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Is it unrealistic to use my d300 as a point and shoot?

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photonerdcom

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Seriously, I love my D300. It seems that with every image, I always want to tweak brightness, exposure, contrast, fill lighting, etc.

1) Is that because I suck as a photographer? i.e. I need to change the settings of the camera?

or

2) The lighting sucks and I need to change the lighting?

or

3) Yup, it's normal to tweak those things.

Matrix metering out of the D300 always seems too dark for me. Center weighted is better, but I often like my images brighter, and spot metering works well, but often I need to adjust that as well.

I'm wondering, if I can perfect my shooting technique enough to where every image out of the camera would look wonderful and not need any touch ups.

Ideas? Hints? Tips???

photo-nerd.com
 
photonerdcom said:
1) Is that because I suck as a photographer? i.e. I need to change
the settings of the camera?
Click to expand...
Could be, but I doubt it. It is a non-ending learning curve.
photonerdcom said:
2) The lighting sucks and I need to change the lighting?
Click to expand...
Lighting almost always sucks to a certain degree.
photonerdcom said:
3) Yup, it's normal to tweak those things.
Click to expand...
Yep, that is your job as the 'photographer'. The camera's job is to do what you tell it to do.
photonerdcom said:
Matrix metering out of the D300 always seems too dark for me.
Click to expand...
Dial in some exposure fine tuning for Matrix. B6 on your menu. But I am surprised to hear that. Usually most people think it is too bright.
photonerdcom said:
Center
weighted is better, but I often like my images brighter, and spot
metering works well, but often I need to adjust that as well.
Click to expand...
Generally speaking, that is true of all camera's.
photonerdcom said:
I'm wondering, if I can perfect my shooting technique enough to where
every image out of the camera would look wonderful and not need any
touch ups.
Click to expand...
Not all the time, but the more you shoot the more you will recognize what you need to do in advance. Sounds to me like you are just trying to be real good at what you do. I suggest you try manual mode.
 
photonerdcom said:
Matrix metering out of the D300 always seems too dark for me. Center
weighted is better, but I often like my images brighter, and spot
metering works well, but often I need to adjust that as well.
Click to expand...
It sounds to me like you might not fully understand the metering modes. My first suggestion would be for you to study some books and articles about these metering modes and what types of scenes they are meant to be used for.

As an example, say you were taking a picture of a friend in a setting where a the scene behind him is very bright (a bright blue sky maybe). However, the subject of the scene is your friend right? So if you use matrix mode, which takes the whole scene into consideration, your friend will look very dark in the image because the camera will expose less in order to keep from blowing out the sky. In a case like that, it would be best to use centerweighted or spot. Those modes will place more emphasis on the center of the frame, in this case your friend. The sky will most likely end up a bit too bright, but the exposure on your main subject will be better.

Of course, using the most appropriate metering mode certainly doesn't mean that you won't need to make adjustments, but it should get you closer to start with.

--
Scott A.
 
including the flash?

BTW: I tried this and seem to like the results better.

Just a lot more work (well duh it's manual).
  • Noah (photo-nerd.com)
 
It's a pretty complex camera, so I'd say some adjustment is neccessary. One great thing though is that these can be pretty much automated. Here are some suggestions-

1) Change the 'customise exposure metering' to make it have brighter exposures all the time. I actually changed this to underexpose from the default, but have reset it since.

2) Turn on 'Active D-Lighting' and have it on at least normal. I find it helps a lot with balanced exposures, a bit like Adobe Lightroom's fill light, something I was using a lot of.

3) In a given situation, you may need to dial up or down the exposure- recently this happened to me with snow photos. So, I just turned up the exposure compensation for that day's shooting. You can do the same with the white balance, either with a card or by trial and error setting the temperature in kelvin. That great LCD makes this much easier to check.

I personally wouldn't bother fiddling around with the camera more than this, as anything more fine-tuned is easier to do in front of the computer. Shooting like this, I have hardly any post-processing that really needs to be done.

A lot of 'pros' don't like post 'pro'-cessing, either as it takes so long and they love this kind of camera, or the Fuji F5 Pro, for events. It really is a Jpeg camera, as it can make satisfying shots straight off, without a big need for Raw. By contrast, my D70 files needed lots of attention- but the D300's need no more than those from my F30 P&S.

Most of these shots have had little or no post-processing-

http://www.pbase.com/gizz/d300_samples

--
http://www.pbase.com/gizz
 
Go for point 3.

This proves you want to learn. The ideal camera (reading your mind) is not yet invented. Play as much with settings, but remember what you are doing, at the end of the trip this will become a second nature.
And by all means do not get frustrated. Yesterday I found this:
  • a perfect picture which is technically perfect is perfect. A perfect picture which is not technically perfect is perfect.
Think about it!

