IntroductionWelcome| 00:00 | (music playing)
| | 00:04 | The Nikon D800 is the followup to Nikon's
incredibly successful D700; but with the changes
| | 00:10 | Nikon has made, it's difficult to think of
the D800 as a part of a midrange camera line.
| | 00:15 | With an image sensor that packs an
astonishing 36 million pixels, the D800 delivers image
| | 00:21 | sizes that previously required an
expensive medium-format digital back.
| | 00:26 | Pixel count is not all
that Nikon has changed though.
| | 00:28 | The D800 supports a 51-point autofocus system,
an advanced metering system with a 91,000
| | 00:35 | pixel meter, and the ability to shoot beautiful
1080P video at 30, 25, or 24 frames per second.
| | 00:42 | Whether you an amateur or a professional, the D800
provides you with a spectacular photographic instrument.
| | 00:48 | Hi! My name is Ben Long.
| | 00:51 | Understanding your gear is essential to
being able to consistently take good photos.
| | 00:55 | Sure, you can throw your camera in auto mode
and get good shots most of the time, but you
| | 00:59 | will run into occasions that will flummox your
camera's auto features, and in those instances
| | 01:05 | you need to know how to adjust
your camera to get good results.
| | 01:08 | This course will show you how to make
those adjustments, how to customize your camera,
| | 01:12 | and how to drive all of the
features on your Nikon D800.
| | 01:15 | In this course, we're going to explore all
your camera's critical features, the features
| | 01:19 | that any beginning to
intermediate shooter will need to know.
| | 01:22 | Among many other things, you'll see what the
D800's different modes do, how you can alter
| | 01:27 | and tweak those modes, how to shoot video
using the camera's HD video features, how
| | 01:32 | to customize the camera to make it easier
to use for your particular shooting tasks,
| | 01:36 | and how to use the camera's various exposure
controls to correct exposure while you shoot.
| | 01:42 | Now, this is not a photography course.
We won't be going in detail into exposure theory and
| | 01:47 | the other fundamentals of photography, but
we'll give you reminders about specific terms
| | 01:51 | and processes, and tell you when it's a good
idea to go and watch an additional lynda course
| | 01:55 | that might help with the fundamentals.
| | 01:57 | This course, combined with the couple of
other courses, will provide you with a full photo
| | 02:02 | curriculum, one built
around your specific camera.
| | 02:05 | This means you can learn photography in terms of the
specific buttons and controls on your exact camera.
| | 02:10 | So get your camera close to hand as we
delve into the particulars of the Nikon D800.
| | 02:15 |
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| What is an SLR?| 00:00 | All cameras have at least one thing in common.
| | 00:03 | They have a lens that sits
in front of a focal plane.
| | 00:06 | On that focal plane is a recording medium,
either a piece of light-sensitive film or
| | 00:10 | paper or a digital image sensor.
| | 00:13 | The focal plane needs to sit directly behind
the lens, because the lens is used to focus
| | 00:17 | light onto that recording medium.
| | 00:20 | Another way to think of it is that the
recording medium looks through the lens.
| | 00:24 | What's tricky about camera design is that if
the recording medium is sitting there looking
| | 00:28 | through the lens, how is there room for you
to look through the lens to frame your shot?
| | 00:34 | Camera designers have wrestled with this
problem since the beginning of photography, and they've
| | 00:37 | come up with lots of solutions.
| | 00:40 | For example, with a view camera,
you actually take the recording medium off so that you
| | 00:44 | can look through your lens to line up the
shot and then you put the recording medium
| | 00:48 | back on. Needless to say, this doesn't
make for particularly speedy shooting.
| | 00:53 | In a twin lens reflex camera, you look
through one lens and a second lens exposes the film.
| | 00:58 | However, if I am shooting up close, my framing might
be off due to the parallax shift between the two lenses.
| | 01:05 | Similarly, in a rangefinder camera, I look through this
viewfinder while the camera looks through this lens.
| | 01:10 | I still might have parallax issues, but with a
camera like this, I can actually change lenses
| | 01:15 | and still have a viewfinder that works.
| | 01:18 | The SLR, or Single Lens Reflex, solves all of
the issues with these other designs. With an
| | 01:23 | SLR there is just one lens, a single lens,
and both you and the recording medium look
| | 01:30 | through that same lens.
| | 01:32 | So how is it that both your eye and
the sensor can see through the same lens?
| | 01:37 | If I turn the camera sideways, you can see
that my viewfinder here is actually not at
| | 01:42 | the same level as the lens. Well, you probably
guessed already that it's all done with mirrors.
| | 01:46 | The way this work is light comes in
through the lens, enters the camera body, and bumps
| | 01:51 | into a mirror that's parked
right here at a 45-degree angle.
| | 01:55 | So then it bounces up here into this area,
where there's a weird five-sided prism called
| | 02:01 | a pentaprism, and the light bounces around
in there and then comes out here. So I am
| | 02:06 | effectively looking through this lens.
| | 02:09 | When I press the shutter
button, the mirror flips up.
| | 02:12 | Now, that cause my viewfinder to go blind.
That's why the viewfinder blacks out when you take
| | 02:16 | a picture, because with it up, light can't
get up here; instead light passes into the
| | 02:21 | camera body, past the mirror, through the
open shutter, and onto the image sensor.
| | 02:27 | When the exposure is done, the mirror comes
back down and now my viewfinder is restored.
| | 02:33 | So, with this single lens--that's the SL
part of single lens reflex--and the moving mirror--
| | 02:40 | that's the reflex part of SLR--
| | 02:42 | I can have an image sensor that can see through this
lens and a viewfinder that can see through this lens.
| | 02:48 | Now, you can actually see the mirror in your
camera if you just take the lens off, which
| | 02:53 | I'm going to do right now.
| | 02:55 | I've also configured the camera so that I
can get the mirror and the shutter open and
| | 03:01 | they'll stay there, and put in bold
mode and I have set it for mirror lockup.
| | 03:06 | So, this is the mirror right here. It's sitting
inside the mirror chamber. And watch what happens
| | 03:11 | if I put my hand behind the viewfinder.
It's only behind the viewfinder, and you can see
| | 03:15 | it actually reflecting in the mirror, so you
can see that light's coming in the viewfinder
| | 03:20 | and bouncing back off that mirror.
| | 03:21 | So, I'm going to press the shutter button
to flip the mirror up, and I'm going to shine
| | 03:26 | flashlight in here so you can see this.
That thing right there is the shutter of your camera.
| | 03:31 | It's sitting in front of the mirror.
And now I'm going to open the shutter, and there's
| | 03:36 | my image sensor, and it's got this cool
prismatic, holographic thing happening, because every
| | 03:44 | individual pixel on the sensor--and there are
millions and millions of them--every individual
| | 03:49 | pixel has a tiny little lens on
top of it to help focus the light.
| | 03:52 | So, all those millions of microscopic lenses
are reflecting and refracting light in weird ways.
| | 03:58 | So now I'm going to let go and the
mirror comes back down and the shutter closes.
| | 04:04 | Obviously, when I am taking a picture, all
of that happens very, very quickly, and we
| | 04:08 | have a slow motion view of that right here,
showing the mirror and shutter of a different SLR.
| | 04:15 | So what's the downside?
| | 04:16 | Well, SLRs are larger than a typical
rangefinder camera, which makes them little less convenient.
| | 04:22 | They can't have the giant media sizes of the big
view camera. They have got a lot of mechanical
| | 04:26 | parts that break down.
| | 04:27 | They can be noisy. But overall, today's SLRs,
particularly digital SLRs, offer the best all around
| | 04:34 | camera design, allowing for incredible
flexibility of lens choice, shooting options, portability
| | 04:40 | and ease of use, while all giving
you a nice big bright viewfinder.
| | 04:44 | While there are a lot of great
point-and-shoots on the market--
| | 04:47 | a point-and-shoot is often the best camera
choice depending on the shooting situation--
| | 04:51 | SLRs score over their smaller point-and-shoot
counterparts both in terms of image quality
| | 04:56 | and shooting flexibility. With their larger
sensor size they provide quality, better low-light
| | 05:02 | performance, and the ability to shoot with
shallower depths of field. With there interchangeable
| | 05:07 | lenses, fast burst rates, and advanced features,
you can shoot just about any subject with an SLR.
| | 05:13 | Now you just have to learn how to use it,
and that's what you're going to do in this course.
| | 05:16 |
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| Using this course| 00:00 | I divide the teaching of photographic
subject matter into two categories of instruction:
| | 00:05 | artistry and craft.
| | 00:07 | Artistry is the study of all the
ephemeral stuff that goes into making a good photo:
| | 00:12 | learning to see, exploring your emotional
response to a scene, and learning how to translate
| | 00:17 | that into the vocabulary of photography.
| | 00:19 | There's nothing magical about artistry;
it's an intellectual process that you can learn.
| | 00:24 | Craft skills are what you employ to realize
your artistic ideas. In the case of photography,
| | 00:31 | they're basically the button-pushing skills,
knowing how to focus, knowing how to configure
| | 00:35 | your camera for particular types of light,
how to ensure that your image is bright enough,
| | 00:40 | that you've captured motion
the way that you want, and so on.
| | 00:43 | In this course, we're going to be studying
craft, specifically the craft skills required
| | 00:48 | to use your particular camera.
| | 00:50 | And in this course, we'll be assuming a certain
level of understanding of basic photographic theory.
| | 00:56 | For example, in showing how your
camera's exposure compensation feature works,
| | 01:00 | I might say that it allows you to alter the
camera's default metering in one-third-stop increments.
| | 01:06 | Now, if you don't understand what
one-third-stop increments means or you're unclear what
| | 01:11 | it means to meter a scene, then you're going to
need to take a look at an additional lynda.com course.
| | 01:17 | We'll put up graphics anytime there's a
complementary course that will lead you deeper into the
| | 01:22 | theory that's being discussed.
| | 01:24 | This course also assumes that
you know nothing about your camera.
| | 01:27 | We're going to start with the idea that you've
just pulled your camera right out of the box
| | 01:32 | and you want to get
shooting as quickly as possible.
| | 01:34 | That's easy enough to do,
thanks to your camera's auto modes.
| | 01:37 | We'll start with auto modes and build your
understanding from there by delving into more advanced features.
| | 01:43 | If you use this course and those
complementary courses, you'll get full instruction in both
| | 01:48 | the art and craft of photography, and your craft
lessons will be built around your specific camera.
| | 01:53 |
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|
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1. Getting to Know Your Nikon SLRExploring basic camera anatomy| 00:00 | Before we go any further, let's quickly go
over the basic anatomy of the D800, just to
| | 00:05 | get some names and terms out of the way.
| | 00:07 | Now, don't worry about memorizing all
of these names and terms right now.
| | 00:11 | We're going to be coming back to each of
them throughout the rest of this course.
| | 00:15 | Taking it from the top, here is the top of
the camera, and we've got, of course, the power
| | 00:19 | switch right here. It rotates between off and
on and if you push it a little bit past on, you
| | 00:23 | get a light for this status display.
| | 00:26 | This is also the shutter button, which
of course you use to take the picture.
| | 00:30 | Right in front is the subcommand dial.
| | 00:32 | It's this dial right here; it turns left and right.
| | 00:35 | Right behind, I have got exposure compensation and
a button for starting movies if I am in movie mode.
| | 00:42 | What's nice about this arrangement is that
when I have my hand around the grip, with my
| | 00:45 | finger on the shutter button, I can easily
get to the subcommand dial, which lets me
| | 00:49 | change some critical functions.
| | 00:51 | I can easily get to the exposure
compensation, and I can easily start firing off movies.
| | 00:57 | I have got the mode button here,
which is used to change shooting modes.
| | 01:01 | I have my status display, which gives me a
lot of critical readouts that I'll need while
| | 01:06 | shooting. On both sides of the camera I
have connections for attaching a strap.
| | 01:11 | The hot shoe for attaching an external flash,
it sits right behind the pop-up flash that's
| | 01:16 | built into the camera.
| | 01:18 | Some more fairly critical controls over here: a
button for setting image quality, auto bracketing,
| | 01:23 | ISO, and white balance.
| | 01:26 | In front of this control cluster is another
button right here. If I push that, I can then
| | 01:32 | turn this knob, and you can see the
different release modes right here.
| | 01:36 | I have got a S for single, two different Cs
for continuous, and there are some other modes
| | 01:41 | that you will learn about later on.
| | 01:44 | The playback button lets me review my image.
| | 01:45 | The trashcan button lets me trash images.
The menu button gets me into the camera's menuing
| | 01:51 | system, where I have set all
sorts of different controls.
| | 01:54 | These three buttons let me do different
functions when I'm reviewing my images.
| | 01:58 | The OK button down here is a critical
control for navigating my menu system.
| | 02:02 | I'll also use the four way
multicontroller for navigating my menu system.
| | 02:07 | It's like a little joystick, and it's got a button in
the middle that sometimes doubles for the OK button.
| | 02:14 | This control is also used to set the focus
point that I will use, and because it's very
| | 02:19 | easy to bump it, it's easy for my focus
point to get out of whack, so this control has a
| | 02:24 | lock. If I just slide that there, now the
control is locked up and cannot do anything.
| | 02:30 | Just below that is the Live View control.
I can press this to activate my LCD screen as
| | 02:35 | a viewfinder for still shooting, or I can
flip this down to activate movie shooting,
| | 02:40 | which will also bring up my LCD screen as a
viewfinder. Just below that I have the Info
| | 02:45 | button, which brings up a status page showing
me the configuration of many parameters and
| | 02:50 | controls on the camera, and I can even
alter some of those parameters and controls.
| | 02:55 | Up here, I have the main command dial,
which I use in combination with other controls to
| | 02:59 | change certain settings on the camera.
| | 03:02 | The AF-On button, which can activate auto focus.
| | 03:06 | The auto exposure and auto focus lock button,
which I will use to lock focus and exposure
| | 03:11 | for particular shooting situations, it
doubles as a selector for different metering modes.
| | 03:19 | Above the trashcan, you'll see this red
thing here that says format. You may have noticed
| | 03:23 | on the top of the camera, there was another
red thing that says format. I use those buttons
| | 03:27 | in conjunction to reformat my card. And of
course the viewfinder. Just to the left of
| | 03:33 | the viewfinder is this control
which lets me close off the viewfinder.
| | 03:37 | I'll use this for certain special shooting
situations when I don't have my eye up to
| | 03:41 | the camera, and you'll
learn more about those later.
| | 03:43 | I am just going to open that back up.
| | 03:45 | To the right of the
viewfinder is the diopter control.
| | 03:47 | If you wear glasses and you'd like to try
shooting without your glasses, you can turn
| | 03:51 | the diopter control to try to dial your
particular prescription into the viewfinder.
| | 03:55 | It doesn't have a lot of latitude, so you not
be able to get an image completely in focus
| | 03:59 | if have a strong prescription in your glasses.
| | 04:02 | And of course the big bright 3-inch LCD
viewfinder, which you'll use to review images, navigate
| | 04:07 | menus, and possibly use as a viewfinder.
| | 04:11 | Moving around to the left side of the camera,
I have this door here, which opens up to reveal
| | 04:18 | a number of different ports.
| | 04:20 | I have an HDMI port, and you
can see all of these keyed here.
| | 04:23 | I have got a headphone jack port, a USB
port for connecting my camera to a computer, and
| | 04:29 | a microphone port for attaching an external
microphone if I'm shooting videos and want
| | 04:35 | better-quality sound than what I can
get off the camera's built-in microphone.
| | 04:40 | Tucked away down here underneath the lens
release control is the auto focus manual focus
| | 04:46 | control. This is a switch that moves like
this, but it's also got a button in the center
| | 04:52 | of it that you'll use for
configuring certain autofocus parameters.
| | 04:55 | I'm going to rotate around just a little bit
more so you can see some of these controls
| | 05:00 | that are more in front of the camera.
| | 05:02 | I have a flash exposure compensation button
right here. This is also used for setting flash
| | 05:07 | modes. And above that I have a button that
actually pops up the camera's internal Flash.
| | 05:13 | This is the lens release control, which
we'll use to attach and remove a lens, and you
| | 05:17 | see that in the next movie.
| | 05:19 | I'm going to rotate just a little bit more because
there are two port covers here that you need to see.
| | 05:25 | On top is a flash sync cover for
attaching to particular kinds of flash hardware.
| | 05:32 | Below that is this ten pin remote terminal
which we'll use for attaching wired or wireless
| | 05:38 | remote controls or GPS units that can automatically
store your location in every image that you shoot.
| | 05:45 | On the front of the camera is the auto focus
assist light, which has some other functions,
| | 05:49 | as you'll see. And over here, next to the lens,
you'll see two different buttons: the function
| | 05:57 | button and the depth of field preview button.
They're in a very handy location. When your
| | 06:02 | hand is wrapped around the grip, your
forefinger and middle finger should fit right on those.
| | 06:08 | As you'll see later, those buttons can be
reprogrammed to serve all sorts of different
| | 06:12 | functions. And finally, coming back around,
we get to the port cover here which just slides
| | 06:19 | open and allows you to insert two media cards:
a CompactFlash card and a Secure Digital card.
| | 06:25 | Again, don't worry about remembering every
one of these things right now. We're going
| | 06:29 | to go into all of these controls in great
detail throughout the rest of this course.
| | 06:34 |
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| Attaching a lens| 00:00 | One of the great advantages of an SLR of
course is that you can take the lens off and put
| | 00:05 | on a different lens.
| | 00:06 | Now even if you don't have multiple lenses,
you still need to know how to attach the lens
| | 00:09 | that came with your camera.
| | 00:11 | If you do have multiple lenses, knowing how to
change them quickly and easily is a really good skill to develop.
| | 00:16 | When you're carrying more than one lens,
you want to be able to work quickly to get one
| | 00:20 | off and the other on, so
that you don't miss a shot.
| | 00:23 | Also, though, you want to be able to work
quickly, because once you open the camera up, then
| | 00:27 | you're exposing the sensor to dust and
that can mess up your image. So I have got D800
| | 00:32 | here and I have a lens.
| | 00:33 | Now, this may not be the same lens that you
have, but that's okay; the process does the same.
| | 00:37 | First of all, I have got a
cap on the end of my lens--
| | 00:39 | I'm not talking about the lens cap;
| | 00:41 | I'm talking about the other side--and
I have got a cap on the camera body.
| | 00:44 | Both of those have to come off, and they
simply twist off. So I'm just going to take those
| | 00:50 | off, and now I'm ready to get the lens on.
| | 00:53 | Somewhere on the lens there is a white
dot. Find that white dot and the corresponding
| | 00:57 | dot on the camera body.
| | 00:59 | If I just line those two dots up--and you can
see I am pushing the lens in until its flush
| | 01:04 | and then turning until I hear--ah, the
click of successful lens attachment there.
| | 01:10 | So, now my lens is on and I'm good to go.
| | 01:12 | Thing is, that I got these things left over.
| | 01:13 | I got these caps left over. So take this and
screw them together and they won't come apart.
| | 01:19 | Now, this is not just a convenient way to
keep from losing them, it's a very important way
| | 01:23 | of keeping them clean.
| | 01:24 | So what I do with this thing? I could take
this and stick it in my pocket, but my pocket
| | 01:29 | is full of lint and chewing gum
and frogs and who knows what else.
| | 01:34 | So I don't really want stick this in there,
because I'm going to end up getting dust all
| | 01:37 | over it, and then I'm going to take this often
and put them back on the camera lens at some
| | 01:40 | point, and all that dust is
going to be transferred there.
| | 01:42 | So, it's a really good idea to keep these
in your camera bag or somewhere pretty clean.
| | 01:47 | Most of the time sensor dust comes from
the lens, so keeping the lens clean is a good
| | 01:51 | way of keeping from getting
sensor dust on your camera.
| | 01:54 | Then I got this thing. This is a sunshade.
| | 01:57 | This goes on the end of the lens, and it's
there to prevent flare. So I just fit it on
| | 02:03 | the end of the lens and
twist it until it clicks.
| | 02:06 | So the idea is, particularly of wide angles, if
I'm shooting into a light source--not directly
| | 02:11 | into a light source, but in the direction
of a light source--this is going to help cut
| | 02:14 | down on flare. Those are those bright circles
that might appear, or general loss of contrast
| | 02:20 | that might appear as a result of lens flare.
| | 02:24 | Keeping it on the end of the lens makes
the lens much longer though, so that can make
| | 02:27 | it harder to pack, so if you want to take
it with you and you're trying to figure out
| | 02:30 | how to pack it, just put it on
backwards, and now it's locked in there.
| | 02:35 | It makes my lens fatter but shorter,
so that might fit into the bag better.
| | 02:40 | So that's changing the lens.
| | 02:41 | Now, if you're doing this with a bag in your
hand and you've got a couple of lenses, you're
| | 02:45 | going to need to figure out where to hold
some things. Having a strap on your camera
| | 02:49 | is going to make big difference there,
because you can just leave the camera hanging around
| | 02:52 | your neck, which mean you don't have to worry
about dropping it. All you have to do is worry
| | 02:55 | about dropping your lenses.
| | 02:57 | Use common sense when you're changing lenses.
| | 02:59 | If you're somewhere very windy, if you're
some where very dusty, if you're somewhere
| | 03:02 | where there's a lot of stuff that could get on
your sensor, try to keep the camera sheltered,
| | 03:06 | and then you keep it up against your body.
When you take the lens off, be sure the camera
| | 03:11 | stays pointed down. That's going to
help gravity drop things out there.
| | 03:16 | So, just be a little careful. If you're
standing on the top of a sand dune in a sandstorm,
| | 03:19 | don't change lenses.
| | 03:21 | If you exercise a little of prevention,
you'll stand a much better chance of making your
| | 03:25 | lens changes without getting your sensor dirty.
| | 03:27 |
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| Inserting media cards and a battery| 00:00 | Your camera needs power and it
needs a place to store images.
| | 00:04 | It gets its power usually from a rechargeable battery,
and it stores its images on a removable media card.
| | 00:11 | The battery in your D800 can be recharged
with the included charger; just snap the battery
| | 00:17 | into the battery cradle
and plug it into the wall.
| | 00:21 | When it's charging the light will show red,
and when it's fully charged you will see
| | 00:25 | a solid green light.
| | 00:26 | Now, note that this charger will work in other
countries as long as you have the appropriate plug adapter.
| | 00:32 | The charging light will flicker very quickly
| | 00:34 | if you're using the charger outside of its
prescribed temperature range, and you'll find
| | 00:38 | those ranges on page 23 of your manual.
| | 00:41 | Now, these batteries are very forgiving in
their charging habits; unlike old rechargeables,
| | 00:46 | you don't have to drain them completely
before recharging. Don't hesitate to top them off
| | 00:50 | before you go out on a long shooting trip.
| | 00:53 | From time to time, though, it is a good idea to drain
the battery completely and then give it a solid charge.
| | 00:58 | It takes about 2 1/2 hours to fully
charge the battery at room temperature.
| | 01:02 | If you store the battery in the camera,
it will slowly drain. The camera triples a little
| | 01:07 | bit of power out of the battery, so for
long-term storage, it's a good idea to remove the battery.
| | 01:12 | The battery meter on the camera has five
different levels. When you get down to a single bar,
| | 01:17 | then you should recharge the battery.
| | 01:19 | If that single bar starts
blinking, the camera will cease to shoot.
| | 01:23 | You can see a detailed chart of estimated
battery life on page 439 of your manual.
| | 01:28 | Battery life will vary depending on what
else you're doing with the camera, so reviewing
| | 01:32 | lots of shots, using lots of lenses
equipped with vibration reduction, shooting lots of
| | 01:38 | video, these things will all
cause your battery to drain faster.
| | 01:42 | Over time, your battery will wear out. If you
notice that it's dying sooner than it used
| | 01:46 | to, then it is a good chance that
it's time to get a new battery.
| | 01:49 | Fortunately, your camera has a built-in
facility for judging the battery's capacity, and you
| | 01:53 | can learn about that on page 332 of your manual.
| | 01:57 | Your camera also need some media to store
its images on. The D800 has two media slots:
| | 02:02 | one that takes compact flash cards and the
second that takes secured digital cards.
| | 02:06 | Which you should use is determined by what
types of cards you have, but it's important
| | 02:10 | to note that there are some differences.
| | 02:13 | To insert the battery into the bottom of
the camera, just slide this level forward
| | 02:18 | and the battery door comes open.
| | 02:21 | The battery only fits in the right way,
and it's got this little arrow right here to indicate
| | 02:26 | which direction goes in first.
| | 02:28 | So, slip it under that orange thing and push
until it clicks, and then you can close the door.
| | 02:33 | To get the battery out, just open the door
and pull this orange thing out of the way
| | 02:39 | and the battery pops out. Now I can pull
it out, put in another one, or recharge this
| | 02:44 | one and put it back in later.
| | 02:46 | This is also where you'll attach an AC adapter if
you'd rather run off of the wall rather than battery.
| | 02:51 | The card slots are located over here on the
right side of the camera, behind this door.
| | 02:57 | To get it open, you just push it outward,
and it's spring-loaded so it should just pop open.
| | 03:02 | You can see, you've got two card slots here:
the CompactFlash slot and the SD, or Secure Digital slot.
| | 03:08 | CompactFlash cards only go in the right way.
You just push them in until they stop and
| | 03:14 | when they do, this button will pop out.
| | 03:16 | That's actually how you get the card out:
you push on it and then you pull the card out.
| | 03:21 | So those go right in there.
| | 03:23 | You of course also have a
Secure Digital slot, SD cards.
| | 03:27 | They also only go in the right way.
| | 03:29 | You put the notched edge up and the
contacts to the right, and push it until it clicks.
| | 03:36 | There is no release lever; instead, to get an
SD card out, you just push on it and it pops
| | 03:42 | out, and then you can pull it out.
| | 03:44 | Notice that SD cards have a
little locking switch on them.
| | 03:48 | If I move that down, the card is now locked,
and so I can't write anymore data to it.
| | 03:53 | This is a good way of ensuring that you
don't erase a card that you've already shot on.
| | 03:56 | If you're dealing with multiple cards
while you're out shooting, just lock each one as
| | 04:00 | you pull it out of the camera and you won't
have to worry about trying to figure which
| | 04:04 | ones you've used and
which ones you haven't used.
| | 04:06 | I'm going to put that back in there. To close
the door, I'm just going to fold it shut and pull it backwards,
| | 04:12 | and now I've got media cards.
| | 04:14 | The CompactFlash slot supports all type 1
and type 3 CF cards, including UDMA cards.
| | 04:20 | How fast a card you need depends on
what you want to do with the card.
| | 04:24 | If you're going to shoot video, then you
need a CompactFlash card that can transfer data
| | 04:28 | at either 10 or 30 megabytes per second,
depending on which video format you're going to use,
| | 04:33 | and you'll learn more about video formats later.
| | 04:35 | If you want to shoot video to an SD card,
then you need a card that can manage at least
| | 04:40 | 6 or 20 megabytes per
second, depending on video format.
| | 04:43 | That means you need an SD card
that's at least class 6 or better.
| | 04:47 | Now, for stills, there's no minimum speed that
you need, but a faster card will have advantages.
| | 04:52 | When you shoot an image the camera
immediately dumps it into an internal buffer to free up
| | 04:57 | the camera for more shooting. The buffer is then
dumped to the card as fast as the card will allow.
| | 05:04 | If the buffer fills up completely, then the
camera will cease to shoot until some buffer space becomes available.
| | 05:08 | A faster card means that the buffer can clear out
faster, which translates into faster shooting times.
| | 05:15 | If you tend to shoot subject matter such as
performances or sports where you need to be
| | 05:19 | able to shoot lots of images in quick
succession, then a faster card will really pay off.
| | 05:24 | If you don't tend to shoot lots of
pictures in quick succession, then a super speedy
| | 05:28 | card won't be so critical.
| | 05:30 | Faster cards are more expensive, so if you
do a little of both types of shooting, then
| | 05:34 | you might want to speedy card for times
when you need fast shooting, but invest in less
| | 05:38 | expensive slower cards for your other work.
| | 05:42 | On page 434 of your manual, you'll find a
list of Nikon-approved memory cards. Now you
| | 05:46 | can use other brands of cards. These are
just ones that Nikon has tested with the D800.
| | 05:52 | When the camera is riding out an image,
it will flash the activity light that sits next
| | 05:56 | to the battery door. Don't remove a card
while that light is flashing.
| | 06:00 | In addition to trashing the image, it can
actually damage the card, or even your camera.
| | 06:05 | Now the D800 has some cool options for
controlling what types of images get stored on each card,
| | 06:10 | and we'll explore those in more detail later.
| | 06:12 |
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| Powering up| 00:00 | It may seem strange to devote an entire
movie just to turning your camera on, but a lot
| | 00:05 | of things happen when you power up your
camera, and it's important to understand what they
| | 00:08 | are and how you can alter them.
| | 00:11 | One of the most important things that happens
when you turn the camera on has to do with
| | 00:14 | the image sensor that sits inside the camera.
| | 00:17 | Because the lens of the camera is removable,
it's possible for dust to get inside the camera
| | 00:21 | body and then get on the sensor, and if that
happens, you're going to see smudges and spots
| | 00:26 | and things on your image.
| | 00:27 | This is a clear filter that sits in front
of the image sensor, so dust never actually
| | 00:32 | gets on the sensor itself; it gets on that filter.
| | 00:35 | When you turn the camera on it shakes the
filter at a really high speed to shake any
| | 00:40 | dust, and there's a little sticky substance
or something beneath the filter that traps
| | 00:45 | any dust bits that fall off.
| | 00:47 | You power up your D800 using the power switch,
which is located right here, around the shutter button.
| | 00:51 | This is really nice because if you're
carrying your camera by the grip, you've just always
| | 00:55 | got access to the power button.
| | 00:57 | Now, your camera will doze off.
| | 00:59 | If you're not shooting, you could always wake
it back up with a press of the--a half-press
| | 01:04 | of the shutter button.
| | 01:05 | So you don't have to worry about turning it
off and on all the time to conserve battery.
| | 01:09 | For a day of shooting, you can turn it on
and leave it there and trust that it's going
| | 01:12 | to do a good job of managing its own power.
| | 01:14 | The interesting thing about the power switch
is after the on switch, there's another position
| | 01:20 | that's kind of spring-loaded.
| | 01:21 | If I pull it on over to here, that turns on
the light for the status display. You can't
| | 01:26 | see that right now because of the lights that we've
got it under. Another press there turns it back off.
| | 01:32 | I can actually reprogram this to do something else,
and we'll look at how to do that in a later movie.
| | 01:39 | When I turn the camera on, it goes
through a sensor-cleaning process.
| | 01:42 | It shakes that anti-aliasing filter that's
sitting in front of the image sensor.
| | 01:48 | You don't see any readout of that on the
display anywhere; just trust that it's doing it.
| | 01:51 | And it's never going to get in
the way of your shooting.
| | 01:53 | Even if it's in the middle of the cleaning
cycle, after you turn the camera on and you
| | 01:57 | immediately go to shoot, it's going to stop
doing that and put you back into shooting mode.
| | 02:01 | You can change the cleaning behavior though,
and we'll see how to do that later when we
| | 02:06 | talk about customizing the camera.
| | 02:07 |
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| Working with menu navigation and factory defaults| 00:00 | There are a lot of settings on your camera,
and if you've been shooting with it or just
| | 00:03 | fiddling around with it, there's no
telling how it might be configured right now.
| | 00:07 | To make sure that your camera matches mine,
we're going to now reset it to the factory defaults.
| | 00:12 | This feature can be a handy thing to do if
you ever sell your camera. I suppose you could
| | 00:17 | also do it if you just get the camera so
messed up that you can't figure out why it's doing
| | 00:21 | a particular thing, but at that point I
would encourage you to really try to figure out
| | 00:24 | why it's doing what it's doing so
that you can understand it better.
| | 00:28 | Think of reset as kind of a nuclear option.
| | 00:31 | Note that when we do this reset we are
not going to end up resetting the clock.
| | 00:36 | Your D800 is blistering with controls, yet
still, there are some features that you can
| | 00:41 | only get to by accessing
the camera's menu system.
| | 00:45 | You get to the menus in your
camera by pressing the menu button.
| | 00:48 | The menus on the D800 are divided into
categories, and you can see those categories over here.
| | 00:52 | Each category's title is up at the top.
| | 00:55 | So here you can see that I am in the Playback
menu and these are the items in the Playback menu.
| | 00:59 | There is actually a scrollbar over here,
so I can see that there are more items that
| | 01:04 | I'm seeing on this one page.
| | 01:06 | I can navigate the menu items using the
multicontroller, and go up and down here.
| | 01:11 | If I go to the left, it will take me back to
my categories so that I can go to a different
| | 01:17 | category of menu, and then hit the
right button to get into that category.
| | 01:23 | If I want to access a particular menu item,
I can just come down here and hit the right
| | 01:27 | button again and that takes me into the
items that are accessible from that menu.
| | 01:33 | When I want to accept an item, I can either
press the center button here or press the
| | 01:39 | OK button. Those two things are the same.
| | 01:42 | I can navigate back up a level at
any time by pressing the menu button.
| | 01:46 | So in that case, I didn't actually
make a change because I never hit the OK.
| | 01:50 | Half-pressing the shutter button will get
me out of the menu system, and that happens
| | 01:54 | almost instantly, so you never have to worry
about being in the menus and not being able
| | 01:59 | to get a shot if you need to.
| | 02:00 | If something comes in front of you that you
need to shoot real quickly, you can just half-press
| | 02:03 | the shutter button and
you're back into shooting.
| | 02:07 | There are a lot of options and
parameters that you can set on the camera.
| | 02:10 | So if you've been fiddling with it at all,
we're ready to switch it back to the factory defaults.
| | 02:15 | On the D800 you do that by pressing two
buttons on the outside of the camera simultaneously,
| | 02:19 | and they're keyed to each
other with this green dot.
| | 02:23 | So if I press the Quality button here,
which has a green dot, and the Exposure Compensation
| | 02:28 | button, which has a green dot, and hold them
both down, that's going to give me a factory reset.
| | 02:32 | The way that I know that it's happened is
that my status display is going to flash.
| | 02:36 | So watch what happens as I press these two things
down. Blink, okay, and there is my factory reset.
| | 02:44 | I would recommend doing that right now.
You've just seen me do it on my camera.
| | 02:47 | If you do it on yours then we'll know that
our cameras are in sync with each other, and
| | 02:51 | you'll have an easier time following along.
| | 02:54 | If you'd like to know what those factory
default settings are, you can find a list of them
| | 02:58 | starting on page 193 of your D800 manual.
| | 03:01 |
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| Setting the date and time| 00:00 | Your camera has a clock and calendar in it.
| | 00:03 | Every time you take a picture the date and
time are stored in the resulting image file.
| | 00:08 | This can be really handy when you're editing,
not just to find out when you took a picture,
| | 00:12 | but for sorting your images or searching for
an image shot on a particular day, but also
| | 00:16 | for geotagging your images. With the right
hardware and software, you can add longitude
| | 00:21 | and latitude data to your
images in postproduction.
| | 00:24 | But for all of that to work, you have
to have the camera's clock set properly.
| | 00:28 | You've probably already set the date and
time on your camera, but I want to go over these
| | 00:31 | features because there is some cool things
that you should know about for when you're traveling.
| | 00:37 | Time zone end date is where
you set the date and time.
| | 00:39 | It's located in the Setup menu, which
is the one with the little wrench on it.
| | 00:42 | I am going to go in here.
| | 00:44 | And you see that I have a few
different options that I can change.
| | 00:46 | First, I can pick a time zone.
| | 00:48 | So I am currently set for Pacific time.
