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D70 under exposed and blue hue, suggestions?

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Rudymeister

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Hi all,

I just got my D70 yesterday and barely had time to learn enough about the controls for me to go out and shot a few pics.

What I noticed first is that it seems a bit underexposed with a blueish hue.

The problem is I don't have much time to get to know the camera behavior. I have to go out to take some pics for work really soon. Any suggestions o n settings and how I can fixed all of my current pics?

yes I know, increase the EC...etc. but how much? These situations, I have to use A mode and set the WB to auto. so what settings are best?

And how can I best fix my current pics?

thanks so much for your hep since I'm just runnign short of time.
 
Well, you can't have it all. If you don't have time to learn then you will have to spend money on tools. A hand held light meter will help you get good exposures with little guess work. Though you will have to learn to use it in it's basic modes at least.

If you had time, you could learn the zone system as it applies to exposure, that combined with the spot meter of the D70 will get you the correct exposure most of the time and takes a lot of guesswork out of setting exposure too. But that will take time to learn as well.

White balance will help correct for unwanted color casts. You will want to use the WB setting that matches your setting the best, if outdoors in the sun, then the direct sunlight setting, if indoors under incandescent lighting then use the incandescent setting, etc. You can also do a preset WB when the presets do not work or you have tricky or mixed lighting.

You can correct color casts in Photoshop or Photoshop elements for example after the fact. So even if you have a color cast in pictures already taken, you can get rid of most any color cast effectively using the respective tools of the image editor you are using.

You will have to spend some time learning the tool if you intend to use it for work, otherwise, you are setting yourself up for failure. Hope that helps at least a little though. Best wishes.
Rudymeister said:
Hi all,
I just got my D70 yesterday and barely had time to learn enough
about the controls for me to go out and shot a few pics.

What I noticed first is that it seems a bit underexposed with a
blueish hue.

The problem is I don't have much time to get to know the camera
behavior. I have to go out to take some pics for work really soon.
Any suggestions o n settings and how I can fixed all of my current
pics?

yes I know, increase the EC...etc. but how much? These situations,
I have to use A mode and set the WB to auto. so what settings are
best?

And how can I best fix my current pics?

thanks so much for your hep since I'm just runnign short of time.
Click to expand...
--
Portfolio: http://www.shaystephens.com/portfolio.asp
 
Are you using the built in flash? If so, set your white balance to flash - Auto doesn't work too well for me with flash. If it still does not look right, investigate flash compensation in the manual...
Rudymeister said:
Hi all,
I just got my D70 yesterday and barely had time to learn enough
about the controls for me to go out and shot a few pics.

What I noticed first is that it seems a bit underexposed with a
blueish hue.

The problem is I don't have much time to get to know the camera
behavior. I have to go out to take some pics for work really soon.
Any suggestions o n settings and how I can fixed all of my current
pics?

yes I know, increase the EC...etc. but how much? These situations,
I have to use A mode and set the WB to auto. so what settings are
best?

And how can I best fix my current pics?

thanks so much for your hep since I'm just runnign short of time.
Click to expand...
 
I'm sorry I didn't make myself clear. I used to do a lot of shooting before with my Nikon N8008. And yes I'm a little rusty but I also know the basics.

Unfortunately, I had to rush out and took some shots right away using A mode on landscape shots that flash just were not practical. And the WB was set to auto.

I'm not quite familiar with the D70 exposure behavior yet, i.e. it seems to underexposed a little bit as well as casting a blueish hue on the pics.

Thus it gives me 2 issues:

1) I need to fix my current pics. Yes I can brighten it using Picture Project but how do I get rid of that blueish hue?

2)the D70 seems to underexpose in A mode. That's fine, I can increase the EC by a step or so. But I just wasn't sure how much I should. Of course I can also fix this in Picture Project afterwards or just meter the heck out of it in different areas of the pics or bracket the darn thing.
This is Not a problem really....

Shoot! I have to get up early tomorrow morning and do the same ting...see, I hardly have any times to experiment with this camera.
I just need a full day to get to know it then I should be fine :(

Oh well.
 