Underexposure:

You are the world's exception. Most people ( I don't) on the nikon forums complain about Overexposure. How do you judge correct exposure?
  • camera monitor
  • PC monitor
  • TV set
Assuming PC monitor, is this thing calibrated? A lot of pictures on the forums with a so called exposure problem look OK on my calibrated monitor.

Judge it in a objective way: look at the histogram! As long there is no clipping (left or/and right), no problem.

Final advice:

do it the hard way: do the complete photo chain, from shooting up to printing, yourself.

do not be afraid to ask questions. A lot of people out here are willing to help you and have a bag full of tips&tricks

Greetings from the country of chocolates (Belgium)

Wim
 
I find myself in the same boat. After giving it some thoughts, I finally decided that it's a combination of all three :-)

I did though switch to full manual (on camera first, and lately found myself using SB-800 in M more and more often). I'm telling you, our brain is an incredible machine...
 
Suggest shooting in Program mode with matrix metering and work on your composition and other aspects of photography. There are excellent books on exposure and composition for the beginner that take one step by step.

With digital you have some tremendous advantages over learning in the days of film. You have immediate feedback in the LCD and later when viewing the images on your monitor you can see the EXIF data and see exactly what the camera settings were and what the result was with the image. And with no film or processing costs there is no reason not to shoot away and learn from your mistakes (which I am still doing).
 
I will give you my experience with the D-300.

I never use 3D color matrix II.

I only shoot in Manual Mode.

I only shoot with external flash in Manual Mode.

This camera was made for shooting in Manual modes, only.

Good Lock
 
What I mean is: if you are using a real point-and-shoot do you never feel the need for adjustments afterwards?

Compare the D300 in P-mode with a cheap point-and-shoot and compare unedited pictures. I am sure you are much more happy with the D300 unedited.
 
photonerdcom said:
Seriously, I love my D300. It seems that with every image, I always
want to tweak brightness, exposure, contrast, fill lighting, etc.

1) Is that because I suck as a photographer? i.e. I need to change
the settings of the camera?

or

2) The lighting sucks and I need to change the lighting?

or

3) Yup, it's normal to tweak those things.
Click to expand...
4) You need to change the camera to D3
photonerdcom said:
Matrix metering out of the D300 always seems too dark for me. Center
weighted is better, but I often like my images brighter, and spot
metering works well, but often I need to adjust that as well.

I'm wondering, if I can perfect my shooting technique enough to where
every image out of the camera would look wonderful and not need any
touch ups.

Ideas? Hints? Tips???

photo-nerd.com
Click to expand...
 
The wife might get mad...

Hey honey, I know I just spend 4k on camera gear, and the credit card is finally paid off. This guy on the forum said that I need to get a D3 though. Since we all know that the more I spend on a camera makes me a better photographer...I'm going to spend 10 times that and get a Hasselblad.
  • photo-nerd.com
 
He's right, you just need to work on knowing which meter to use for each situation and develop an understanding of how each works.

In the sunny situation with people against a bright background I am a big fan of using my SB-800 set to TTL BL and let the flash figure out the subject while the camera works on the rest of the image.
--
Wow...that's a pretty killer camera! Are you any good?

-Jake-
 
If you have a lens filter on your lens, try removing that and starting over. The reason I say this is because you are experiencing darker images, but the D300 is move likely to err on the side of overexposing (in my limited experience). Just a thought. Also, double-check your exposure compensation settings!

Aloha,
Keoni
 
Wim,

Many thanks for the reminder about chocolates. Leonidas are our favourite and your fries, goulash and beer is not too bad either?

Blast! there goes my diet again.
--
Bryan

Still looking for a digital back for my Box Brownie
 
Hi, it's your camera - P&S, AP, SP, P, Flash/No Flash, variables to your hearts content..

After a few weeks of shooting (P&S) you will start to want to learn" and thanks to Nikon & your D300 you have it all at your fingertips...L
 
Saying that D300 was built for manual mode is the dumbest thing I have heard this year. It's as stupid as saying that a dishwasher was built for drying the dishes you washed with your hands.
 
photonerdcom said:
Subject: Is it unrealistic to use my d300 as a point and shoot?
Click to expand...
Depends on your goals and expectations. But the short answer is, if you treat it like a P&S, you will (at best) get results like a P&S.
photonerdcom said:
I'm wondering, if I can perfect my shooting technique enough to where
every image out of the camera would look wonderful and not need any
touch ups.
Click to expand...
No.

And this answer applies regardless of what camera, lens, or anything else, we're talking about.
 
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