I just scroll left and right here.
| | 00:53 | Now what's cool is as I change time zone,
it will automatically update my clock.
| | 00:58 | So if I live in Pacific time, but I travel
to the east coast, I can just go here, hit
| | 01:04 | OK, and now my clock will
automatically be moved three hours forward.
| | 01:09 | When I come home, I can
just zip this back over here.
| | 01:12 | So this is a lot easier than having to
go ahead and mess with setting the clock.
| | 01:16 | To set the clock, I go down here to the Date
and time entry, and I can simply change a value
| | 01:22 | by going up and down and then move back and
forth through each of these fields with the
| | 01:26 | left and right buttons.
| | 01:28 | So I've got the date over here
and the time right here. Okay there.
| | 01:33 | I can change the date format, depending on
what order I like my calendar dates to be in.
| | 01:40 | And finally, I can turn Daylight Savings time
off and on, so whenever you make the switch,
| | 01:45 | just come and switch this on or off and that
will automatically adjust your clock for you.
| | 01:49 |
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| Setting the language| 00:00 | If you're not an English speaker, you can switch
the interface of your camera to a different language.
| | 00:05 | Obviously, this can make it
easier to navigate your camera's menus,
| | 00:08 | but it's also a great way to
bone up on a foreign language.
| | 00:11 | For example, you could set your camera to
Dutch and then next time you're in Holland,
| | 00:14 | you'll be able to walk into your hotel and say
"peripheral illumination correction" in perfect Dutch.
| | 00:20 | Anyway, when you first turned on your camera,
it should have asked you for your language preference,
| | 00:24 | so you'll probably never need to do
this again, but if you do, here's how.
| | 00:30 | To set the language for the camera, I go into
the menu system by pressing the menu button.
| | 00:33 | I'm here in my Setup menu,
which is the wrench menu.
| | 00:38 | I have an item called Language.
| | 00:39 | It's about halfway down.
| | 00:41 | If I go into that, you can see that I have
already set for English, but I can set to
| | 00:45 | any of these other languages.
| | 00:47 | I'm just going to set to Indonesian here.
| | 00:52 | You can see that, sure enough,
all of my menus have changed.
| | 00:55 | Fortunately, the D800 keeps the word
Language in parentheses over here, and gives me this
| | 01:00 | little language icon.
| | 01:01 | So, even if I've thrown the menus into
something that's completely unintelligible to me, I
| | 01:06 | can still find my way back to the
Language menu and switch it over to English.
| | 01:11 | This is probably something you'll never change.
| | 01:14 | If you end up selling your camera to a
non-English speaker or something, you can explain to them
| | 01:18 | how to do this.
| | 01:19 |
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| Formatting the media card| 00:00 | Most media cards come from the factory
already formatted, but it's a really good idea to
| | 00:05 | format a new card with your specific camera.
| | 00:08 | You will use your camera's Format command
anytime that you want to erase the card.
| | 00:12 | So after you've held your images into your
computer, you will need to put the card back
| | 00:16 | into your camera and format it. It's very
important that you choose Format to do this
| | 00:21 | rather than using the
camera's Erase All function.
| | 00:24 | Repeated use of Erase All can leave your
card unreliable and result in you being unable
| | 00:29 | to get the images off your card.
| | 00:30 | Now, you can usually use special
file-recovery software to get to unreadable images, but
| | 00:35 | it's a lot better to just avoid
the problem in the first place.
| | 00:37 | If a card does get messed up then
formatting it should put it back to normal.
| | 00:42 | Since Format is a command that you are
going to use very regularly, it's good to learn
| | 00:44 | exactly where it is.
| | 00:46 | The Format command is
located in your menu system.
| | 00:49 | It's here in the Setup menu.
It's a little wrench.
| | 00:51 | It's the thing called Format memory card.
| | 00:53 | If I go in here, you see I have two
options, because the D800 has two media slots.
| | 00:59 | It's got a CompactFlash, or CF slot, and
it's got a Secure Digital, or SD slot.
| | 01:04 | SD is currently grayed out because I
don't have an SD card in the camera.
| | 01:08 | So this says if I simply hit OK I will
format the CompactFlash card, but it first asks me
| | 01:14 | to confirm, so I am going to
scroll up here and hit OK.
| | 01:17 | Now, notice the center
button here doesn't do anything.
| | 01:20 | This is one case where this does not
double for the OK button. I have to actually hit
| | 01:25 | the OK button, which is just to keep me from
accidentally doing it. It's very easy while
| | 01:30 | you are using the
multicontroller to hit the Center button.
| | 01:34 | So I am going to say OK and
it goes through with formatting.
| | 01:37 | Now, there is another way to format my
card without even going into the menus.
| | 01:41 | If you notice the Trash button has a
Format icon above it, as does the Mode button.
| | 01:48 | If I press and hold both of those down for two
seconds, the camera goes through its formatting
| | 01:56 | operation, which you can see right there.
| | 01:58 | So that's a very quick way of getting to Format.
| | 02:00 | Remember, when it comes time to erase the
entire contents of your card after, you've dumped
| | 02:04 | it to your computer, it's critical to use
the Format command. You do not want to use
| | 02:10 | the Delete command that's in the Playback menu.
| | 02:12 | That's going to make your
card much less reliable.
| | 02:14 |
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| Holding the camera| 00:00 | I suppose there is really no wrong way to
hold a camera, but there are definitely
| | 00:03 | better ways to hold a camera.
| | 00:05 | Proper camera handling will allow
you to shoot more stable footage,
| | 00:09 | it will keep you from getting tired, and sore
and it will help ensure that you don't drop
| | 00:14 | your camera and break it.
| | 00:16 | Camera holding is pretty easy.
| | 00:18 | You may think, "Well, what's the big
deal? You just pick up the camera."
| | 00:20 | But if you want to be able to shoot stably,
you need to pick it up in a particular way.
| | 00:24 | Over here on the right side of my camera,
I have got this really nice grip on the D800.
| | 00:30 | It's molded right here so that my middle
finger fits right underneath there, and it's
| | 00:34 | molded in the back so that
my thumb fits right in here.,
| | 00:38 | and that means that it's really hard to drop it
once I've got my hand position in the right place.
| | 00:42 | There is this nice
non-skid surface all over here.
| | 00:45 | So I feel like I've got a
really secure grip on my camera.
| | 00:47 | When it comes time to shooting
though, I start with my left hand.
| | 00:51 | I put my left hand here and set the lens of the
camera into it, and I'm doing this because
| | 00:56 | when my elbow is up against my body and the
camera is resting on my hand like this, it's
| | 01:01 | really, really stable.
| | 01:03 | So what I'm doing here is I've got my
thumb and my forefinger like this and I've bunched
| | 01:07 | up these fingers so the camera is actually
resting on this kind of bunch of other fingers
| | 01:12 | and these two fingers are holding it stable.
| | 01:14 | So with it like that, I then take my
right hand and put it on the grip.
| | 01:18 | So, notice that my right arm is doing
the same thing that my left arm is doing.
| | 01:22 | My elbow is up against my body.
| | 01:24 | So my elbows are always
at my sides all the time.
| | 01:27 | The reason being, if my feet are shoulder
width apart and my elbows are up against my body
| | 01:33 | like this and I'm holding the camera,
| | 01:34 | I'm incredibly stable.
| | 01:36 | I also feel like I'm kind of getting a hug all
the time, so it makes shooting more enjoyable.
| | 01:41 | So, shooting this way means that I'm going
to able to get much sharper images because
| | 01:46 | I'm not going to have a handheld-shake problem.
| | 01:49 | Next thing to understand--and this maybe
trickier than it sounds--remember, your hands go all
| | 01:54 | the way to your face.
| | 01:55 | That may seem obvious, but I see lots of people
lift the camera up to here and then go like this.
| | 02:00 | They jut their neck forward.
| | 02:02 | A couple of things happen here.
| | 02:03 | One, I'm now far less stable.
| | 02:05 | This is a kind of shaky position
to be in. Also, I'm hurting my neck.
| | 02:09 | If I'm carrying a heavy bag of camera and
lenses on my shoulder all day long, my neck
| | 02:13 | is already under stress.
| | 02:15 | Shooting like this, like a kind of
Neanderthal photographer, isn't helping anything.
| | 02:18 | So remember, I can get the
camera all the way up to here.
| | 02:22 | I want my spine straight.
| | 02:23 | That's going to make me even more stable,
and it's going to make me less prone to fatigue.
| | 02:28 | Now I can shoot all I want. I can easily squeeze off
the Shutter button, and I've got with my right hand access to
| | 02:33 | all of my critical controls.
| | 02:36 | This is for shooting landscape orientation
though. When I get ready to try and shoot
| | 02:39 | a vertical, of course my
impulse is to go like this.
| | 02:43 | Now, you may have noticed a change here.
| | 02:45 | My right elbow is no longer up against my body.
| | 02:48 | It's way up here in the air.
| | 02:50 | So I look cool. I look like I'm a serious
photographer, but I'm not actually a serious
| | 02:54 | photographer, because I'm not shooting stably,
because my elbow is flying around up here in the sky.
| | 02:59 | So I want to be sure that I've
always got that hugged feeling.
| | 03:02 | I want to be sure that--actually, I kind
of feel like a tyrannosaurus actually.
| | 03:05 | I want to be sure that my arms are always
stuck here against my side and instead, I want
| | 03:09 | to rotate the camera the other direction.
| | 03:11 | So I'm going to take my hand and bring it up
here. Yes, my elbow has left my side, but I'm
| | 03:16 | going to put it back before I shoot, I promise.
| | 03:17 | I'm going to pick up the
camera and rotate it like this.
| | 03:20 | Now, my elbows are back.
| | 03:22 | I've had to--I'm supporting the
camera mostly with my left hand.
| | 03:26 | I have got my other hand over here, and now
I'm back to that really sturdy tripod position,
| | 03:30 | with my arms up against my body, my
posture straight, and I'm ready to go.
| | 03:36 | So again, being so picky about this because
stable shooting is really critical to getting
| | 03:41 | sharp images. And you may think,
"I'm shooting in bright daylight.
| | 03:44 | I can really loosen up some."
| | 03:48 | That's true to a point, but the more steady
you can hold your camera the better off you are,
| | 03:51 | particularly when you're shooting in low light.
| | 03:53 | Now there are going to be times where maybe you
are on uneven terrain or you are getting a
| | 03:56 | shoot around the corner and things like that,
and you're going to have to improvise, and
| | 03:59 | of course that's a normal part of shooting.
| | 04:01 | But when you have the option, you really
want to go for this very stable position, both
| | 04:06 | for the sake of your images
and for the sake of your neck.
| | 04:08 |
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|
|
2. Shooting in Auto ModeWhat are shooting modes?| 00:00 | There are a lot of decisions that need
to be made before you take a picture:
| | 00:04 | Where should you focus? What shutter speed
should you use? What aperture should you use?
| | 00:08 | What's the best white balance? What's the
optimum ISO? What's the best image format to use?
| | 00:12 | Fortunately, your camera can make many of
these decisions for you. Which ones it will
| | 00:17 | make is determined by the
shooting mode that you are in.
| | 00:19 | In other words, your shooting mode choice
gives you more or less control over the camera.
| | 00:24 | Now, sometimes, you want the camera to make
lots of decisions for you, as this will allow
| | 00:28 | you to work faster and spend more time
thinking about composition and seeing.
| | 00:33 | At other times, you'll want to take more control
yourself to ensure that you get the image that you want.
| | 00:38 | By default, I am in Program mode on the D800.
| | 00:41 | In Program mode, the camera is
going to decide most things for you.
| | 00:44 | It's going to choose a shutter speed and
aperture based on the light in your scene.
| | 00:50 | If you're set for Auto White Balance it's
going to automatically choose a white balance,
| | 00:54 | you can set for Auto ISO, which means it
will automatically choose an ISO based off its
| | 00:59 | metering in the scene.
| | 01:01 | Image format will still be left up to.
| | 01:03 | You you'll still have the option to override
its exposure settings in a couple different
| | 01:07 | ways, but this is a very good
general-purpose, mostly fully automatic mode.
| | 01:13 | It's not going to decide if you need flash
in a scene. You're still in full manual control
| | 01:17 | of the camera's built-in pop-up flash.
| | 01:19 | To change mode on the D800, I press the Mode
button and then turn the main command dial back here.
| | 01:25 | S means Shutter Priority. In Shutter Priority
I get to choose the shutter speed that I want
| | 01:31 | and the camera automatically
picks a corresponding aperture.
| | 01:35 | A is Aperture Priority. In Aperture Priority mode,
| | 01:38 | I choose the aperture that I want and the
camera automatically picks a corresponding
| | 01:42 | shutter speed that'll yield a good exposure.
Or I have a full manual mode where I can pick
| | 01:48 | both values myself and the camera will
shoot whether it thinks it's a good idea or not.
| | 01:53 | And finally, I cycled
back around to Program mode.
| | 01:57 | After I've chosen the mode I simply half-
press the Shutter button or press the Mode button
| | 02:02 | again to take that selection.
| | 02:05 | Over the rest of this course you are going
to see exactly what Program mode does, as well
| | 02:08 | as explore the D800's other shooting modes.
| | 02:10 |
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| Exploring the viewfinder display| 00:00 | As we've discussed, one of the great
advantages of an SLR is that you actually look through
| | 00:04 | the same lens that exposes the image sensor.
| | 00:07 | This gives you a very accurate viewfinder and
allows you to have a very bright clear viewfinder.
| | 00:12 | The viewfinder eyepiece is surrounded by a
cover, and it happens to be removable, which
| | 00:17 | allows you easier access for cleaning, and gives you
the option to swap in other covers and accessories.
| | 00:23 | To remove it, you close the viewfinder here,
with this lever, and then you just unscrew it.
| | 00:29 | It's rubberized so you can get a good
grip on it, and it's got pretty deep thread, so
| | 00:32 | it might take a moment
to get it all the way off.
| | 00:35 | So now I can clean both sides of these, or
if I want, I can put on a different viewfinder
| | 00:41 | cover. I can get some that
have more magnification.
| | 00:43 | I could put on a right angle viewfinder.
| | 00:45 | It can be useful if you shoot a macro or up
a lot; if you're an astral photographer, that
| | 00:50 | can be really handy.
| | 00:52 | To get it back on, you need to be
careful, because the threads are pretty small.
| | 00:56 | It can be difficult to get them started.
| | 00:58 | So what I would recommend is turn the camera
up on end like this, and then you can really
| | 01:03 | just set it on there flat. And once it takes--
if you can get it to take--you can see, this
| | 01:11 | is a very easy process. There we go.
| | 01:14 | Then I can just screw it back
down and then open the cover there.
| | 01:20 | Next to the viewfinder is the diopter control.
| | 01:24 | If you wear glasses, you might be able to adjust
the diopter to compensate for your prescription,
| | 01:29 | which will allow you to
shoot without your glasses.
| | 01:30 | Now I say "might" because if your eyes are
bad enough then you won't to be able to adjust
| | 01:35 | it far enough to correct back to
full sharpness in the viewfinder.
| | 01:39 | Notice that you can't turn it on its own.
| | 01:41 | It's actually locked, so to turn it,
you need to pull it out and then you can adjust it
| | 01:45 | back and forth when you're done, push it back and the
lock, this will keep you from accidentally bumping it.
| | 01:51 | When you look through the viewfinder, you'll see
focusing indicators superimposed over your image.
| | 01:56 | These indicators light up when you
autofocus to indicate where the auto focus mechanism
| | 02:00 | has chosen to focus.
| | 02:02 | Below the viewfinder are
lots of status readouts.
| | 02:05 | Now I'm going to walk through all of these
for you. Don't worry about remembering all
| | 02:09 | of them yet, because we'll be revisiting
them as we look at each relevant feature.
| | 02:13 | So from left to right, you'll find the
focus indicators. The metering mode readout is
| | 02:19 | next, followed by the auto exposure Lock
indicator, and the flash value lock icon.
| | 02:25 | Next is the shutter speed lock icon, which
sits right above the flash sync indicator.
| | 02:31 | Shutter speed is next, and this readout does
double duty as a focus mode readout when you're
| | 02:36 | changing the focus mode on the camera.
| | 02:39 | The aperture lock indicator is next,
which sits right above the aperture stop indicator.
| | 02:44 | The aperture readout is next, followed by the
exposure display, and directly above that is
| | 02:50 | the shooting mode indicator.
| | 02:51 | Next, comes the flash compensation
indicator, which is just above the battery meter.
| | 02:56 | The exposure level
indicator serves a few functions.
| | 02:59 | In most modes, it shows the amount of
exposure compensation that you have dialed in.
| | 03:03 | Each dot represents one stop, and by default the
lines between are each a third of a stop.
| | 03:08 | Positive exposure compensation is to
the right; negative is to the left.
| | 03:12 | Note that you can actually dial in more
than two stops of exposure compensation.
| | 03:16 | When you do, the compensation indicator will
scroll off the scale, and a little arrow will
| | 03:20 | appear to indicate that your
competition has gone beyond two stops.
| | 03:24 | As you change exposure compensation,
the shutter speed and aperture displays will update to
| | 03:29 | indicate the new exposure values that
your exposure compensation has defined.
| | 03:34 | Next, you'll find the auto ISO indicator
and then the ISO readout, which is also used to
| | 03:39 | show preset white balance, ADL
bracketing, and auto focus area mode.
| | 03:45 | If you're coming directly to the digital
world from film, you may wonder why you would care
| | 03:49 | to have a constant display of ISO, but
remember, with a digital camera, you can change ISO on
| | 03:54 | every shot, making it a third exposure
parameter that you have control over.
| | 03:58 | Next is a counter that shows the number of
exposures remaining. When you're shooting,
| | 04:03 | this will switch to showing the number
of shots remaining in the camera's buffer.
| | 04:07 | The buffer can hold more JPEGs than RAWs,
so the maximum number will vary depending
| | 04:11 | on which format you're using.
| | 04:12 | This readout is also used to show how much
exposure or flash compensation that you dialed
| | 04:17 | in when you're changing
either of those functions.
| | 04:19 | Next there is this K, which appears anytime
you got more than a thousand exposures remaining
| | 04:24 | on your card. And finally, there's this little
lightening bolt which indicates that the flash is ready.
| | 04:29 | Now again, don't worry about remembering
all of the stuff right now. Exposure settings
| | 04:33 | are the critical readouts that
you need to understand right away.
| | 04:36 | The other status options will become
obvious as you activate those specific features.
| | 04:40 |
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| Using the LCD screen protector| 00:00 | Out of the box, your camera probably came with
this screen protector fitted over its LCD screen.
| | 00:06 | We have taken it off here because it gets
in the way. It causes reflections and things
| | 00:11 | that make it difficult
for us to shoot the screen.
| | 00:13 | I would really recommend leaving it on.
| | 00:15 | If your screen gets scratched,
there's nothing you can do about it.
| | 00:18 | It's not a thing you can easily replace,
and that's going to make everything from menu
| | 00:23 | navigation to image review more difficult.
| | 00:25 | So this is a really nice extra
thing that Nikon has thrown on here.
| | 00:29 | I really recommend leaving it on.
| | 00:30 | If you do want to get it off, you need to pry
it off from the bottom, and then if you decide
| | 00:36 | later you want to put it back on--maybe you
need to take it off to clean it or something
| | 00:39 | like that--fit this in first and then snap
the bottom end onto the bottom of the camera.
| | 00:45 |
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| Autofocus basics| 00:00 | Your camera has an Autofocus feature, and
for most of your shots it will provide faster,
| | 00:06 | more accurate focus than you'll
ever achieve using manual focus.
| | 00:09 | However, Autofocus is not completely foolproof.
| | 00:12 | You still have to use it properly to get
good results, and you can learn everything you
| | 00:17 | need to know about how to get good results with
Autofocus in my Foundations of Photography: Exposure course.
| | 00:23 | Using an autofocus camera like the D800 is
very simple, but you do have to use Autofocus
| | 00:28 | correctly, and the correct way to use
Autofocus is that I frame my shot and than I press the
| | 00:34 | Shutter button down halfway.
| | 00:36 | As I start to press it down, there is
a little point where it wants to stop.
| | 00:39 | That's the halfway point. It hasn't taken a picture
yet, but there's a definable solid spot in there.
| | 00:45 | When I get to the halfway point, the camera
auto focuses. You might here the lens whirring
| | 00:49 | around as it look for focus. And once it's
got focus, it shows this dot on the left-hand
| | 00:55 | side of my viewfinder.
| | 00:57 | When it does that, that's indicating that
it has found focus, it's locked it in,
| | 01:01 | and now I can press the shutter button
the rest of the way, and it takes a picture.
| | 01:05 | A lot of times I'll have students come in and
complain that, well, their camera is too slow.
| | 01:09 | I press the Shutter button down and I miss
the shot because it takes it a while before
| | 01:12 | it takes the picture. Well, that's very often because they're
simply pressing the button down the whole way.
| | 01:18 | I'm going to throw this out of focus.
And if I just mash it down the whole way, there
| | 01:23 | was a delay there before it took the picture,
because it had to focus, it had to meter,
| | 01:27 | it had to calculate white balance,
and it had to do all these things.
| | 01:30 | So by prefocusing--by going to this
halfway point--the camera has a moment to kind of
| | 01:35 | pull itself together.
| | 01:37 | So once it's shown me that lock, and once
it knows that it's ready to go, when I press
| | 01:41 | the button the rest of the way,
the picture is taken pretty much instantly.
| | 01:45 | Now, just to the left and right of that
focus light in the viewfinder, you might see some
| | 01:51 | little arrows flashing. These arrows are
simply indicating which direction the camera thinks
| | 01:56 | it's out of focus in.
| | 01:57 | So as it's focusing inward, it might show
one arrow; as it's focusing outward, it might
| | 02:02 | show another. And these will
flash on and off very quickly.
| | 02:05 | If the camera cannot achieve focus,
then it will blink both arrows at you, and that's
| | 02:11 | an indication that it
simply couldn't lock focus.
| | 02:14 | There are a number of different reasons why
that might happen, and we're going to look
| | 02:16 | at those in another move and show you
some strategies for working around them.
| | 02:21 | This just has to be a reflexive thing that
you do when you're shooting. You never mash
| | 02:24 | the button down all the way.
| | 02:25 | You're always half-pressing the button to
go through that pre-focusing step, and that's
| | 02:30 | something that if you're not used to,
| | 02:31 | you may need to practice.
| | 02:32 | If you're coming from an all-manual camera,
it's a different way of working, but this
| | 02:36 | really has to become second nature for
you to be able to use autofocus effectively.
| | 02:41 |
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| Metering basics| 00:00 | In the last movie you saw how when I
half-press the shutter button the camera auto focuses.
| | 00:05 | But it also does something else very
important, and that is it meters the scene. In other
| | 00:10 | words, it analyzes the light in the scene and
calculates a shutter speed and aperture, and
| | 00:15 | possibly an ISO setting, that will give
me good overall illumination for my scene.
| | 00:20 | After it does that, it tells me what they are.
| | 00:22 | So I am going to half-press the shutter button
here, and you can see up here that it has chosen
| | 00:26 | a 40th of a second at F4.
| | 00:29 | It's also going to show those readouts
inside the viewfinder, in the status display that
| | 00:34 | sits just underneath the
image in the viewfinder.
| | 00:37 | So this is pretty critical information to
have while I am shooting, because if my shutter
| | 00:41 | speed is too low, I'm going to
worry about handheld shake.
| | 00:45 | In general, if your shutter speed drops
much below a 60th of a second then you need to
| | 00:50 | start thinking about trying to stabilize the
camera or you need to take some exposure control
| | 00:55 | to get yourself into a better shutter speed.
| | 00:58 | If you don't understand this, you can learn
all about these issues in my Foundations of
| | 01:03 | Photography: Exposure course.
| | 01:06 | Now, through the rest of this course, we'll be
looking at all the different exposure controls
| | 01:09 | you have, from changing shutter speed and
aperture to adjusting ISO, and the types of controls
| | 01:14 | you have in different modes on the camera.
| | 01:16 | For now, if you're just getting started,
your main thing is to really develop the habit
| | 01:20 | of every time you meter, taking a
look at the shutter speed number.
| | 01:24 | If it's below 60, then you need to think
about handheld camera shake and work hard to keep
| | 01:29 | the camera extra steady.
| | 01:30 |
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| Reviewing images| 00:00 | As soon as you take a picture,
your camera displays it on the rear LCD screen.
| | 00:05 | By default the image stays up for a
few seconds and then it goes away.
| | 00:08 | This gives you a chance to quickly review
your image without having to manage any of
| | 00:12 | the controls on the camera.
| | 00:13 | However, you do have a little bit of
control while that image is being displayed.
| | 00:18 | By default your D800 does not show you the
image that you have taken just after you've shot.
| | 00:23 | So, if I take a picture here, I don't actually see
anything on my LCD screen. But I can change that behavior.
| | 00:30 | If I go to the menu, by
pressing the menu button,
| | 00:32 | very first menu, the Playback menu, right here
on the first page, you will see Image review,
| | 00:37 | and it defaults to OFF.
| | 00:38 | So I am going to change that by pressing the
right side of the multiselector to go into
| | 00:44 | that item, and then I am going to press Up
to select On, and then I am going to press
| | 00:48 | the middle button here to say OK.
| | 00:50 | Now Image review is on.
| | 00:52 | So now when I take a picture I get a little
four-second review here on the back of the camera.
| | 01:00 | If that's not long enough, I can change that.
We'll look at that in a second, but I want
| | 01:04 | to point out that when I'm in this Image
review I'm actually in a full playback mode here.
| | 01:09 | I can scroll around and look at other images.
| | 01:13 | I can delete images.
| | 01:15 | I can delete the last image that I shot, simply by
pressing the trashcan and then pressing it again.
| | 01:20 | So Image review is actually
dropping me into normal playback mode.
| | 01:24 | It just automatically drops
back out after four seconds.
| | 01:28 | So if I would like that time to be
different, I go back to my menu and I come down here
| | 01:35 | to the Custom Setting menu and I
want to go over here to Timers/AE lock.
| | 01:41 | And down here, on c4, Monitor off
delay, I am going to pop in here.
| | 01:49 | And this gives me a number of different options that we
will look at later. What I'm interested in Image review.
| | 01:54 | Open this up and I get a whole lot of options:
2 seconds, 4, 10, 20 seconds, 1 minute, 5
| | 02:00 | minute, or 10 minutes.
| | 02:01 | So I am actually going to speed this up.
I think 4 seconds is a little long for my taste.
| | 02:05 | I don't want the screen on that long.
I am going to just hit OK there.
| | 02:10 | And now when I take a shot, it's only
on for two seconds before it goes away.
| | 02:14 | There are many, many other things that you
can do in Playback mode, and we're going to look at
| | 02:19 | those in a separate movie.
| | 02:20 |
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| Working with image playback| 00:00 | Your camera has a big
collection of image playback features.
| | 00:03 | You've already seen how it displays
an image immediately after you shoot.
| | 00:07 | But of course you can also go in and browse all
the pictures that are stored on your media card.
| | 00:12 | To enter Playback mode, you just
hit the Play button right here.
| | 00:16 | That takes me back to
the last image that I shot.
| | 00:18 | I can see here that this is
the image number 24 of 24,
| | 00:21 | so I know exactly how many
images are in this folder.
| | 00:24 | I get some other data displayed here.
| | 00:26 | I can see that this image is stored on
CompactFlash card in this folder with the file name.
| | 00:33 | It's a raw image with these pixel dimensions.
| | 00:35 | It was recorded on this date
and time, using an FX lens.
| | 00:40 | I can navigate the images on the card
using the multicontroller: just left and right
| | 00:44 | to go forward and backward or in
this case backward and forward.
| | 00:48 | I can also zoom out by pressing the Zoom Out
button, and right next to that there's a little
| | 00:54 | checkerboard indicating that
pressing that takes me to a thumbnail grid.
| | 00:58 | And I can actually go out quite a ways here and see
a good number of images all at once on one screen.
| | 01:05 | Not only does it display these, I can
navigate these, and when I pick a particular image
| | 01:10 | I can then zoom into it using the Plus button.
| | 01:14 | And that zooms me right back into that
image and then I can navigate from there.
| | 01:19 | Continuing to press the Plus button zooms me into
the image, giving me a chance to try to check focus.
| | 01:25 | When I'm zoomed in, this little box shows
me a navigation control that I can pan around
| | 01:32 | using the multicontroller.
| | 01:34 | So I can look at a very specific area of the image,
and when I'm done, zoom right back out to normal display.
| | 01:42 | There are other pages of metadata that you can
display, but to do that, you need to activate them.
| | 01:47 | And I do that here from the Playback
menu, from the item Playback Display Options.
| | 01:52 | You can see by default nothing is turned on.
| | 01:54 | It's only showing basic playback information.
| | 01:57 | I can activate these things,
as many or as few of them as I want.
| | 02:00 | I'm going to turn them all on, including None.
| | 02:03 | This sounds confusing. Why would I activate None?
| | 02:06 | I think you will see it why in a moment.
| | 02:08 | I'm going to turn on all these things.
| | 02:10 | When I've got them all configured, I need
to hit the Done button at the top of the page
| | 02:15 | to make them stick.
| | 02:18 | Now I'll go back into Playback mode.
| | 02:21 | First thing is, I see now that it's showing me the
focus point that the camera used when I was focusing.
| | 02:26 | This is actually a pretty handy
thing to have at your disposal.
| | 02:29 | There are a lot of reasons
that an image might be soft,
| | 02:31 | that you might have had a slow shutter speed
and so the image might suffer from handheld shake.
| | 02:37 | You might have very shallow depth of field,
so one part of the image may be out of focus.
| | 02:41 | Or you may not have been
paying to your Autofocus system.
| | 02:44 | It may have chosen a bad focus point, or you may
have accidentally bumped the focus point selector.
| | 02:51 | So being able to go in and see exactly where
it focuses is a good way to diagnose problem
| | 02:55 | when an image is out of focus.
| | 02:57 | It's your chance to find out if you're
chance to find out if you're using your Autofocus
| | 03:00 | system properly, or if you merely have
a slow shutter speed or something else.
| | 03:04 | If I hit the up and down arrow buttons
here, I cycle through those other pages.
| | 03:09 | Here's that None page that I selected.
| | 03:11 | It gives me just a clean view of my image.
| | 03:15 | Here's a page that gives me a lot more data.
| | 03:17 | I get a small thumbnail.
| | 03:19 | I see the Metering mode I was using, the
Shooting mode I was in, shutter speed aperture, ISO,
| | 03:23 | the focal length of my lens.
| | 03:26 | I can see if I had any exposure
compensation or flash exposure compensation dialed in,
| | 03:30 | what my white balance is, my color space,
where the image is stored, which media card.
| | 03:35 | And I see a histogram.
| | 03:37 | If you're not familiar with the histogram,
if you don't understand why this is valuable,
| | 03:41 | check out my Foundations of
Photography: Exposure course.
| | 03:44 | It will walk you through everything
you need to know about histograms.
| | 03:47 | The short of it is this histogram display
gives you an extremely reliable way to assess
| | 03:53 | the exposure of your image.
| | 03:55 | You can't really judge exposure simply by
looking at the image on the back of the screen,
| | 03:59 | because the image on the back of the
screen is not very accurate for a lot of things.
| | 04:03 | The camera amps up the brightness and
sometimes the saturation of the image that it puts on
| | 04:07 | the screen to make it
more visible in bright light.
| | 04:10 | So you really can't tell much about
exposure from simply looking at it here.
| | 04:13 | It's great to have a
histogram and know how to use it.
| | 04:16 | Continuing on, here is some more data, just
more settings, noise reduction, active D-Lighting
| | 04:21 | HDR, Vignette Control, retouching, any
comments that have been tagged on the image. Still
| | 04:26 | more of those similar types of things,
| | 04:28 | and more, and then finally, a three-channel
histogram, which is a great way of identifying
| | 04:34 | color casts in an image.
| | 04:36 | And then this lets me see if any
highlights in the image are overexposed.
| | 04:40 | So this is flashing to indicate that overexposed
highlights will be flashing in my image preview here.
| | 04:47 | I don't have any; if I did,
they would be flashing pixels.
| | 04:50 | I can even go in and examine individual color
channels for overexposed highlights, by pressing
| | 04:55 | and holding the Zoom Out button
| | 04:57 | and then using my left and right buttons, you
can see that now the red channel is flashing,
| | 05:01 | then green, then blue.
| | 05:03 | What's nice about this option is if I see
that only one or two channels are overexposed,
| | 05:10 | then I know that I can probably
recover those in my raw converter,
| | 05:13 | because in a raw file, you can often recover
overexposed highlights--or usually recover
| | 05:18 | overexposed highlights--if only
one or two channels are overexposed.
| | 05:21 | Finally, I'm back to my first display.
| | 05:24 | Now those were a lot of pages of
information, more than I'll normally need.
| | 05:27 | So I'm going to go back into Playback
Display Options and turn some other stuff off.
| | 05:30 | I don't actually care about the shooting data.
| | 05:33 | That's not stuff that I really
am going to look at very often.
| | 05:36 | I think I've killed the overview also. But I
want to highlight an RGB options, and I like
| | 05:42 | being able to turn all the
data off once and for all.
| | 05:46 | I tend to only turn on focus
point when I'm confused about focus,
| | 05:49 | so I'm going to turn that
back of, go back to Done.
| | 05:52 | And now when I go to Playback,
I have this basic screen.
| | 05:56 | If I can get no metadata.
| | 05:58 | And I've got my histogram displays.
| | 06:01 | Notice that those options stick.
Whatever screen I leave off on,
| | 06:08 | that's the screen I will come back to,
the view that I will come back to when I next
| | 06:12 | come into Playback mode.
| | 06:14 | So if you want quick access to a histogram,
you can just pull that up and know that any
| | 06:18 | time you go into Playback
mode that's what you will have.
| | 06:21 | By default, images in
Playback mode stay up for 10 seconds.
| | 06:24 | If you don't do anything to the camera in
that 10 seconds, then the display shuts off.
| | 06:29 | You can change that, if you like.
| | 06:30 | You go in here to the menu > Custom
Settings > C category Timers/AE lock.
| | 06:37 | You can scroll down here to Monitor off delay.
| | 06:40 | You can see that for Playback
mode, it defaults to 10 seconds.
| | 06:43 | I can make that 4 seconds, 20
seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes.
| | 06:48 | I can really buy myself a lot of
time to review. Now bear in mind,
| | 06:51 | that's going to drain your battery faster
if you lengthen this review time.
| | 06:54 | It means that if you accidentally bump the
Playback button while you're walking around,
| | 06:58 | the screen could come up
and stay on for a long time.
| | 07:01 | And when the screen is on, that's also going
to cause the camera to heat up, which can cause
| | 07:04 | it to cease to function after a
point, if it's a very hot day.
| | 07:09 | So there are many other options that you
have in Playback mode, and we're going to look at
| | 07:13 | those in future movies.
| | 07:15 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting beeps and timers| 00:00 | By default, your D800 is very quiet.
| | 00:02 | It doesn't make any beeps
or whistles or anything.
| | 00:05 | You can set it to beep in certain operations,
which can be helpful for things like understanding
| | 00:10 | when you have locked focus.
| | 00:11 | I am here in my Custom Settings menu, the
one with a pencil, and the d category Shooting
| | 00:17 | and Display. The very first item is Beep.
| | 00:20 | This lets me activate a beeping sound.
| | 00:22 | I've got three different volumes to choose from.
| | 00:25 | You can hear them here.
