This is almost getting silly, but yes, I did do that with my film cameras - I bought long rolls of Plus-X bulk film, and loaded all my own cassettes, so ISO was fixed at Plus-X speed for many, many years.
I was exaggerating - ever since I got involved in photography, because of experience, magazines, books, and friends, I started changing the default settings, especially when the world went digital. With few exceptions (mostly because of feedback from you) my cameras have most of the settings adjusted to what I felt was best for me.
I was obviously kidding about leaving cameras at their default settings, but I suspect everyone in this forum has adjusted their settings. As for me, I’m always open to suggestions for improvement, but mostly from people I respect or who create images I enjoy.
I apologize - I’ve lost track of which image you are referring to.
It’s also true that I often prefer images from the camera, before anyone edited them. …and there are a huge number of times when I start editing an image, and scrap the whole thing, and delete what I started out to do. PhotoLab is responsible for some of this - I decide I don’t like the direction an image is going in, and revert to the original and start over again. PhotoLab didn’t screw up - I did. Usually, I learn something from mistakes like this, but not always.
I’d like to add that PhotoLab has given me infinitely more freedom than in the past. I had to stick to a narrow range of some settings, before my images went all screwed, and while I always knew raising the ISO let me make changes I wanted to make - it was usually at a cost.
Now, I have a lot more flexibility because of how high I can go with ISO, letting me use settings I couldn’t get away with in the past. There’s probably still a small penalty, but nothing like years ago. That, and auto-ISO I find very helpful at times.
Mirrorless cameras, and their technology, have now allowed photographers to do things that were much more difficult years ago. The closest I ever expect to get to a mirrorless is my D780, in Live View mode. …and to be honest, I often think of going back to the simplistic M10, using it the way I used my cameras when I was a kid. Ain’t nuthin’ easy.
For a while now, I’ve wanted to take a photo of Miami Beach, similar to the promotional post cards from years ago, attracting visitors to come for a winter holiday. I finally had the opportunity to do so a couple of weeks ago - I saw this view, back-tracked a little to get the composition I wanted, and then made a few changes in PhotoLab to make it look like what I felt while standing there.
I got the composition I wanted.
I think I got the colors I wanted (post card style)
No identifiable faces in the photo
Lighting was fine, for what I wanted, and
finally, full size, I enjoyed it even more.
It is intended to be a promotional holiday poster, not a beautiful landscape photo. Whether I will submit it for publication isn’t decided yet.
I think i am not enough life on this forum anymore to grasp this.
To capture a image:
highest level of exposure, brightest point.
lowest level of exposure, darkest point.
can internal DR, stops of the sensor deal with it? No? Choose which is more important.
lowest required shutterspeed?
DoF required?
-if one or both causes underexposure => correct with ISO value.
Ready ? Desired object still in the frame? Aim focus click.
Some of this decisions you can let done by algorithm these day’s and it does it often faster and as good as the person behind the camera so why bother to control this?
Gives the person more time for other important things.
The menu is for setting up the playing ground in which the camera may move around when it’s helping you to get a propper image.
And presets are to have quick acces to usecase specific settings.
Birds? In BIF? Wel let go of low iso and set shutterspeed high.
Telelens? Set Aperture on sweetspot and keep it there.
Aiming and focussing is hard enough. Tracking focus can work if you have time otherwize just a centre box mode and burst and hope for the best
Birds on the ground? Silencemode. Electronic shutter.
Point focus point on the eye., sweetspot Aperture for maximum resolving power and wide enough DoF. Ios/ibis enabled for lowest iso possible, (shuttertime vs distance)
Why try to be back in the film age?
(i don’t watch old tube movie’s either with a very low resolution on my 4k screen.) looks terrible.
The following are two YouTube videos by Ken Rockwell. Both of them made a lot of suggestions on how I could set up my D780 to work better for me. I’ve done many of them, but not all. I guess I could have left the camera the way it came from Nikon, but the overwhelming majority of these things made it a better camera for me:
A lot of what you write here I do without specifically thinking about it. Certainly a good list.
To be honest, I usually shoot first, then think. I’ve missed too many shots by not taking one photo immediately, and trying to everything “perfect”, by which time the image I wanted is already lost. …and sometimes I spend forever, getting things just the way I want, as you describe. I try to have the camera properly configured before I even raise it to my eye.
I don’t think @Joanna said it specifically, but something I try to do most of the time is “imagine” my image before pressing the shutter release - that would include both what you wrote, along with composition, and what I want included (or not) in the image. Thanks to DxO and also to my camera, if there is any doubt, I don’t mind raising the ISO speed so I can use a faster shutter speed.
Final thought - I thought I had learned to put my camera in (M) mode, and leave it there. Lately I prefer using (A)perture priority mode, along with auto-iso, (but also checking that the shutter speed isn’t getting too slow).
If the camera has it, why not use the built-in tracking focus? Just hold in the back-button focus while the bird is moving.
