terry_o_connor

<p>The only reference I can find is to the color temp of the "Flash" white Balance which is 5400K.</p>

<p>Hi Brian<br>

Im going through my D70 manual here. I dont think I can find quoted a specific color temperature but It says regarding the built in speedlight...<br>

ISO 200 Guide Number 15/49 (Manual 17/56) m/ft<br>

ISO 100 Guide Number 11/36 (Manual 12/39) m/ft<br>

Both figures quoted for 20 degrees celcius or 68 degrees fahrenheit....<br>

Is this any good to you ? .....</p>

<p>I cant see the green tint youre referring to either. My monitor was calibrated recently using the trusty Spyder Express. </p>

<p>In my opinion Capture NX. Ive tried Photoshop, Lightroom, Irfanview and RawShooter as well. Only prob with Capture NX is it needs bundles of Ram (2 gb for comfort) and the healing/cloning procedure is very laboured..I use photoshop once the conversion is done... </p>

<p>Photoshop as usual has many solutions to this scenario. Do a search on google for loads of tips. Heres a pretty good tutorial for blurring using the alpha channel. Not as complicated as it sounds and the "Invert" box in the lens blur filter screen is a god send for when you mix up your black from white during the selection process...<br>

<a href="http://www.creativepro.com/article/photoshop-how-to-lens-blur-with-alpha-channels">http://www.creativepro.com/article/photoshop-how-to-lens-blur-with-alpha-channels</a></p>

<p> </p>

<p>You need to be in Aperture priority with the largest aperture (smallest number) you can get for the focal length youre using.<br>

So youre going to want to stay away from the likes of f22 and select f4 or f2 ...or whatever the lowest number is that you can get ....<br>

So assuming youre at about 35mm select the widest aperture you can..thats prob about F4 or so....lock focus on your childs eyes..frame the pic an click away..<br>

This will give you a nice narrow field of focus and should blur the wall behind.<br>

Check out this website....select your camera and various settings and it'll tell you what the depth of field will be <br>

<a href="http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html">http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html</a> </p>

So the sequence would be....

 

 

1. Enable it via menu option 14

 

2. Set up your subjects and Compose your picture...when youre happy press the AE-L/AF-L button once. The flash

fires...

 

 

3. Take as many pictures as you want whilst maintaining the same subject / distance relationship.

 

 

4. When youre finished with your subjects and want to move on to somewhere/someone else tap the AE-L/AF-L

button once to cancel the calculated Flash Value.....

 

 

5. Repeat from step 2 once you have another set of subjects to take........

Clark,

 

Basically it eliminates the pre-flash which causes some people to blink on every photo. Once you have enabled it in the menu you compose your picture and press the AE-L/AF-L button...The Flash will fire and from this the camera measures the flash exposure required. From then on any picture you take wont have the pre-flash (just the main flash) and hey presto you wont have any blinkers......Just remember that if you change subject/distance you will have to AE-L/AF-L again to re-assess the situation.

 

Mr Rockwell has a pretty good explanation here.........

 

"To lock the flash exposure and stop the preflashes which make people and pets blink, set custom function 14 to FV lock. Now tap the AE-L/AF-L button and the flash pops once to meter flash exposure, and uses that measurement instead of needing a preflash for each consecutive shot. Be sure to tap it again to turn it off when you change distance."

What about using the FV lock option ? This eliminates the pre-flash on the D70. Will this work with your kit.

Yeah I agree there does seem to be some atmospheric haze softening things up.

Most pictures benefit from a gentle s curve adjustment and a small bit of sharpening in Photoshop so dont be afraid to use these tools.

Read reviews of lenses which will tell you how good they perform... Check out

http://www.photozone.de/nikon--nikkor-aps-c-lens-tests

 

Can you hire lenses locally and try them before you spend your money?

 

Also it depends what your personal opinion of sharpness is. The very cheap Nikon50mm 1.8 is incredibly sharp at f4.5 and assuming the scene is suitable you'd be hard pushed to get a sharper image than this even after spending thousands..

 

Can you post a picture to let us see what your referring to regarding softness?

Pankaj

My understanding and experience is that infinity rarely gives you as sharp a picture as you'd like.