Turn them up all the way.
| | 00:28 | I can also choose the pitch of the beep.
| | 00:32 | I'll just stick with the default one.
| | 00:36 | Now, whenever I manage to autofocus on
something, when the camera locks focus, it will beep
| | 00:40 | at me, and this can be a really nice way of
getting a little bit of extra confirmation
| | 00:44 | that I have achieved focus.
| | 00:46 | As long as you're in here customizing the
camera, there are a couple of timer things
| | 00:49 | that you may want to adjust in
that same Custom Settings menu.
| | 00:55 | The c category, Timers and AE
Lock, offers two useful timers here.
| | 01:00 | Auto meter-off delay. As you've seen when
you half-press the Shutter button, the camera
| | 01:06 | meters, and it holds that metering, even after
you've released the button, it holds it for a while.
| | 01:10 | The default is 6 seconds.
| | 01:11 | If you like, you can slow that down,
or speed it up to a really long time.
| | 01:16 | This can be useful if you're
doing studio shooting on a tripod.
| | 01:19 | Maybe you meter and then you want to go
fiddle with your set or something and you're tired
| | 01:23 | of having to go back and remeter all the
time. You can set it to a longer meter delay.
| | 01:29 | Down here at c4 is Monitor off delay.
| | 01:33 | This lets me control how various monitor and review
functions, how long they take before they deactivate.
| | 01:39 | So, if you're getting frustrated by your
playback screen turning off too quickly or a menu is
| | 01:43 | not hanging around long enough, or you're
worried about, maybe they're up too long and
| | 01:47 | your battery is draining,
| | 01:48 | you can come in here and adjust
all of those different timings.
| | 01:51 |
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| Changing button behavior| 00:00 | By default many of the controls on your D800
are interlocked, meaning they don't work unless
| | 00:05 | they're used in
conjunction with another control.
| | 00:08 | This is to prevent you from
accidentally changing a parameter on the camera.
| | 00:11 | For example, I am currently in Program mode--
that's what the P there indicates--and I can
| | 00:16 | change that to a different mode by
pressing and holding the Mode button--
| | 00:19 | when I do that my status display changes to
this--and then turning the main command dial.
| | 00:25 | That lets me switch to Shutter Priority mode,
Aperture Priority mode, Manual mode, and then
| | 00:30 | back to Program. We're going to go over all of
those modes in great detail later in this course.
| | 00:34 | When I let go of the Mode
button, I am back to here.
| | 00:38 | If you'd like, you can deactivate that interlocking,
to make it a little bit easier to use your camera.
| | 00:43 | For example, some of the interlocking involves
a control on this side of the camera and this
| | 00:48 | side of the camera, so you
really have to use two hands.
| | 00:51 | You may prefer to turn off the interlocking so
that you can drive the camera just with a single hand.
| | 00:57 | I'm going to do that now and leave it that
way for the rest of this course, because for
| | 01:01 | practical reasons, it's better if I don't
have to hold controls down because then I don't
| | 01:07 | have to worry about
blocking your view of the camera.
| | 01:10 | So the way that we make this change is we
go into the menu and in the Custom Settings
| | 01:15 | menu, category f, Controls.
| | 01:17 | I'm going to open that up, and if I go way
down here, to f10, Release button to use dial.
| | 01:25 | It's currently set to off.
| | 01:27 | If I set that to Yes, now it's set to on.
| | 01:32 | Now I can just press the Mode button and
turn the dial to cycle through my modes.
| | 01:38 | Personally, I prefer working this way.
| | 01:39 | I like being able to just press buttons and
turn dials. And these dials are nice and stiff.
| | 01:45 | It's difficult to turn them.
| | 01:47 | I feel like the buttons are very sturdy.
| | 01:49 | It's difficult to accidentally press them.
| | 01:50 | I rarely, if ever, have problems
with accidentally changing parameters.
| | 01:54 | Again, it's up to you how you want to work.
| | 01:56 | For the rest of this course, I'll be
working that way, just to make it easier to handle
| | 02:00 | the camera in a way that you can see it.
| | 02:02 |
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| Using screen tips| 00:00 | There are a huge number of functions and
features in the menu system of your D800.
| | 00:05 | If you get confused by what any one of them
are and you don't happen to have your manual
| | 00:09 | around, anytime there is a question mark
showing, you can press the key button here,
| | 00:15 | the one that has a little question mark
next to it, and that will pop up a Help screen
| | 00:18 | that's visible as long as
you hold the button down.
| | 00:21 | Let go of it and it goes away.
| | 00:23 | So that gives you a little one- or two-sentence
summary of what the highlighted feature might be.
| | 00:28 | You notice that Shooting menu bank does have one,
Extended menu bank does not. So not every item has one.
| | 00:34 | If for some reason this is bothering you
and you don't want access to this help--maybe
| | 00:39 | because you keep accidentally turning it on,
or you just want to prove to yourself that
| | 00:44 | you can go at it without the Help screen--
| | 00:46 | you can turn that feature off.
| | 00:49 | Go to your Custom Setting menu and
scroll down to the Shooting/display category.
| | 00:56 | Number 8 here, Screen
tips is currently turned On.
| | 00:59 | I can simply turn that off and
I no longer have that feature.
| | 01:04 | If you ever want to turn it back on,
obviously you can go back in here and turn it back on.
| | 01:09 | You just won't get any help as to how
to get back there when it's turned off.
| | 01:12 |
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|
|
3. Shooting in Program ModeExploring Program mode| 00:00 | In Program mode, the only decisions that the
camera makes are shutter speed and aperture.
| | 00:06 | Everything else--Autofocus mode, Drive mode, Flash,
White Balance, ISO, and more--can be changed by you.
| | 00:13 | What's more, through flexible program and
exposure compensation, you can alter the camera's
| | 00:19 | initial shutter speed and aperture choices,
which means that you have a good amount of
| | 00:22 | manual override without
ever leaving Program mode.
| | 00:25 | Program mode is probably where you'll
spend the bulk of your time shooting.
| | 00:28 | If your D800 is in Program mode, then you'll
see a P right here; if it's not, then you need
| | 00:34 | to get it into Program mode.
| | 00:35 | If you did the reset earlier, it should
have switched to Program mode, so you might try
| | 00:39 | doing the reset again to be sure that that took.
| | 00:42 | You could also simply press the Mode button
and rotate your main command dial until you
| | 00:48 | get the P for Program mode.
| | 00:49 |
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| Working with exposure compensation| 00:00 | If you've watched Foundations of Photography:
Exposure, then you know that in photographic
| | 00:05 | terms, exposure is a measure of the
brightness of light, and you know that on your camera
| | 00:11 | you control how much light is captured by
altering shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.
| | 00:17 | Through careful choice of how you alter these
parameters, you can not only control the overall
| | 00:21 | brightness in a scene, but how deep the focus is,
whether motion is frozen or blurry, and more.
| | 00:27 | Exposure compensation is a control that lets
you adjust exposure to alter overall brightness
| | 00:33 | without control of any specific parameter.
| | 00:36 | So for example, you can use your camera's
exposure compensation control to specify a
| | 00:40 | one-stop brightening of a scene.
| | 00:43 | Your camera will automatically adjust shutter
speed and aperture, and possibly ISO, to get
| | 00:47 | that one stop of additional brightness,
but you won't know which parameter it's changing
| | 00:52 | or how much, to get this alteration.
| | 00:54 | Now, why would you be willing to give up
control over those specific parameters?
| | 00:58 | Because a lot of times you don't have any
particular depth- of-field or motion-stopping
| | 01:02 | goals in mind; you simply
won't go to overall brightness.
| | 01:05 | Also, a one- or two-stop difference usually is
not going to make a huge difference in motion
| | 01:10 | stopping or depth of field, but it
might make a huge difference in brightness.
| | 01:13 | So exposure compensation gives you a really
quick way to brighten or darken an image without
| | 01:19 | having to think about specific parameters.
| | 01:21 | It gives you a quick fix for backlight situations,
shooting at dusk, restoring tone to dark objects,
| | 01:26 | and many, many other situations, which are all
explained in Foundations of Photography: Exposure.
| | 01:33 | To dial in exposure compensation, you just
press the Exposure Compensation button and
| | 01:37 | then turn the main command dial.
| | 01:38 | So here's a third of a stop of
overexposure, two-thirds of a stop, one stop.
| | 01:43 | I can also go the other direction: minus a third,
minus two-thirds, minus one.
| | 01:48 | I can go out here all the way to
five stops in either direction.
| | 01:54 | And after I've dialed in some exposure compensation--
let's put on something a little more reasonable,
| | 01:59 | like two-thirds of a stop--
| | 02:00 | I can half-press my Shutter
button and now I'm back to here.
| | 02:03 | And this gauge is showing me how much
exposure compensation I've got. Each little tick mark
| | 02:08 | right now represents a third of a stop.
| | 02:11 | So you can see that I've two-thirds of a
stop of positive exposure compensation.
| | 02:16 | Now, this scale only goes up three stops,
so if I've dialed in farther than that, what
| | 02:23 | I'm going to see is it's going to fill up,
and you can see there is an arrow pointing
| | 02:26 | that way, indicating that I've got more exposure
compensation than you can see here on the scale.
| | 02:35 | If I go the other direction, it looks like this.
| | 02:39 | You can also see that this is flashing to
indicate that I have exposure compensation dialed in.
| | 02:43 | This is simply to give me a
little reminder that it's there.
| | 02:47 | Exposure compensation is a sticky control,
so notice that there are two stops of positive
| | 02:53 | exposure compensation.
| | 02:54 | My meter is going to time out
in a minute. There it goes.
| | 02:58 | Next time I re-meter it's still there.
| | 03:02 | So once you've dialed that in, it's
important to remember that it's still there.
| | 03:05 | You can change this behavior, as we'll see later.
| | 03:08 | There is a custom function
that lets you turn that off.
| | 03:11 | I'm going to just turn that
off right now, before I forget.
| | 03:16 | If you prefer, there is a change you can make to
the behavior of the exposure compensation readout.
| | 03:22 | When it's dialed in, positive is to
the right, negative is to the left.
| | 03:26 | Not all Nikon cameras have always worked
this way, so if you are not used to that, you may
| | 03:30 | want to reverse that indicator, and you can
do that here by going to the F category of
| | 03:36 | your Custom Settings menu, all the way
down here to number 12: Reverse indicators.
| | 03:42 | You can see right now it's
showing positive here and negative here.
| | 03:45 | I can choose to make it the other direction.
| | 03:48 | By default though, you'll be set with
plus on the right and minus on the left.
| | 03:53 | Exposure compensation is probably the most
common exposure control you're going to use
| | 03:57 | on your camera, so you want to be
sure that you can get to it by feel.
| | 04:01 | And as you'll see in the custom function
chapter it's possible to make--to configure your
| | 04:06 | camera so that you don't have to press this
button, so that your subcommand dial gives
| | 04:10 | you exposure compensation.
| | 04:12 | So if you'd prefer that type of interface,
you'll want to look up that change.
| | 04:15 |
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| Changing ISO| 00:00 | One of the great advantages of digital
cameras over film is that you can change the ISO on
| | 00:05 | your camera from shot to shot.
| | 00:08 | As you increase ISO, the image sensor in your
camera becomes more sensitive to light, which
| | 00:11 | means you can use faster
shutter speeds and smaller apertures.
| | 00:15 | Now, you will most often increase ISO when
light levels drop low enough that your shutter
| | 00:20 | speeds go too low for handheld shooting.
| | 00:23 | But you might also increase ISO if you want to use
smaller apertures to capture deeper depth of field.
| | 00:30 | If you are not clear on when and how to effectively use ISO,
check out my Foundations of Photography: Exposure course.
| | 00:38 | To change the ISO on your D800, press the
ISO button and then turn the main command dial.
| | 00:44 | You can see that as soon as I press the ISO button,
I get an ISO readout here on my status display.
| | 00:48 | I also get this ISO readout
here inside my viewfinder.
| | 00:52 | So I can actually do this change without
having to take my eye off of the viewfinder, as long
| | 00:57 | as my fingers can find the buttons.
| | 00:59 | So cycling up, I get all the way from
100 to--climbing up here--into ISO 6400.
| | 01:08 | After that, things get a little weird.
| | 01:10 | It changes to something called
H0.3, H.07, H1.0, and these keep going.
| | 01:18 | These are higher ISOs.
| | 01:20 | They are kind of couched in this strange
jargon, because Nikon is kind of giving you the hint
| | 01:27 | that once you're into this range,
you're into something a little bit experimental maybe.
| | 01:31 | You're going to be really
facing a lot more noise.
| | 01:35 | These settings get you to
ISO 8000 through 25,600,
| | 01:39 | so they're ideal for shooting in extreme lowlight,
but you are going to possibly be getting images
| | 01:44 | that are very grainy. That said, the D800's
high ISO performance is exceptional.
| | 01:49 | You're going to want to experiment with some
of these, see what you think is an acceptable
| | 01:52 | level of noise, and then make decisions
about whether you want to use those higher ISOs
| | 01:57 | based on what you find.
| | 01:59 | Going the other direction, once I
drop below 100, I get the same thing.
| | 02:03 | I get low 0.3, 0.7, 1.0.
| | 02:06 | Those are three very slow ISOs.
| | 02:09 | They get you down to ISO 50 through 80.
| | 02:11 | So if you're shooting in really bright light,
you can push your ISO down and get very, very clean images.
| | 02:17 | You know that there's probably not going
to be any noise in your shadows at all.
| | 02:20 | So, that picks you up some extra ISO latitude.
| | 02:22 | There is also a very powerful Auto ISO feature
that can be configured in some very interesting
| | 02:27 | ways, and we'll look at that in the next movie.
| | 02:29 |
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| Using auto ISO| 00:00 | In Program mode, Shutter Priority mode, and
Aperture Priority mode, your D800 can automatically
| | 00:06 | select shutter speeds and apertures that are
appropriate for the lighting in your scene.
| | 00:11 | You can also configure the
camera to automatically select ISO.
| | 00:15 | This gives the camera a
third parameter to work with.
| | 00:18 | In Program mode, that means it's going to
stand a much better chance of being able to keep
| | 00:21 | your shutter speed up to something
that's appropriate for handheld shooting.
| | 00:25 | In Priority modes, it will help you stand
a better chance of keeping a good exposure
| | 00:30 | with your chosen parameter.
| | 00:31 | By default, Auto ISO is off.
| | 00:33 | To turn it on, just go to your menu.
| | 00:35 | In the Shooting menu, if you scroll way down--
you can see my scrollbar is way down here--
| | 00:40 | you're going to see something
called ISO sensitivity settings.
| | 00:43 | I'm going to pop that open,
and I get a couple of things.
| | 00:46 | First of all, ISO sensitivity, this
simply lets me set the ISO that I want.
| | 00:51 | This is no different than using the ISO button.
| | 00:53 | I also have a control for
turning on Auto ISO sensitivity.
| | 00:56 | I'm going to turn that ON, and now when I
come out here, my status display shows ISO Auto.
| | 01:04 | In my viewfinder I'm going to see a
similar icon in my status display.
| | 01:08 | This indicates that I'm now in Auto ISO mode.
| | 01:11 | When I meter, if the camera decides that I
need an ISO that's different from the one
| | 01:17 | that I've dialed in, then it will show me
what that ISO is and flash the ISO Auto icon
| | 01:23 | to let me know that it's
chosen something different.
| | 01:26 | This is to be sure that it doesn't
make an ISO change that I'm not aware of.
| | 01:31 | The reason I might not want the camera sneaking
around making ISO changes is of course because
| | 01:36 | as ISO increases, so does noise.
| | 01:39 | So it's making very certain that I know that
it is made an ISO change so that I can keep
| | 01:43 | track of whether I think my
image might get too noisy.
| | 01:46 | I have some other controls though, for
keeping Auto ISO reined in a little bit.
| | 01:52 | Maximum sensitivity, right now Auto ISO is
allowed to go up to ISO 6400. But maybe I've
| | 01:58 | done some ISO tests and decided that 6400
yields far more noise than I'm comfortable with.
| | 02:04 | I can go in here and dial this back.
| | 02:07 | So maybe I've decided that I find ISO 3200
on this camera acceptable. I can choose that
| | 02:13 | and now Auto ISO will
never pick an ISO above 3200.
| | 02:16 | The good news is, high ISO
performance on this camera is very good.
| | 02:21 | I have no problem with leaving it set to 6400.
| | 02:26 | I can also choose a minimum shutter speed.
| | 02:30 | Right now it's set to Auto,
so here's how this works.
| | 02:34 | If you're familiar with the handheld shutter
speed rule, you know that there is a guideline
| | 02:38 | that says if I am at a focal length of, say,
100 mm, then my shutter speed should never
| | 02:44 | dip below 1/100th of a second.
| | 02:47 | That is, one over my focal length.
| | 02:49 | If it does, then I will risk
camera shake when I'm shooting.
| | 02:53 | If I zoom into 200 mm, then I don't want my
shutter speed to drop below 1/200th of a second.
| | 03:01 | That's the same calculation that Auto uses here.
| | 03:04 | It will not let shutter speed go
below one over your focal length.
| | 03:09 | But I can bias that if I want to.
| | 03:10 | Let's say I'm shooting at, say, 200 mm.
| | 03:15 | That means Auto ISO is not going to choose a
shutter speed slower than 1/200th of a second,
| | 03:19 | but maybe I'm shooting sports. Maybe I'm shooting a
race car or something and I want a faster shutter speed.
| | 03:24 | I can say actually, I want my Minimum
shutter speed to be a little bit faster than what
| | 03:31 | the handheld shutter speed rule would
normally indicate. Or I can slow it down.
| | 03:38 | If I want, I can simply choose an explicit
shutter speed that the camera should not go below.
| | 03:45 | So again, maybe I'm shooting sports and I know I
just don't want it to drop below 1000th of a second.
| | 03:50 | Now it won't.
| | 03:51 | It will increase ISO, never going above 6400, but
never letting my shutter speed drop below 1/1000th.
| | 03:59 | Auto ISO is a great tool for times where you're
having to shoot quickly in changing situations
| | 04:04 | and you want that extra comfort of an ISO
adjustment to ensure that your shutter speed
| | 04:09 | stays high, or you're shooting in a
Priority mode and you don't want the fact that your
| | 04:14 | lens won't open past F4 to lead you
to something like an underexposed shot.
| | 04:19 | Having the camera just automatically
adjust ISO can let you shoot in those situations
| | 04:23 | much more quickly.
| | 04:24 |
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| Exploring Flexible Program| 00:00 | In Program mode, when you half-press the
Shutter button to meter, the camera calculates an
| | 00:05 | exposure and displays the resulting shutter
speed and aperture and ISO, if ISO is set to Auto.
| | 00:11 | But there are many are many reciprocal
combinations of those exposure parameters that all yield
| | 00:15 | the same overall brightness.
| | 00:17 | This is all explained in
Foundations of Photography: Exposure.
| | 00:21 | Flexible Program is a feature that allows you
to automatically cycle through all reciprocal
| | 00:26 | combinations for any given metering.
| | 00:28 | With this feature you can meter to get an
exposure that gets you proper overall brightness
| | 00:33 | and then use Flexible Program to change to
an exposure combination that serves up that
| | 00:38 | same overall brightness, but with the
motion stopping or depth of field that you want.
| | 00:44 | To use Flexible Program I first have to
meter, to have some metering settings to adjust,
| | 00:50 | so I have metered here and it
says 60th of a second at F4.
| | 00:52 | Now let's say that I wanted to shoot my
scene with more depth of field, a deeper depth of
| | 00:59 | field, so F4 would be a
little too wide for that.
| | 01:01 | I'm going to just turn my main command dial
here, and you can see that it's cycling through
| | 01:08 | every reciprocal combination of shutter speed and
aperture that will yield the same overall brightness.
| | 01:14 | So now I am up here at F11 and my
shutter speed has gone down to F8.
| | 01:18 | So without having to leave Program mode,
I've taken control of an aperture choice.
| | 01:22 | I am going to go back to where I was before.
| | 01:25 | This is the camera's default metering.
| | 01:27 | So let's say that I'm shooting this scene and
I decide that I want a faster shutter speed.
| | 01:31 | Then I could go this way and
watch my shutter speed increase.
| | 01:36 | Now, I can only go up to 125 because my
aperture has opened to F2.8, which on this lens, at
| | 01:41 | this focal length, is as wide as it can go.
| | 01:44 | Now note that when I have dialed in a
flexible program of some kind, it puts an asterisk
| | 01:48 | next to the P there.
| | 01:50 | As long as that is there, it will adjust my
exposure by however many clicks of the dial
| | 01:55 | that I've made here.
| | 01:56 | So next time I meter, it's going to come
in with that same level of adjustment.
| | 02:01 | To turn off Flexible Program I just
turn this back until the asterisk is gone.
| | 02:07 | Now, if you're not sure where that point is,
if you don't remember what direction you went
| | 02:10 | or how far, you can simply turn the camera
off and on, and that will take you out of
| | 02:13 | Flexible Program mode.
| | 02:16 | So let's return to the
aperture example I gave you earlier.
| | 02:18 | If I was worried about depth of field, I would
just dial this down to F11. The problem there
| | 02:24 | is that my shutter speed has gone real low.
| | 02:26 | I can make up for that with an ISO adjustment,
increase my ISO and I pick up some shutter speed.
| | 02:31 | I can also turn on Auto ISO so that as I'm
making these adjustments, it's automatically
| | 02:36 | altering ISO to keep my shutter
speed up somewhere more reasonable.
| | 02:41 | So that's Flexible Program, a way of getting
a fantastic level of manual control without
| | 02:46 | giving up the freedom of Program mode.
| | 02:48 |
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| Exploring image format and size| 00:00 | By default your camera shoots in JPEG format.
| | 00:04 | Established by the Joint Photographic
Experts Group, JPEG is a compressed image format;
| | 00:10 | that is, it takes the original image data that
your camera captures and it crunches it down
| | 00:15 | so that it takes up far less storage.
| | 00:17 | JPEG compression is a lossy compression scheme;
that is, there is a loss of quality when JPEG
| | 00:23 | compression is applied to an image.
| | 00:25 | So the more compression you apply,
the more your image is degraded.
| | 00:29 | Most cameras give you a few different JPEG
conversion choices. Some of those choices
| | 00:33 | compress more than others and
therefore degrade your image more than others.
| | 00:37 | Your camera also captures
a certain number of pixels.
| | 00:40 | When shooting JPEG images, most cameras
give you the choice of shooting at lower pixel
| | 00:44 | counts, so you might be able to save an
image that's only half size, for example.
| | 00:49 | This is another way of
saving space on your storage card.
| | 00:52 | Finally, some cameras also give you the option
to shoot in Raw mode, a non-compressed format
| | 00:58 | that offers a lot of
editing advantages over JPEGs.
| | 01:02 | There are two ways to set image quality
and size on the D800: you can use the Quality
| | 01:06 | button here on the top of the camera
or you can do it through the menus.
| | 01:09 | I'm going to start with the menus because
everything is spelled out very clearly there.
| | 01:15 | In the Shooting menu, down at the bottom of the
first page, you'll see Image quality and Image size.
| | 01:20 | Image size defaults to Large. And if I open
that up, I can see that Large is the full pixel
| | 01:25 | count of the D800 sensor,
7360 x 4912 for a 36.2 megapixel image.
| | 01:32 | I can also go down to a Medium image, which
is 20 megapixels, or a Small image, which is 9.
| | 01:38 | So I'm going to leave
this set on the Large size.
| | 01:43 | With any size I can choose different
levels of JPEG compression, if I'm shooting JPEG;
| | 01:47 | the default is a normal level of compression.
| | 01:50 | It's a nice trade-off between image quality and
file size--it gives you a lot of images on the card--
| | 01:55 | but I might want to go for better quality
and bump up to Fine, or if I really need to
| | 01:59 | cram a lot of images onto my card,
I could drop it down to Basic quality.
| | 02:05 | I can also choose to shoot a TIFF
file by choosing TIFF (RGB) right here.
| | 02:11 | This is going to look exactly like a JPEG
file, but it's not going to have any JPEG
| | 02:14 | compression that might have been introduced.
| | 02:16 | It's an 8-bit TIFF file, so I'm still going to
have the same kind of smaller editing latitude
| | 02:23 | that I get from a JPEG file, as opposed to a RAW.
| | 02:26 | Also, it's going to be a larger file than
a RAW file, so it's not the most efficient
| | 02:30 | use of disk space. But if you don't want to
hassle with RAW workflow, but you don't want
| | 02:35 | JPEG compression, then go with the TIFF.
| | 02:37 | RAW is, in my opinion and the opinion of
many other people, the best way to be shooting.
| | 02:43 | It is uncompressed like TIFF in JPEG,
but it's got a higher bit depth.
| | 02:47 | You're probably going to get 14 bits,
12-14 bits per pixel out of your camera, and that's
| | 02:53 | going to give you much more editing latitude.
| | 02:56 | You're also going to get some editing controls
that you simply can't get with JPEG and TIFF,
| | 03:00 | such as the ability to change white balance
after the fact and the ability to sometimes
| | 03:04 | recover overexposed highlights.
| | 03:06 | Finally, I can choose to shoot both a RAW and a JPEG,
and I have three different compression settings for JPEG.
| | 03:14 | This is handy for times when you need to
deliver a JPEG file to a client and you need to work
| | 03:19 | quickly, so you just want to shoot JPEG so you
can pull them out of the camera and ship them off.
| | 03:23 | But maybe you're shooting somewhere where
it's a difficult exposure situation or where
| | 03:27 | white balance might be a problem, so you
want a RAW backup for those times where there's
| | 03:31 | maybe an image that just needs a little bit
of a white balance tweak or a little bit of
| | 03:35 | highlight recovery. You will be able to
fall back on the RAW and make that adjustment.
| | 03:39 | Now, note that if I choose to shoot in RAW,
I give up my ability to shoot at different sizes.
| | 03:45 | RAW files are always the large size.
| | 03:48 | There's no way to make a smaller RAW file.
| | 03:50 | Also, if I choose to shoot in RAW, I have
some additional parameters that I can configure.
| | 03:54 | If I come down here to NEF (RAW) recording--
NEF is simply Nikon's name for their RAW file.
| | 04:00 | That's the file extension
that your RAW files will have.
| | 04:03 | I've got two different
things I can configure here.
| | 04:06 | First of all, bit depth: 14-bit or 12-bit.
| | 04:09 | 14-bit is going to give
you more editing latitude.
| | 04:12 | And I have a Type here. I can choose a Lossless
compressed RAW, a Compressed, or an Uncompressed.
| | 04:20 | Compressed is something Nikon introduced a
while ago and never really gave anyone a clear
| | 04:25 | proof that there wasn't an
image quality loss in it.
| | 04:28 | They said there wasn't, but other people found that
there was, and so no one's really clear what it means.
| | 04:34 | So they've left that there and
given you a Lossless compressed option.
| | 04:38 | So if you've got Lossless
compressed, why do you need Uncompressed?
| | 04:40 | The only thing I can figure is that people
still don't trust them, so they've got all
| | 04:44 | three options here.
| | 04:45 | Whatever you want to use is
probably going to work out fine.
| | 04:47 | I've never seen proof that Compressed
really yields any visible loss of data.
| | 04:52 | Lossless compressed definitely makes smaller
files. That's the default value, and I think
| | 04:57 | you'll find that you get
great image quality out of it.
| | 04:59 | I'm going to leave it set there.
| | 05:01 | JPEG compression gives me the option of, during
the JPEG process, saying within the JPEG quality
| | 05:08 | that I've selected for, either skew more towards size or
more towards quality. They're skewing more toward size.
| | 05:15 | The Fine quality JPEG is a really great level of
quality for a JPEG file, so you'll probably be fine there.
| | 05:23 | Now, as I mentioned before, you can also
change image quality and size on the outside of the
| | 05:28 | camera without digging into the menus.
| | 05:30 | When you press the Quality button, and right here
you can see that I'm currently set for a RAW file.
| | 05:35 | That's where I left it off in the menu.
| | 05:37 | If I turn the main dial, I cycle through Large
TIFF, Fine quality JPEG at Large size,
| | 05:45 | Normal quality JPEG at Large, Basic
quality JPEG at Large, and then I
| | 05:50 | get a RAW file with a Large Fine quality
JPEG, Normal quality JPEG, Basic
| | 05:56 | quality JPEG, and now here I
am back to just a RAW file.
| | 06:00 | So I can cycle through all of
these different combinations.
| | 06:03 | If there's a combination that you want that
you don't find in here, you're going to have
| | 06:05 | to dial that in from the menu, but most of the
things you'll use the most often you can find right there.
| | 06:11 | Once I've chosen the one I want, I just
half-press the shutter and now I'm set for RAW
| | 06:15 | shooting or JPEG or whatever I want.
| | 06:17 |
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| Setting a virtual horizon| 00:00 | I'm not sure if you've noticed this,
but my camera is a little crooked here.
| | 00:04 | It's not really flat.
| | 00:07 | Sometimes it's difficult to tell if you've
got your camera level, and for those times
| | 00:10 | the D800 gives you a virtual horizon,
a digital level that you can see on your LCD screen.
| | 00:17 | To get to it I go to the menu, and in the
Setup menu, it's one of the very last items.
| | 00:23 | Now, I could scroll all the way down here.
| | 00:25 | If I'm at the top of the menu, an easier thing
is just to hit the up arrow because the menu's
| | 00:28 | wrap around. That takes me to the very bottom
of the menu, as you can see from my scrollbar.
| | 00:32 | And if I keep coming up here
I get two virtual horizons.
| | 00:36 | Now what's cool about this is it's not just
a level, it's also a tilt indicator and that's
| | 00:42 | what this middle thing is.
| | 00:43 | I think this will make more sense to
you as you see me move the camera around.
| | 00:47 | So as I tilt up and down, this indicator moves
up and down; as I tilt side to side, obviously
| | 00:55 | the horizon tilts with me.
| | 00:57 | So I just want to get all of these things level,
and you can see that I get green when I am there.
| | 01:06 | I don't actually get green, but the
indicator turns green. I can lock that down.
| | 01:10 | And now I know that I am actually level
and perfectly parallel to the ground, assuming
| | 01:16 | the ground is flat.
| | 01:17 | If you like this feature a lot, if you
want to use it a lot, you can actually reassign
| | 01:22 | it to have easier access to it.
| | 01:25 | If you go to Custom Setting, F4--
| | 01:29 | and that's going to be back out here
in my Custom settings in the F category--
| | 01:34 | I can go down here to 4 and assign the level
to the function button. That's the one on the
| | 01:41 | front of the camera.
| | 01:43 | And you'll see here that
I've got the virtual horizon.
| | 01:48 | So with the camera configured like this,
it's just a single button press to bring up the
| | 01:53 | virtual horizon on my LCD.
| | 01:55 | It's not a greatly granular level. Each one
of the little notches here on the tilt is
| | 02:00 | about 5 degrees, so you don't have--
it's a little bit of a blunt instrument.
| | 02:06 | You've got to really do some
work to get it perfectly level.
| | 02:08 | But it will let you know when you're there.
| | 02:10 | So this is an easy way, in the field, if you
don't have a level with you, to find out if
| | 02:14 | you've got your camera ready to shoot.
| | 02:15 |
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| Setting the color space| 00:00 | Your camera captures color images of course,
but color is a tricky thing.
| | 00:05 | What looks blue to you may not look blue to me.
| | 00:08 | To help improve color consistency across
different devices, from, say, a camera to a computer to
| | 00:13 | a printer, your camera maps the
colors in your image into a color space.
| | 00:19 | A color space is a mathematical model
that defines the boundaries of color.
| | 00:24 | You can learn all about color spaces
in Inkjet Printing for Photographers.
| | 00:28 | For now, all you need to know is that if you
are ultimately shooting with the idea of printing
| | 00:33 | your images on an inkjet printer, then you
should change the Color Space setting in your camera.
| | 00:38 | To set the color space, I drop into my menus.
| | 00:40 | I'm here in the Shooting menu.
| | 00:42 | I've scrolled down a little ways to
the item that says Color Space.
| | 00:45 | You can see that it's defaulting to sRGB.
| | 00:48 | sRGB is a fine color space if you know
that the images that you're going to shoot are
| | 00:54 | only going to be viewed on the web,
but I typically print my images,
| | 00:58 | so I would like to go to Adobe RGB.
| | 00:59 | I'm going to hit OK.
Now, I have a Color Space of Adobe.
| | 01:05 | If you don't set the color space in
your camera, it's not the end of the world.
| | 01:08 | You can always change it
later in your image editor.
| | 01:11 | This just saves you a step later.
| | 01:13 | If you know that you're ultimately going to
change all of your images to Adobe RGB color
| | 01:18 | space, it's silly not to just go
ahead and set it here in the camera.
| | 01:21 |
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| Configuring multiple media cards| 00:00 | The D800 has two media slots: a CompactFlash
slot and a Secure Digital slot. You can control
| | 00:06 | the camera's relationship to those two slots,
and kind of how it handles the both of them,
| | 00:11 | using a couple of menu items
here in your Shooting menu.
| | 00:14 | First of all, there is a
Primary slot selection option.
| | 00:17 | If I open that up, I can say I want you to
start shooting on either the SD or the CF
| | 00:23 | slot. It defaults to SD.
| | 00:25 | I'm going to actually change that to CF, because
the CompactFlash card that I have in the camera
| | 00:30 | right now is faster than the SD card,
and I'm going to be doing some bursting and want
| | 00:35 | to be sure that the buffer clears
out quickly. So I'm going to set OK.
| | 00:40 | At other times I might set the SD card to
be the primary slot, maybe because I need to
| | 00:45 | simply hand the card to someone and
they've asked for an SD. Or maybe I have, say, an i5
| | 00:51 | SD card, which is an SD card with a little Wi-Fi
transmitter in it, so that you can automatically
| | 00:57 | upload images directly from the camera.
But i5 cards only come in SD format, so I might
| | 01:02 | choose to make the SD slot
the card that I'm shooting to.
| | 01:05 | Whichever slot is primary is the one that
the camera is currently storing images on.
| | 01:10 | So what does it do with the second slot?
| | 01:11 | Well, I can tell it a
couple of different things to do.
| | 01:14 | By default the second slot is simply overflow.
When your primary slot fills up or the card
| | 01:19 | in your primary slot fills up, it simply
starts writing data to the secondary card.
| | 01:23 | I can also tell it to back up, that is, to
write the same image to both cards, so I get
| | 01:30 | immediate redundancy.
| | 01:31 | Finally, if I'm shooting RAW plus JPEG,
I can tell it to put the RAW files on the primary
| | 01:36 | card and the JPEG files on the secondary card.
| | 01:39 | I'm just going to use this simply as overflow,
so that if my primary card fills up, it'll
| | 01:44 | switch to the second.
| | 01:45 | This is great if I am shooting a
performance or an event of some kind where I don't want
| | 01:50 | to have to stop and change cards.
| | 01:51 | I can simply load the camera up with two
cards and not have an interruption in my shooting
| | 01:55 | until they're both full.
| | 01:57 | That said, you're going to want to give some
thought to your primary card selection based
| | 02:01 | on the card's speed and capabilities.
| | 02:03 | If you're going to be shooting video,
you may have a card that's too slow for video, so
| | 02:07 | you're going to want to be sure
that that's not your primary card.
| | 02:10 |
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|
|
4. Controlling AutofocusExploring focus modes| 00:00 | Your camera's default Autofocus system is
very good and should be able to provide you
| | 00:05 | with accurate focus for most
of the subjects that you shoot.
| | 00:08 | However, focusing is a complex process.
| | 00:10 | Your camera's Autofocus can be stymied by low-light
situations, moving subjects, solid colors, and more.
| | 00:17 | For that reason, the camera
includes several different focus modes.
| | 00:21 | The D800 has two autofocus modes.
| | 00:24 | I'm currently in AF-S mode.
S is Single-Servo Autofocus.
| | 00:30 | This is the mode that you've been using.
It's the mode you're probably used to.
| | 00:33 | It's ideal for stationary subjects.
| | 00:36 | It works just as you've seen.
| | 00:37 | I half-press the Shutter button when
the focus locks on my stationary subject.
| | 00:42 | I then press the Shutter button
the rest of the way to take my shot.
| | 00:46 | If I work quickly, I can shoot a moving
object by putting a focus point on my subject as
| | 00:51 | it's moving, locking focus, and then reframing.
| | 00:54 | As long as my subject and camera don't change
distance between each other, then I'm still good.
| | 01:00 | But I also have a Continuous-Servo Autofocus
| | 01:02 | that's designed specifically
for shooting moving subjects.
| | 01:07 | To get that, I press the AF mode button,
which is over here on the side of the camera.
| | 01:12 | It's actually a combination of
a rocker switch and a button.
| | 01:16 | The switch part lets me change between autofocus and
manual focus, depending on what type of lens I'm using.
| | 01:21 | And in the middle is a button.
| | 01:22 | I'm going to press and hold that, and when I
do, my screen up here changes, and now using
| | 01:28 | the main command dial, I can change from AF-S
to AF-C. And those are my only two options.
| | 01:34 | They just go back and forth there.
| | 01:36 | So I'm now going to let go of the button,
and now I am in Continuous-Servo Autofocus.
| | 01:42 | So the idea here is if I half-press to lock
focus on my subject, the camera will continue
| | 01:48 | to track that subject as it moves around.
| | 01:51 | Now, how a good job it does of tracking depends
on the autofocus area mode that you have selected.
| | 01:57 | There are different area modes that are better
suited to different types of motion, and we're
| | 02:01 | going to look at all of your
Autofocus Area mode options in the next movie.
| | 02:04 |
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| Exploring autofocus area modes| 00:00 | Your D800 has 51 autofocus points that it can
choose from when it's trying to determine focus.
| | 00:08 | How it chooses those focus points depends
upon a combination of the focus mode that
| | 00:12 | you're in and the autofocus
area mode that you have selected.
| | 00:17 | I'm currently in Single-Servo Autofocus.
| | 00:19 | That's what this AF-S is right here.
| | 00:22 | I am also in Single-Point Autofocus Area mode.
| | 00:26 | That's what this little bracket here is.
| | 00:28 | That's supposed to like a
single focus point inside my frame.
| | 00:31 | What that means is that there
is one focus point in my scene.
| | 00:34 | By default it's in the dead center of my frame.
| | 00:37 | And I can move it around if I need to, as
you'll see in the next movie. But it's only
| | 00:41 | going to focus right there.
| | 00:42 | So when I half press, it focuses on that point.
| | 00:45 | Now, right now that point is right between those two
cameras, and so it's not going to be able to focus.
| | 00:51 | I can also, in Single-Servo Autofocus mode,
choose an Automatic Focus Point Selection.
| | 00:57 | If I press my AF button over here on the side
and turn my subcommand dial--the one on the
| | 01:03 | front--I switch from S--
Single-Point mode--to Auto,
| | 01:07 | and this lights up here showing that it's going
to choose from amongst all 51 autofocus points.
| | 01:14 | So now when I half-press, the camera is going
to try to determine what in the scene is the
| | 01:19 | subject and it's going to focus on that point,
and it's going to show me any focus points
| | 01:24 | that sit on top of what it
has decided is the subject.
| | 01:27 | Now, bear in mind that focus is always
a measure of subject-to-camera distance.
| | 01:33 | So if there are several things in the scene
at the same distance, it's going to show focus
| | 01:37 | points on top of all of them.
| | 01:39 | As long as one of those things is the subject
that I want, then my subject will be in focus.
| | 01:44 | So I'm going to do that right now.
| | 01:44 | I'm going to half-press the Shutter button,
and it picks the camera on the left, which
| | 01:49 | is exactly what I want.
| | 01:50 | It's got focus points all over it, so I
know that I'm in good shape, focus-wise.
| | 01:54 | So I'm going to press the button the
rest of the way, and it takes my shot.
| | 01:59 | This is a great area mode to choose if I'm to
needing to work quickly; if I'm in a rapidly
| | 02:03 | changing environment and Autofocus needs to go
as fast as it can, then this is a good way to go.
| | 02:09 | The downside to this is that sometimes the
camera may choose something as the subject
| | 02:14 | that I don't think is the subject.
| | 02:16 | So in those cases, I might prefer to go back
to my Single-Point Autofocus mode and manually
| | 02:23 | choose my focus point, or employ a focus lock-
and-reframe technique that we'll look at later.
| | 02:29 | Now, if I switch to Continuous-Servo
Autofocus, things change around a bit.
| | 02:34 | Here I am in AF-C mode.
| | 02:36 | I'm still in my Single-Point Area mode.