Thanks for that pointer - I found it on Ken’s videos last night, and will program the camera that way next time. I never even thought about this.
Most birds are noticing the biep of the focus ready (halfpres) so when you full press the bird is just on the move and thus un sharp, out of frame, wrong composition. I have 300mm aka 600mm efl and 10m is about great 20m is doable 30m starts to be despread for small birds.
The shutter sound is also a trigger to flee.
Digital noises travel further then you realize.
We have a Magpie around here who’s mimic a smart doorbel sound.
And smartphone ringtone.
Thanks; I put everything else aside, and also searched Google, where I found:
The D780 has an optional front-curtain electronic shutter mode to eliminate vibration at MENU > CUSTOM SETTING MENU (pencil icon) > d Shooting/display > d5 Electronic front-curtain shutter . Be sure to set the Quiet or Quiet Continuous modes on the top left dial for this to work.
Huge difference in (lack of) sound; my camera is now set for 1/2000th and f/8.
Water, beach, and amusement park! Looks much more inviting than what I created. I also love all the colors.
Since you are obviously up quite a ways, shooting down on the scene, how did you manage that? An island away from the mainland? If I remember correctly, this was from one of you very early Nikons, with a small sensor. At first glance, I love all the apparent detail, everyplace I look. I’m guessing you took this very late in the afternoon?
When I started out with PhotoLab, just as with any editor I’ve learned, the interface seemed horribly confusing. Eventually I learned that most of this is because of my “Workspace”. Several people here sent me links to a workspace to try out, and with a little adjusting (each time creating a new Workspace so I could return easily to the previous one).
I’ve noticed that my left panel is mostly used for my Histogram. Almost everything else, including apps I bought, but rarely use, is in my right panel.
Would there be any issue or problem, if I move some things from the right panel to the left? I’m specifically thinking of DxO Viewpoint, and DxO Filmpack, and I’d also like to move Watermark and Clearview to my left panel.
Before I investigate how to do this, is there any good reason to NOT mess with things the way DxO set them up? For me, it would just simplify my interface. I thought the tools I use the most ought to be up near the top, but maybe there is a good reason for why they are in the default locations.
Also, am I the only one here using PhotoMechanic to get my images off my memory card and into the desired location for storage and editing? I find it a huge time saver, as I can quickly remove all my “junk” images.
This is a list of my workspaces. Several were sent to me by various users here, andI have that recorded somewhere in my notes, and old discussions here. Can I ask how you selected your preferences? What criteria did you use for what goes on the right, and what goes on the left, and what order to have the choices listed in?
It was an ongoing effort with a lot of refinements that took several years to get to its current minimalist state around 3 years ago. I no longer use any custom palettes. In fact I currently only use seven of the standard palettes. I prefer to use the six smart workspace buttons on the top of the right panel for all my editing.
Smart Workspace
On the left panel I have the Histogram on top with the Move/Zoom just below it followed by the collapsed Preset Editor and the expanded Advanced History below that.
Altogether I have easy access to everything without the interface becoming too cluttered. I find the smart workspace buttons convenient to use for all my editing.
I like the simplicity; I think I need to create a new workspace, as a copy of what I have now, and then one by one, simplify things as you have done - or at least try to.
I assume one workspace will be adequate for all my cameras.
Since you have empty space beneath your right panel, I assume that’s all there is - nothing is hiding below what I see on the screen.
Your very long right panel contains eight palettes including Light, Color, Detail, Geometry, Local Adjustments, WaterMark, DXO Viewpoint, and DXO Filmpack. All the features of those eight palettes are available in the six smart workspace buttons on top of the right panel. Using those buttons allows you to display the individual palettes one at a time with less clutter.
The images below indicate what palette each of the smart workspace buttons represents. FilmPack and Viewpoint features are included in a couple of the buttons. Most of the FilmPack tools are in the fx button. and some of the Viewpoint tools are in the Geometry button but all of them are included in logical locations in those six buttons.
What you’re telling me (which was not at all obvious to me until just now) is that all those eight palettes can be removed, and I can find all the individual tools within one of the six smart workspace buttons on top of the right panel.
So, instead of opening palettes and leaving them open, I can close them after use, and then use one of the remaining five workspace buttons, closing each one after use.
Benefit - less “clutter”.
But I need to learn how to find each tool when needed.
Like when I was working on my motorcycles, after using each tool I put it back in the appropriate tool drawer in my tools cabinet. Everything stayed neat and clean, and I replaced tools after using them, then got out the next tool.
I think this will be a good change in how I edit. I never thought of it this way before…
Only one smart workspace button can be active a a time. Selecting a different button closes the previously selected one. You can also deselect all the buttons which is what I do when I want to see the Metadata and Keyword palettes in the right hand panel. Spend some time playing with these buttons and then you can decide whether you prefer using them instead of your current workspace.
Ctrl-click on the header of a tool panel or palette and select to collapse all. This reduces all tools to their headers, except for the tool, the header of which you used to collapse all tools.