K the fast way to do this is bring your white sheet or gray sheet of paper with you .

hopefully you will be shooting in a single area as oppsed to differnt areas with differnt lighting .

when you get your shoot set up the cameras white balance for the area your shooting in

basicaly you want to go to the menu goto your green camera icon choose the white balance setting got to preset
set measure then press the w/b button the ? key symbol

look in the view finder see if it is flashing pre.

shoot your white paper and you should get a flashing Gd

that means it took

now your pics should be closer to what your seeing and exposure compensation can get you near spot on ...

page 48 - 55 of the manual gives you better details.

now if your shooting multiple areas with differnt lighting you may need to play with white balance presets and see what yeilds the best results.

but you have to shoot in the P A S and M modes to use the white balnce technic.

if you want to add a lil post precessing to your time then your best method

would be to shoot Raw images then you can take data and manipulate it using nikon view to get what you feel is close to perfect.

hope this helps .
Rudymeister said:
I'm sorry I didn't make myself clear. I used to do a lot of
shooting before with my Nikon N8008. And yes I'm a little rusty but
I also know the basics.

Unfortunately, I had to rush out and took some shots right away
using A mode on landscape shots that flash just were not practical.
And the WB was set to auto.

I'm not quite familiar with the D70 exposure behavior yet, i.e. it
seems to underexposed a little bit as well as casting a blueish hue
on the pics.

Thus it gives me 2 issues:
1) I need to fix my current pics. Yes I can brighten it using
Picture Project but how do I get rid of that blueish hue?

2)the D70 seems to underexpose in A mode. That's fine, I can
increase the EC by a step or so. But I just wasn't sure how much I
should. Of course I can also fix this in Picture Project afterwards
or just meter the heck out of it in different areas of the pics or
bracket the darn thing.
This is Not a problem really....

Shoot! I have to get up early tomorrow morning and do the same
ting...see, I hardly have any times to experiment with this camera.
I just need a full day to get to know it then I should be fine :(

Oh well.
Click to expand...
Rudymeister said:
Hi all,
I just got my D70 yesterday and barely had time to learn enough
about the controls for me to go out and shot a few pics.

What I noticed first is that it seems a bit underexposed with a
blueish hue.

The problem is I don't have much time to get to know the camera
behavior. I have to go out to take some pics for work really soon.
Any suggestions o n settings and how I can fixed all of my current
pics?

yes I know, increase the EC...etc. but how much? These situations,
I have to use A mode and set the WB to auto. so what settings are
best?

And how can I best fix my current pics?

thanks so much for your hep since I'm just runnign short of time.
Click to expand...
 
I too noticed my initial shots were underexposed and cool/bluish. To compensate for the cool tone I set Auto WB to -2 or -3 which warms the images up nicely. And it's been suggested to set the exposure compensation to +.3 for starters then watch the histogram after each shot to make sure the graph doesn't bump the right edge thus blowing highlights (scroll down to the snow scene at the link below for an example). You might also try reducing the contrast (tone comp) in-camera.

I used SLRs for many years (70's & 80's) but still find getting the most from this camera to be a bit of a challenge. ;)

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/underst
anding-histograms.shtml

Cassandra
--
http://www.pbase.com/cassandra
 
I took some quick shots of the same subject to compare Auto WB -3 (with hue set to 0) vs. Hue +6 (with Auto WB set to 0). Auto WB -3 setting definitely yields warmer tones -- maybe too warm for some tastes. Will have to try setting hue at +9 with Auto WB at 0 to see how that compares...

Cassandra
--
http://www.pbase.com/cassandra
 
Hi - Comments below...
Rudymeister said:
Hi all,
I just got my D70 yesterday and barely had time to learn enough
about the controls for me to go out and shot a few pics.

What I noticed first is that it seems a bit underexposed with a
blueish hue.
Click to expand...
Mine looked the same way. So I turned the LCD brightness up
to +1, and the exposure bias to +0.7. Looked better on the
LCD, but the highlight warning was blinking. Went back to
exposure bias 0. Concluded that camera was NOT under-
exposing.

Discovered White Balance user bias settings in menus. Set AWB
two clicks toward red. No more blue AWB. Alas, the user bias
settings do NOT work in full P&S mode. So I now use Program
mode most of the time. The only thing that I can see that is
less automatic than P&S mode is that you have to pop up the
flash yourself when you want to use it. Not a major hardship,
especially if your last SLR didn't have built-in flash at all.