So right now Autofocus is going to continue to
| | 02:43 | work just as it always has.
| | 02:45 | But let's change the AF Area mode to something
that's going to work better with Continuous-Servo Focus.
| | 02:51 | So I'm going to press my AF button over
here and I'm going to turn my subcommand dial.
| | 02:57 | The first thing I get is D9.
Then there is D21 and then D51.
| | 03:03 | Those are dynamic-area autofocus modes.
| | 03:06 | They are specifically
designed for things that are moving.
| | 03:09 | I'm still going to need to be sure that my
Single Focus Point is sitting on top of my subject.
| | 03:16 | The difference is, if that subject moves,
the camera will try to keep it in focus.
| | 03:21 | Your manual describes these
different modes on page 93.
| | 03:24 | The 9-Point mode is good when you
have a subject that's moving predictably.
| | 03:29 | The 21-Point mode is good when you have
subjects that are moving unpredictably.
| | 03:35 | And the 51-Point mode is good for subjects
that are moving very, very quickly and you're
| | 03:39 | having trouble keeping them framed.
| | 03:42 | There is an additional autofocus area mode
that's good for tracking motion, and that
| | 03:46 | is 3D, which also activates this
autofocus point selection that we saw before.
| | 03:52 | This is 3D Tracking mode.
| | 03:54 | It's going to try to track subjects that
leave the selected focus point, but it's going to
| | 03:58 | automatically select that focus point for you.
| | 04:01 | It's great for subjects that are
moving erratically, jumping around.
| | 04:06 | If the subject leaves your viewfinder, you're going
to need to let go of your half-press and start over.
| | 04:11 | This is also a very good mode for things
that are moving towards you and away from you.
| | 04:16 | Most of the time you'll probably
stay in Single-Servo Focus mode.
| | 04:21 | It's the most everyday focus mode.
| | 04:24 | You may never actually go into Continuous Focus.
| | 04:26 | There are ways that you can manually
keep things that are moving around in focus.
| | 04:31 | But if you do do a lot of sport shooting, a
lot of nature shooting, anything where things
| | 04:34 | are moving around a lot, you're going to want to dig
into these Continuous-Servo modes and Area Focus modes.
| | 04:41 | Again, check your manual for more detail.
| | 04:43 | The main thing to know about these is you
ought to practice with them little bit before
| | 04:47 | you go into any really
critical shooting situation.
| | 04:48 |
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| Using focus points| 00:00 | I am here in Single-Servo autofocus
mode with single autofocus point selection.
| | 00:06 | And the way my shot is framed right now,
my single autofocus point, which always defaults
| | 00:11 | to being in the dead center of the frame,
is sitting right between the two cameras.
| | 00:15 | Now, when I half-press to focus, the
autofocus system on the D800 is actually good enough
| | 00:19 | that it is focusing, but it's focusing there
between the cameras. Neither of them is actually in focus.
| | 00:26 | There's a focus blocking reframing trick that
I could do, but there's another option, which
| | 00:31 | is to simply move the focus point around.
| | 00:34 | I can steer that focus point
around using the multicontroller.
| | 00:37 | It's just like little joystick that lets
me drive the focus point wherever I want.
| | 00:41 | For that to work, I first have to be focused
and metered somewhere, and now I can simply
| | 00:46 | press this and move the
focus point wherever I want.
| | 00:49 | I am going to put it over there on that camera,
and now when I half-press to focus, it focuses
| | 00:54 | on that front-most camera.
| | 00:57 | And I can get my shot.
| | 00:59 | Let's say I want it to focus on the other camera.
| | 01:02 | I would just move my focus point over to here,
half-press to focus, take my shot, and now
| | 01:08 | I've got focus on the rear camera.
| | 01:10 | At any time I can press the middle button
in the multicontroller and it will pop my
| | 01:14 | focus point right back to the middle
so that I can easily get it reset there.
| | 01:19 | This is how I drive the focus point in any
of the autofocus area modes that I'm choosing.
| | 01:24 | Obviously, in auto
selection mode I don't need to this.
| | 01:27 | The camera is going to pick it for me.
But for some of the servo focus modes you'll still
| | 01:30 | possibly need to move your focus point around.
| | 01:33 | Now again, there are ways that you can shoot
without having to do this, that you can leave
| | 01:36 | the focus point right in the dead center of the
frame, and we are going to look at those later.
| | 01:40 | But for times when you're locked down on a
tripod, either for a product shoot or a portrait
| | 01:44 | shoot or a landscape shoot or something like
that, it may be that the place that you want
| | 01:48 | to focus is not actually in
the dead center of the frame.
| | 01:50 | So being able move your focus point around
can really make the difference between getting
| | 01:54 | a shot that's in focus and not.
| | 01:56 |
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| Using manual focus| 00:00 | While I rely heavily on Autofocus most of
the time, there are still occasions when I
| | 00:04 | switch my camera over to Manual Focus.
| | 00:07 | For moving situations, Manual Focus is
sometimes faster than Autofocus for the simple reason
| | 00:12 | that as good as your autofocus system
is, you are still smarter than it is.
| | 00:17 | If you are in a situation where a moving
object is traveling in a very predictable way, then
| | 00:21 | you might be able to track focus manually
very smoothly as you wait for the precise
| | 00:25 | moment that you want to shoot.
| | 00:27 | Your autofocus system may rack in and
out of focus as it looks for the point.
| | 00:31 | Manual Focus is also useful for times when
Autofocus doesn't lock, either because your
| | 00:35 | subject lacks contrast or because there
is not enough light in the scene to focus.
| | 00:39 | Of course, if there is not enough light for
your camera to focus, then there may not be
| | 00:43 | enough for you to see either,
but that's still worth a try.
| | 00:46 | Finally, I sometimes use
Autofocus and Manual Focus in combination.
| | 00:50 | If I'm shooting the same subject over and over,
for example, if I'm shooting a landscape in
| | 00:55 | rapidly changing light, I will frame my shot
and Autofocus--or using Autofocus--then switch
| | 01:00 | the camera to Manual Focus.
| | 01:02 | As long as I don't bump the lens,
my autofocus choice will now be locked in.
| | 01:05 | Now, I can just keep shooting
without having to wait for autofocus.
| | 01:09 | This can also be handy for a portrait shoot
where your camera-to-subject distance never
| | 01:13 | changes, and you want to be able
to shoot without waiting for focus.
| | 01:17 | There are two ways of selecting manual focus
on the D800. Which one you will use depends
| | 01:22 | on the type of lens you have.
| | 01:24 | If you have an AF-S lens, then you will use the
manual switch over here on the side of the camera.
| | 01:31 | Right now, I am set to Autofocus.
| | 01:33 | I am going to just switch that over to Manual.
| | 01:36 | If you are using an AF lens, then you'll use the
Focus mode switch over here on the side of the camera.
| | 01:42 | It's a rocker switch and a button,
and I just flip that over to Manual mode.
| | 01:49 | I am not going to do that here
because I'm using an AF-S lens.
| | 01:54 | That brings us to a very important point, which
is spelled out on page 101 of your D800 manual.
| | 01:59 | There is a box about AF-S lenses.
| | 02:02 | It says "Do not use AF-S lenses with the Lens
Focus mode switch set to M,"--that is, the switch
| | 02:07 | on the lens--"and the Camera Focus mode
Selector set to AF." That's the one on the body.
| | 02:14 | "Failure to observe this
precaution could damage the camera or lens."
| | 02:17 | That is, if you are using an older AF lens,
you want to be sure that both the lens and
| | 02:21 | the body are set to Manual Focus.
| | 02:24 | Once I'm configured for Manual Focus,
I just use the Manual Focus Ring on my lens.
| | 02:29 | Some lenses will have markings here that show
the distance that you are focused at, usually
| | 02:34 | in feet and meters.
| | 02:35 | Now, you may think,
"Oh! Good, I can be really precise about focus.
| | 02:38 | I will measure the distance from
my focal plane out to my subject."
| | 02:42 | Well, the problem is these are pretty
blunt instruments, in terms of gauges,
| | 02:47 | so you're not going to really be able
to dial in a very precise number here.
| | 02:51 | However, the camera can
help you with your autofocus.
| | 02:55 | It's got a cool feature where, even in Manual mode, the
autofocus mechanism will double-check your manual focus.
| | 03:02 | The way it works is, you put a focus
point on the subject you want to focus on.
| | 03:06 | So, in this case, I steered it
over to the camera on the left.
| | 03:11 | Now, as long as I keep half-pressing the
Shutter button, while I turn my Manual Focus ring,
| | 03:17 | it will light up one of two arrows
indicating which direction I need to focus, and when
| | 03:21 | I get focus set properly, it will show the
circle that indicates that I have got focus.
| | 03:27 | So this is a way of having the
camera double-check my focus.
| | 03:30 | If you think you've got good manual focus,
put the focus point on the thing you want
| | 03:34 | to focus on, half-press that Shutter button,
| | 03:36 | and if you see one of these two arrows,
then you know that you're off, and it's telling
| | 03:40 | you the direction that you should go.
| | 03:42 | At that point, you might be better
served simply by going back to Autofocus.
| | 03:46 | If the camera can figure it out for you,
then you might as well use the Autofocus mechanism.
| | 03:51 | But as I said earlier, there are still a
lot of good reasons to use Manual Focus.
| | 03:54 |
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|
5. Controlling White BalanceUsing auto white balance| 00:00 | Different types of light
shine with different colors.
| | 00:03 | For example, tungsten lights are
redder or warmer than fluorescent light.
| | 00:08 | Now, while your eye does an amazing job of
adjusting automatically to different types
| | 00:12 | of light so the colors always look correct,
| | 00:15 | your camera doesn't fare so well.
| | 00:17 | Your camera has to be calibrated to the
type of light that you're shooting, and if it's
| | 00:20 | not, then colors can appear wrong.
| | 00:23 | This process of calibration
is called white balancing.
| | 00:26 | Now, the idea is that you calibrate the
camera so that white appears correct. Because white
| | 00:32 | contains all other colors,
| | 00:33 | if you can get white looking good,
then you get all the colors for free.
| | 00:37 | By default, your camera is
set to Auto White Balance.
| | 00:40 | With Auto White Balance, the camera will attempt to
continuously white balance itself on the fly as you shoot.
| | 00:47 | White Balance is displayed here at
the bottom of the status display.
| | 00:50 | There is a little icon that says W/B
to remind you that that's what this is.
| | 00:55 | And if you see an A there, that means that
you are currently set for Auto White Balance.
| | 01:00 |
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| Working with white balance presets| 00:00 | Most of the time Auto White Balance will work
great, and by work great I mean it will yield
| | 00:06 | good color in your images.
| | 00:09 | There will be times when Auto White Balance
will get confused or not do a very good job
| | 00:13 | in the lighting that you're currently in.
In those times you'll want to either switch
| | 00:17 | to a white balance preset
or a manual white balance.
| | 00:21 | To change white balance on the D800, I just
press the White Balance button right here.
| | 00:26 | Here's my white balance display down here.
| | 00:27 | You can see I'm set to A, which is Auto.
| | 00:30 | If I turn the main command dial,
I can cycle through other presets.
| | 00:33 | These are simply pre-designated white
balance settings for particular kinds of lightning.
| | 00:37 | So that's Incandescent.
| | 00:40 | That's Florescent, Daylight, Flash, Cloudy,
Shady, a manual type of white balance where
| | 00:52 | I can dial in a specific color temperature,
and then finally, a completely manual white
| | 00:58 | balance, which we'll look at in another movie.
| | 01:01 | As I said, Auto White
Balance on the D800 is very good.
| | 01:04 | Probably the only time you'll really feel it
fall down is when you're in a shady situation
| | 01:10 | shooting portraits.
| | 01:11 | So if you've got someone standing under a
tree, under the eave of a house, or any other
| | 01:18 | shady location, or maybe
it's a completely overcast day,
| | 01:20 | you ought to try either the
Cloudy preset or the Shady preset.
| | 01:24 | I think what you'll find, if you try it with
Auto and with one of these, is that while the
| | 01:29 | Auto doesn't look bad, the preset white
balance is going to give you slightly warmer skin
| | 01:34 | tones that are going to be more appealing.
| | 01:36 | Now, there are many different kinds of
fluorescent light bulbs, and the D800 lets you pick very
| | 01:43 | specific florescent white balance.
| | 01:46 | To select any of these white balances that I've
dialed in, I just half-press the Shutter button.
| | 01:50 | I'm going to go here into the menu now, and in my
Shooting menu, there's something called White Balance.
| | 01:57 | Here I can do the same thing that I'm doing
up on top of the camera, which is just pick
| | 02:00 | a white balance preset, but some
of these have additional options.
| | 02:03 | Fluorescent, as you can see out here, is a
menu that I can go to, and now I've got lots
| | 02:09 | and lots of different
fluorescent light bulb options.
| | 02:13 | If you look on page 145 of your D800 manual,
you can find specific color temperatures for
| | 02:18 | each of these entries and a little
more detail about what each one is.
| | 02:24 | These options that have OK next
to them are just what they are:
| | 02:28 | there are no sub-options.
| | 02:30 | The only other one that has
an additional option is Auto.
| | 02:33 | By default Auto is set to Normal mode,
but if you're shooting in incandescent light,
| | 02:37 | you may want to try Keep warm lighting colors.
| | 02:40 | That will give you a little bit more of that
extra warmth that you get from incandescent
| | 02:44 | light when you're shooting in Auto.
| | 02:46 | Again, for white balance, most of
the time you'll stick with Auto.
| | 02:49 | You might need to make some manual
adjustments when you're shooting in fluorescent light.
| | 02:54 | But most likely anytime you're shooting in
cloud or shade, particularly if you're shooting
| | 02:58 | people, you're going to
want to switch to one of those.
| | 03:00 | For the finest degree of white balance control
though, you're going to want to do a completely
| | 03:04 | manual white balance,
which we'll look at in the next movie.
| | 03:07 |
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| Adjusting white balance manually| 00:00 | Most of the time Auto White Balance will be
all you need to get good color in your images,
| | 00:05 | but there will be times when
Auto White Balance might fail.
| | 00:08 | Shade and clouds can cause your images to
appear too cool when you're using Auto White
| | 00:12 | Balance. Here is a situation
where we have mixed lighting.
| | 00:16 | We've got daylight, balanced lights mixed with
tungsten light, and it's causing a big color shift.
| | 00:21 | Those are white flowers back there, but as
you can see, they are appearing a little bit
| | 00:25 | yellowish or orangish.
| | 00:27 | I'm going to turn on Live
View on my camera right now.
| | 00:30 | This is something you haven't seen yet,
and we're going to be devoting an entire chapter to it.
| | 00:33 | But I think this process that I'm about to
show you is going to be a little easier to
| | 00:36 | understand if you can see
what the camera is seeing.
| | 00:40 | So here you can see that my white
flowers here don't actually look white.
| | 00:45 | I'm going to go ahead and take a picture of
this, to capture a record of our bad auto white
| | 00:51 | balance, and now I'm going to try
to fix it using Manual White Balance.
| | 00:55 | I'm going to turn Live View off because you
cannot do this next step with Live View on.
| | 01:00 | Auto White Balance has gone awry,
so I have a few different options.
| | 01:04 | I could go to one of the predefined white
balances, such as Daylight or Cloudy or Florescent
| | 01:12 | or something like that, but there is not
going to be a predefined white balance for this
| | 01:16 | particular lighting situation that I am in.
| | 01:18 | So instead, I'm going to have
the camera manually white balance.
| | 01:22 | So to do that I press the White Balance button
just like I always would to change white balance
| | 01:26 | and I use the main command dial to come all
the way over here to where it says PRE.
| | 01:31 | That stands for preset white balance.
| | 01:33 | I'm going to define a preset white balance.
| | 01:35 | I can have up to four of them.
| | 01:37 | I'm currently setting number one.
| | 01:39 | If I wanted to store this in a different
location, I would just turn the subcommand dial.
| | 01:44 | So I can keep up to four
different custom white balances.
| | 01:47 | Now I'm going to let go with the button and
I'm going to press it again and hold it down
| | 01:51 | until the PRE starts flashing. Then I'm going to
ask Loren to move in a piece of white foam core.
| | 01:59 | It doesn't have to be foam core, and it
doesn't have to be Loren either; he just happens to
| | 02:03 | be here holding a piece of white foam core.
| | 02:05 | So I need something that's white or a neutral
gray; it could just be a piece of paper.
| | 02:09 | I need it to fill most of the frame,
and I need it to be in the light.
| | 02:13 | Notice he is not putting it right here in
front of the camera; he is putting it out
| | 02:17 | there where the problem light is.
| | 02:19 | Now I've lost my flashing PRE, so
I'm going to have to do that again.
| | 02:22 | I'm going to press and hold this and wait
for it to start flashing, and now I'm just
| | 02:26 | going to take a picture.
| | 02:27 | Now I'm not actually taking
a picture. It's saying Good now.
| | 02:30 | What this is telling me is that it's successfully
measured white balance in that scene and it stored it away.
| | 02:36 | Okay, Loren, take out our white balance
card there. And here are our flowers.
| | 02:42 | Now they still look the same to us obviously
because we haven't changed the lighting, but
| | 02:46 | I'm going to turn on Live View now, and it
should show us an image using our new white
| | 02:52 | balance, and it's way out of focus.
That's because it refocused on the card.
| | 02:55 | So I'm just going to refocus
the camera here, and look here.
| | 02:57 | Now my flowers actually look white.
| | 02:59 | I'm going to go ahead and take that shot
so that we can look at a before-and-after.
| | 03:04 | Here's the shot that I just
took with my manual white balance.
| | 03:07 | Here's the shot that I tool
before with Auto White Balance.
| | 03:10 | So as you can see there is a big shift in color.
| | 03:12 | This one is very warm and red, this one is much
cooler, and those are a little more accurate white.
| | 03:18 | These may not look
perfectly white on your screen.
| | 03:20 | I don't know what your computer monitor
looks like, and there's going to be a lot going on
| | 03:24 | between the time that this video is captured,
edited, compressed, and so on and so forth.
| | 03:28 | So trust me that the white balance is
working here to give me a very accurate white.
| | 03:33 | Now you may think, "Well, you know it looks
white, but I like the first image better."
| | 03:37 | And I think maybe I do too.
| | 03:39 | I like the warmth of this image.
| | 03:42 | That's an aesthetic decision, though.
| | 03:44 | That has nothing to do with accuracy.
| | 03:46 | This is a more accurate image, in terms
of the original color of the flowers.
| | 03:51 | My recommendation is to always go for
accurate color, because you can always warm and cool
| | 03:55 | things later, or skew the
color any way that you want.
| | 03:58 | It's very difficult to correct a bad white
balance later, especially if you're shooting JPEG.
| | 04:03 | If you're shooting RAW, it's much easier.
But it's--even if you're shooting RAW, it's
| | 04:07 | nicer to go for accurate white balance in-camera to
save yourself the trouble of correcting it later.
| | 04:13 | Now in addition to defining a preset white
balance the way that we did here, you can
| | 04:18 | also copy a white balance from a
photo that's already on your card.
| | 04:22 | You can see more about how to do
that on page 158 of your manual.
| | 04:25 | If you find yourself moving between a
couple of different lighting situations, problem
| | 04:30 | lighting situations regularly, then you
might define a couple of preset white balances.
| | 04:34 | For example, if I was going to be regularly
shooting in this environment over the next
| | 04:38 | few days, I would know that my preset d-1
white balance is correct for this lighting.
| | 04:44 | If I had a different situation that was
causing trouble, I could go here to d-2, manually white
| | 04:50 | balance there, and shoot
under that kind of lighting.
| | 04:52 | When I came back to this lighting, all I
would have to do to get correct white balance is
| | 04:56 | press my White Balance button, turn my
subcommand dial back to d-1, and I would be back
| | 05:01 | to that white balance that we just
defined and that's correct for this lighting.
| | 05:04 | So I'm going to keep four of these
manual white balances going at once.
| | 05:08 | One of the most important things to understand
about what balance is it's not all just about
| | 05:12 | how you drive your camera. To really do a
good job of getting good white balance you
| | 05:16 | first have to recognize when something is off
in your scene, and that can be tricky because
| | 05:21 | your eye is always doing an equivalent of
white balance and correcting color as you go.
| | 05:26 | So be sure to pay
attention as you change lighting.
| | 05:29 | Look for something white in your scene.
See if it actually looks white. If you're shooting
| | 05:33 | portraits, see if the flash tones look
warm or if they look a little too cool.
| | 05:37 | You've got to learn to start paying
attention to the color in your scene so that you can
| | 05:41 | take better use of the white balance, and
especially manual white balance, capabilities of your D800.
| | 05:46 |
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6. Understanding Release ModesExploring Continuous mode| 00:00 | The great photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson
spoke extensively about the decisive moment,
| | 00:05 | that one particular moment that happens
that is the perfect decisive expression of the
| | 00:11 | scene or event that you're trying to shoot.
| | 00:13 | Now, because he was a genius, he was often able
to fire his camera at the perfect decisive moment.
| | 00:19 | For the rest of us there's Continuous mode.
| | 00:22 | In Continuous mode as you hold the Shutter
button on your camera down, the camera will
| | 00:25 | continue to snap frames one after another.
| | 00:28 | Continuous mode is a great tool for shooting
in fast-moving environments, sports, street
| | 00:34 | shooting, nature shots; but it can also be
ideal for portraiture, where a person's face
| | 00:39 | is making lots of tiny, subtle changes and
you're not sure which is the ideal expression.
| | 00:45 | However, you can't use Drive mode indefinitely.
| | 00:47 | That is, you can't just hold the button down
and expect the camera to always keep shooting.
| | 00:51 | When you take a picture the camera has to move a
lot of data around and do a lot of computation.
| | 00:55 | You can take pictures faster than your
camera can get them written to its media card, so
| | 01:01 | your camera has a memory buffer that
can hold a certain number of pictures.
| | 01:05 | As you shoot, your images can be quickly thrown
into that buffer, and then the camera can start
| | 01:09 | the process of copying images from the buffer to
the memory card while you continue to snap away.
| | 01:14 | If the buffer fills then your camera will
cease to be able to take pictures and you'll
| | 01:19 | have to wait for it to empty out
before you can start shooting again.
| | 01:22 | Normally, when you shoot with your D800,
a press of the shutter button takes a picture.
| | 01:27 | If you'd like, you can put it in Continuous
mode, which is like having an automatic winder
| | 01:32 | on an old film camera. I do
that over here with this knob.
| | 01:37 | Normally, this knob is locked here.
| | 01:38 | To get it to turn I have to
press this button right here.
| | 01:41 | So I'm going to press this button,
and I see my current setting here.
| | 01:44 | It's on S for single.
| | 01:45 | I'm going to switch it over to CL.
That's Continuous Low-speed, and now as long as I hold the button
| | 01:52 | down, the camera continues to shoot.
| | 01:55 | And it's clicking away there at
about three frames per second.
| | 01:59 | If I want faster, I can switch it over to Continuous
High-speed and now I get closer to five frames per second.
| | 02:09 | Note that in Continuous High speed if I'm
plugged into an AC adapter rather than running
| | 02:13 | off of the battery, I can actually
get closer to six frames per second.
| | 02:16 | Now you may be wondering, well, if I want to
shoot continuously, why would I ever choose
| | 02:20 | the low speed? Wouldn't I want to
just always shoot as fast as I can?
| | 02:24 | Not necessarily, because some subject matter
moves faster than others, and if you really
| | 02:28 | want a good amount of variation between frames,
it might be more appropriate to shoot at low speed.
| | 02:34 | For example, Continuous mode can be very useful
for shooting portraits because you can quickly
| | 02:39 | capture some subtle change of expression,
but you may find that low speed is giving
| | 02:43 | you a nicer degree of variety than high speed,
where you get five images that are mostly the same.
| | 02:48 | Conversely, if I'm shooting let's say a
bicycle race and there's a very particular moment
| | 02:54 | that I want to capture, and it's going to just
be one moment during a very short period of time,
| | 02:59 | I may want to switch to high speed so that I
get a very rapid burst through just one second.
| | 03:05 | Now when you shoot your camera grabs an image
and then sticks it in a memory buffer so that
| | 03:10 | it can be dumped out to the card.
| | 03:11 | That buffer only has so much space in it,
and once the buffer fills up, the camera will
| | 03:17 | stop shooting until it has cleared out the buffer
to the card to free up some more space to shoot.
| | 03:23 | The D800 tells you how much buffer space you
have left, or rather, how many shots you have
| | 03:29 | left in the buffer.
| | 03:30 | Right over here on your status display--and this
same readout is mirrored inside your viewfinder--
| | 03:35 | you can see that right now I've
got room for 16 shots in my buffer.
| | 03:39 | As I continuously shoot, that goes down,
and shooting continues at full speed until the
| | 03:46 | buffer is full. And you can see that it's--
it's skipping there because it's getting
| | 03:50 | data written out to the card. There we go.
| | 03:54 | So now I just got it to stop, and now as
the buffer is emptying out, it's continuing to
| | 03:59 | shoot, but I'm not getting the same speed
that I had when the buffer was completely empty.
| | 04:04 | How quickly the camera will be able to write
out to the buffer depends on your card speed.
| | 04:09 | So if you do a lot of burst shooting and
you want to be sure that you don't get hung up
| | 04:12 | by the buffer filling up, then you're
going to need to go to a faster card.
| | 04:16 | You can customize the
Continuous mode a little bit.
| | 04:19 | If I go here into my menu and over here to my
Custom Setting menu, down to the d category,
| | 04:27 | Shooting/display, you'll see I have
d2, Continuous Low mode shooting speed.
| | 04:33 | This lets you choose the
maximum speed for the CL mode.
| | 04:37 | So you can see here, actually I'm at two
frames per second, not three. I can bump that up
| | 04:41 | to three if I want.
| | 04:42 | This is very nice for fine-tuning the
low speed for slower subject matter.
| | 04:46 | Maybe you only need one frame per second.
Maybe you're shooting a tree sloth or something.
| | 04:50 | Obviously, you can get it up to full speed
and then it's five frames per second and then
| | 04:54 | it's really no different than high speed.
| | 04:57 | I can also go down here to the Maximum
continuous release. This gives me a maximum number of
| | 05:02 | shots that can be shot in a single burst.
| | 05:05 | Right now, it's 100, which is
probably far more than you would ever do.
| | 05:08 | You could lower that if you find that maybe
you have a tendency to get a little carried
| | 05:13 | away in burst mode.
| | 05:15 | You get home and realize you shot far more
images than you needed in a single burst.
| | 05:18 | You could lower that.
| | 05:20 | This might also be useful if you're using a
remote trigger of some kind, like a computer
| | 05:23 | to control your camera.
| | 05:25 | A lot of remote triggers allow you to
specify a time to hold the Shutter button down.
| | 05:31 | So that doesn't really give you control of
number of frames; it's just gives you a time
| | 05:34 | that the button is down.
| | 05:35 | This as a way of maybe fine-tuning that
process a little more to ensure that in the time that
| | 05:41 | the button is held down, you don't get
more than a certain number of shots.
| | 05:46 | Continuous mode is very handy for many
different types of shooting, so you'll want to do a
| | 05:51 | little experimenting with that to really get a feel
for the difference between low speed and high speed.
| | 05:55 |
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| Exploring Quiet mode| 00:00 | So, here's the normal D800
shutter sound. It's very nice.
| | 00:05 | I really like the shutter sound on this camera.
| | 00:07 | I can go quieter than that though.
| | 00:08 | If I switch over here from Single Shot mode
to the big Q, which is Quiet mode, I get this.
| | 00:15 | So, notice what's happened here.
| | 00:17 | First, the shutter sound is a little bit quieter,
but also the mirror has not come back down yet.
| | 00:21 | It doesn't actually come back down until I
let go of the button, and the way it comes
| | 00:25 | down is a little bit softer.
| | 00:27 | So, if I'm shooting in a performance or in
a museum, or stealthily somehow, and I want
| | 00:35 | to keep my camera quiet, this is a way that
I can get it to make a little bit less noise.
| | 00:41 | Note that this will slow me down.
| | 00:42 | I'm not going to be able to shoot quite as
quickly because there is going to be an extra
| | 00:48 | little delay between when the shutter
closes and when the mirror comes down.
| | 00:51 |
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| Using the self-timer| 00:00 | Most people have used a self-timer on a camera.
| | 00:04 | You balance the camera on a rock or something,
and you point it at your friends, and then
| | 00:07 | you set it off and you try and run back
and get in the frame and look natural before
| | 00:11 | the camera takes a picture.
| | 00:13 | To use the self-timer, just spin the
dial around the little Self-Timer icon here.
| | 00:18 | By default, it's set to a 10-second timer.
| | 00:21 | So, I would half-press the Shutter button
to autofocus, just like normal, and then press
| | 00:26 | it the rest of the way to start the timer, which has
an incredibly annoying beeping sound that it makes.
| | 00:33 | The other thing that's going on here is the
autofocus assist lamp is flashing in time with the beep.
| | 00:38 | And as you heard there at the very end, it speeds up
for the last second or two before it takes the shot,
| | 00:42 | so that lets you know that it's about to go off.
| | 00:45 | I can customize the
self-timer in some very cool ways.
| | 00:48 | If I go here into my menu, into the Custom
Setting menu--that's a little pencil--category
| | 00:53 | C Timers, and Auto Exposure Lock,
and down here to C3 Self-Timer,
| | 00:59 | I've got three different things I can
change. First, the length of the timer itself.
| | 01:03 | By default, it's at 10 seconds.
| | 01:04 | So I can put that at 20 or at 5 or at 2.
| | 01:07 | Now, you may think, "Well
what good is a 2-second timer?"
| | 01:11 | I can't really run around
the camera that quickly.
| | 01:13 | That's great for times when I'm maybe working off
of a tripod and simply want to reduce camera shake.
| | 01:18 | I can give it a 2-second timer.
| | 01:20 | That gives it a moment to calm
down before it takes the shot.
| | 01:24 | There are some other cool
customizations you can make.
| | 01:26 | Let's say that you're taking a self-timed
shot of a group of you and your friends, and
| | 01:30 | you don't want to simply take a single
frame because you don't know that someone's eyes
| | 01:33 | aren't going to be closed.
| | 01:35 | Number of shots lets me specify how many
shots to take when the self-timer fires,
| | 01:41 | and I can give it from 1 to 9.
| | 01:43 | So, when the self-timer finally goes,
it will knock off here five shots.
| | 01:47 | I can also tell it how much space
I want between each of those shots.
| | 01:51 | Default is half a second.
| | 01:53 | I can go 1, 2, or 3 seconds.
| | 01:55 | So, that allows me to get a little more
space to give people time to compose themselves.
| | 02:00 | So, this is a really versatile, really nice
self-timer, with a lot of flexibility built into it.
| | 02:06 | Note that the self-timer will work with
the built-in flash or with an external flash,
| | 02:10 | but it will not work in Bulb mode.
| | 02:12 | There's no way to create a self-timing configuration and then
simply hold the Shutter button down for a while.
| | 02:17 | One important thing to know about the self-
timer is that when I half-press the Shutter button
| | 02:21 | to autofocus, autofocus is
happening then and is locked in.
| | 02:25 | So, when the camera finally fires, it will be
at that focus that occurred when I originally
| | 02:31 | half-pressed the button.
| | 02:33 | The problem is, if I'm trying to do a
self-portrait, I'm back here behind the camera.
| | 02:37 | So, if I half-press the Shutter button, it's possibly
going to focus beyond where I'm going to be standing.
| | 02:42 | So, when I get around in front of the camera,
focus may come up or focus may go too long.
| | 02:48 | There are two things I can do.
| | 02:49 | I can shoot with deeper depth of
field to try to make up for that.
| | 02:52 | But even that can be risky.
| | 02:54 | So, what I typically do in those situations
is to tilt the camera down to a point on the
| | 02:58 | ground where I will be standing,
focus there, then tilt it back up.
| | 03:02 | I want to use a slightly deeper depth of
field then, just because that could actually be
| | 03:06 | a longer distance than when the
camera is parallel to the ground.
| | 03:10 | I half-press the Shutter
button there to lock focus.
| | 03:13 | With the Shutter button still held down,
I tilt the camera up, lock it down, and then
| | 03:17 | press it the rest of the way and run
around and get in front of the camera.
| | 03:20 | We will be talking more about that
focus-and-reframing technique later in this course.
| | 03:25 |
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| Locking the mirror up| 00:00 | When you're shooting an exposure of a second
or two long, you want to be very careful to
| | 00:05 | ensure that the camera doesn't shake.
| | 00:07 | So, typically, you put the camera on a tripod
and maybe you use a remote control to ensure
| | 00:12 | that your hands don't touch the camera.
| | 00:14 | But even with all of that, the camera can still pick
up some vibration from its mirror flapping up and down.
| | 00:19 | Depending on the length of your exposure, that little
bit of vibration can cause a softening in your image.
| | 00:25 | Your camera includes a feature that
can help you prevent this problem.
| | 00:29 | To engage Mirror-Up mode on D800, I turn
my release dial over here to MUP or MUP.
| | 00:38 | To use it I work with my camera as normal,
set my exposure, frame my shot, half-press
| | 00:42 | the shutter button to meter, and then press
it the rest of the way, and I don't get a shot;
| | 00:47 | instead what you just
heard is the mirror going up.
| | 00:50 | And notice my hand is completely off the
camera now, so the mirror is locked up.
| | 00:54 | If I press the button now, the shutter
opens and closes and my shot is taken.
| | 00:59 | Note that when the mirror is up, if I don't
take a shot within 30 seconds, the camera
| | 01:03 | will just do it for me automatically, so you
can't really just hang out there for a long time.
| | 01:08 | Obviously, in practical use, you'd be locked
down a tripod for this to happen, so after
| | 01:11 | you get the mirror up, you want to just wait a
moment for the camera vibration to die down.
| | 01:16 | If you were shooting outside and there was a
sudden gust of wind or something, you would
| | 01:20 | obviously want to wait for that to die down.
| | 01:22 | When you're ready to go, you would
then press it the rest of the way.
| | 01:24 | Now the problem is I'm getting my hand back
on the camera here, so I want to squeeze very
| | 01:29 | gently, so as to not
introduce any more vibration.
| | 01:32 | If I'm really worried about that then I would go to a
remote control, which you'll see later in this course.
| | 01:38 |
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|
|
7. Using the Exposure Control OptionsExploring metering modes| 00:00 | Accurate metering is critical to
getting good results from your camera.
| | 00:04 | Fortunately, metering technology is now so
good that your camera should yield correct
| | 00:08 | exposure 80-90% of the time.
| | 00:11 | To help ensure that your metering results are good
your camera offers several different metering modes.
| | 00:17 | You can see what metering mode you're
in by looking at this switch right here.
| | 00:20 | It rotates between these three different
icons, and whichever one you're currently set to
| | 00:25 | is also shown inside the
viewfinder, on the status display.
| | 00:30 | By default you are in Matrix
Metering mode. That's the middle one.
| | 00:34 | This is the best general-purpose metering mode.
| | 00:37 | It's the one you will probably stay in most
of the time because it does such an excellent
| | 00:41 | job of metering in all kinds of situations.
| | 00:44 | For most of the scenes you'll ever
shoot, Matrix Metering will work fine.
| | 00:47 | In fact, you may find that you
never change metering from Matrix.
| | 00:51 | Center-weighted and Spot Metering give you
options for handling higher-dynamic-range
| | 00:55 | situations, such as for shooting someone in
front of the window or anyplace where you
| | 00:59 | have got more dynamic range than your
camera can handle and you want to be sure that a
| | 01:03 | particular thing in scene is properly exposed.
| | 01:05 | This is another thing that's covered in detail
in my Foundations of Photography: Exposure course.
| | 01:12 | Matrix metering works by dividing your
scene into a grid and metering each cell of the
| | 01:17 | grid and then using a lot of complex algorithms to
determine the best overall metering for your shot.
| | 01:24 | The D800's Matrix Meter analyzes everything from
distribution of tones, color, the composition of your scene.
| | 01:32 | If you're using a type G or D lens, then it
even measures distance to different things
| | 01:37 | in your scene and factors
those into its metering.
| | 01:40 | So really, this is probably
where you'll stay most of the time.
| | 01:44 | It's the best all-around
metering scheme that you can use.
| | 01:48 | That said, there will be times when
the other metering modes are useful.
| | 01:51 | If I rotate this to the right--
and it's a really stiff knob--
| | 01:55 | I get Center-weight metering.
| | 01:57 | This does just what Matrix Metering does,
but it assigns more statistical weight to
| | 02:01 | the cells in the center of the image.
| | 02:04 | This is great for backlighting situations.
| | 02:06 | If you have got someone standing in front
of a bright window and they are in the center
| | 02:09 | of the frame, then this
will be a very good way to go.
| | 02:12 | If they're not in the center of the frame
then you may want to switch all the way over
| | 02:16 | to the left to Spot Metering.
| | 02:19 | This meters only a very small
circle in the middle of the frame.
| | 02:23 | It's approximately 1.5% out of the middle
of the frame, so it gives you a very precise
| | 02:28 | metering of one particular spot.
| | 02:31 | So if you put the center of your frame on
what it is you want to have well exposed and
| | 02:37 | then half press the Shutter button to meter,
hold the Shutter button there and then recompose
| | 02:41 | your shot to however you want it, then you
can ensure that anything anywhere in the frame
| | 02:47 | is metered properly.
| | 02:49 | Again, most of the time you'll want to stick
to Matrix Metering, particularly if you've
| | 02:53 | been using Spot. You want to be sure to
change out of Spot when you're done with it because
| | 02:57 | it could give you wildly
different meterings than you're used to.
| | 03:01 | Matrix metering is where
you'll say most of the time.
| | 03:02 |
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| Using the auto exposure lock| 00:00 | There will be times where you'll want to
shoot multiple frames with different compositions
| | 00:05 | but use the same
exposure settings for each shot.
| | 00:08 | Panoramas are the most common
situation where you'll encounter this problem.
| | 00:12 | The Exposure Lock control lets you meter a
scene and then lock that exposure in as you
| | 00:17 | take multiple shots.
| | 00:20 | This is the Auto Exposure
Lock button on the D800.
| | 00:23 | The thing to understand about it is that it's
also an Auto Focus lock. That's what AFL stands for.
| | 00:29 | Now I'm in Single Servo Autofocus mode right
now, which means that this button is pretty
| | 00:33 | much useless, because exposure and focus lock
are the same things I get on my Shutter button.
| | 00:38 | So for example, I could frame a shot,
half-press the button to focus and meter, and then reframe
| | 00:44 | my shot, press the button the rest of the way, and
shoot it with that original focus and metering.
| | 00:50 | That's exactly what this button would
do. So, it's not actually that useful.
| | 00:54 | But if I change to Continues Servo Autofocus, AFC,
now this button becomes a little more useful.
| | 01:01 | If I frame a shot and then half-press my
Shutter button to focus and meter, and then reframe
| | 01:07 | the shot, the camera is going to refocus,
because Continuous Servo Autofocus means that it's
| | 01:12 | constantly refocusing as things in the
scene change and as I move the camera around.
| | 01:18 | If instead I frame a shot and half-press
the Shutter button to focus and meter and then
| | 01:23 | press and hold this Auto
Exposure/Auto Focus Lock button,
| | 01:28 | now both exposure and focus will stay
locked as I reframe my scene and take the shot.
| | 01:36 | In the viewfinder, I'll see this icon light up
to indicate that I'm holding the Lock button
| | 01:40 | down, and everything will stay
locked until I let go of it.
| | 01:44 | So this is a very useful feature when
you are in Continuous Servo Autofocus.
| | 01:49 | If you rarely shoot that way, or if you are
at a location where you're doing a lot of
| | 01:53 | Single Servo Focus, there are some other
uses that you might find for that button.
| | 01:58 | I'm going to change back to Single Servo Focus,
and I'm going to reprogram the function of
| | 02:02 | this button right now.
| | 02:03 | If I go into my menu, into the f category
Controls, down here to f6, Assign AE-L/AF-L
| | 02:12 | button, that lets me change the function of
this button. So I'm going to come in here,
| | 02:18 | and it highlights the
controlling question with red. That's this one right here.
| | 02:21 | You notice I also have the option to alter
the functionality of the button when combined
| | 02:27 | with a command dial.
| | 02:28 | I'm not going to do that right now.
| | 02:29 | I just want to change the
function of the button press.
| | 02:32 | So I can change it to any of this long
scrolling list of features here, and there are a lot
| | 02:37 | of things that I can put on that button.
| | 02:39 | I can put depth of field
preview, Flash Value Lock.
| | 02:42 | It's default value of exposure and focus lock,
lots of variation on exposure locks and focus locks.
| | 02:48 | I can do flash off, bracketing bursts,
metering modes, all sorts of different things.
| | 02:54 | There are lots of other buttons and
controls that you can assign the same functions to,
| | 02:58 | so you can really distribute these
functions amongst a range of controls on the camera,
| | 03:02 | and we'll look at how to do that in various
movies throughout the rest of this course.
| | 03:07 | What I'm interested in right now is to set
this to AE lock only. That turns this into
| | 03:12 | just an exposure lock button, and that becomes
a little more useful when I am in Single Servo
| | 03:18 | Autofocus, because now I've got
exposure locking independent of focus locking.
| | 03:23 | This becomes very handy when I'm shooting
panoramas, because this button can also be
| | 03:27 | used to lock exposure across multiple shots.
| | 03:30 | For example, let's say that
I'm going to shoot a panorama.
| | 03:33 | When you're shooting panoramas you typically
want every shot in the panorama to have the
| | 03:37 | same exposure. So let's say I want every
shot in this panorama to have the exposure that
| | 03:40 | I am going to calculate in my first shot.
| | 03:43 | So I would frame my shot, half-press to focus
and meter, and then take my shot. Then I would
| | 03:49 | press and hold the Lock button.
| | 03:52 | Now I could reframe to my second shot, half-
press to focus again, take that shot, reframe to my
| | 03:58 | next one, half-press, take that shot, and
all of them would get that initial metering,
| | 04:03 | as long as I'm continuing to hold down the
Exposure Lock button, and that whole time
| | 04:07 | I'll see the Exposure Lock
Indicator in my viewfinder.
| | 04:12 | So, a lot of versatility off to this control.
