for giving me the this comment in regards to the histogram. This is a part - - for all the time I've spent on boards - no one has ever added to the conversation for me. Boy does that explain a lot to me.......<br>

Past that - - I have yet to get a nice sunset shot out of any of my digital cameras - - they all just look like blah.... :-(<br>

I've bought filters for when I go on our little trip with hope of helping them as I can not get a simgle sunset shot I like.<br>

Lil :-)</p>

[rarmstrong]

<p>Thank you for that point Ellis. I guess that another general point in that regard is that is also true for reviewing your images on the LCD camera screen. </p>

[oskar_ojala]

<p>And because the histogram isn't exactly what's captured to the raw file, it's best to bracket, particularly since a good sunset may change quickly and you want to do the decision making infront of your computer. Also keep in mind that the choice of correct WB is hardly obvious and that's also something that is best left to the raw processing. In short: don't trust too much on what you see on the LCD in a situation like this where the contrast might be huge and colors strong; better leave some room for post processing.</p>

[nsfbr]

<p>Roger - by central Australia do you mean Alice Springs and Uluru? Uluru at sunset and sunrise are things to behold. (When I visited it I shot it on film, mainly because my last trip there was in 1993.)</p>

<p>If you are going there, you will want to bring a good tripod and shoot many, many frames. 14 bit Raw lossless compressed is the only way to do it. I would take great care in picking the optimal aperture for whatever lenses you shoot with - you will want the sharpest images you can create. I look back at mine, which I thought were fantastic at the time are realize how much better I could make them today.</p>

[roger_s]

<p>Joel, that's right. Alice Springs and Uluru. By the way, how do you go about picking the optimal aperture? For me, I roughly know the best aperture is around the middle of the range of the lens, but do you know a more precise way for a specific lens? I'm using the 12-24 Nikon, 16-85 Nikon and 18-200 Nikon.</p>

[bruce_margolis]

<p>Roger, I use two of your three lenses but it really doesn't matter. Use good support, turn off VR, and generally shoot in the f/8-11 range with some bracketing. IMO the 12/24 gives the better quality images but all three should work fine for you.</p>

 

[roger_s]

<p>Any comments about using active D-Light for sunrises and sunsets?</p>

[nsfbr]

<p>Roger - Most lenses are at their most sharp stopped down 1-2 stops. I've found that Photozone.de and slrgear.com provides very useful reviews as they show (in two different ways) results of resolution tests versus aperture (and focal length for zooms). Generally speaking a lens will improve as it is being stopped down because you use less and less of it, so keeping all of it focused gets easier, until diffraction limiting sets in and offsets and then overwhelms this improvement. </p>

<p>Both Photozone and SLRgear have test results for those three lenses - and if it were me, today, I'd want a sharper lens than the 18-200 for shooting above 85mm. Have you considered the older 80-200 f/2.8 in any of its flavors? The improvement would be dramatic. </p>

<p>By the way, don't run out of gas in the outback. That means, if you see a gas station, get gas. Period. No discussion. They are spaced how they are for a reason, and while you may not need gas , you probably won't make the next one.</p>

[eric_pelve]

<p>Here is a sunset taken with Nikon D300 with sun within frame. 1/8000 sec, f3.5 at ISO 200. White balance was on Auto and I always leave the D lighting function ON.<br /> What is important is the quality of the lens used to reproduce the colors and tones: I used a manual focus lens from Voigtlander (58mm f/1.4) which gives great contrast and color reproduction in my opinion. This photo taken with a Nikon 50mm AF f/1.8 would have been less "punchy".<br /> I have both the D300 and D700 and the D700 makes a difference only in low light scenes (example photo in a bar or at a concert at night). In full daylight there is little difference between the two (aside from the obvious captor size).<br /> Here in the photo of a sunset with silouhette, I am not sure that the D700 would have made a big difference. The fact that we can go to ISO 3200 ISO with no image degradation on D700 is a big plus for me. Again on this phot taken at ISO 200 it would have mattered very little in my opinion....</p>

<p>By the way I highly recommend this unexpensive Voigtlander Nokton lens ($379) to any Nikon fan interested in landscape (on D700), portraits (on D300 it is like a 90mm lens) or low light photography (it is a sharp f1.4 lens). More photos taken with this lens are available on line in my voigtlander photo set located at:<br>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37067061@N05/</p>

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