Have fun, the camera is great. They blew the P&S AWB just
to test us a bit, I think. ;-)
Rudymeister said:
The problem is I don't have much time to get to know the camera
behavior. I have to go out to take some pics for work really soon.
Any suggestions o n settings and how I can fixed all of my current
pics?

yes I know, increase the EC...etc. but how much? These situations,
I have to use A mode and set the WB to auto. so what settings are
best?

And how can I best fix my current pics?

thanks so much for your hep since I'm just runnign short of time.
Click to expand...
 
I've received several emails stating that the D70 behaves similarly to the D100 in terms of tonality. Read about why the D100/D70 seem to underexpose and what you can do about it here:
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com/custom_tone_curves.html
Rudymeister said:
Hi all,
I just got my D70 yesterday and barely had time to learn enough
about the controls for me to go out and shot a few pics.

What I noticed first is that it seems a bit underexposed with a
blueish hue.

The problem is I don't have much time to get to know the camera
behavior. I have to go out to take some pics for work really soon.
Any suggestions o n settings and how I can fixed all of my current
pics?

yes I know, increase the EC...etc. but how much? These situations,
I have to use A mode and set the WB to auto. so what settings are
best?

And how can I best fix my current pics?

thanks so much for your hep since I'm just runnign short of time.
Click to expand...
--
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com
 
I wonder if just bumping the contrast up to medium high would do well. I tried it for some shots before loading your Provia curve. Nothing thorough of course, but medium high contrast looked pretty nice. How does the D100 do w/ 1-step bump of preset contrast?

Man
fotogenetic said:
Rudymeister said:
Hi all,
I just got my D70 yesterday and barely had time to learn enough
about the controls for me to go out and shot a few pics.

What I noticed first is that it seems a bit underexposed with a
blueish hue.

The problem is I don't have much time to get to know the camera
behavior. I have to go out to take some pics for work really soon.
Any suggestions o n settings and how I can fixed all of my current
pics?

yes I know, increase the EC...etc. but how much? These situations,
I have to use A mode and set the WB to auto. so what settings are
best?

And how can I best fix my current pics?

thanks so much for your hep since I'm just runnign short of time.
Click to expand...
--
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com
Click to expand...
--
Just another amateur learning to paint w/ 'the light of the world.' (John 8:12)
See profile for more + some basic photog resources.
As usual, YMMV + caveat emptor.
Contact me at [email protected]
Indulge my fancies at http://www.pbase.com/mandnwong
 
Are you being drawn over to the Nikon Camp because the temptation of the D70 is too much to resist? ;)
Shay Stephens said:
If you had time, you could learn the zone system as it applies to
exposure, that combined with the spot meter of the D70 will get you
the correct exposure most of the time and takes a lot of guesswork
out of setting exposure too. But that will take time to learn as
well.

White balance will help correct for unwanted color casts. You will
want to use the WB setting that matches your setting the best, if
outdoors in the sun, then the direct sunlight setting, if indoors
under incandescent lighting then use the incandescent setting, etc.
You can also do a preset WB when the presets do not work or you
have tricky or mixed lighting.

You can correct color casts in Photoshop or Photoshop elements for
example after the fact. So even if you have a color cast in
pictures already taken, you can get rid of most any color cast
effectively using the respective tools of the image editor you are
using.

You will have to spend some time learning the tool if you intend to
use it for work, otherwise, you are setting yourself up for
failure. Hope that helps at least a little though. Best wishes.
Rudymeister said:
Hi all,
I just got my D70 yesterday and barely had time to learn enough
about the controls for me to go out and shot a few pics.

What I noticed first is that it seems a bit underexposed with a
blueish hue.

The problem is I don't have much time to get to know the camera
behavior. I have to go out to take some pics for work really soon.
Any suggestions o n settings and how I can fixed all of my current
pics?

yes I know, increase the EC...etc. but how much? These situations,
I have to use A mode and set the WB to auto. so what settings are
best?