It's going to change a lot whether you are in
| | 04:16 | Single or Continuous Servo Autofocus, so you
may need to use this f6 custom function here
| | 04:24 | to get it working the way that you
want for the mode that you're shooting in.
| | 04:28 | Exposure Lock can also be a critical tool
when shooting an Aperture or Shutter Priority
| | 04:32 | mode, as we'll see later.
| | 04:33 |
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| Exploring Aperture Priority mode| 00:00 | In Program mode, when you meter a scene by
half-pressing the Shutter button, the camera
| | 00:05 | calculates an appropriate shutter speed and
aperture, and maybe an ISO if you're set to Auto ISO.
| | 00:10 | There will be times though, when you know that
you're going to want a lot of control of aperture.
| | 00:15 | Maybe you're shooting portraits, and you know that
you want them to all have shallow depth of field,
| | 00:19 | so you want to make certain that the
camera is always using a wide aperture. Or maybe
| | 00:22 | you're shooting landscapes, and that you want
really deep depth f field in all of your shots,
| | 00:26 | so you want to make certain that you're
always using a very small aperture. Or maybe you're
| | 00:31 | street shooting, and as you're moving around
quickly, shooting different subject matter,
| | 00:35 | you're changing your mind a lot about depth of
field, and so you want to easily be able to change
| | 00:40 | from a big to a small aperture.
| | 00:42 | In Aperture Priority mode, you can choose
the aperture that you want and when the camera
| | 00:47 | meters, it will automatically pick a corresponding
shutter speed that will yield a correct exposure.
| | 00:53 | To change to Aperture Priority mode,
you just press the Mode button.
| | 00:56 | I'm in Program mode
right now. That's the big P.
| | 00:58 | I rotate the main command dial
until I am at A for Aperture.
| | 01:03 | You can see the last aperture that was
used in either Aperture or Manual mode.
| | 01:09 | Last time I used either one of
those modes, I set the Aperture to f/11.
| | 01:13 | The camera has automatically calculated a
shutter speed of 1/640th of a second for my
| | 01:18 | particular lighting situation here.
| | 01:21 | To change aperture, I just
rotate the subcommand dial.
| | 01:24 | Going to the left gets me to a wider aperture;
going to the right gets me to a smaller aperture,
| | 01:29 | and you can see that it's recalculating
the shutter speed every time I move it.
| | 01:34 | By default, Aperture Priority
mode works in third-stop increments.
| | 01:38 | So to get from f/11 to f/8,
I go one, two, three clicks.
| | 01:43 | I can change that interval using a special
customization feature that you'll see later.
| | 01:50 | Now, it is possible for me to pick an
aperture that will leave the camera unable to choose
| | 01:56 | a shutter speed that yields a good exposure.
| | 01:59 | For example, I'm at ISO 6400 right now.
| | 02:03 | If I open up my aperture all the
way here, this lens will go to f/2.8.
| | 02:09 | Now, you can see that at 3.5,
I am at 1/8000th of a second.
| | 02:13 | That's this camera's maximum shutter speed.
| | 02:15 | If I go open one more stop, it starts flashing.
| | 02:20 | And now, I've got a flashing 8000th of a
shutter speed, and my Exposure Compensation Indicator
| | 02:25 | has lit up, and it's showing me
one-third of a stop of overexposure.
| | 02:30 | The camera will still take the picture,
but it's warning me that that picture is going
| | 02:34 | to be overexposed by a third of a stop.
| | 02:36 | That might be fine for my subject matter--
a third of a stop might be something that
| | 02:39 | I can easily fix in postproduction--
but the camera is just letting me know.
| | 02:43 | If I back off my aperture, I'm now back to an
acceptable shutter speed, and the display goes away.
| | 02:51 | Aperture Priority doesn't allow you to take
any shots that you couldn't take in Program
| | 02:55 | mode using Flexible Program; rather, it
simply provides you with a speedier way to get the
| | 03:00 | aperture-based exposure settings that you need.
| | 03:02 |
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| Using depth of field preview| 00:00 | Just like your eye, your camera's lens has
an aperture in it that can open and close
| | 00:05 | to let in more or less light.
| | 00:07 | When the aperture is more open, you get
shallower depth of field; when it's more closed, you
| | 00:12 | get deeper depth of field.
| | 00:13 | This is all explained in detail in
Foundations of Photography: Exposure.
| | 00:17 | Obviously, as the aperture closes,
less light gets into the camera,
| | 00:21 | so by default, the camera always leaves its
aperture wide open so that when you look through
| | 00:26 | the viewfinder you see a nice bright image.
| | 00:29 | Even if you've dialed in a very small aperture
for shooting, when you look through the viewfinder,
| | 00:34 | you're still looking through a wide-open
aperture to ensure that you can see your scene clearly.
| | 00:39 | When you finally press the Shutter button, the camera
closes its iris down to your chosen aperture setting.
| | 00:45 | Because the aperture in your camera is
always wide open when you're looking through it,
| | 00:48 | you're not necessarily seeing the true depth
of field that you'll see in your final image.
| | 00:53 | If you've dialed in a very deep depth of
field by using a small aperture, you won't see how
| | 00:57 | deep the final image will be simply
by looking through the viewfinder.
| | 01:02 | To help your previsualize your depth of field,
your camera includes a Depth-of-Field Preview button.
| | 01:08 | When you press it, the iris is closed down
so that you can see the actual depth of field
| | 01:13 | that will occur in your final image.
| | 01:16 | In the camera's default configuration,
the Depth-of-Field Preview button is right over
| | 01:20 | here, next to the lens.
| | 01:22 | It's this upper button right here.
| | 01:24 | Now I say default configuration because
there are several other buttons you can assign to
| | 01:28 | be Depth-of-Field Preview.
| | 01:29 | You can make this bottom button down here.
| | 01:32 | You can reassign it to the AF On
button, or the Exposure Lock button.
| | 01:38 | But I really like it in the default position,
because when my hand is on the grip and it's
| | 01:43 | in its normal hold here, I simply move my finger down
here and I'm right on the Depth-of-Field Preview button.
| | 01:49 | So it's very easy to
press it and get my preview.
| | 01:52 | Look on the back of the camera. As I press this
button, you can see the viewfinder get dimmer there.
| | 01:58 | When the iris closes down, your viewfinder
will possibly get very dark because there's
| | 02:03 | just not as much light coming into the camera.
| | 02:05 | This is why the iris was wide open in the
first place, just so you can see the viewfinder.
| | 02:10 | This can also make it more difficult to
actually see the depth of field in your image.
| | 02:13 | If you wait a moment and give your eyes time
to adjust to the darker view, and if you can
| | 02:18 | find a way to cup a hand over your other eye
and over the viewfinder, then your eye should
| | 02:23 | adjust, and you should be able to get a clear
view of your scene with truer depth of field.
| | 02:28 | One more thing: the image in your viewfinder
is much smaller than the image that you will
| | 02:32 | most likely view on your monitor or in a print,
| | 02:35 | so it's going to be harder for you to
tell fine sharpness in your viewfinder.
| | 02:39 | Depth-of-Field Preview doesn't give you a
perfect way to gauge very fine subtle depth-of-field
| | 02:44 | effects, but it should let you see if certain
large things in your scene are in focus or not.
| | 02:49 |
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| Exploring Shutter Priority mode| 00:00 | In Program mode when you meter a scene by
half-pressing the Shutter button, the camera
| | 00:05 | calculates an appropriate shutter speed, an
aperture, and possibly ISO if you're set to Auto ISO.
| | 00:10 | There will be times though, when you know
that you are going to want a lot of control in
| | 00:14 | shutter speed. Maybe you are shooting a sporting event,
and you know that you want to perfectly freeze motion
| | 00:19 | so you want to make certain that the
camera is always using a flash shutter speed.
| | 00:22 | Or maybe you're shooting a landscape with some
moving water in it, and you want that silky,
| | 00:27 | smooth, blurry water effect in all your shot
| | 00:29 | so you want to make certain that you
are always using a slow shutter speed.
| | 00:32 | In Shutter Priority mode you can choose the
shutter speed that you want and when the camera
| | 00:36 | meters, it will automatically pick a
corresponding aperture that will yield a correct exposure.
| | 00:42 | To change to Shutter Priority mode I simply
press the Mode button and turn my main command
| | 00:47 | dial until I see S for Shutter Priority.
| | 00:49 | A half-press of the Shutter button or another press
of the mode dial takes me back into Shooting mode.
| | 00:54 | The camera has metered.
| | 00:55 | It's at 1/125th of a second right now
because that's the last shutter speed I dialed in
| | 01:00 | the last time that I used Shutter Priority;
it remembers from mode change to mode change.
| | 01:05 | I can change shutter speed by metering and
then turning my main command dial: to the left
| | 01:09 | gives me slower shutter speeds, to the
right gives me faster shutter speeds.
| | 01:14 | Shutters speeds are changing
in one-third stop increments.
| | 01:16 | You can change that value if you want, that
interval value, and you'll see how to do that later.
| | 01:21 | Watch what happens as I change here.
My aperture is changing automatically because the camera
| | 01:26 | is re-metering and changing my aperture to
fit the shutter speed that I want. My aperture
| | 01:30 | is getting wider and wider. My lens though
is a 2.8 lens, so right here, that's as wide
| | 01:37 | as the lens can go.
| | 01:39 | If I go to a faster shutter
speed now, a couple of things happen.
| | 01:43 | This starts flashing and my Exposure Compensation
display is showing one-third stop of underexposure.
| | 01:50 | Now, the camera is going to take the picture
anyway, but it's warning me that if I take
| | 01:54 | the picture right now, it's going to be
underexposed by a third of a stop, and that just keeps
| | 01:58 | getting more underexposed as I go.
| | 02:00 | So again, this isn't
preventing me from shooting an image;
| | 02:03 | it's just giving me a warning that I
am now shooting an underexposed shot.
| | 02:08 | If I had a faster lens, that would come in
later. If the aperture could open up wider,
| | 02:12 | then I would not see this warning until I'd
gotten to the maximum aperture of the lens.
| | 02:19 | Shutter Priority doesn't allow you to take
any shots that you couldn't take in Program
| | 02:23 | mode using Flexible Program; rather, it
simply provides you with a speedier way to get the
| | 02:28 | shutter-speed-based
exposure settings that you want.
| | 02:30 |
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| Working in Manual mode| 00:00 | Sometimes you might have a very peculiar
creative vision, or be facing a particularly complex
| | 00:06 | exposure situation.
| | 00:07 | Maybe you are shooting a scene and you want
shallow depth of field and you want blur some
| | 00:11 | motion in the scene and you don't care if
the whole thing is a little overexposed.
| | 00:15 | Or maybe you are used to working with a
handheld light meter and you are using it to calculate
| | 00:21 | exposure settings, which you
then need to dial in by hand.
| | 00:24 | Manual mode give you full control of both
shutter speed and aperture on your camera.
| | 00:29 | You can dial in any settings you want, regardless of
whether the camera's meter thinks they're a good idea.
| | 00:34 | It might flash warnings to you about how it
thinks you are making bad decisions, but it will
| | 00:37 | still take the shot.
| | 00:39 | To change to Manual mode I'll press the mode
button. I am currently in Program mode.
| | 00:43 | That's the P there, and we rotate the main command
dial until I get M on, which is Manual mode.
| | 00:48 | And as soon as do that, the
Exposure Compensation dial lights up.
| | 00:51 | We'll see why in a minute. Half-press
of the Shutter button, or the press mode of
| | 00:54 | the button takes me back to shooting.
| | 00:56 | It comes in at whatever the last Manual
mode settings I used were. Even if the camera
| | 01:01 | been powered off in the meantime, it still remembers
the last time I was at 1250th of a second at F 8.
| | 01:08 | To change shutter speed I use the main dial
here just like I do in Shutter Priority mode.
| | 01:14 | To change aperture I use is the subcommand
dial just like I do in Aperture Priority mode.
| | 01:19 | I can dial these to anything that I want and
the camera will still let me take a picture.
| | 01:23 | However, it's giving me some metering
information at the same time. That's what the exposure
| | 01:27 | compensation dial is doing, and all of
this is also visible inside the viewfinder.
| | 01:32 | So right now, at 1/640th of the second at F
11, it's saying that I am metered properly,
| | 01:37 | that I'll get a good exposure.
| | 01:39 | But if I change my shutter speed, if I speed
it up, now it saying I am underexposed by two-
| | 01:47 | thirds to one stop of exposure.
| | 01:49 | If I go to other direction,
it's saying I am overexposed.
| | 01:53 | So if I know that I absolutely want
a slow shutter speed, or a slower shutter speed,
| | 01:57 | then I am going to need to compensate for
that with an aperture adjustment, and now
| | 02:01 | I am back to good exposure.
| | 02:03 | So I can keep track of my metering as I go,
simply by watching the Exposure Compensation display.
| | 02:09 | Obviously, Manual mode is also great for those
times when you don't care about the metering.
| | 02:14 | You really need a particular thing and you
understand your postproduction process well
| | 02:18 | enough to know that you are going to able
to compensate in one direction or another
| | 02:21 | for over- or underexposure.
| | 02:23 | Manual mode does not open up any hidden
power in your camera. The only thing that it gets
| | 02:29 | you that you can't get in any of the other
modes is the ability to over- or underexpose
| | 02:33 | in a very particular way.
| | 02:35 | On very rare occasions, this will be the
only way to get the shots that you want.
| | 02:39 |
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| Exposure bracketing| 00:00 | Bracketing is the process of shooting the
same scene with different exposures to improve
| | 00:05 | your chances of going home with
the shot that's correctly metered.
| | 00:09 | You might also use bracketing though, when
you are shooting a scene with a lot of dynamic
| | 00:12 | range, so that you go home with at least one
properly exposed image of all of the different
| | 00:16 | bright and dark bits in your scene.
| | 00:19 | To configure Auto Bracketing on the D800,
you just press the Bracketing button over
| | 00:23 | here, and when I do that, my status display
changes to show this stuff, and I can configure
| | 00:29 | these settings with my two command dials.
| | 00:32 | So right now I am set to no bracketing at all.
| | 00:34 | That's zero frames.
| | 00:36 | If I turn my main command dial here, I get
a 3-frame bracket, and that's reflected with
| | 00:41 | three frames, and it's also showing
me how the bracketing is working.
| | 00:45 | So it's going to shoot
three shots: one as metered--
| | 00:48 | that's what the 0 is--one
underexposed and one overexposed.
| | 00:52 | I can come out here and do five stops
in my bracket, 7, or even go up to 9.
| | 01:00 | If I go the other direction, I can get back to 0,
so bracketing at all--get that out of the way--
| | 01:07 | two frames of bracketing with one as metered
and one underexposed, or two frames of bracketing
| | 01:13 | with one as metered and one overexposed,
or I can do the same with three frames.
| | 01:17 | These are handy for times when maybe you know
you need some overexposure but you absolutely
| | 01:24 | don't need any underexposure, so this would
give me a bracket that would shoot as metered
| | 01:27 | and a little brighter. Or maybe I am really,
really confused and so I want two additional
| | 01:35 | frames of overexposure, and of course I
can get the same thing with underexposure.
| | 01:38 | I am going to set up for just a basic three-
step bracket. And by default, those shots, each
| | 01:46 | of my three frames, are
going to be one stop apart.
| | 01:48 | That's what this 1.0 is over here.
| | 01:50 | I can change that value
with my subcommand dial.
| | 01:54 | I can bump it down to two-thirds of a stop,
one-third of a stop, or back up to one.
| | 02:00 | I am going to set it at 1 right
now, and I am ready to start shooting.
| | 02:03 | So with those dialed in, I am going to
half-press my Shutter button, and here I am.
| | 02:07 | Now I can see that my Exposure
Compensation indicator is still showing my bracket.
| | 02:12 | I've also got this Bracketing icon lit up here.
| | 02:17 | Now the way this works is I take a shot,
and this is going to go as metered, and now it
| | 02:24 | just removed the shot that I
have taken from my bracketing set.
| | 02:27 | So I can tell that I am still in the middle of a
bracketing set, and I can see how far along I am.
| | 02:32 | This can be particularly handy to keep track of
when you're doing a longer set of 5 or 7 or 9 frames.
| | 02:37 | I am going to take my second shot, and that
takes out the underexposed one. And then I
| | 02:42 | am going to take my third shot,
and that gets my overexposed one.
| | 02:46 | Now I'm back to starting over, so all
three little tick marks are still there.
| | 02:50 | Let's go into Playback here and
take a look at what I have got.
| | 02:54 | Here is my overexposed image, that was my
underexposed image, and that's my image as metered.
| | 03:01 | If I want, I can slide this whole bracketed set
around using my Exposure Compensation control.
| | 03:06 | So I could, say, move the whole thing down one stop
and now my entire bracketed set is off by one stop.
| | 03:17 | So I will get an initial shot that's one
stop under, a second shot that is one shot under
| | 03:22 | that--and by under I mean under what the
camera thinks is correct metering--and my third shot
| | 03:27 | will actually end up being as metered,
because that's one stop over my original shot there.
| | 03:33 | And then I can just dial this back up to 0.
| | 03:38 | Now, for these additional shots, the camera
is basically just using exposure compensation.
| | 03:42 | It's going to make adjustments to shutter
speed or aperture or ISO as it sees fit, depending
| | 03:48 | on whether I have got
Auto ISO configured or not.
| | 03:50 | It's going to try to, as we saw in the
exposure compensation movie, it's going to try to make
| | 03:54 | sure that it never gets me into
a situation of handheld shake.
| | 03:58 | But really, all it's doing is just employing
exposure compensation to get these additional shots.
| | 04:03 | Typically, when you're bracketing, you want
the composition of all of your shots to be
| | 04:08 | the same through your bracketed set,
so you want to shoot really quickly.
| | 04:12 | So I can just try and knock these off fast.
| | 04:16 | You may have already figured out that a much
better way is to simply activate one of the
| | 04:20 | camera's continuous modes, so I am going
to go over here to High-speed Continuous, and
| | 04:24 | now I can just press and hold the button down for
three shots and I get my bracketed set done for me.
| | 04:31 | The camera actually cycles through all
three of them on the image review, if you are set
| | 04:35 | up for image review.
| | 04:37 | Finally, there are other things
that I can bracket on my D800.
| | 04:41 | By default, when I'm dialing in a bracket
here, I am getting exposure bracketing and
| | 04:46 | I'm getting flash bracketing.
| | 04:48 | So if I had my flash up or an external flash
attached, in addition to altering the exposure
| | 04:53 | on each of these shots, it would be
altering the flash exposure at the same time.
| | 04:57 | If I want to, I can change that.
| | 04:59 | I can go into my menu here and in my Custom
Settings menu, go to the Bracketing and Flash
| | 05:04 | category, come in here and scroll down a little
bit, and I will find Auto Bracketing Set--that's
| | 05:11 | E5--and I see that it's set to its
default, which is Auto Exposure and Flash.
| | 05:16 | I am going to pop that open and if I want,
I could go to Auto Exposure only. This will
| | 05:21 | take the flash bracketing out of the equation.
| | 05:24 | Typically, if you're working with a flash
and you are bracketing, you are going to want
| | 05:28 | to leave this on, because it doesn't really
make sense to be changing your exposure while
| | 05:32 | leaving your flash constant.
| | 05:33 | I could also go to Flash Bracketing only.
| | 05:36 | I can go to White balance Bracketing, which
will make some slight adjustments to white
| | 05:41 | balance, if I am a little worried
about my white balance being off.
| | 05:45 | This is not something I've
ever found a great use for.
| | 05:47 | It's usually better to either get your white
balance correct through manual white balance or shoot raw.
| | 05:52 | If you are in a situation where neither
of those is possible, this can be handy.
| | 05:56 | I can also bracket Active D-lighting.
So, this is going to make some slight variations to
| | 06:01 | how much brightness change it's going to make
in my image. Most of the time though, you will
| | 06:06 | just stick with Auto
Exposure and Flash Bracketing.
| | 06:09 | One of the most critical bracketing things to
remember is that when you are done bracketing
| | 06:13 | you want to turn it off. There is nothing
more frustrating than to spend a session
| | 06:17 | shooting bracketing shots, go home, work with
your images, come back out to do more shooting,
| | 06:22 | take a once-in-a-lifetime shot, and realize
that the exposure was off because you were
| | 06:25 | in the middle of a bracketed set.
| | 06:27 | So I am going to just double
check my exposure compensation.
| | 06:29 | It's back at 0. And I am going to go in here
and switch my bracketing back to 0 frames.
| | 06:37 | Bracketing is now off, and I
am back to normal shooting.
| | 06:38 |
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| Using Active D-Lighting| 00:00 | Your eye has an incredible ability to see in
low light. This means that you can very often
| | 00:05 | see details in shadow areas with your naked
eye while your camera will render those areas
| | 00:10 | as just black and featureless.
| | 00:13 | Active D-Lighting applies postprocessing
to your image in camera to brighten shadow
| | 00:18 | areas in your image.
| | 00:20 | Note that it doesn't just
brighten the blacks in your image.
| | 00:22 | It actually figures out where the shadowy
areas are in your scene and it brightens those
| | 00:27 | without washing out all of
the blacks in your picture.
| | 00:31 | You control the Active D-
Lighting setting from the Shooting menu.
| | 00:35 | Scroll down and you'll find an
Active D-Lighting option here.
| | 00:37 | It defaults to off, and basically you've got
a number of different levels of adjustment
| | 00:43 | that will be applied to your image, from Low
through Normal, to High, to Extra high, to Auto.
| | 00:48 | Auto is going to actually analyze your image,
and the camera is going to try to determine
| | 00:53 | what the right setting is.
| | 00:54 | I would start here with Auto and do some
experiments and see what you think about it.
| | 00:59 | If you decide that you don't like it,
don't give up quite yet: maybe try dialing in
| | 01:03 | just some small amounts.
| | 01:05 | Remember, these only affect JPEG images;
if you're a RAW shooter, this is all irrelevant.
| | 01:10 | You may ultimately decide naw, I would really
rather be in control of all of my own image
| | 01:14 | editing, so you would want to
simply turn Active D-Lighting Off.
| | 01:17 |
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| Using the Vignette Control feature| 00:00 | A vignette is a darkening
in the corners of your image.
| | 00:04 | It typically happens most with wide-angle lenses and
it happens actually with less-quality lenses, I'll say.
| | 00:11 | If you spend some money for some better glass, you'll
have less chance of getting vignetting in your images.
| | 00:15 | If you are shooting JPEG, your D800 can try to
remove vignetting for you by brightening the corners.
| | 00:21 | If you look in your Shooting menu,
you'll see something called Vignette control, which
| | 00:24 | defaults to N--that's for Normal.
| | 00:27 | You can see I have got three different
settings of Vignette control--Low, Normal, and High--
| | 00:31 | or I can turn it off altogether.
| | 00:33 | If you're finding that you've got bright
corners, that's some Vignette control that's going
| | 00:38 | a little aggressive; you are going to either
want to turn it down or turn it off altogether.
| | 00:42 | Now a lot of times you might
want to be intentionally vignetting.
| | 00:45 | That's another reason to turn it off.
| | 00:46 | If you are getting vignettes you
don't like, you can dial this up or down.
| | 00:50 | Personally, because Photoshop has such a
great vignette control, vignette removal control,
| | 00:55 | I would simply turn this off.
| | 00:58 | Take the cleanest image you can and take
control of the edits yourself by performing them in
| | 01:02 | your image editor, rather than
simply having the camera do it for you.
| | 01:05 |
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| Using the Auto Distortion Control feature| 00:00 | Distortion is an effect you'll see in your
images when you're shooting with shorter focal
| | 00:05 | lengths--that is, wider-angle lenses.
| | 00:07 | It's a spherical distortion that makes the
image look like it's bulging out or in, and
| | 00:12 | your D800 can attempt to compensate for that
automatically when you're using certain lenses.
| | 00:16 | If I go here into my Shooting menu, I've got something
called Auto Distortion control, which defaults to off.
| | 00:21 | I can simply turn it on.
| | 00:23 | And the D800 will try to automatically correct
barrel distortion anytime that you're working
| | 00:30 | with a wide-angle lens.
| | 00:32 | It only applies to type G and D lenses.
| | 00:35 | So, if you're using a different type of lens, you are
probably not going to see any results, but you might.
| | 00:40 | Remember, this is only affecting JPEG images.
| | 00:43 | As with the Vignette control,
I would recommend turning this feature off.
| | 00:48 | Photoshop has very good distortion controls
that give you a finer degree of control, so
| | 00:53 | it's better to just shoot the cleanest
image you can and correct it yourself later.
| | 00:57 |
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| Using long exposure noise reduction| 00:00 | If you take a shot with a shutter speed
longer than one second, there's a chance that you're
| | 00:05 | going to get a very particular kind of
noise in your image called long-exposure noise.
| | 00:09 | The problem is, when the sensor is left on
for more than a second, pixels on it can get
| | 00:13 | stuck on and appear as bright
speckles in your final image.
| | 00:18 | The camera has a built-in way of trying to deal
with that, called long exposure noise reduction.
| | 00:24 | Here in the shooting menu you'll
see an item called Long exposure NR.
| | 00:27 | It defaults to off.
| | 00:29 | If I turn it on, anytime I shoot an image
with a shutter speed longer than one second,
| | 00:35 | the camera will employ a special
process to try to reduce the noise in it.
| | 00:40 | Now, the reason this is not on all the time is that
that process takes as long as the original shot did.
| | 00:47 | So if I shoot a 15-second exposure, then I
am going to have to wait an additional 15
| | 00:52 | seconds after that exposure for the
camera to process the image and then store it.
| | 00:57 | So if I am wanting to shoot
quickly, this is not that practical.
| | 00:59 | However, long exposure noise reduction is very
effective at reducing noise in long exposures,
| | 01:05 | particularly in very, very, very low light.
| | 01:07 | So if you're doing a lot of night shooting,
especially shooting the sky and things like
| | 01:11 | that, then you're going to want to
turn this on. Just be prepared to wait.
| | 01:14 | Note that if in the middle of long-exposure
processing you decide, boy I need my camera
| | 01:20 | back right now, then you can turn the
camera off and it will still save your image;
| | 01:26 | it just won't have any noise reduction applied.
| | 01:28 | Be careful though: when you see the activity
light on the camera flashing, indicating that
| | 01:32 | it's writing out data, be sure not to turn
the camera off then; it's not a good thing
| | 01:35 | for your card to have the power cut when
it's in the middle of reading or writing.
| | 01:39 |
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| Using high ISO noise reduction| 00:00 | As you increase ISO, you also
increase the noise in your image.
| | 00:05 | Your D800 can process your images internally to
reduce noise, and it can do a very good job of it.
| | 00:12 | To activate Noise Reduction,
go to your Shooting menu.
| | 00:15 | You have a High ISO Noise Reduction
item here, and it defaults to Normal.
| | 00:20 | You've always got Noise Reduction turned on.
| | 00:22 | If you want, you can turn it up higher, you can
turn it down lower, or you can turn it off altogether.
| | 00:27 | Why would you not want Noise Reduction on,
and why would you not want it at high all the time?
| | 00:32 | The trade-off for noise
reduction is softness in your image.
| | 00:35 | Noise reduction works by blurring select
parts of your images in a very particular ways.
| | 00:41 | So there is a possibility you are going to
lose a little bit of sharpness and detail.
| | 00:44 | That's why you're always trying
to balance with noise reduction.
| | 00:47 | That's why they've taken kind of a middling
approach to their default noise reduction.
| | 00:51 | If you turn it off altogether, you will still
get noise reduction at ISOs of 1600 or higher.
| | 01:00 | So this isn't actually a total deactivation.
| | 01:03 | The best way to understand how these different
levels work is to simply experiment with them.
| | 01:08 | Shoot the same image in low light at a
high ISO, like an ISO 1600, with each of these
| | 01:13 | settings and see what you like more.
| | 01:15 | Try to be sure that you've got something
with some detail in your image, so you can track
| | 01:18 | that trade-off between
noise reduction and detail.
| | 01:21 |
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| Using the Bulb setting in Manual mode| 00:00 | The slowest shutter speed you can pick
in Shutter Priority mode is 30 seconds.
| | 00:04 | If you need to take a shot that's longer than
that--maybe you are doing some extreme low-light
| | 00:08 | photography--then you're going to need to
switch to Manual mode and rotate the Shutter Speed
| | 00:14 | control all the way past 30 seconds, to Bulb.
| | 00:19 | In Bulb setting, as long as you press the
Shutter button down, the shutter will stay open.
| | 00:24 | So I'm going to focus and
then press the rest of the way.
| | 00:28 | Now, the mirror and shutter are up.
You can see that my viewfinder has gone dark.
| | 00:30 | It's going to stay that way until
I take my finger off the button.
| | 00:35 | I could stand here until my hand cramps
and it's not going to close the shutter.
| | 00:39 | When I finally let go,
the shutter closes and it records my shot.
| | 00:45 | Needless to say, standing around for hours
with your finger on the Shutter button is
| | 00:48 | not real practical, so you're probably going
to want to use a remote control with Bulb mode,
| | 00:53 | preferably a remote control that has a lock
on it so that you can set your remote, lock
| | 00:56 | the Shutter down, and just leave it there.
| | 00:59 | You'll learn more about remote controls later.
| | 01:01 |
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| Using the Info button| 00:00 | You can see all of the critical exposure
settings that you have up here on your status display,
| | 00:05 | but there are a lot of other settings that
you may have made that are buried down in menus,
| | 00:10 | and to pick them apart and
check out each one can take a while.
| | 00:14 | If you press the Info button on the back
of your D800, you get a really comprehensive status
| | 00:18 | display of just about
everything to do with the camera,
| | 00:21 | all the same readouts that you get up there on the
status display, plus all of these things down here.
| | 00:28 | So what I'm seeing down here are Shooting
bank, High ISO Noise Reduction, Color Space,
| | 00:35 | lots of other things.
| | 00:36 | Not only do I get a readout of these
things down here, they're actually editable.
| | 00:40 | So if I press the Info button to bring
up the display and then press it again,
| | 00:45 | this now becomes editable, with these
little tips here showing me what each item is.
| | 00:49 | I navigate it using the multicontroller
and if I want to change something--for example
| | 00:54 | High ISO Noise Reduction--I just select it
and that takes me directly to the High ISO
| | 00:59 | Noise Reduction menu.
| | 01:01 | And then after I make a change, it
said okay and it brings me back here.
| | 01:04 | So, this is a really nice way of controlling
a lot of functions that are normally buried
| | 01:08 | down in a bunch of menus.
| | 01:10 | More importantly, this is a great way of
working, if you're on a tripod, particularly if you're
| | 01:14 | working in low light.
| | 01:16 | If you've got the camera mounted up high
and it's difficult to see the status display,
| | 01:20 | you can still see exactly how things are
set up right here, how you're metering, where
| | 01:25 | you're focused, and so on.
| | 01:27 | Note that I can also change my focus
point and see all that right out here.
| | 01:32 | So, all the critical information that I would be
getting from my viewfinder can be down here also.
| | 01:37 | So this is a really handy way working for
studio shooting, low-light shooting, or anytime
| | 01:41 | you want easy access to a bunch of parameters that
are normally buried deep within the menuing system.
| | 01:47 |
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8. More Playback OptionsAdjusting LCD brightness| 00:00 | That big LCD screen on the back of your
camera is a great photographic aid:
| | 00:05 | you can use it to review your images in Live
View mode; you can actually use it as a viewfinder.
| | 00:10 | But there are some
things to understand about it.
| | 00:12 | It is not an accurate way of
assessing tone or color in your image.
| | 00:18 | So if you're trying to figure out if
something is over- or underexposed, just looking at
| | 00:22 | that image on the back of your
viewfinder is not the way to do it.
| | 00:25 | Similarly, if you're trying to decide if
colors are accurate or if you have got a level of
| | 00:28 | saturation that you like,
still don't want to go with the LCD.
| | 00:33 | One thing to understand is that the camera
might be brightening up the image that it
| | 00:37 | puts to the LCD to make it easier to view in brighter
light, and that can cause a shift in tone and color.
| | 00:44 | So we never use the LCD as a really accurate
way of assessing anything other than composition.
| | 00:50 | Now, you can change the brightness of
the LCD, and this is a good thing to do
| | 00:54 | if you find yourself in direct sunlight
and your screen looks washed out; brightening
| | 00:58 | it up can make a big difference.
| | 00:59 | Similarly, if you're shooting in a dark room,
a performance or a museum or something like
| | 01:04 | that, you may want to turn the brightness down.
| | 01:07 | Now they are some tools that make the LCD
screen a little more useful for judging both
| | 01:13 | tone and color, and you can learn
about those by studying your histogram.
| | 01:17 | For now, here's how you
can change the brightness.
| | 01:21 | You can change the brightness of the LCD
screen on the back of the D800. Go into your menu,
| | 01:26 | into the Setup menu--that's the one with the
wrench--and scroll down to Monitor brightness.
| | 01:31 | You can see my Monitor is set to +5.
| | 01:32 | That is not the default value. To make
this more legible for you, for the video, I've
| | 01:38 | gone ahead and dialed that up to +5.
| | 01:40 | If I come in here, I've got a couple of options.