 

Heres an example...I have a 50mm lens which is sharpest at about f4.5.

According to DOF calculator the hyperfocal distance for these settings is about 92 feet with my camera.

 

Assuming I dont have a rock, tree etc within the "dodgy" first 50 feet or so which I want in focus I just make sure I focus more than 92 feet into the scene....for arguments sake a hundred feet in. This always gives me far greater sharpness than If I set to infinity.

 

Find a suitable scene.....Set your camera up on a tripod...Take one shot with your lens at 50mm f4.5 focussed at infinity and another as soon as possible but this time focus it a hundred feet or so into the scene... and then check them together in photoshop at say 200% magnification. You may be surprised at the results.

 

Ken Rockwell did a couple of good articles on something similar here...

 

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/50-comparison/f-stops.htm

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/50-comparison/sharpness.htm

Check this out..

http://beforethecoffee.wordpress.com/photomatix-tutorial/

That'd be great Joseph.Thank you. My email address is oconnor_terry@hotmail.com

Thanks folks. Im limited to a max of 3 shots and 2 stops using the D70 autobracketing i'm afraid.

If I stay in aperture mode and vary the shutter speed by double (or half) the previous speed is this a full stop difference ?

Whoops - Finger trouble - heres the picture<div></div>

Hi all, I've been experimenting with HDR for a few days now and i'm not 100% sure I'm doing it correctly. A lot of the

images I've done look like something from the movie "300" and my images tend to have an overly processed look

which i'm trying to avoid. In addition there seems to be a lot of noise generated in some images.

 

Does anyone have any tips for HDR photography in general as in good subject matter, processing techniques etc ?

 

Heres one of my first attempts. It was shot with a Nikon D70, 18-70mm kit lens at 24mm f5.6 iso 200. I

autobracketed 3 images -2,0,+2ev and processed it with Photomatix. Any comments or tips appreciated.

.

Thats my behind well and truly slapped.. :-)

Seriously though, Good discussion and advice Lads......cheers.

David,

This has nothing to do with backwards compatibility... as everyone else seems to

have realised. My issue is this and i'm sure it could affect a lot of people.....

 

If I open old birthday/christening/wedding/Family NEF files in the trial version of

NX2 and play around with them im in a situation where in 60 days those NEF's

could be potentially unusable.

 

If you open a jpeg in any viewer/application and this action then renders those files

unusable wouldnt it be nice to be forwarned.

Anyone else seeing this?

 

I have the trial version of Capture NX 2 running alongside my old version of Capture

NX 1.0.1.

 

Heres something to try

 

1. Start NX 2 - open an NEF file and make a base adjustment - say a WB Change

and something else likes a levels "step" adjustment

 

2. Save the changes and close the file

 

3. Start up your old version of Capture NX and try open up the file you changed in

NX 2

 

Any time I do this i get a "Warning: Cannot load file xxxxxxx.. "

 

If I go back into NX2 and undo the changes it then opens fine in the old version of

Capture.

 

Now I like Capture NX 2 but not to the tune of the 100 odd dollars Nikon want for

the upgrade. So it appears that if i forget to undo the settings NX2 makes before

my trial period expires I could be left with NEF files that I cant open.

 

This could be heartbreaking for someone who's played around with precious

pictures in NX 2 only to find one day those files wont open again in their old

software.

'Fraid not Michael. It limits the shutter at 1/500 soon as you have the flash on . Thats a higher speed than the likes of the D2H or D100...not sure about the later models.

Thanks Ian, Great idea.

I have a 2d filter which screws on and if thats not enough i've a 4d "plate" which I could handhold in front of the lens.

I'll give both a try.

Heres the scenario. I want to shot a portrait shot outdoors during the day with a

wide aperture (1.8 or so) and also a bit of fill flash. Im limited by my 500/sec flash

sync speed if i try to do this which forces me to use a smaller aperture.

Is there a way around this ?

 

Ive heard that by covering 2 of the contact points on the flash I can get higher sync

rates but is this safe ?

 

I have a D70 with the small sb400 flash unit.

 

Many thanks - Terry

As already suggested I think it's a speck of dust caught by the flash.

 

Some people might think it's Casper and if it wasnt for those pesky meddling kids at photonet they would have gotten away with it :-)