And how can I best fix my current pics?

thanks so much for your hep since I'm just runnign short of time.
Click to expand...
--
Portfolio: http://www.shaystephens.com/portfolio.asp
Click to expand...
--

'The only real currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with each other when we're being uncool.' -- Cameron Crowe
 
I would have my reservations about increasing contrast due to the fact that while highlights may be pushed higher, the midtones would probably still be the same while the shadows would be even darker. It would be the same as applying an S curve to dark image.
Man-Fai Wong said:
Man
fotogenetic said:
Rudymeister said:
Hi all,
I just got my D70 yesterday and barely had time to learn enough
about the controls for me to go out and shot a few pics.

What I noticed first is that it seems a bit underexposed with a
blueish hue.

The problem is I don't have much time to get to know the camera
behavior. I have to go out to take some pics for work really soon.
Any suggestions o n settings and how I can fixed all of my current
pics?

yes I know, increase the EC...etc. but how much? These situations,
I have to use A mode and set the WB to auto. so what settings are
best?

And how can I best fix my current pics?

thanks so much for your hep since I'm just runnign short of time.
Click to expand...
--
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com
Click to expand...
--
Just another amateur learning to paint w/ 'the light of the world.'
(John 8:12)
See profile for more + some basic photog resources.
As usual, YMMV + caveat emptor.
Contact me at [email protected]
Indulge my fancies at http://www.pbase.com/mandnwong
Click to expand...
--
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com
 
Ask me no questions, and I'll tell yo no lies ;-)
Pete Perry said:
Shay Stephens said:
If you had time, you could learn the zone system as it applies to
exposure, that combined with the spot meter of the D70 will get you
the correct exposure most of the time and takes a lot of guesswork
out of setting exposure too. But that will take time to learn as
well.

White balance will help correct for unwanted color casts. You will
want to use the WB setting that matches your setting the best, if
outdoors in the sun, then the direct sunlight setting, if indoors
under incandescent lighting then use the incandescent setting, etc.
You can also do a preset WB when the presets do not work or you
have tricky or mixed lighting.

You can correct color casts in Photoshop or Photoshop elements for
example after the fact. So even if you have a color cast in
pictures already taken, you can get rid of most any color cast
effectively using the respective tools of the image editor you are
using.

You will have to spend some time learning the tool if you intend to
use it for work, otherwise, you are setting yourself up for
failure. Hope that helps at least a little though. Best wishes.
Rudymeister said:
Hi all,
I just got my D70 yesterday and barely had time to learn enough
about the controls for me to go out and shot a few pics.

What I noticed first is that it seems a bit underexposed with a
blueish hue.

The problem is I don't have much time to get to know the camera
behavior. I have to go out to take some pics for work really soon.
Any suggestions o n settings and how I can fixed all of my current
pics?

yes I know, increase the EC...etc. but how much? These situations,
I have to use A mode and set the WB to auto. so what settings are
best?

And how can I best fix my current pics?

thanks so much for your hep since I'm just runnign short of time.
Click to expand...
--
Portfolio: http://www.shaystephens.com/portfolio.asp
Click to expand...
--
'The only real currency in this bankrupt world is what we share
with each other when we're being uncool.' -- Cameron Crowe
Click to expand...
--
Portfolio: http://www.shaystephens.com/portfolio.asp
 
What about adjusting the tonal curve in the D70's custom menu to -1 or -2? What would that do to highlights/midtones/shadows?

Cassandra
fotogenetic said:
Man-Fai Wong said:
Man
fotogenetic said:
Rudymeister said:
Hi all,
I just got my D70 yesterday and barely had time to learn enough
about the controls for me to go out and shot a few pics.

What I noticed first is that it seems a bit underexposed with a
blueish hue.

The problem is I don't have much time to get to know the camera
behavior. I have to go out to take some pics for work really soon.
Any suggestions o n settings and how I can fixed all of my current
pics?

yes I know, increase the EC...etc. but how much? These situations,
I have to use A mode and set the WB to auto. so what settings are
best?

And how can I best fix my current pics?

thanks so much for your hep since I'm just runnign short of time.
Click to expand...
--
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com
Click to expand...
--
Just another amateur learning to paint w/ 'the light of the world.'
(John 8:12)
See profile for more + some basic photog resources.
As usual, YMMV + caveat emptor.
Contact me at [email protected]
Indulge my fancies at http://www.pbase.com/mandnwong
Click to expand...
--
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/cassandra
 
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