I can set it to Auto and you should have immediately
| | 01:45 | seen it dimmed there.
| | 01:46 | This is the camera sensing the ambient light
and trying to choose a setting that's appropriate.
| | 01:51 | What's nice about Auto is that as you move
into a darker setting, the screen will automatically
| | 01:55 | dim; as you move into bright sunlight,
it should automatically brighten up.
| | 02:00 | Typically, in the brighter lighting you
want a brighter display, and in darker lighting
| | 02:03 | you want a little dimmer
so it doesn't blind you.
| | 02:05 | You can also just go right in here to
Manual and dial this up or down from -5 to +5.
| | 02:11 | That's a little dim, so I'm going
to put that back up where it was.
| | 02:15 | So Auto is probably the best way to go,
but if you're finding that in your particular
| | 02:19 | circumstance you need a change, then
just go ahead and do a manual adjustment.
| | 02:23 | Adjusting the Monitor brightness is also a
way of conserving battery if you find that
| | 02:28 | your battery is running low and
you still need to get some shots out.
| | 02:30 |
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| Protecting and deleting images| 00:00 | There are a few different
philosophies about deleting images.
| | 00:04 | Some people like to delete images that they
think are bad so that they don't drown in
| | 00:09 | image glut when they
start their postproduction.
| | 00:11 | Other people say you should never delete an
image because you never know whether it might
| | 00:14 | be useful or not until later.
| | 00:16 | For the sake of this discussion, let's split the
difference and say that there will occasionally
| | 00:20 | be images that you know
will have zero utility later,
| | 00:24 | those images were your fingers in front of
the camera or you left the lens cap on or
| | 00:28 | something like that.
| | 00:29 | Your camera provides a number of ways to delete images,
as well as to lock images so that they can't be deleted.
| | 00:36 | To delete an image I first need to go into
Playback mode and find the image I don't like.
| | 00:41 | Yeah, I can't stand this image.
| | 00:44 | So, to delete it I would simply
press the Trashcan button here.
| | 00:48 | That asks me to confirm. Pressing the
Trashcan button again is Yes. It's not the OK button;
| | 00:53 | it's the Trashcan again.
So let's press it again and it's gone.
| | 00:58 | If I have a bunch of images to get rid of, this is
going to take a while because I've got to scroll around.
| | 01:02 | Well, that's completely garbage.
Let's get rid of that, okay.
| | 01:05 | Anyway, I would have to scroll
around and find all of those images.
| | 01:07 | There's another way to do this which is to
go into my menu, and in my Playback menu the
| | 01:12 | very first item is Delete.
| | 01:14 | Now this gives me the option to Delete All, to
erase the entire card. You don't ever want to do this.
| | 01:20 | As we've discussed at length before,
rather than using Delete All you want to use the
| | 01:25 | Format command. It will make your card
much more reliable over the long haul.
| | 01:29 | That said, the Delete command is still
useful, thanks to the Selected option here.
| | 01:34 | If I choose this, it thinks for a minute and
then it gives me this thumbnail view, and this
| | 01:40 | lets me scroll through and simply mark
images for deleting. So I find one I want to get
| | 01:45 | rid of, I press the center button, and you
can see a little Trashcan icon appear here.
| | 01:50 | So I'm going to go through
here and mark a bunch of images.
| | 01:53 | Let's scroll up a couple of times to get a
better view. So I can move around here and
| | 01:59 | find a bunch of images that I don't like.
| | 02:01 | When I have chosen all the images that
I want to delete, I hit the OK button.
| | 02:05 | Note that I can also zoom in if I want to.
| | 02:07 | If you're not sure if that's really the
one you're aiming for, you can zoom in and get
| | 02:10 | a closer look, and then hit the OK button.
| | 02:13 | It ask me to confirm whether I
want to delete these 8 images.
| | 02:15 | I'm going to say OK and now those are gone.
| | 02:19 | Now, there's another use for the Delete function.
| | 02:23 | Perhaps this has happened to you.
| | 02:24 | You shoot all day long, you take hundreds of
images, you go, you dump them into your computer.
| | 02:29 | You forget to delete the card.
| | 02:31 | You come out the next morning, you put the
card in your camera, you shoot 20 shots and
| | 02:35 | then realize, oh no, I've still got those 200
pictures that I took yesterday plus the 20 new ones.
| | 02:41 | So now you don't have as
much space on your card.
| | 02:44 | When you get home and dump the card,
you're going to have a bunch of duplicates.
| | 02:48 | So you might think, oh boy, now I have to
go in with Delete selected command here and
| | 02:53 | delete those 200 images.
That's going to take forever.
| | 02:56 | There's actually another way you can
do this that's a little bit easier.
| | 02:59 | Rather than choosing to delete 200 images,
you can choose to save the 20 that you just shot.
| | 03:06 | So I'm going to go through here.
| | 03:08 | I accidentally shot some images in black
and white earlier, because I forgot to change
| | 03:12 | out of the black-and-white picture
control, so there's a good lesson for you.
| | 03:16 | So I would like to get rid of just these
images at the beginning, and there are a lot of them.
| | 03:21 | I want to keep this color images.
| | 03:23 | So what I'm going to do is protect them.
| | 03:24 | There is a button here that has a key on
it. With any image selected, I can hit the Key
| | 03:29 | button and now there is little Lock icon
appears up here. So I can quickly go through here
| | 03:35 | and lock the images that I want to keep.
| | 03:39 | Once I've got that done, I can go into my
menu and say Delete and go down here and choose
| | 03:45 | All, and I want to pick the card
that I'm going to delete. I hit OK.
| | 03:50 | All images in all folders will be deleted.
| | 03:53 | That may sound ominous, but actually it's not
going to delete the ones that have been protected.
| | 03:58 | It says it's Done. If I go back to my Playback
screen, you can see that they are still here.
| | 04:02 | Now, they are still locked which means there's no way
to delete them with the Delete command. That's okay.
| | 04:07 | I'm going to go ahead and spend the rest of
my day shooting, shoot another 200 images,
| | 04:11 | take them back to my computer, copy them all
over, and then put the card back in and format.
| | 04:15 | Format actually does wipe
out images that are protected.
| | 04:19 | So delete and protect work well in concert
together--either of them are a way of cleaning
| | 04:24 | up your card--but again, don't go
too nuts deleting images in camera.
| | 04:29 | Some things are obviously bad, like when you
accidentally shoot black and white and you
| | 04:32 | mean color or when you have left a finger
in front of the lens or something like that,
| | 04:36 | but it's difficult to judge image
quality on the back of the screen,
| | 04:38 | so don't write off an image once and for all--in
most cases--until you get back to your computer.
| | 04:43 |
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| Hiding images| 00:00 | Normally, every image on the current card is
visible on your D800, but if you've got a lot
| | 00:05 | of incriminating photos that you don't
want your wife for boss or best friend to see,
| | 00:11 | you can hide them using the Hide command.
| | 00:14 | This is great if you're a whistleblower or a
criminal or just generally like being sneaky.
| | 00:19 | Here in the Playback menu I have Hide image.
I can pick that and it asks me to select the
| | 00:24 | image that I want to hide.
| | 00:25 | So I am going to go in here
and hide this last image here.
| | 00:29 | This is going to be image number
six out of six. I am telling you
| | 00:32 | that by way of showing
you how this is going to work.
| | 00:35 | So I've selected that. Now I hit the OK button.
| | 00:38 | So if I go into Playback now, I see that
I've got image 1/6, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1. It skipped 6/6.
| | 00:48 | But there is this little tell here. Someone
who is paying attention will notice that they're
| | 00:53 | not able to view image 6/6.
| | 00:57 | So in that case you might want to leave
your camera in a metadataless view here.
| | 01:02 | Hopefully they won't know how to turn that on.
| | 01:04 | If you want to get the image back, go back
to your menu, go back into Hide image, and
| | 01:08 | say Deselect all, Reveal
all hidden images? Yes.
| | 01:14 | And now I should be back to
seeing 1/6, 2, 3, 4, 5, and there's 6/6.
| | 01:21 | So that's a way that you can keep some of
your images from falling into the wrong hands.
| | 01:26 | Now, of course someone could still take the
card out of your camera, dump into your computer,
| | 01:29 | and have everything.
| | 01:30 | But if all you're worried about is someone seeing
images on your camera, that's a way of hiding them.
| | 01:34 |
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| Toggling the Rotate Tall feature on and off| 00:00 | Normally when I shoot in portrait orientation,
the D800 automatically rotates the image so
| | 00:06 | that it is right side up when I
am viewing my camera like this.
| | 00:11 | That's nicely laid out and well designed
and all. The problem is, I am wasting all this
| | 00:15 | screen. If it was rotated the other way, I could
turn the camera and see a much bigger view of my image.
| | 00:21 | I can ask the camera to not rotate images,
| | 00:25 | by going to my Playback menu
and saying Rotate tall: Off.
| | 00:31 | Now, the image will remain tagged as a portrait-oriented
image, so it will still come into my image editor correctly.
| | 00:37 | But when I go into Playback mode, it's now
filling the whole screen in this direction,
| | 00:41 | so I can rotate the camera to
be able to see the whole thing.
| | 00:44 | So this is a nice way of getting a
bigger view of portrait-oriented images.
| | 00:49 |
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| File naming| 00:00 | By default every image you take is named with
a file name that begins with the three letters
| | 00:05 | DSC, so DSC and some long gnarly number.
| | 00:10 | If you'd like, you can change
that. I'm in the Shooting menu.
| | 00:13 | Scroll down to where you see File naming,
come in here. And I have two different options.
| | 00:19 | Files shot or images shot with an sRGB
color space get named DSC_ and then a number.
| | 00:26 | Files shot in the Adobe RGB space get named
_DSC and then a four-digit number, so actually,
| | 00:32 | just by looking at the file names after
you've moved your images to your computer, you can
| | 00:35 | tell what color space they were in.
| | 00:37 | If I would like to change that
three-letter prefix I can simply go here into the File
| | 00:41 | naming section and enter a new one.
| | 00:44 | So, for example, I might
just put my name in there.
| | 00:47 | You could use this if you have, if you are
shooting different projects for example and
| | 00:51 | you've got some kind of project code that
you want to key in there so that you can
| | 00:56 | keep your images organized, simply by
looking at their file names. This can be handy.
| | 01:00 | Notice that once I've typed it in I need to
actually hit the OK button over here to accept,
| | 01:07 | and now I've changed it so my file names
will not have that in place of DSC. So you can
| | 01:13 | see what they'll look like here
for the two different color spaces.
| | 01:15 | So again, a handy way to stay organized with your
file names once you've got them on your computer.
| | 01:20 |
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| Creating a file number sequence| 00:00 | When you take a picture, your camera has to
give it a name of some kind, and as you have
| | 00:04 | probably already discovered, it tends
to give it a name that's mostly numbers.
| | 00:07 | In fact, though, they are sequential numbers.
| | 00:09 | Every time you take a picture,
the camera increments its image number.
| | 00:13 | By default these numbers keep going up until
you hit 9999, at which point they roll over
| | 00:18 | to 1 and start over.
| | 00:20 | The images are stored inside a folder on the camera's
media card, which is inside of another folder called DCIM.
| | 00:26 | Each folder can hold up to 9,999 images.
| | 00:31 | If a folder fills, a new one is
created with a sequential number of its own.
| | 00:36 | You can change the numbering scheme, though,
so that it resets every time you put in a
| | 00:40 | new card or create new folder.
| | 00:43 | So every time you put in a new card
you'll get a new numbering scheme.
| | 00:47 | You'll also get a new numbering scheme
every time you take out your old card, empty it,
| | 00:51 | reformat it, and reinsert it.
| | 00:53 | If you want, you can also
reset the numbering manually.
| | 00:56 | In most situations, the default
continuous numbering scheme is the best way to go.
| | 01:00 | If you have numbering set to reset every
time you change cards, then you'll possibly run
| | 01:05 | into troubles with duplicate file names.
| | 01:07 | For example, maybe you're on vacation.
At the end of each day you dump all of the images
| | 01:12 | you have shot into a folder.
| | 01:13 | If the file names are resetting each time,
then you will have duplicate names every day.
| | 01:18 | I am here in the Custom Setting menu,
in the d category, Shooting/display.
| | 01:23 | If I go in here and down to d5, File
numbering sequence, I see that it defaults to on.
| | 01:29 | I can change the way
files are numbered as I shoot.
| | 01:33 | By default, with File number sequence set to
on, every new image gets a number that's one
| | 01:38 | higher than the previous number.
Images start at 1 and count up to 9999.
| | 01:43 | When they get up to 9999, a new folder is created,
and renumbering starts at 0001. Even if I turn
| | 01:51 | the camera off, format the card, put in a
new card, whatever, the camera will always
| | 01:54 | pick up with the next number in the sequence.
| | 01:58 | If I prefer, I can switch this to off, and
now every time I create a new folder, reformat
| | 02:04 | a card, or put in a new card,
file numbering will restart at 1.
| | 02:08 | However, it will only count up to 999, then
it will create a new folder and start the
| | 02:14 | numbering sequence at 1 again.
| | 02:16 | Or if I like, I can hit the Reset button.
This will look in the current folder, find the
| | 02:22 | highest-numbered image, and number
the next image starting from there.
| | 02:27 | So if I put in a card that already has
some images on it, I can hit the Reset command
| | 02:30 | here to ensure that new images
follow the previous image number sequence.
| | 02:35 |
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| Creating storage folders| 00:00 | Just as you create multiple folders hold
different documents on the hard drive on your computer,
| | 00:06 | you can create multiple folders
on the media card in your camera.
| | 00:10 | If I go here to the menu, in the Shooting menu
right here on the first page, Storage folder
| | 00:17 | 101 is the number of the
current folder that I'm shooting to.
| | 00:22 | I am going to go in here and
say Select folder by number.
| | 00:26 | So folders on the media card are going to
go inside a folder called DCIM, and each one
| | 00:30 | of those folders is going to be a
three digit number followed by ND800.
| | 00:36 | So the first folder it starts with on a
card is 101, and what this screen is showing me
| | 00:41 | right now is I already have a folder
called 101 and it's got some images in it.
| | 00:45 | You can see this folder is partly full.
| | 00:47 | A folder is full when it has either 999 or 9999
images in it, depending on your folder numbering scheme.
| | 00:56 | If I want, I can select a different folder
by number or create an entirely new folder.
| | 01:00 | For example, if I dialed this up to 102,
I find that there is actually already folder
| | 01:05 | called 102, and it's empty.
| | 01:07 | So I can now hit OK and any images that I
shoot from here on out would go into this
| | 01:10 | folder. Or I am going to dial up to 103 and
I see that there is no folder called 103, so
| | 01:16 | it will just create one if I hit the OK button.
| | 01:18 | I am going to do that now.
| | 01:20 | I can also choose the folder that I want
to shoot into by selecting from a list.
| | 01:25 | So here I can find out on this card that
I've got folders numbered 101, 102, 103.
| | 01:31 | The idea behind this is it's a way of
getting organized while you're in the field.
| | 01:36 | If you've got shoot that requires some very
meticulous organization, you may want to create
| | 01:41 | separate folders for different things and
actually go in here to the Storage Folder
| | 01:45 | command and pick which folder you want to
shoot into so that you know that when you
| | 01:50 | get home folder number 102 is all pictures
of dogs, while the folder 101 is all pictures
| | 01:56 | of cats, or whatever.
| | 01:57 | It's a way of starting to get your images
organized even before you get back to your computer.
| | 02:02 |
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| Adding copyright info| 00:00 | Amongst all the other metadata that's
stored with your image, there is also a copyright
| | 00:04 | field where you can put your
name and copyright information.
| | 00:07 | You can add this metadata using your image
editor, but you can also configure your camera
| | 00:12 | so that copyright gets added to
every single image that you shoot.
| | 00:15 | Having your copyright included with your
images provides you a pretty good amount of legal
| | 00:19 | protection should you find that someone
has used an image without your permission.
| | 00:24 | To enter your copyright information go into
the menuing system, and here in the Setup menu,
| | 00:29 | the one with the wrench, is something called
Copyright information, which defaults to off,
| | 00:32 | which means no copyright information
will be stored in any of your images.
| | 00:36 | I am going to come in here and I can enter
two different things--Artist, which is actually
| | 00:43 | just your name, whether or not you're an artist.
| | 00:46 | So I am going to just enter my name here,
and you can see that I am just scrolling around
| | 00:51 | the alphabet here with my selector here and
then pressing the middle button to choose a letter.
| | 00:58 | When I get it the way I want it, I hit the
OK button and that takes me back out here,
| | 01:02 | and then I can come down
here and enter Copyright.
| | 01:05 | So what I would want to do here is
actually write out copyright and then the year.
| | 01:12 | Once I get those entered, I hit OK again.
And now I need to explicitly tell it to attach
| | 01:18 | copyright information to
the images that I shoot.
| | 01:21 | So, after I've defined this, I can
actually turn this on or off if I want.
| | 01:26 | I can of course tag images with my copyright
information in postproduction using my image
| | 01:31 | editor, but this really
saves me a step me in post.
| | 01:34 | This ensures that everything I shoot with
my camera will automatically have my name
| | 01:37 | and copyright embedded in the file.
| | 01:39 | If you ever sell your camera, you want to be sure
and turn this off and make sure these are deleted;
| | 01:45 | otherwise, someone else is going to be
shooting images with your name on them, and there's
| | 01:48 | no guarantee they're going
to be as good as your images.
| | 01:50 |
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| Using in-camera retouching| 00:00 | The Retouch menu on your D800 gives you
the ability to perform a lot of image editing
| | 00:06 | functions inside your camera.
| | 00:09 | I mean the types of things you'd do in Photoshop or
whatever image editor use, you can do right here on the D800.
| | 00:14 | The way it works is it creates a copy of
your image, performs the adjustment that you've
| | 00:20 | dialed in there, and saves that to the card.
| | 00:23 | If you are shooting raw, it's going
to be saving that image out as a JPEG.
| | 00:27 | If you're shooting JPEG, it's just going to
duplicate the JPEG file and make your edits to that.
| | 00:31 | Now, I am going to be honest with you.
| | 00:34 | This is really not a great way to
perform the types of edits that you have here.
| | 00:38 | It's effective, some of the edits look very
good, but you're working on a tiny screen.
| | 00:42 | You can't really judge a lot of things.
| | 00:44 | You have very little control
over the parameters of each effect.
| | 00:47 | You can't really adjust them that much, and
you're working in 8-bit JPEG mode on a camera
| | 00:53 | that has an incredible ability to capture
far more color and image quality than you're
| | 00:58 | going to get out of an 8-bit JPEG.
| | 01:00 | So, we're not going to go into much detail
on the Retouch menu. Suffice it to say, if
| | 01:05 | you're in a pinch, if you're in the field
and you've got to get a monochrome image to
| | 01:09 | someone right away over your satellite phone, then maybe
the ability to convert the monochrome is useful to you.
| | 01:16 | But it's not the best way to convert to
monochrome. You're going to get much better results doing
| | 01:20 | it on your computer where you have some control.
| | 01:22 | There is really not anything to know about
these functions other than you pick one, dial
| | 01:28 | in the settings that you want,
hit OK, and a new file is created.
| | 01:32 | Some of the things you can do, red-eye correction.
You can apply delighting like you've seen earlier.
| | 01:37 | You can straighten, you can correct distortion,
you can make it look like a sketch, you can
| | 01:41 | correct perspective, you can
create a miniature diorama look.
| | 01:45 | Probably one of the most useful things you can do
in here is simply to convert a raw image into a JPEG.
| | 01:51 | So, if you're shooting raw, and you're in
a pinch and you absolutely need to quickly
| | 01:56 | get a JPEG to someone, you can
actually do that right from here.
| | 02:00 | You can select an image and tell the camera
make this into a JPEG, store it on the card, and
| | 02:05 | then you can pull it right off the card,
and get it to wherever it needs to go.
| | 02:08 | So, that's a quick
glossing over of the Retouch menu.
| | 02:12 | You can find out more starting on page 341.
| | 02:14 | Again, my recommendation is know
these are here, just so that you need them.
| | 02:19 | If you need them in a pinch,
you know how they work.
| | 02:21 | But do your retouching in a nice
image editing program on your computer.
| | 02:25 |
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|
|
9. Shooting with FlashUsing the fill flash| 00:00 | People often think that the flash on
their camera is only used when it's dark out,
| | 00:04 | but a dark scene is actually one of the
times when you probably shouldn't use your flash.
| | 00:08 | The pop-up flash on your camera is really
designed to provide extra fill light when
| | 00:13 | you are shooting in bright daylight.
| | 00:14 | If you've got a bad back-lighting situation
or someone with a hat on, you can use fill
| | 00:20 | flash to fill in the darker shadowy areas
of the scene to produce a more even exposure.
| | 00:24 | I am going to take a quick picture of our
scene here, just so we can see what it looks
| | 00:28 | like without flash. It's not bad.
| | 00:30 | It's a little dark in here in the shadowy
areas. Fill flash might be able to brighten that up a little bit.
| | 00:34 | So I am going to pop my flash up. The Flash
release button is right over here on the left
| | 00:38 | side of the camera.
Press it and the flash pops up.
| | 00:41 | When I meter now, in addition to all of
the usual exposure stuff, I also get this box
| | 00:48 | here, which shows me my flash mode.
| | 00:49 | When it's just an empty box like that, that
means I'm in Fill flash mode, so I am ready to go.
| | 00:54 | Half-press to focus and meter, press the rest
of the way, the flash fires and oh yeah, look,
| | 00:59 | I can see a lot of stuff here on the bellow.
So let me give you a nice before-and-after here.
| | 01:03 | That's with the flash; that's without.
| | 01:06 | So it's actually brightened it up quite a bit.
| | 01:10 | Your D800 does have some other flash modes
and some other flash features and we're going
| | 01:14 | to be looking at those in
the rest of this chapter.
| | 01:16 | For the most part, fill flash is really the
main thing you're going to use your camera's
| | 01:20 | built-in flash for.
| | 01:22 | Because of its proximity to the lens and
because of its location on top of the camera, it's
| | 01:26 | not a great flash. It's going to have a
propensity to produce red-eye. And also, having a bright
| | 01:32 | light right in front of your subject is
really not the best lighting situation.
| | 01:36 | But for fill situations, when you're in bright
daylight, someone is wearing a hat or standing
| | 01:40 | under the eave of a house or something like
that, fill flash can really make the difference
| | 01:44 | between a so-so photo and a much better photo.
| | 01:47 |
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| Using Flash mode| 00:00 | By default, when you pop up your D800's
flash, it goes into Front Curtain Sync mode.
| | 00:06 | This is the mode that we
were shooting in last time.
| | 00:09 | It's really going to be the
best choice for most situations.
| | 00:11 | It's what you will use for your basic fill
flash, which is really all you need to be using
| | 00:15 | your pop-up flash for.
| | 00:17 | However, there are a couple of additional
modes that can be handy from time to time.
| | 00:21 | You've probably seen flash pictures
where people had creepy-looking red eyes.
| | 00:26 | That red-eye problem occurs when the flash
bounces off your subject and right back into
| | 00:32 | the lens at a particular angle that gives it
a good reflection off of the person's retina.
| | 00:36 | The Nikon's pop-up flash is high enough from
the lens that you probably won't have to worry
| | 00:40 | about this too much.
| | 00:41 | But if you are having a problem with red-eye,
you can switch to a red-eye reduction mode.
| | 00:46 | To change Flash mode, I just press this button
right here and then turn my main command dial.
| | 00:52 | So you can see that I'm in my first
Curtain Sync mode, the default mode.
| | 00:57 | A little rotation of the command
dial brings me to Redeye Reduction mode.
| | 01:01 | You've probably seen these kinds of flash modes on
other cameras. Even point-and-shoot cameras have them.
| | 01:05 | They're going to fire a bunch of flashes
out of the flash, some preliminary flashes to
| | 01:09 | close the irises down in your subject's eyes, and
then fire up the actual flash that it wants to use.
| | 01:17 | So, when you're using Redeye Reduction mode,
it's very important to tell your subject not
| | 01:21 | to move until you tell them you're done,
because after that initial flash, they may jam their
| | 01:25 | eyes into their fingers to rub their
eyes, because you've just blinded them.
| | 01:29 | So, let them know when you're
actually done before going on.
| | 01:32 | Next, we get red-eye reduction
with a Slow Sync Flash mode.
| | 01:38 | This does redeye reduction and slow sync.
| | 01:42 | Slow Sync is actually just a mode you
can go into without the red-eye reduction.
| | 01:46 | This combines flash with a long exposure.
| | 01:50 | You may have noticed before that flash
pictures, at night, very often your subject will be
| | 01:55 | illuminated and the
background will be completely black.
| | 01:57 | This is because your flash only
has a range of 10-12 feet or so,
| | 02:00 | so everything outside of that
range is going to be underexposed.
| | 02:04 | In Slow Sync mode, your flash will fire
and the camera will do a long exposure.
| | 02:09 | The long exposure will properly expose the background,
while your flash will nicely illuminate your foreground.
| | 02:14 | This is another one where you really need
to tell your subject, "Don't move until I tell
| | 02:18 | you that we're done," because the camera
may do a one- or a two-second exposure.
| | 02:22 | Now, your background may be a little blurry.
| | 02:24 | It may also have a very different
color tone than your flash image.
| | 02:28 | But usually either of those things is better than
just having a completely boring black background.
| | 02:33 | Finally, there is a variation of
Slow Sync Flash called Rear Sync Flash.
| | 02:39 | This has to do with firing the flash in
a different relationship to the shutter.
| | 02:44 | The practical upshot is that if your subject
is moving, this is going to put their blurred
| | 02:49 | motion behind them rather than in front of them,
which is what will happen with normal Slow Sync Flash.
| | 02:54 | If your subject is not moving,
it doesn't matter which of these you use.
| | 02:58 | Again, most of the time, you'll go
with the normal First Curtain Sync flash.
| | 03:04 | This is going to be the thing that's
probably most useful with your pop-up flash.
| | 03:07 | Flash is a complex subject, and this is not
a flash course. We are going to go over one
| | 03:11 | or two more things, but there's a lot of
flash detail that you're going to want to dig into
| | 03:16 | in your D800 manual.
| | 03:17 |
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| Working with flash exposure compensation| 00:00 | Let's take another look at my
fill-flash situation with this shot.
| | 00:03 | I am going to take this same image that we saw
before, and I've got some nice detail in here.
| | 00:08 | I'm liking how well it's filled in, but I am
not sure it couldn't be a little bit brighter.
| | 00:14 | Flash exposure compensation lets me dial the flash
power up and down to either get more or less flash.
| | 00:20 | So I am going to dial in an additional full stop of
flash, and I do that by pressing this button right here.
| | 00:27 | This is where I changed my flash mode
before, which I did with the main command dial.
| | 00:31 | I can change flash exposure
compensation right here with the subcommand dial.
| | 00:36 | So I am just going to dial that
up to +1.0 stop and take my shot.
| | 00:44 | And now I see a lot more detail
here than I was seeing before.
| | 00:47 | Here where it's my shot with no flash
exposure compensation and here I've got it with flash
| | 00:52 | exposure compensation, so you
can see that I've filled in a lot.
| | 00:55 | If I decided right now that well, actually,
that's too full--I am kind of flattening the
| | 00:58 | camera out--I could simply back off.
| | 01:00 | I could go down to two-thirds
of a stop or one-third of a stop.
| | 01:04 | Similarly, if I'm shooting something and I
have no flash exposure compensation turned
| | 01:09 | on and I've decided that my flash is too hot--
you may notice this when you're shooting portraits,
| | 01:14 | particularly if you're near your subject; they may
end up looking like they've got radiation burns--
| | 01:18 | then I might want to dial my flash power down,
so I would go in here and dial in some negative
| | 01:23 | exposure compensation.
| | 01:25 | So that's going to continue to fire the
flash, but it's not going to be as bright.
| | 01:30 | That's not going to make as
big a difference on this shot.
| | 01:32 | Let's--where did I leave that?
That's at -1 stop.
| | 01:35 | I am going go to like -2/3
of a stop there and take this shot.
| | 01:41 | So here's what I've got with -2/3 of
a stop as compared to just my normal flash shot.
| | 01:48 | So, it is a little darker.
| | 01:50 | I am not seeing as much detail on the bellows here
as I do in this shot, so you can see that has
| | 01:54 | pulled the flash power back. So flash exposure
compensation can be really critical for
| | 01:59 | getting the amount of fill in your scene just
right, and it's very, very easy to use.
| | 02:03 | Don't forget about it when you're using the
built-in fill flash on your camera.
| | 02:07 |
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|
|
10. Specialty Shooting FeaturesUnderstanding high-dynamic range (HDR)| 00:00 | Any scene that you look at has a dynamic
range; that is, it has a range of brightness.
| | 00:06 | One of the things that complicates the
photographic process is that your eye can perceive a much
| | 00:10 | wider dynamic range than your camera can.
| | 00:13 | That is, it can see a much
greater range of dark to light.
| | 00:16 | So, while your eye might be able to see
details in bright highlights and dark shadows within
| | 00:21 | your scene, your camera will only be
able to see detail in one or the other.
| | 00:26 | In high-dynamic range imaging, or HDR, you
shoot multiple frames, each exposed to capture
| | 00:32 | a different part of the dynamic range.
| | 00:34 | Then you use special software to combine
these multiple images into a single final image
| | 00:40 | that has detail across all
of its highlights and shadows.
| | 00:43 | Your camera has the ability to shoot and
merge HDR images automatically in-camera.
| | 00:49 | I've got a situation with a
pretty big dynamic range here.
| | 00:52 | Over there on the left, I've got a movie
projector that's very dark, and then I have these flowers
| | 00:56 | back here that are very light.
| | 00:58 | We haven't yet covered Live View for the D800,
but we'll be devoting an entire chapter to
| | 01:03 | that later in this course.
| | 01:04 | But it's going to be much easier if you
can see what's going on in my viewfinder,
| | 01:07 | so I'm going to go ahead and turn it on.
| | 01:10 | Here, you can see what my camera is seeing:
very, very dark projector, very light flowers back there.
| | 01:17 | I'm in Program mode right now.
| | 01:19 | If I just take a picture, let's see what I get.
| | 01:25 | I get decent exposure on the projector.
| | 01:28 | There is a lot of dark detail in there that
I can't see though, because the metering has
| | 01:32 | opted to try to protect the
highlights on the flowers.
| | 01:36 | So let's say I wanted to brighten this up.
| | 01:38 | What I might normally do is
dial in some exposure compensation.
| | 01:41 | So I'm going to dial in, say, one
stop of exposure compensation.
| | 01:45 | Now, if I take my shot, I'm going to
get much better detail on the projector.
| | 01:51 | Look at all the stuff I can
see in here now. But boy,
| | 01:53 | the flowers have gone out completely.
| | 01:55 | They are completely overexposed to white.
| | 01:57 | This is a situation that
HDR can really help you solve.
| | 02:01 | Let me first turn my Exposure Compensation back
down to 0, and them I'm going to go into the menu here.
| | 02:07 | In my Shooting menu, a little ways down, you'll
find something called HDR, High Dynamic Range.
| | 02:12 | It defaults to off of course.
| | 02:13 | I need to turn it on.
| | 02:16 | There are two different
ons that I have access to.
| | 02:19 | First is On single photo.
| | 02:21 | This means that I'm going to take one HDR,
which actually involves taking a few photos.
| | 02:26 | Or I can set it on series.
| | 02:29 | This means it's just going to stay in
HDR mode till I tell it to turn off.
| | 02:32 | So, if I think I'm going to need to work this
a little bit and try a few different things,
| | 02:35 | then I might want to leave it here; otherwise,
I should put it here because it's the camera's
| | 02:39 | way of protecting me from
accidentally leaving the feature on.
| | 02:43 | I won't do this HDR, forget to turn it off, and
end up screwing up the next thing I try to shoot.
| | 02:47 | So, I'm going to set it there.
| | 02:51 | Exposure Differential controls how much
exposure change I want between each shot.
| | 02:56 | HDR works by shooting a series of images,
each exposed a little bit differently and
| | 03:00 | combining different parts of each image.
| | 03:03 | Auto works very well.
| | 03:04 | It will automatically
calculate a good exposure differential.
| | 03:07 | If I want some more control, I can say give me one
exposure value between each exposure or two or three.
| | 03:15 | You can think of that is the same as one stop.
| | 03:17 | I'm going to leave it on Auto.
| | 03:20 | Finally, Smoothing: smoothing controls how the
different parts of the different frames are combined.
| | 03:25 | And ideally, you want to keep your
Smoothing setting as low as possible.
| | 03:28 | You can see I've got three settings here.
| | 03:30 | As they go higher, you're
going to get more of a HDR look.
| | 03:34 | It's going to look more processed.
| | 03:35 | It's going to look more kind of hyper-realistic.
| | 03:37 | So, my recommendation is to
keep it as low as possible.
| | 03:40 | I'm just going to go with the default there.
| | 03:43 | So with those all set, when I come back out here,
I will have an HDR icon in my status display.
| | 03:49 | I can also see an HDR icon down here.
| | 03:52 | I'm ready to shoot just as I normally would.
| | 03:54 | I'm going to meter my shot and focus.
| | 03:57 | And now I simply press the button.
| | 03:59 | It's actually shooting two images there.
| | 04:00 | It does a little work, does a little processing.
It merges them, and then it stores the file.
| | 04:04 | So, I'm back to Live View here.
