edk1

<p>Robert K, Glad you found the reply useful.</p>

<p>I rarely post anywhere (as you noted). Don't care to get into debates with netizens who thrive on it. I post <em>daily</em> on my blog on a wide variety of topics and there is a free subscription that sends email notifications for every new post. There are about 400 subscribers. My blog's main purpose to to document things for me (like some of the details such as the ME script location) - and if others find it useful so much the better.</p>

<p>A popular feature of my blog (over 100,000 views) is my free Nik software tutorials based on my years as a Nik beta tester. I believe one of my four posts here had to do with using Nik HDR Efex Pro in a stand alone mode. When I mentioned my free tutorials in answering a question on a dpReview forum it got me banished by the moderator for 10-days for commerical self-promotion. I never make a penny from my site. That sealed the deal - stay away from forums with rare exceptions; never even visited dpReview since. (At least I've not been banished at photo.net yet ;-) )</p>

<p>Robert K - The 30 second timer on a Nikon ME is reset any time you depress the shutter (half way not just to release for a shot). That means you can walk around in ME mode as long as you like. This holds true for any camera setting changes such as exposure. This allows combining all sorts of images. Further, you can set the gain to manual and do your own gain control (don't divide by N - it's the square root of N that you want).<br /> Read about what I call Free Style multiples here -<br /> <a href="http://edknepleyphoto.com/2012/06/15/free-style-multiple-exposures/">http://edknepleyphoto.com/2012/06/15/free-style-multiple-exposures/</a><br>

If you want 20 exposures, do two sets of 10 and combine them non-destructively using the Nikon Image Overlay.<br>

If you spend 30 seconds in the menu doing any of this, consider adding them to your Nikon's My Menu feature. For my shooting style and using My Menu, 10 seconds in the menu would be a max,</p>

<p>The posters here apparently are not fans of Freeman Patterson who popularized "arty" multiple exposures (albeit with film). Here's a post from my daily blog that explains the process in-camera (my preferred way with my Nikon DSLRs) or in PS.<br>

<a href="http://edknepleyphoto.com/2011/09/08/multiple-exposures-made-easy/">http://edknepleyphoto.com/2011/09/08/multiple-exposures-made-easy/</a></p>

<p>If that whets your interest here's a page with links to numerous multiple exposure posts I've made. In one of these posts you can read about how with ME's you can get results identical to that with a slow shutter speed + ND filter in the realm of cotton-candy water & clouds - BUT without the slow shutter speed (this is handy if the light is too bright & you're unable to get the slow speeds needed). <br>

<a href="http://edknepleyphoto.com/?s=multiple+exposures">http://edknepleyphoto.com/?s=multiple+exposures</a></p>

<p>Note, in general I'm talking about combining more that two exposures - more typically 10. If it's just two you're interested in, Nikons also offer an in camera feature called Image Overlay which both produces the double exposure (of any two images of your choosing) as well as saving the two originals (the multiple features doesn't save the 10 or however many originals). I often use image overlay to combine a single exposure with a multiple (use your imagination ;-) ).</p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

<p>I'm the author of the post mentioned earlier in this thread.<br>

Today I made a new post that addresses running any & all of the <em>Google branded Nik Collection</em> programs in a stand-alone mode.<br>

<a href="http://edkphoto.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/using-the-nik-collection-in-a-stand-alone-mode/">http://edkphoto.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/using-the-nik-collection-in-a-stand-alone-mode/</a><br>

I mention this because there are referrals from this thread back to my site almost daily even though the thread is over a year old. You may as well use the "latest & greatest" info. Hope it helps.</p>

I use a WhiBal card to make a reference photo with the card in the scene to correct all future shots made in the same light and also as a target for a custom WB (I shoot D70 & RAW). Both approaches work well as long as the light is not mixed. In a mixed light situation, IMO, since there is no single light temp an approach such as ExpoDisk to average the various elements of the mixed lighting gives better results (actually in my case it's a white coffee filter - the poor man's expodisk).

Having said that, I recently came across a troubling discovery (at least shooting Nikon NEF files and using Nikon Capture NX). If I create and save a WB setting by shooting a reference image with the WhiBal card in the scene and the camera's WB=X (X is any setting that you care to use), loading and applying this saved WB for subsequent shots made in the same light works great - EXCEPT

If I shoot in the same light, but change the camera's WB setting from that which was used in the reference shot then the image that results from loading and applying the saved WB doesn't work. The image has severe color casts.

Apart from why would someone do what I did, this calls into question the gospel about "why shoot in RAW" - "To be able to undo and correct camera settings made during shooting". I built a nine image gallery with explanations that demonstrate this problem. Any ideas? You can view the gallery at http://www.pbase.com/ed_k/white_balance

In Tim's case (sorry that this is after the fact; new photo.net member) I'd grab a white coffee filter and cehck the D50's manual for how to create a custom WB. Works great on a D70.

Ed K.