This is not an imagery view.
| | 04:06 | To see my final image, I need to go
into Playback mode. And here it is!
| | 04:11 | So, notice I've got all this detail over here,
and I've still got detail on my flowers back there.
| | 04:18 | By comparison, here is the overexposed shot.
| | 04:21 | So, you can see that, yes, I had detail in
here, but I lost all this out here. The HDR
| | 04:27 | image preserves that.
| | 04:29 | Let me delete that image, so that you can see
side-by-side the HDR version and the original shot.
| | 04:36 | So, my flowers have actually even picked up
a little detail in the HDR version that they
| | 04:40 | didn't have in my normal shot.
| | 04:43 | And of course, I've picked up a lot
more detail here over what I had here.
| | 04:47 | So, this is a great use for HDR, for times
where you've got really dark things and really
| | 04:51 | bright things in the frame and
you want detail in both of them.
| | 04:54 | Now, of course you can also do HDR merges
on your computer by simply shooting three
| | 04:59 | frames each exposed, say, one stop apart,
and then merging them using special software.
| | 05:04 | Photoshop has HDR functionality built-in.
| | 05:07 | What's nice about this is it
saves you that postproduction step.
| | 05:10 | Of course you're giving up some of the control.
| | 05:13 | Note that when it's saved the HDR file,
it did not save any of the original images that
| | 05:18 | were used to create that HDR,
| | 05:20 | so I do not have the option of
merging this myself when I get home.
| | 05:24 | If I want to do that, then I need to go
back and separately shoot three images on their
| | 05:29 | own. If you'd like to learn more about HDR,
you can find out everything you need to know
| | 05:33 | in my course Shooting and
Processing High Dynamic Range Photographs.
| | 05:37 |
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| Creating multiple exposures| 00:00 | In the old days of film shooting, if you
ever forgot to advance the film in your camera,
| | 00:04 | then you would end up shooting multiple
images onto the same piece of film, resulting in
| | 00:09 | a weird composite image.
| | 00:11 | Eventually, the camera makers engineered their
cameras so that it was not possible to accidentally
| | 00:15 | create multiple exposures.
| | 00:16 | But by that point, it was too late: all the
artsy types had already decided that multiple
| | 00:20 | exposures were a very cool effect.
| | 00:22 | You can create multiple exposures in your
camera right now using the Multiple Exposure feature.
| | 00:28 | To shoot in Multiple Exposure with
your D800, go into the menu system.
| | 00:32 | In the Shooting menu, kind of near the bottom,
you're going to see something called Multiple
| | 00:36 | Exposure. It defaults to off of course.
| | 00:38 | I am going to come in here and turn it on.
| | 00:41 | There are two different ways of turning it on.
| | 00:42 | I can turn it on to shoot
a single multiple exposure.
| | 00:46 | Now, that doesn't actually mean a single image;
| | 00:48 | it means I'm going to produce one multiple
exposure, which might be composed of several
| | 00:53 | images. Or I can say no, I want to
do a series of multiple exposures.
| | 00:57 | So after I shoot this first one,
just stay in Multiple Exposure mode.
| | 01:01 | This is a really nice way of protecting yourself
against forgetting that you're in Multiple Exposure mode.
| | 01:06 | So I am going to say I am just going to do one.
| | 01:08 | So that will automatically turn off Multiple
Exposure after I do this particular composite.
| | 01:14 | I can define the number of
shots I want, from 2 the 10.
| | 01:16 | I am going to leave it at 2.
| | 01:18 | As you've probably already figured out here,
we have built a set with two different objects on it.
| | 01:23 | I am going to shoot a single image of each
object and the camera is going to combine
| | 01:26 | them into a single multiple exposure.
| | 01:30 | Auto Gain is something you really probably going to
want to leave on anytime you're doing multiple exposure.
| | 01:34 | It's going to control the brightness
of each shot as you shoot more of them.
| | 01:39 | So it's some intelligent
compositing going on here.
| | 01:42 | With those things configured, I am ready to go.
| | 01:44 | Now, a couple of notes here. First of all,
multiple exposures does not work in Live View
| | 01:49 | mode, so one thing is you can't follow me
along here while I am doing this. And two,
| | 01:53 | just know that if you have Live View turned
on, even if you configured Multiple Exposure,
| | 01:57 | once you turn on Live View,
it's going to turn all of that off.
| | 02:01 | A cool thing you can do though is combine
multiple exposures with the interval timer.
| | 02:05 | So, I could define a multiple exposure that
says take 10 shots, and then I can start the
| | 02:09 | interval timer, and say, take a shot every
hour for 10 hours, and I'd have this long
| | 02:13 | series of shots that would be
combined into a multiple exposure.
| | 02:17 | So from here I just do what I would
normally do and frame my shot meter and focus and
| | 02:25 | take my first picture. And now I am going to go over
here and meter and focus my second picture.
| | 02:33 | And the camera should have
produced a multiple exposure from that.
| | 02:37 | So, let's go into Playback mode.
| | 02:40 | It's going to think for
a minute, and here it is.
| | 02:44 | So you can see that it has combined
both elements into a single image.
| | 02:49 | So, it's pretty much just
done a straight transparency.
| | 02:53 | The two images both have 50% opacity,
and they've been combined together.
| | 02:59 | So, this is a simple way to get an
effect that you can also do in Photoshop,
| | 03:04 | so that's something you need to think
about when you're setting up this kind of shot.
| | 03:07 | Do you want to do it in camera, or is it
better to just take clean shots and combine them
| | 03:11 | in Photoshop where you have more control?
| | 03:13 | What's fun about this is there's kind of a
random element to it, because you don't know
| | 03:16 | what the camera is going to do.
| | 03:18 | But where you're probably going to find this
the most useful is in doing things that are
| | 03:22 | harder to do in Photoshop, like combining
this with an intervalometer, or you're going
| | 03:28 | to use this for times when you
don't have time to go to Photoshop.
| | 03:30 | If you really need to turn around the
composite very quickly and you think you can get it
| | 03:34 | in-camera, that's a time to
experiment with the Multiple Exposure feature.
| | 03:37 |
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| Using the interval timer| 00:00 | You've probably seen a
time-lapse movie like this before.
| | 00:03 | This was created by shooting one frame every
so often and then stringing all those frames
| | 00:08 | together into a movie, which
shows a tremendous span of time.
| | 00:13 | There are two ways of
shooting time-lapse on the D800.
| | 00:15 | The first is an interval timer, which simply
tells the camera to fire off every so often,
| | 00:21 | for a certain amount of time.
| | 00:23 | The second mode is the Time Lapse Photography mode,
which actually spits a movie directly out of the camera.
| | 00:28 | The advantage of doing time lapse with the
interval timer is that it's actually shooting
| | 00:33 | normal still frames exactly to your specs.
| | 00:37 | So you can choose to shoot in raw, which
gives you a lot of extra editing power.
| | 00:41 | You've also got access to each individual frame of
the movie. When you drop those into a video editor
| | 00:46 | you've got more options for
controlling time within the movie.
| | 00:50 | You might also use the interval timer simply
for times when you need to collect some data
| | 00:54 | about a scene over a certain amount of time.
| | 00:57 | Maybe someone's stealing crabapples off
your tree and you want to know who, so you set
| | 01:01 | it up to take a picture every hour or
something like that and review them later.
| | 01:04 | Finally, when shooting with the interval
timer you get full-pixel-count images, which gives
| | 01:09 | you a lot of additional
postprocessing options later.
| | 01:12 | You could crop just a part
of a scene out of an image.
| | 01:15 | You've got more resizing options.
| | 01:17 | When you shoot with Time Lapse Photography,
you're going to be outputting at standard video sizes.
| | 01:22 | To configure for time-lapse, I go to my menu,
and in the Shooting menu I have an option
| | 01:27 | called Interval timer shooting,
which of course defaults to off.
| | 01:30 | I'm going to come in here
and take a look at this.
| | 01:33 | I've got a range of parameters that I'm
going to be scrolling through from left to right
| | 01:37 | up here, and this down here is a status display
that's going to show me how things are progressing
| | 01:42 | as I set each of these options.
| | 01:44 | First, I can choose to start my time-lapse as
soon as I'm done configuring, or I can set a time.
| | 01:50 | So this is really nice if you're
wanting to do a time-lapse of sunrise.
| | 01:52 | You don't actually have to get up before
the sun rises and configure your camera.
| | 01:56 | You can say start this at 5 a.m. or whatever.
| | 02:00 | After I've configured this, I can hit the left
or right arrow button here to go to the next
| | 02:05 | parameter, and that is the Interval:
How often do I want it to take a picture?
| | 02:09 | By default it's set for 01 second.
| | 02:10 | I can configure this for hours, minutes,
or seconds, or some combination thereof.
| | 02:16 | After that, the number of times, that is the
number of intervals that I want it to go through,
| | 02:21 | and the number of shots that I
want it to shoot at each interval.
| | 02:25 | So to figure out the number of intervals I
would need to do some calculation on my own.
| | 02:29 | If I want to cover a certain number of hours
and I'm only shooting once every five seconds,
| | 02:34 | I would need to do the math to figure out
how many specific intervals that I would need
| | 02:38 | to go at and then dial that in here.
| | 02:41 | At each interval I can tell
it to take a number of shots.
| | 02:43 | So say, for example, I am shooting an HDR
time-lapse and I want 3 shots taken at each
| | 02:50 | one of my intervals.
I would configure it this way.
| | 02:53 | I would need to make sure that I've turned
on Auto Bracketing and configured that before
| | 02:56 | I start my time-lapse.
| | 02:58 | Finally, I get to this page.
| | 03:00 | I'm all set up here.
| | 03:02 | It's saying that it's going to
start right away once I start it.
| | 03:05 | It's got a 1-minute interval.
| | 03:06 | It's going to go 111 intervals, shooting 3
shots each time, for a total of 333 shots.
| | 03:12 | Finally, this is simply a
clock showing my current time.
| | 03:15 | You want to be sure if you're traveling that
you've adjusted your time zone appropriately
| | 03:20 | to be sure that your clock is accurate on
your camera, especially if you're using a
| | 03:24 | timer to start the time-lapse.
| | 03:26 | Since I don't have a timer set right now,
I would simply go here and hit the OK button
| | 03:30 | and it would start.
| | 03:32 | There are a few things to check
before you start your time-lapse though.
| | 03:36 | First of all, make sure that you are run
not in Self-Timer mode or Mirror Up mode; both
| | 03:41 | of those are going to mess up your time-lapse as
soon as it tries to trigger the Shutter button.
| | 03:46 | Because my face is not going to be behind
the Viewfinder here during the whole process,
| | 03:50 | it's going to be possible for light to get
in there and bounce around inside the camera
| | 03:55 | and that might create flare, so I'm going
to flip this closed so that closes off my
| | 03:59 | viewfinder to be certain that no light gets in.
| | 04:02 | Finally, I want to be sure that I've got enough
storage, so I need to do a little bit of calculation
| | 04:07 | about whether 333 frames
are going to fit on my card.
| | 04:11 | I see up here that I do
have enough space remaining.
| | 04:15 | If I was shooting raw,
obviously that would go down.
| | 04:18 | Since I've got two card slots, I can put
in a second card, and if I've configured for
| | 04:22 | overflow, then I will very
easily have enough space.
| | 04:26 | My Release mode does
impact interval timer shooting.
| | 04:31 | If I've chosen to shoot multiple frames at
each interval, if I go here to the low continuous
| | 04:37 | rate, then they're going to shoot at that speed.
| | 04:39 | If I go here to the high continuous rate,
they will shoot at my high continuous speed.
| | 04:44 | If I'm on single shot, then they're going
to go at the speed that is defined in one
| | 04:50 | of my custom functions.
| | 04:51 | If I come down here to the d category and
go to d2 CL mode shooting speed, that's my
| | 05:01 | low speed, which is currently set to 2. So if
I have to find multiple frames in my interval
| | 05:06 | timer, they're going to
shoot at 2 frames per second.
| | 05:10 | Once I have started a time-lapse, I can go
back to the Time Lapse menu item to either
| | 05:14 | pause the time-lapse or stop it, if I need to
stop it early, or I can just turn the camera off.
| | 05:20 | Obviously, for best results you're going
to want to be locked down on a tripod.
| | 05:23 | If you're going to be shooting through a
length of time that's long enough that your lighting
| | 05:27 | is going to change because the sun is coming
up or going down, or moving around, then you're
| | 05:31 | going to need to give some
thought to your exposure.
| | 05:33 | Do a little research into time-lapse to
learn more about what mode you should choose and
| | 05:38 | what you should expect in the
way of exposure changes over time.
| | 05:41 |
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| Shooting time-lapse photography| 00:00 | In addition to the Interval Timer option that
we saw in the last movie, you can also create
| | 00:06 | time-lapse on a D800 with an actual time-lapse
command that you'll find here in the Shooting menu.
| | 00:12 | Time-lapse photography defaults to off.
| | 00:14 | It's got the exact same interface that
you saw in the interval timer movies,
| | 00:17 | so if you'd like to know how to
drive this, just watch that movie.
| | 00:22 | The real difference here is that rather than
shooting a series of individual frames, it's
| | 00:26 | going to output an actual movie file with
the settings that are configured in the Movie
| | 00:31 | settings option here in your Shooting menu.
| | 00:34 | So if I go just as if I were shooting video
and come down here to Movie settings, which
| | 00:39 | is just below Time-lapse photography, this is the
format that my time-lapse movie will be spit out as.
| | 00:45 | This feature is a great way to learn about
time-lapse, because it doesn't require any postproduction.
| | 00:50 | You can easily set up some of the little
experiments, knock off some movies, and actually review
| | 00:54 | them right in-camera.
| | 00:55 | I would recommend doing this before you
dig in too much into Interval Timer shooting.
| | 00:59 | In particular, try shooting some time-lapse
movies of events where the lighting will change,
| | 01:04 | sun coming up, sun going
down, that kind of thing.
| | 01:06 | Those are going to be the exposure issues
that you really going to want to think about
| | 01:09 | when you're doing time-lapse, and this gives
you a quick way to see what the various effects
| | 01:14 | are in-camera as light
changes during a time-lapse.
| | 01:18 |
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| Working with the image area| 00:00 | Your D800 has an image sensor that's the
same size as a piece of 35-millimeter film.
| | 00:05 | This is actually one of the
advantages that it has over other SLRs.
| | 00:09 | Most of Nikon's other SLRs have a sensor
that's the size of a piece of APS film, which is a
| | 00:14 | little bit smaller than 35-millimeter film.
| | 00:17 | Now, a lens projects a circular
image onto the camera's focal plane,
| | 00:21 | so depending on the size of your sensor,
you'll end up cropping a different size rectangle
| | 00:26 | out of that circle.
| | 00:28 | Nikon FX lenses are engineered to project a
circle that's big enough to cover the D800's
| | 00:34 | 35-millimeter-size sensor.
| | 00:36 | Nikon DX lenses are engineered to project a circle
that's only big enough to cover an APS-size sensor.
| | 00:43 | Now, the advantage of DX lenses is that they
can be made physically smaller and lighter.
| | 00:49 | The disadvantage to DX size sensors is that
you can't get depth of field that's as shallow
| | 00:55 | when you're shooting with a smaller sensor.
| | 00:57 | Also, a given focal length on a DX lens will
have a narrower field of view than the same
| | 01:03 | focal length on an FX lens.
| | 01:05 | This is because the DX sensor is cropping
a smaller rectangle out of the circle that
| | 01:10 | the lens is projecting.
| | 01:11 | Now, your D800 can use either FX or DX lenses.
| | 01:17 | By default, when you attach a DX lens,
the camera will automatically crop a smaller area
| | 01:22 | out of the center of the image.
| | 01:23 | It will show you guidelines in the viewfinder
that show the exact area that's being cropped.
| | 01:28 | However, when you're using an FX lens,
you can still opt to choose a DX crop.
| | 01:34 | When you do, the field of
view of your lens will narrow.
| | 01:38 | To figure out how much,
multiply your focal length by 1.5.
| | 01:42 | For example, if you put a 50-millimeter FX
lens on your camera and then set the camera
| | 01:47 | to DX mode, you'll have the field of view
of a 75 millimeter lens. That's 50 x 1.5.
| | 01:55 | The advantage of switching to DX mode when
using an FX lens is that it lets you frame
| | 02:00 | with a tighter field of view.
| | 02:02 | The disadvantage is that you're cropping out many of
the pixels that that big 35-millimeter-size sensor has.
| | 02:08 | Personally, I would just shoot it full
size and crop later in my image editor, as this
| | 02:12 | would give me more options
for how to use the image.
| | 02:15 | You can control all of this stuff with the
Image Area command on the D800, which also
| | 02:20 | offers a couple of other options.
| | 02:23 | If you come into your menu system and go in
the Shooting menu, down to Image area, which
| | 02:29 | is, using my scrollbar, down a
little ways, so this a few items down,
| | 02:33 | you get a few different options here.
| | 02:35 | By default, the camera sets to Auto DX crop,
| | 02:38 | meaning if you put a DX lens on this camera,
the camera will automatically adjust itself
| | 02:43 | to work with that lens. And what it's going
to do is it's going to crop out just the center
| | 02:47 | part of the image sensor.
| | 02:49 | If you look through the viewfinder, you'll
actually see guidelines that show you which
| | 02:53 | part of your field of view will actually be
captured, everything outside of the inside
| | 02:57 | box is going to be lost.
| | 02:59 | It's kind of amazing to see just how much
bigger that FX sensor is than the DX sensor.
| | 03:05 | So this is what is giving
you a smaller field of view.
| | 03:07 | Now, I've got an FX lens on my camera right now.
| | 03:11 | But if I want, I can choose to take a DX crop.
| | 03:15 | So, when I choose this, I will still see my
smaller viewfinder, and any focal length that
| | 03:22 | I have set on this lens will effectively be
multiplied by 1.5 to get the equivalent field of view.
| | 03:30 | I can also set to a 1.2x multiplier, or I
can set to this 5:4 aspect ratio, which is
| | 03:38 | going to get me a
slightly narrower field of view.
| | 03:42 | All of these will show me the effect of field of
view in my viewfinder, and they are a way of shooting
| | 03:48 | a pre-cropped image.
| | 03:50 | If I'm shooting JPEG files,
only the cropped area will be saved.
| | 03:55 | If I'm shooting raw files--I am
processing with Nikon image processing software--
| | 04:00 | then the raw files will
automatically be cropped when I convert them.
| | 04:05 | This doesn't get you anything that you cannot
do shooting in full FX mode and using a Crop
| | 04:11 | tool on your image later. It's simply a way
of pre-visualizing what a smaller crop would
| | 04:17 | be if for some reason you need to match the
field of view of this camera to a DX camera.
| | 04:24 |
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| Using the remote control| 00:00 | A remote control is a must-have
for certain types of shooting.
| | 00:04 | With a remote control you can keep your hands off of
the camera to reduce camera shake during long exposures.
| | 00:10 | In a portrait shoot a remote control can keep
you from having to go behind the camera, which
| | 00:14 | allows you to maintain
better rapport with your subject.
| | 00:18 | A wireless remote control or a remote control with a
very long cord can make self-portraits much easier.
| | 00:23 | Remote controls are also great for times
when you've placed your camera in a difficult-to-
| | 00:27 | reach location on a very high tripod, say.
| | 00:29 | Connecting a remote to your camera is very easy.
| | 00:31 | I have here the Nikon MC 30 wired
remote control. It's very simple.
| | 00:38 | It plugs into the 10 pin connector that's right here,
and it's a pretty basic, straightforward remote control.
| | 00:45 | It's got a really big button on the top
that you press to fire the shutter, and I've got to
| | 00:49 | say that it feels really good.
| | 00:50 | It feels like when you press this
button something is going to happen.
| | 00:54 | It's also got a lock on the front, so when
I press the button down, I can flip this lock
| | 00:58 | and now it stays there until I
release the lock, and then it pops up.
| | 01:02 | So for working in bulb
mode this is very effective.
| | 01:07 | You can get more advanced remote controls.
| | 01:09 | You can get remote controls that have
intervalometers in them and things like that, but
| | 01:12 | because the D800 has that built-in,
you don't really need that so much.
| | 01:16 | You can also get wireless remote
controls, and they're going to work the same way.
| | 01:20 | There's going to be a receiver that plugs
in here and usually sits in your flash hot
| | 01:25 | shoe, and then you will have a little wireless
transmitter that you'll use to actually trigger the shutter.
| | 01:30 | When you're done using the remote just be
sure you cover up the port again. This is
| | 01:33 | a nice sturdy rubberized door here that will
keep dust and moisture from getting into those
| | 01:40 | electrical contacts.
| | 01:41 |
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|
|
11. Understanding Picture StylesDefining picture controls| 00:00 | When you shoot in JPEG mode the computer
inside your camera has to do a lot of things.
| | 00:06 | It reads the raw data off of the image sensor,
it converts it into a color image, then it
| | 00:11 | applies your white balance settings, it
sharpens your image, and then finally, it compresses
| | 00:16 | it into a JPEG file and writes it to the card.
| | 00:19 | Along the way, it also possibly performs some
image editing operations, changes to saturation
| | 00:24 | and contrast for example.
| | 00:26 | Picture controls are collections of image
editing operations that can be applied to
| | 00:30 | JPEG images when you shoot.
| | 00:33 | Now, your camera comes with a selection of
picture controls that are tailored towards
| | 00:37 | specific subject matter.
| | 00:38 | For example, the Portrait Picture control
will apply color corrections and contrast
| | 00:42 | adjustments that will
make skin tones look better.
| | 00:45 | If you're shooting raw, picture controls
have no effect on your image because no image
| | 00:49 | processing takes place on
raw files inside the camera.
| | 00:52 | However, if you select a picture control other
than standard, a tag is set in your raw file.
| | 00:58 | If you then open that raw file with
Nikon's Capture NX, it will identify that tag and
| | 01:04 | automatically apply settings in Capture NX to
achieve the look of that specific picture control.
| | 01:10 | Now if you're processing your raw images
with other raw processors then picture controls
| | 01:15 | will have no effect.
| | 01:17 | If you regularly shoot in the same environment--
say you're a wedding shooter or an event shooter
| | 01:22 | and you routinely shoot the same types of
subject matter in the same type of light--
| | 01:26 | then it's worth trying to find a
picture control that gives you results you like.
| | 01:30 | If one of the default picture controls works
for your common shooting locations or if you
| | 01:34 | can craft a picture control that does,
then you can save yourself a tremendous amount
| | 01:39 | of postproduction time.
| | 01:41 | If you're shooting JPEG then your camera
will automatically apply the corrections defined
| | 01:44 | in your picture control.
| | 01:46 | If you're shooting raw and processing your
images with Capture NX, then it will automatically
| | 01:50 | apply your picture controls' corrections.
| | 01:53 | If your picture style is configured
properly, this might mean that you don't have to do
| | 01:57 | any further adjustment to any of your images.
| | 02:00 | Now, as you'll see later, picture controls
can contain extremely refined adjustments that
| | 02:03 | can create very subtle
changes in color and contrast.
| | 02:06 |
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| Selecting a picture control| 00:00 | The easiest way to select a particular picture
control is to hit the Picture Control button right here.
| | 00:06 | Now, this isn't going to do anything if I am
in Playback mode, but when I'm in Shooting
| | 00:09 | mode, or when the screen is off entirely,
pressing it will bring up a Picture Control menu.
| | 00:14 | From here I can select from any of the
standard picture control: Standard, Neutral, Vivid,
| | 00:19 | Monochrome, Portrait and Landscape.
| | 00:21 | Note that these have nothing to do with orientation;
these are actually tuning the image for shooting
| | 00:27 | portraiture or shooting landscape-type shots.
| | 00:29 | One thing that's very nice about the Nikon
Picture Control system is I can customize
| | 00:33 | these, as you'll see in the next movie, but
I can also copy them from device to device.
| | 00:39 | So if you're part of a team of shooters
covering a particular event and you've built a specific
| | 00:43 | picture control for that situation, you can
simply copy that picture control around to
| | 00:48 | make sure that everybody is
shooting with the same control.
| | 00:52 | And you can find out how to move
them around on page 172 of your manual.
| | 00:56 | Note that you can also put picture controls into
the Nikon image editing software that you're using.
| | 01:01 | So if you're using Nikon View or CaptureNX,
you can be sure that your desktop software
| | 01:06 | and your camera have the same picture controls.
| | 01:09 | So once I've picked a new one, I just hit
OK and now that picture control is active,
| | 01:15 | any JPEG images that I shoot will be
processed according to that picture control, any raw
| | 01:20 | files that I shoot will be tagged with that
picture control, and if I bring them into CaptureNX
| | 01:26 | or ViewNX, they will automatically be processed
according to the specifications of that picture
| | 01:31 | control, and they should look just like
what I get straight out of the camera shooting
| | 01:35 | a JPEG with that same control.
| | 01:36 |
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| Modifying a picture control| 00:00 | From the Set Picture Control menu item in my
Shooting menu, I can also modify a picture control.
| | 00:08 | So let's take a look the
Standard picture control now.
| | 00:10 | It says, OK over here.
| | 00:12 | If I press OK or the middle button here,
I'm going to select that picture control, but
| | 00:16 | if I press the right button
here I get into an Adjust menu.
| | 00:21 | I have a few options here.
| | 00:22 | First of all, Quick Adjust has a couple of
positive and negative adjustments I can make,
| | 00:27 | and those are preprogrammed to adjust
certain parameters in this picture control.
| | 00:32 | In this case, it's a way of making this one
more contrasty with some more saturation and
| | 00:37 | if I go a little bit
farther, a little more sharpening.
| | 00:40 | The underline here is showing the default
values or previous values for this setting.
| | 00:45 | I am going to go back here,
and I can move down here.
| | 00:49 | This allows me to adjust Sharpening.
| | 00:51 | Sharpening in this case is just like that
sharpening algorithms that you would use in
| | 00:55 | you image editor; these are going to find edges
in your image and try to make them more acute.
| | 01:00 | I can adjust contrast, I can adjust
brightness, saturation, and finally, I can adjust hue,
| | 01:09 | moving Hue to the left--that is, adjusting it
in a negative direction--is going to make reds
| | 01:13 | more purple, blues more green, greens more
yellow. Positive values are going to make
| | 01:18 | reds more orange, greens
more blue, blues more purple.
| | 01:21 | So that's a way of getting a
little bit of hue shift in my image.
| | 01:23 | So I can dial these in however I want them.
| | 01:26 | I am just going to pick some random stuff
here, say OK, and now I'm on a modified picture
| | 01:35 | control, and I can tell it's modified
because it's got an asterisk next to it.
| | 01:39 | If I would like to reset it to its default
values, I can go back in here to the editor
| | 01:43 | and hit the Trashcan button, which is going
to put it back to where it would normally be.
| | 01:48 | It's asking me to confirm.
| | 01:49 | I am going to say Yes, which I have to do
with the OK button, and now it's back to Normal.
| | 01:54 | Now, editing picture controls here on
camera, you've got fairly blunt controls.
| | 01:59 | They are not a lot of adjustments that you
can make and the adjustments you can make
| | 02:04 | don't have a lot of latitude.
| | 02:06 | It's a nice way of making some tweaks,
but you can't get really in and create a really
| | 02:09 | refined picture control.
| | 02:11 | You can do that on your computer using
Capture NX or your View NX or Camera Control Pro.
| | 02:19 | Any of those are going to let you create
picture controls, and they are going to let you create
| | 02:22 | picture controls with far more control,
really subtle control, and really refined finessing
| | 02:28 | of very specific color ranges.
| | 02:30 | For simple for tweaking a flash tone in a
very, very particular way, you can create
| | 02:34 | very exacting picture controls and
then download them to your camera.
| | 02:36 |
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| Using the monochrome picture control| 00:00 | In my list of standard picture
controls here I have a Monochrome option.
| | 00:05 | This creates a black-and-white
version of your image when you shoot.
| | 00:09 | All you get out of it is a black-and-white.
| | 00:11 | The original color is discarded.
| | 00:13 | I have some opinions about the
Monochrome picture control here.
| | 00:18 | First, let's take a look
at what you can do with it.
| | 00:19 | I can open it up here and dial in sharpening values,
contrast values, brightness, or apply filter and toning.
| | 00:26 | Filter--you see I have got
yellow, orange, red, and green.
| | 00:29 | These simulate shooting black-and-
white film with a specific-colored filter,
| | 00:34 | so if you're used to working that way,
you can simulate that right here in camera.
| | 00:37 | The thing about black-and-white shooting is
that a big part of your creative process is
| | 00:42 | determining how you want specific controls
translated into specific shades of gray.
| | 00:48 | So having the camera do that for you
through a default recipe, even if you're dialing in
| | 00:52 | some filters, doesn't give you near the level
of control that you get using black-and-white
| | 00:57 | conversion software on your computer.
| | 00:59 | So by doing us in camera you're giving up a
tremendous amount of black-and-white potential.
| | 01:04 | Also, you are losing your original color image,
so you don't have the option later to go to
| | 01:10 | your computer and do a
black-and-white conversion on your own.
| | 01:13 | If you do need to work in black and white
on you camera, either because you are not
| | 01:17 | comfortable previsualizing a scene in black and
white and so you'd like to actually see it on the
| | 01:21 | back of the camera or you've got a workflow
where you need to turn images around very quickly,
| | 01:25 | I think there's still a better way to do
it then to use picture control, and that's to
| | 01:29 | go ahead and shoot in color and then use the
Retouch menu here to dial in a monochrome effect.
| | 01:36 | Because when you do this, it will create a copy of your
original image and do a black-and-white conversion on it.
| | 01:42 | That leaves you with the color image if you
want to go home later and using your image
| | 01:46 | editing software, turn it into a
really refined black and white.
| | 01:51 | If you'd like to know more about shooting
and editing in black and white check out my
| | 01:55 | Foundations of
Photography: Black and White course.
| | 01:58 | If you like to learn more about
specifically working with black-and-white conversion in
| | 02:03 | Nikon's own Capture NX software, check out
my Capture NX2 Essential Training course.
| | 02:09 |
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|
|
12. Using Live ViewActivating Live View| 00:00 | As we've seen, one of the great advantages
of an SLR is that you have a viewfinder that
| | 00:05 | looks through the same
lens that exposes the sensor.
| | 00:08 | However, there are times when looking through
that viewfinder is actually kind of a hassle.
| | 00:12 | Maybe that camera is on a tripod in a
difficult-to-see position, or maybe you are
| | 00:16 | shooting a portrait and you would prefer to look in
your subject's eyes rather than be behind the camera.
| | 00:21 | For these situations, Live View
might be a preferable way to work.
| | 00:25 | In Live View the camera's LCD screen becomes
a viewfinder, just like on a point-and-shoot
| | 00:30 | camera or a cell phone camera.
| | 00:32 | The camera takes the image that's being
captured by its sensor and it puts it immediately up
| | 00:36 | on the screen so that you can
see exactly what it's capturing.
| | 00:40 | Activating Live View on
your D800 is very simple.
| | 00:42 | It's this switch right here.
It's a rocker switch.
| | 00:45 | By default it's up here on Live View.
| | 00:46 | I can switch it down to shooting movies.
| | 00:49 | I don't want that right now.
I am going to leave it there.
| | 00:51 | I press the LV button right in the middle
of it and I hear a loud noise, which is the
| | 00:56 | sound of the camera's mirror
flipping up and the shutter opening.
| | 01:00 | That's going to allow light to now pass
through the lens to the sensor at the back of the
| | 01:04 | camera, and so the camera is
now rendering an image for me.
| | 01:07 | This stuff should all
look pretty familiar to you.
| | 01:09 | It's the same type of readout that you
get up here in your optical viewfinder.
| | 01:13 | I've got my metering mode and shooting mode,
shutter speed aperture, my ISO, and the remaining
| | 01:18 | number of shots on this card.
| | 01:20 | I've got some other status information around.
Up here these icons should look pretty familiar to you
| | 01:26 | also. It's everything from shooting mode to where
my images are being stored and some other settings.
| | 01:32 | I have got this gizmo down here, which lets me
change two things about the Live View display right now.
| | 01:41 | Notice that this is an
instruction as to how to use this control.
| | 01:44 | It's saying that I should press the Zoom
out button--the one with a little checkerboard
| | 01:48 | here on it--and use the left and right
buttons on the multicontroller to change Live View
| | 01:54 | White Balance or Brightness.
| | 01:56 | So I am going to press and hold and
when I do that, these two things pop up.
| | 02:01 | Live View White Balance, LVWB is right there,
and this is indicating that I turn the main
| | 02:06 | command dial. And when I do, what's happening is
different white balances are being applied to the screen.
| | 02:13 | This is not affecting my image in any way.
The idea here if I am using this screen in
| | 02:19 | some light that's causing the colors on the
screen to appear wrong I can compensate for
| | 02:24 | that by white balancing the screen.
| | 02:26 | So this can be very handy in
certain lighting situations.
| | 02:29 | If I press the left and right button here,
it moves me from this control to this control,
| | 02:36 | which is simply a brightness control.
| | 02:37 | I've got to turned up all the way right now so
that you can see the Live View screen better,
| | 02:41 | but if I go up and down, I can turn the
brightness back down to where it would normally be.
| | 02:46 | This is a really handy thing
| | 02:47 | if you are shooting in bright daylight;
you might want to crank the brightness up. Or if
| | 02:50 | you are shooting in low-light situations,
you might want to turn the brightness down
| | 02:54 | so that you don't blind yourself
with the light from the screen.
| | 02:57 | I am going to leave it set up here.
| | 02:59 | I can also put it on Auto mode--that's this A up
at the top here--and the camera will automatically
| | 03:04 | try to calculate the correct brightness.
| | 03:06 | We have got such a weird lighting situation
in here for what we need for our video shoot
| | 03:11 | that auto isn't working too well. Normally, it does.
I am going to leave it here turned up all the way.
| | 03:15 | I'll let go with the button
and those two controls go away.
| | 03:18 | Shooting, for the most part,
works just the way it does
| | 03:21 | when you are not using Live View. You can
use any shooting mode that you want. Right now I'm
| | 03:25 | in Aperture Priority mode.
| | 03:27 | You have the same exposure
concerns and the same exposure controls.
| | 03:31 | One of the real big
differences though, is autofocus.
| | 03:34 | You notice, I've only got one focus point here.
My normal array of focus points is not lighting up.
| | 03:40 | The cool thing is I can move that focus point
anywhere I want just by using the multicontroller.
| | 03:45 | So I can just drive this around the screen, and I
have got almost an unlimited range of focus points now.
| | 03:52 | I can just put this wherever I
need to to get the focus that I want.
| | 03:55 | So I am going to drop it right here
on riding on the end of this lens.
| | 04:00 | Now you might be seeing the screen
brightness change as I move around.
| | 04:04 | That's just the screen kind of updating itself.
| | 04:07 | I am not quite sure why it does that.
| | 04:09 | It doesn't affect your
metering though, or your final image.
| | 04:12 | It's just trying to give you the best image that it
can, so it's doing some calculations along the way.
| | 04:18 | I am going to half-press my Shutter button,
and here you can see that it has locked focus right there.
| | 04:23 | It's given me a green rectangle.
| | 04:26 | If it could not lock focus--maybe because I
was on a space with no contrast--it would
| | 04:30 | give me a red box there instead.
| | 04:32 | Now I can press the button
rest of the way and take my shot.
| | 04:36 | Now of course the other thing that's
happening when I half-press my Shutter button is I am
| | 04:39 | metering. And so I'm currently set
in Aperture Priority mode for F5.6.
| | 04:45 | It's a 30th of a second, and ISO 100
is the right metering for this light.
| | 04:50 | But I want you to notice
something about the exposure that's shown.
| | 04:54 | If I press the OK button, it gives me a
preview of what my final image will probably look
| | 04:59 | like, and in this case my final image looks
just like this image that I've got here.
| | 05:04 | But what if I was dialing in
some exposure compensation?
| | 05:07 | I am going to hit my Exposure
Compensation button and knock one stop--
| | 05:11 | I'll go even farther.
I'll take two stops out of this image.
| | 05:15 | My screen here has not changed.
| | 05:17 | The screen always tries to give me a good
viewfinder, just like this viewfinder does it.
| | 05:21 | It just tries to always show me an accurate
reading of the current light in the scene.
| | 05:27 | Now if I press the OK button though, I will
get a simulation of what my final image will
| | 05:33 | actually look like. And I actually have an
exposure compensation readout right here,
| | 05:37 | and I can see that I am under my two stops.
| | 05:42 | So, from this screen, I can, if I want, go ahead
and manipulate my exposure and see an automatic
| | 05:50 | real-time updating of it. And so I can dial
in some overexposure and see it brighten or
| | 05:56 | I can put it back to 0 to get a correct metering,
or what the camera deems to be correct metering.
| | 06:02 | I am going to hit OK again and now
I am back to my normal Live View.
| | 06:08 | Right now I am in F5.6, which is a fairly
shallow depth of field, and this camera back here is
| | 06:13 | being rendered a little bit soft.
| | 06:15 | I am going to zoom in on my display right now.
| | 06:17 | I can actually zoom just as I would in
Playback mode, and that lets me really evaluate my
| | 06:24 | depth of field here.
| | 06:25 | I can see that yeah, sure enough,
that's really, really soft.
| | 06:29 | This is not a depth-of-field preview situation.
| | 06:32 | This is real-time depth-of-field preview.
| | 06:34 | This is what it's going to
look like in my final image.
| | 06:37 | So what happens if I change my aperture?
| | 06:39 | I am in Aperture Priority mode, so I can simply
turn my subcommand dial to change my aperture,
| | 06:46 | and sure enough, as I go down to a
smaller aperture, this is sharpening up.
| | 06:50 | So I am going to put it about right there and
zoom back out and see, my aperture ended up at F20.
| | 06:58 | So I might start facing to defraction
artifacts at that point, but for the most part this
| | 07:02 | is a great way to really see what
depth of field is going to look like.
| | 07:06 | When combined with the OK button for
previewing exposure, I can get a very accurate view of
| | 07:11 | what my final image will look like.
| | 07:14 | So that's the basics of Live View shooting.
With these preview options--with the depth-
| | 07:18 | of-field preview and the exposure preview--
you can see how this is a really valuable
| | 07:22 | tool for everything from studio shooting,
where I can really nail my depth of field and my
| | 07:27 | focus, to landscape shooting, portrait
shooting. Anywhere else where I am going to be picky
| | 07:32 | about focus, working slowly to really set up
a shot well, Live View can be a real lifesaver
| | 07:37 | in those instances.
| | 07:39 | Running the LCD screen and the image sensor
generates a lot of heat inside your camera
| | 07:43 | and as your camera heats up, you might
start seeing more noise in your image.
| | 07:48 | Eventually, if the camera gets hot
enough, it will just shut itself off.
| | 07:50 | You will need to wait for it to cool
down before you can start using it again.
| | 07:54 | If you press the Live View button and nothing
happens, it probably means the camera has overheated.
| | 07:59 | Let it cool down for a bit
and then give it another try.
| | 08:01 | Now, you can avoid these overheating
problems by turning off Live View when you are not
| | 08:05 | actively shooting, especially
if the weather is very hot.
| | 08:08 |
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| Focusing in Live View| 00:00 | When you activate Live View, your camera
raises its mirror out of the way so that light can
| | 00:06 | get from the lens directly to the sensor.
| | 00:08 | It's the sensor that creates the
image that's shown on the LCD screen,
| | 00:12 | so no Live View image can be created
when mirror is down and in the way.
| | 00:17 | Now, unfortunately, there's something
else that happens when the mirror flips up.
| | 00:21 | The autofocus sensors in the camera are
located up here in the camera's pentaprism.
| | 00:26 | Light from the lens gets bounced up here by
the mirror and the autofocus sensors analyze
| | 00:30 | it to calculate focus.
| | 00:32 | When the mirror flips up
though, those sensors go blind,
| | 00:35 | meaning your camera loses its
normal Autofocus capability.
| | 00:38 | When you're in Live View then, the camera
has to use a different method to autofocus.
| | 00:44 | Rather than relying on its autofocus sensors,
the computer in the camera will analyze the
| | 00:49 | image that the sensor is
capturing and focus accordingly.
| | 00:52 | The practical upshot is that Autofocus in Live View
is much slower than it is when you shoot normally.
| | 00:59 | By default your D800 goes into AF-S Focus
mode when you first drop it into Live View.
| | 01:04 | That of course is Single-Servo
Autofocus, great for shooting still objects.
| | 01:10 | And you've already seen how I can move my
focus point around with the multicontroller.
| | 01:14 | Note that I can press the button in the middle
of the multicontroller to always pop my focus
| | 01:18 | point back to the very center of my frame.
| | 01:21 | I can change the focus mode on my D800 by
pressing the AF mode button on the side of
| | 01:26 | the camera, and that
highlights my focus mode right here.
| | 01:30 | And now turning the main command dial will
take me from Single to Full-Time Servo Focus mode.
| | 01:35 | So that's going to give me the
ability to track moving objects.
| | 01:40 | I'll let go of that dial right now.
| | 01:42 | Just as in normal shooting, I can
also change my Autofocus Area mode.
| | 01:47 | Right now I'm in normal area AF.
| | 01:50 | This is going to let me get pinpoint focus
on a very particular spot in my frame, as
| | 01:56 | indicated by my focus spot. But I have
some other options as well, and I get to those
| | 02:01 | again by pressing the AF mode button
but this time while turning the subcommand dial.
| | 02:07 | So the first thing I get here is, if I turn
the dial to the right, is that cycles me on
| | 02:13 | to Subject-tracking AF.
| | 02:16 | So what I can do here is if I have a moving
subject--let's say this camera was suddenly
| | 02:21 | dancing around my scene--
| | 02:22 | I could put this on the camera, hit my
center button, and now the camera will track it no
| | 02:29 | matter where it moves,
and as I move my frame around.
| | 02:32 | And here you can see it
kind of thinks it moved there.
| | 02:36 | Moving on, I'm going to press my AF Select
button and move over here to Face priority Autofocus.
| | 02:43 | This is going to use face detection to automatically
identify people in the frame and keep them in focus.
| | 02:51 | The system can track up to 35 faces in the frame
at once, but it will always focus on the closest.
| | 02:57 | If I want to choose a different face, I can
just use the multiselector to cycle through
| | 03:01 | all of the different faces that it's recognized.
| | 03:03 | Obviously, we have no faces in here at
this time, so it's not doing anything.
| | 03:07 | Moving on, another press takes
me to Wide-Area Autofocus mode.
| | 03:15 | This is very similar to normal Area Autofocus,
except that the camera is analyzing a larger area.
| | 03:20 | So I can still move this anywhere that I
want in the frame, but now its analysis is not
| | 03:27 | going to be of a real pinpoint area, but it's
going to do a wider analysis to stand a better
| | 03:34 | chance of getting this object in focus
rather than just one tiny, little point.
| | 03:38 | Typically the difference between this and
Normal-Area Autofocus is not going to matter
| | 03:42 | so much if you are at small apertures, or
even midsize apertures, simply because you're
| | 03:48 | going to pick up a lot of extra focus just
from your depth of field. But if you're shooting
| | 03:52 | with a small aperture, this
could make a big difference.
| | 03:55 | In general, for landscape shots, most handheld
shots, any non-portrait subject, you're going
| | 04:00 | to do better with a Wide-Area Autofocus
than Normal-Area Autofocus, just because you're
| | 04:05 | not going to be measuring
such a tiny, little area.
| | 04:09 | Finally, I can focus manually in Live View,
and it works just like it would normally.
| | 04:13 | I'm going to switch my lens from Autofocus
over to Manual, and now I can simply focus
| | 04:21 | using the focus ring on my camera.
| | 04:23 | Now, the problem here is that it's a
little bit difficult to see focus on the screen.
| | 04:27 | Fortunately, my zoom controls still work.
| | 04:30 | So I'm going to hit my plus button, and
notice it's zooming in on the area I have selected.
| | 04:34 | Of course I can pan that around.
| | 04:36 | I can zoom in a long way and
that gives me a nice clear view.
| | 04:43 | I'm having still a little bit of trouble
there, so I'm going to zoom in farther.
| | 04:46 | I can get really just
right on top of this thing.
| | 04:50 | Get my focus set, and once I have it where I
like it, I can zoom back out and take my shot.
| | 05:00 | One last thing for Live View shooting: because
my face is not up here against the viewfinder,
| | 05:05 | it's possible for light to enter the system here and
possibly cause flares or reflections within the camera.
| | 05:12 | So I'm going to activate my viewfinder shutter,
which is the switch right here, which just
| | 05:16 | closes off the viewfinder and guarantees
that the inside of the camera will stay dark.
| | 05:20 | So if you're doing a lot of Live View shooting,
don't forget to flip that thing down to keep
| | 05:25 | light from entering your viewfinder.
| | 05:26 |
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| Reviewing some Live View drawbacks| 00:00 | Live View is great for certain shooting
situations, as we discussed, but it also has some drawbacks.
| | 00:07 | Running the LCD screen takes
a tremendous amount of power.
| | 00:10 | This is why if your battery is running low
it's a good idea to turn off the image review
| | 00:13 | on your camera, and to not spend any
time looking at images you've already shot.
| | 00:18 | Because Live View requires the LCD
screen, it's a big battery drain.
| | 00:21 | So you want to keep an eye on your battery
status if you're doing a lot of Live View shooting.
| | 00:26 | If you know you're heading into a
situation that requires a lot of Live View then you
| | 00:30 | might want to consider
investing in some additional batteries.
| | 00:33 | If you're trying to shoot unobtrusively in
the darker environment, such as a performance
| | 00:38 | or concert, then the light from the LCD
screen might be disturbing to people around you.
| | 00:43 | In those instances it's probably
better to stay away from Live View.
| | 00:46 | But the biggest drawback with Live View
shooting has to do with dynamic range.
| | 00:50 | Dynamic range is the range of darkest to
lightest tones that your camera can see.
| | 00:55 | Your eyes have a much wider
dynamic range than your camera does.
| | 00:59 | This means that they can see
details in areas that your camera can't.
| | 01:02 | Now this can complicate things when you're
trying to frame a shot using Live View, because
| | 01:06 | Live View is not going to be able to show you
the same detail that you can see with your eye.
| | 01:11 | If you're wanting to compose around those
details, you may find yourself frustrated.
| | 01:15 | Say, for example, that you see a scene like this,
where your eye can see detail in those shadowy areas.
| | 01:21 | When you look at the scene using Live
View, you'd see something more like this.
| | 01:24 | Now if you were thinking about those
shadow details as elements you wanted to compose
| | 01:28 | around, then the fact that they're invisible
in Live View might be confounding to you when
| | 01:32 | you're trying frame your shot.
| | 01:33 | A big part of the artistry of photography
is knowing which parts of the dynamic range
| | 01:37 | that you want to capture from the
full range that your eye can see.
| | 01:41 | If the camera is only showing you its
limited view of that full range, then compositional
| | 01:46 | decisions become more complicated, because you won't
necessarily notice all the possibilities in a scene.
| | 01:51 | This is all true for any camera that
uses an LCD screen for a viewfinder.
| | 01:55 | One workaround is when you're using Live View,
be sure to look often at your scene with the naked eye.
| | 02:01 | Then you can take note of details that you can't
see when you're looking at the Live View screen.
| | 02:05 |
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|
|
13. Shooting VideoConfiguring and activating video| 00:00 | In addition to still images, you can shoot
video with your D800 and not just any kind
| | 00:05 | of video: the combination of a 35-millimeter
size sensor and high-quality removable lenses
| | 00:10 | gives you a film look that you simply
can't get with a normal video camera.
| | 00:14 | In the rest of this chapter, we're going to
look at the D800's video features, starting
| | 00:18 | with how to configure the
camera for shooting video.
| | 00:22 | Your D800 can shoot video at full HD quality,
but you have a couple options insofar as
| | 00:28 | the type of video it shoots.
| | 00:29 | You might want to take a look at those before
you get started, just to know what's available.
| | 00:33 | Here in the Shooting menu, at the very, very
bottom, there is something called Movie Settings.
| | 00:37 | I'm just going to open that up, and I
see that I've got a few different things that
| | 00:41 | I can configure here.
First is frame size and frame rate.
| | 00:45 | So by default I'm at my full frame size:
1920 x 1080 at 30 frames per second.
| | 00:50 | I have two other options at that size.
| | 00:52 | I can go to 25 frames per second or 24.
Whichever one I choose is probably going to be either
| | 00:58 | my personal taste and they look of one frame
rate or over another. Or I might be shooting
| | 01:03 | video with my D800 that needs to be edited
with footage from another type of camera that's
| | 01:07 | using a particular frame rate.
| | 01:10 | From there I can go down to any of these
720 frame sizes, but here I get the additional
| | 01:15 | advantage of having some slow-motion frame
rates--50 frames per second and 60 frames
| | 01:20 | a second--so that can be
a lot of fun to play with.
| | 01:23 | So I'm going to just stick with my default
values here at full frame size and 30 frames
| | 01:27 | per second, and go back out
to my Movie Settings menu.
| | 01:31 | I have a choice of two different qualities.
These are really just compression settings.
| | 01:35 | I've got high and normal.
| | 01:37 | If you can afford the space, just stick
with high quality. It will look better.
| | 01:41 | Finally, I have some
audio configuration I can do.
| | 01:45 | There is a built-in microphone in the D800,
and you can see that it's picking up my voice
| | 01:49 | right now and showing me these audio meters.
| | 01:52 | I can, if I want, insert an external microphone.
| | 01:55 | There is a microphone jack over here in the
side. And that's not a bad idea, because one,
| | 02:00 | I will probably likely have a
better-quality microphone than the one in the camera, but
| | 02:04 | also if I'm handling the camera at all, see,
it's picking up all of that noise. Also the
| | 02:12 | focus motors and the lens make noise.
| | 02:15 | So the built-in microphone is
going to give you a pretty dirty sound.
| | 02:19 | I can change the input levels manually if
I want, by going here to Manual Sensitivity.
| | 02:26 | And I've got just a single control for
making the microphone more sensitive by dialing it
| | 02:30 | up or making it less sensitive by dialing
it down. So if you're shooting someone who's
| | 02:35 | talking very loudly, you might want
to turn it down there a little bit.
| | 02:41 | This also controls the input
sensitivity if I am using an external microphone.
| | 02:48 | And I can choose if I want to
turn the microphone off altogether.
| | 02:52 | If you're recording sound on an external
device, you can turn this off, although then you might
| | 02:56 | have trouble syncing.
| | 02:58 | If you are really into silent movies, you've got
it made: there is a built-in feature for that.
| | 03:03 | Lastly on this menu, I have Destination.
| | 03:05 | Right now I am set to
record to the camera's SD card.
| | 03:09 | If I've got a CompactFlash card
in the slot, I could choose that.
| | 03:12 | You might choose to record to SD if you're
shooting stills onto the CompactFlash.
| | 03:17 | Then you'll keep your video and your stills separate.
| | 03:20 | Bear in mind that there are speed
requirements for these cards, so you want to be sure that
| | 03:24 | you are using a card that's
fast enough to capture video.
| | 03:28 | Once you've got all that set the way that
you like--and if you are just starting out,
| | 03:30 | you'll be fine just going with the defaults--
| | 03:32 | you are ready to activate Movie mode.
| | 03:34 | You use the same control that you used for
Live View earlier, but whereas before I was
| | 03:39 | pointed towards the still camera to take
still images using Live View, I'm going to
| | 03:42 | switch to the movie camera.
| | 03:44 | Now to turn it on, I just hit the LV button.
| | 03:47 | The mirror flips up, the shutter opens,
and I am seeing my scene in Live View.
| | 03:51 | Your status display looks pretty much like
it did before, except you get this little Movie
| | 03:55 | icon here. And now I am
ready to focus and start rolling.
| | 03:59 | We're going to talk about focus
and exposure in more detail later.
| | 04:02 | I'm just going to do a quick autofocus with
my AF button here, and then I'm going to start
| | 04:07 | the recording by pressing the red button up
here. That starts it up. That also stops it.
| | 04:13 | So those are the very, very basic controls.
As I said, we're going to look in more detail
| | 04:17 | at the specifics of shooting video
throughout the rest of this chapter.
| | 04:21 | That said, this is not a detailed DSLR video
course. If you'd like to really get into the
| | 04:28 | thick of it and learn all you can, check out
Video for Photographers: Shooting with a DSLR.
| | 04:33 |
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| Focusing and working with exposure| 00:00 | You have already seen the basic status
display that comes up when I switch into Live View
| | 00:05 | movie shooting, but the D800
can show me some other things.
| | 00:08 | If I press the Info button, I get this nice
grid display, which can help me figure out
| | 00:13 | if I have actually got the camera level.
| | 00:14 | If I press it again, I get a histogram
display, which can be critical for getting correct
| | 00:21 | exposure, as we'll see in a moment.
| | 00:22 | If I press it again, I get a
flight simulator. Oh wait, no, no!
| | 00:26 | This is the level, which you saw earlier.
| | 00:28 | This allows me another way of making sure that
I've got everything tilted and leveled properly.
| | 00:33 | Another press brings me to here which gets
me and live audio meter and control of many
| | 00:39 | of the same features that we saw in Live View.
| | 00:41 | So this should all be very familiar to
if you've been working with Live View.
| | 00:45 | Obviously, the difference
is I now have an audio meter.
| | 00:48 | I can change audio level in real time using
the same mechanism that I used in Live View
| | 00:54 | for changing screen brightness.
| | 00:56 | If I press the Zoom Out button and hold it and use
the left and right buttons to switch between
| | 01:02 | screen brightness and audio level, I can
then use the up and down buttons to change the
| | 01:09 | sensitivity of my microphone.
| | 01:11 | So you're probably not going to want to do
that in the middle of a shoot, but it's a
| | 01:14 | quick way to adjust input levels without having to
leave Live View and go back into the menuing system.
| | 01:21 | Finally, another press of the Info
button takes me back to the clear screen.
| | 01:25 | So let's think about autofocus and exposure now.
| | 01:28 | Autofocus works just the way
it does in normal Live View.
| | 01:31 | I have a single focus point that I can
drive around the screen with my multiselector.
| | 01:38 | Once I've got it on my subject, I can
either half-press the Shutter button or press the
| | 01:43 | AF on button and the camera will
go through its process of focusing.
| | 01:47 | Obviously, I also have the option for
manual focusing just like I did in Live View, and
| | 01:52 | as I had in Live View, in Movie mode I
have the ability to zoom in and check focus.
| | 01:59 | Now let's think about exposure.
| | 02:00 | I am in Program mode right now, and the
camera has metered the scene and decided on a 50th
| | 02:06 | of a second at 6.3.
| | 02:08 | Shutter speed, though, when
shooting video is pretty critical.
| | 02:12 | Ideally, you want your shutter
speed to be double your frame rate.
| | 02:17 | As you saw earlier, we set our
frame rate to 30 frames per second,
| | 02:20 | so I would like my shutter
speed to be a 60th of a second.
| | 02:24 | Now, normally, I could program-shift my way
to it here in Program mode, but that doesn't
| | 02:29 | work in Movie mode.
| | 02:30 | In fact, the only way I can get control of
shutter speed in Movie mode is to go into
| | 02:36 | Manual Exposure mode.
| | 02:37 | So I am going to dial that up right now.
| | 02:38 | I am going to switch this over to M,
and it's gone to the settings that I used
| | 02:44 | last time I was in M.
| | 02:45 | So I'm already at a 60th of a second, and it's
going to the last aperture, I used which was at 5.
| | 02:50 | Now my screen is looking a little dark here.
| | 02:52 | I don't actually get a meter to work with.
| | 02:55 | And I probably don't want to trust my simple
view of the LCD screen here, because as you
| | 03:02 | have already seen, we brightened the
screen up to make it more visible,
| | 03:06 | so we have no idea what brightness
on the screen actually represents.
| | 03:10 | But you already saw that with just a couple of
presses of Info button, I can get myself a histogram.
| | 03:15 | And here I can see that, yeah,
I am way down on my brightness.
| | 03:19 | So I have got two options for controlling that:
| | 03:21 | I can change my shutter speed or my aperture.
But we have party decided that shutter speed
| | 03:25 | needs to be a 60th of a second.
| | 03:26 | So I am going to go in
here and change my aperture.
| | 03:29 | That's the wrong one.
| | 03:30 | I am going to open up my aperture
to get some more brightness in here.
| | 03:33 | If you're not clear on histograms and how they work,
check out my Foundations of Photography: Exposure course.
| | 03:41 | Everything you learn in there about histograms
actually applies to exactly what we are doing right now.
| | 03:45 | This is a live histogram of course.
| | 03:46 | As the scene changes the histogram updates.
| | 03:49 | So I put my hand in front of here, you can see
that my histogram changes to reflect those tones.
| | 03:55 | So that's looking pretty good to me.
| | 03:56 | I am going to leave that about right there,
and I am going to get my histogram out of
| | 03:58 | the way, just so I can see things,
| | 04:02 | and double-check my focus.
My box here has gone red,
| | 04:05 | so that's indicating that it's
changed its mind about focus.
| | 04:08 | So I am going to put that there.
| | 04:09 | I am going to start my projector here and
actually shoot a little bit of video for this.
| | 04:15 | So I press my tally button
here to start rolling video.
| | 04:21 | You can see I get a countdown here
showing remaining space on the card.
| | 04:26 | So if I start getting near the
edge there, I know I can bail out.
| | 04:29 | I can also, if I want, store markers in
the video that allow me to zip really quickly
| | 04:35 | to those points when I am playing it back.
| | 04:37 | To do that I simply press the Depth of Field
Preview button just like I would do to preview
| | 04:42 | depth of field, and that stores a marker.
| | 04:45 | You saw a flash there.
| | 04:46 | Every time I press it another marker is stored, and I
can use those later when I'm playing back my video.
| | 04:51 | I am going to stop rolling here and
I am going to shut down my projector.
| | 04:58 | I can also shoot stills
while I am recording video.
| | 05:00 | But it's important to know that if I should a
still, it actually interrupts video recording.
| | 05:04 | So that's probably not the best way to go,
unless you want to shoot a still at the very end.
| | 05:10 | Now, to get the exposure where I wanted it,
I had to open my aperture a long way.
| | 05:15 | That's going to greatly
reduce my depth of field.
| | 05:17 | If I wanted to preserve deeper depth of field,
I would need to close my aperture down, but
| | 05:22 | as I do that, my frame gets darker.
| | 05:24 | But of course I have another exposure
parameter, which is ISO, which I can also change when
| | 05:30 | I'm in manual mode.
| | 05:32 | So I'm going to just bring my histogram back
up here, hit my ISO button, and dial my ISO
| | 05:38 | back up using my main dial
until I get an exposure that I like.
| | 05:44 | Up here around ISO 400 I am
really not worried about noise.
| | 05:46 | I am not even worried about noise in the
darker shadow areas, because the D800 has such a
| | 05:51 | great noise response in low light.
So that's looking pretty good.
| | 05:54 | I can now shoot this video
and have deeper depth of field.
| | 05:58 | Now, though I have only got the one focus
point--you've seen that I can drive it around--
| | 06:02 | I do have another focus option though.
| | 06:04 | If I drop over here, you can see that I am
in Single Servo Autofocus mode right now.
| | 06:11 | If I change that to Full-Time Autofocus Servo,
now the camera is going to try to continuously
| | 06:19 | track autofocus as the scene changes.
| | 06:22 | So watch what happens if I put my
hand in front of my focus point there.
| | 06:26 | The camera is trying to
refocus on it. There you go.
| | 06:29 | Now, as I move my hand away, it goes
back to tracking focus on the camera.
| | 06:34 | So this works a lot like a video camera that you
might have used that's trying to autofocus all the time.
| | 06:39 | That said, it's a noisy focus, it's a slow
focus, and you don't really know what direction
| | 06:45 | it's going to go first to achieve its focus.
| | 06:48 | So your new thing in the image that is trying
to focus on may go widely out of focus before
| | 06:53 | it comes back into focus.
| | 06:54 | This is maybe okay for shooting
home movies and things like that.
| | 06:57 | For serious production work, you're probably
going to want to stay in Single Servo Autofocus
| | 07:02 | and just be very, very careful about pulling
focus either manually or setting up your shots
| | 07:08 | around your focus needs.
| | 07:10 |
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| Using Playback mode| 00:00 | I can review the movies I've shot
just by going into Playback mode.
| | 00:04 | As always, it shows me the last thing I shot,
which in this case was the movie that you
| | 00:08 | saw me shoot in the last video.
| | 00:10 | You can tell it's a movie because it's
got a little movie camera icon up here.
| | 00:14 | It also has an extension of .mov.
| | 00:18 | But probably more importantly,
it's got playback controls.
| | 00:21 | If you notice down here in the Status
information I also see my Frame Rate and Size, and that
| | 00:25 | little thing right there indicates that
there are index markers that I can use.
| | 00:31 | So I'm going to hit the center button here on my
multicontroller and that starts the video playing.
| | 00:38 | I've got a few different controls here I can use
that are all indexed right there. I can pause.
| | 00:42 | I can stop altogether,
which takes me back out to here.
| | 00:46 | I can also go forward or backward at
higher speed by going either right or left.
| | 00:51 | So one press takes me
fast-forward at 2x, 4x, 8x, all the way up to 16x.
| | 00:58 | So if I have a longer movie, that's a
very quick way that I can zip through it.
| | 01:02 | I can also go backwards in the same way,
multiple presses while I'm playing.
| | 01:07 | Oops, I can't do it when a movie has ended.
| | 01:10 | Let me to jump forward a little bit there,
and you'll see that if I hit play to start
| | 01:16 | playing and then go backwards,
I can rewind through my video also.
| | 01:20 | Now, there's this progress indicator down
here, and if you'll notice you'll see three
| | 01:25 | little vertical bars.
| | 01:26 | Those are the index marks
that I made while I was shooting.
| | 01:29 | Those are the marks that I made by pressing the Depth
of Field Preview button while the video was rolling.
| | 01:35 | So I'm going to start playback and now if I
just take my main dial here and scroll forward,
| | 01:41 | it jumps to the next index mark and
pauses, so now I can start playing.
| | 01:45 | Then it will jump to the
next one, and it goes there.
| | 01:48 | I can also go back. I could scroll
to the left and it takes me back.
| | 01:51 | So if there were things that I was marking
while I was shooting, I can quickly jump to them.
| | 01:55 | So while you're shooting, if there's
something you want to mark because you think, well,
| | 01:59 | I really want to go back and check this out during
Playback mode and make sure that I got what I want,
| | 02:03 | this is a way you can do that.
| | 02:04 | That said, be very, very careful about
handling the camera during video shooting.
| | 02:09 | You don't want to wiggle it
around or jostle it or create noise.
| | 02:13 | You don't want to bump it too hard,
especially if you're using the internal microphone.
| | 02:18 | Up here at the top I have an indicator of
my current place in the movie, in minutes
| | 02:22 | and seconds, out of the total number
of minutes and seconds in the movie.
| | 02:27 | When you're shooting at Best quality,
clip size is limited to 20 minutes.
| | 02:30 | Now, that Maximum clip length varies depending on
the Quality settings and pixel count that you're using.
| | 02:38 | You can find more details about
that on page 70 of your manual.
| | 02:42 | Note also that the camera will
shut itself down if it gets too hot.
| | 02:46 | So even before you hit 20 minutes if you're
working in direct sun and very high temperatures,
| | 02:50 | the camera may shut down ahead of time and
you're not going to be able to get it to come
| | 02:53 | back up until it's had a
bit of time to cool down.
| | 02:57 | For deleting pictures, also work with videos.
| | 03:00 | I can use my Delete button to delete, or I
can use any of the other deleting features
| | 03:06 | to get rid of a video.
| | 03:08 | That's video playback.
| | 03:09 | There is one other thing you might consider
before you go out to start shooting video,
| | 03:13 | and that is customizing some of the video
controls, and we'll look at that in the next movie.
| | 03:17 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Customizing movie controls| 00:00 | Category g of the Custom Settings menu gives
you a number of options for customizing movie
| | 00:06 | controls, and a couple
of these are pretty handy,
| | 00:09 | so you may want to take a look at them.
| | 00:12 | The Fn, or the Function, button is the
lower button on the front of the camera here.
| | 00:17 | By default, it doesn't do anything.
| | 00:19 | If I want though, I can give it one of these
three functions, either to change the aperture,
| | 00:27 | to put an index, or to view photo shooting info.
| | 00:31 | So, what's cool about this, potentially, is that I
could set that button to open the aperture wider.
| | 00:37 | So, I am going to make that assignment.
| | 00:38 | Then I am going to go down here to the
next option here, which is to assign a function
| | 00:42 | to the Preview button.
| | 00:44 | The Preview button is the upper one right
here, the one that normally allows me to set
| | 00:50 | an index mark, or that is,
Depth of Field Preview.
| | 00:53 | I am going to set that to close the
aperture--actually, it's already set there.
| | 00:58 | So now, while I'm shooting, I've actually
got aperture control right here on the front
| | 01:03 | of the camera: one button opens the
aperture, the other closes it down.
| | 01:06 | So that can be a nice way of getting aperture
control without having to mess with the menus
| | 01:12 | and dials that you were seeing earlier.
| | 01:14 | Finally, I can also assign functions to
the AE Lock, the Autofocus Lock button.
| | 01:19 | There's a nice big mess of them
here, everything from index marking--
| | 01:23 | so if I change these to Aperture Control,
I might want to move Index Marking back here--
| | 01:27 | to different focus and exposure locks.
| | 01:30 | And notice every time I am picking one of
these, it's showing me a diagram of exactly
| | 01:34 | where it is on the camera.
| | 01:35 | So if you're not sure what these
names are, the camera will show you.
| | 01:38 | I can actually change the
function of the shutter button.
| | 01:40 | I can set it to take photos, which is how it's
set now, or I can change it to record movies
| | 01:45 | if I'd rather have that functionality there.
| | 01:48 | So, some simple little customizations that
might make a big difference in your shooting.
| | 01:52 | The D800 has other video capabilities,
including the ability to edit movies in-camera.
| | 01:58 | Now, I really wouldn't recommend
editing your independent feature on your D800.
| | 02:03 | But say you're out in the field and storage
is running short, or you really need to cut
| | 02:08 | the size of a video down because you need
to send it over an Internet connection, in
| | 02:12 | a pinch, it might be worth looking into those
features for trimming maybe some extra material
| | 02:17 | off of your files simply to get them smaller.
| | 02:19 | You can find full explanations of that and
other video functions in your D800 manual.
| | 02:24 |
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|
14. Customizing Menu and ModesUsing menu banks| 00:00 | One of the great things about the D800 is
that you can customize it to an incredible
| | 00:04 | degree, from changing button and dial behaviors to
locking features so that you can't accidentally alter them.
| | 00:11 | You can reconfigure the D800 to work
exactly the way that feels right to you.
| | 00:15 | In this chapter we are going to look at several
methods for fine-tuning and tweaking the controls
| | 00:19 | on your camera, and we are going to
start with something called menu banks.
| | 00:24 | You can store all of these settings that you've made to
the shooting menu in one of four different memory banks.
| | 00:32 | By default the very first item on your
shooting menu is Shooting menu bank, and it's set to A.
| | 00:38 | If I want, I can change to a different bank
and now make changes to the shooting menu here.
| | 00:44 | If I go back to bank A,
my settings from that bank will be restored.
| | 00:49 | In other words, I can keep four
different copies of my shooting menu settings.
| | 00:53 | I can also do the same thing down
here in my custom settings menu.
| | 00:57 | I've got four different
banks for custom settings.
| | 01:01 | Now, at first, this seems
like a really useful feature.
| | 01:03 | Unfortunately, it's a deeply
flawed, in a couple different ways.
| | 01:07 | First of all, while these banks store
everything from the shooting menu and the custom settings
| | 01:12 | menu, they don't store any of the controls
that you set on the outside of the camera.
| | 01:17 | For example, they don't store these
shooting modes that you're in or your release mode
| | 01:21 | or your bracketing mode or
your focus or metering modes.
| | 01:25 | So you can't actually store the
complete configuration of the camera.
| | 01:29 | Also, if you've prebuilt some settings in,
say, bank B and you switch to those, because
| | 01:35 | you like this configuration for a particular
type of shooting and then you change something here,
| | 01:41 | it's automatically changed in bank B.
| | 01:42 | In other words, it's very easy to screw up
settings that you've made in a particular bank,
| | 01:47 | so you need to be very
disciplined about how you use these.
| | 01:50 | So what can you use these for?
| | 01:52 | Well, perhaps you routinely go out to
shoot images specifically for the web.
| | 01:57 | You know that they're never going to be used in
print and you want to minimize your postproduction time.
| | 02:01 | So you could create a shooting bank that
specifies, say, sRGB color space and a smaller image size
| | 02:08 | and certain JPEG compression settings, and
since that's JPEG shooting, maybe you want
| | 02:13 | to rely on the D800's picture
styles to get a certain look.
| | 02:17 | So you would have a shooting bank
specifically designed for web shooting.
| | 02:21 | You could then create a second bank that was
designed for higher-quality print shooting.
| | 02:25 | So full-size, raw shooting, Adobe RGB color space,
and any other utility functions that you would like.
| | 02:32 | Again, the trick is to remember that if you
ever alter a setting with any of those banks
| | 02:37 | selected, you will change those stored
settings, so you need to be very careful once you've
| | 02:42 | set them up to be sure that you don't
overwrite any of the settings later.
| | 02:46 | Note that each of these banks starts with
the same original default settings, the default
| | 02:50 | factory settings for your camera.
| | 02:53 | Now, you can improve shooting banks a little bit by
coming down here and turning Extended menu banks to on.
| | 02:58 | It normally defaults to off.
| | 02:59 | With Extended menu banks on then the camera
will store your exposure mode, your shutter
| | 03:04 | speed, and your aperture in the information
recorded with each bank so that you can at least
| | 03:09 | come in to a bank with a preset
aperture or shutter speed setting.
| | 03:13 | You still don't get modes, release modes, and many
other functions that you might normally want to sock away.
| | 03:19 | At the end of this chapter, you will see how to
save and load all of the settings in the camera,
| | 03:23 | so once you've configured your menu banks,
you may want to write about the media card
| | 03:27 | so that you can restore them
later if you accidentally alter them.
| | 03:30 |
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| Using the My Menu feature| 00:00 | The D800 menu system has gobs and gobs of
items and lots of options and lots of commands,
| | 00:08 | and some of the most commonly used
commands might be spread amongst different menus.
| | 00:13 | To make it easier for you to get to the
commands that you use the most often the D800 provides
| | 00:18 | this thing down here called My Menu.
| | 00:21 | You can configure My Menu in two different ways.
| | 00:23 | When it's set to be My Menu, you can add any
items from anywhere in the other menus that
| | 00:28 | you want to create a list, a custom
menu of the things that you use the most.
| | 00:33 | Or you can come down here and select this
Choose tab option and change it from My Menu
| | 00:39 | to Recent settings.
| | 00:41 | When it's set here, every time you
use the command it will go to this menu.
| | 00:46 | So for example, if I come up here and execute
any one of these commands--I am going to take
| | 00:53 | a Picture Control change to Monochrome.
| | 00:56 | Now, when I go to My Menu, there is set
Picture Control to Monochrome, so all of these will
| | 01:03 | stack up here in a last-in/first-out order.
| | 01:07 | If I prefer to create a set menu of things
that I use regularly, I can go back to MY
| | 01:12 | MENU, and then I can simply say Add items.
| | 01:16 | Maybe I do a lot of auto bracketing and I am
frequently changing the number of shots in my bracket.
| | 01:22 | I could go down here to the Custom Setting
menu, into the Bracketing/flash category, and
| | 01:27 | choose Auto bracketing set.
| | 01:30 | That gets added to my menu and asks what
position it wants me to put it in. I've only got one
| | 01:34 | menu item so it just stays right there.
| | 01:36 | If there was more than one menu item, I could simply
move it up and down and put it exactly where I wanted it.
| | 01:40 | And now this is here in my menu.
Anytime I come here this will be the first item.
| | 01:44 | I can continue to add items until I have
got a menu that's custom tailored for only the
| | 01:48 | functions that I regularly use.
| | 01:51 | This ends up being much faster than
digging across these five other menus.
| | 01:57 | If I want to remove an item, I can do that.
| | 01:59 | If I want to reorder the
items, I can choose Rank items.
| | 02:03 | So My Menu is a very easy way to streamline the
access of the menu items that you frequently choose.
| | 02:11 |
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| Customizing controls| 00:00 | The D800 offers an incredible
amount of customization possibility.
| | 00:05 | A lot of these controls on the outside can be
reworked, reprogrammed with different functions.
| | 00:10 | You can really tailor the camera to work
exactly the way that you would like it to.
| | 00:14 | You get to all of these customization
options through the Custom Setting Menu, down here
| | 00:19 | Section f, Controls.
| | 00:20 | I'm not going to go through all of these.
| | 00:22 | I've just pulled out some that I think are
particularly cool that you ought to take a look at.
| | 00:26 | You can find detailed instructions on all
of them starting on page 309 of your manual.
| | 00:30 | The first option up here is the light switch.
| | 00:33 | Up here on the top of the camera of course
I've got my off and on switch, and if I continue
| | 00:37 | to rotate it in this direction, by default I get to
this light, which is a little spring-loaded affair
| | 00:43 | that turns on, normally, the
light behind the status display.
| | 00:46 | If I want, I can reprogram that to turn
on the light and pop up the info display.
| | 00:51 | So that can be an easy shortcut to getting
information that you might want to see when
| | 00:55 | you're working in low light.
| | 00:57 | This lights up the status display.
| | 00:58 | Turning on the info display gives you
information that you may not be able to read off of other
| | 01:02 | parts of the camera.
| | 01:05 | Back into the f section, we get to
f2, Multi selector center button.
| | 01:10 | That's this control right here, and this lets
me reprogram it in a couple of different ways.
| | 01:16 | In Shooting mode, by default, pressing it
resets the focus point to the very center.
| | 01:21 | If I want, I can change that to highlight the
active focus point so that it's easier to see.
| | 01:28 | In Playback mode, pressing the center button
toggles between a Thumbnail View and Full Frame Playback.
| | 01:35 | If I want, I can change that to turning
histograms on, zooming on and off, or choosing a different
| | 01:41 | card slot and folder.
| | 01:43 | Finally, in Live View, by default it
works just like it does in Shooting mode.
| | 01:47 | It gives me the option to reset
to the centermost focus point.
| | 01:51 | I can change that to a Zoom control
or I can deactivate it altogether.
| | 01:55 | A really critical customization here on the
front of the camera is the Function button.
| | 02:00 | I can give this an incredible range of options.
| | 02:04 | Here's a picture of the Function button.
| | 02:07 | So I can select any of these things.
| | 02:09 | There's a big mess of them here.
| | 02:11 | It's really worth digging through here.
There are a lot of cool things.
| | 02:14 | In fact, there are some features that you
can't get any other way, such as a bracketing
| | 02:17 | burst, which allows me to press the Shutter button
once and get an entire burst of autobracketed images.
| | 02:24 | Moving on, again in the f section, I get to f5.
| | 02:29 | This works just like the Assign Function button,
but it works with the Preview button, which
| | 02:33 | is the one just above it.
| | 02:35 | If you find you don't do a lot of auto
bracketing, you may want to come down here and reassign
| | 02:39 | the Bracketing button.
| | 02:41 | You can take it off of auto bracketing and
make it a multiple exposure or an HDR button.
| | 02:46 | So if you tend to use those more than bracketing,
that might be more useful for you, especially
| | 02:50 | since HDR includes a
bracketing feature built into it.
| | 02:53 | Of course you spend a lot of time turning
the two command dials; why not change those
| | 02:58 | into something else?
| | 02:59 | Actually there are some useful things here.
| | 03:01 | You can reverse their rotation.
| | 03:03 | If you are coming from an older camera
where a positive rotation was to the left rather
| | 03:09 | than to the right, you can reverse that.
| | 03:11 | The other really cool feature here
is you can swap them if you want.
| | 03:14 | You can make this the main dial
and this the subcommand dial.
| | 03:18 | Finally, many of these same buttons can be
programmed with different functions when you're in Movie mode.
| | 03:24 | If I come down here to the g category,
you'll see that you've got commands for assigning
| | 03:29 | the Function button, Preview button, Exposure
Lock, and the Shutter button to work differently
| | 03:35 | when you are shooting movies rather
than when you are shooting still images.
| | 03:38 | It's really worth digging
through both sets of these controls.
| | 03:42 | You can really change the feel of the
camera and make sure that commands you need ready
| | 03:47 | access to are right under your fingertips,
and that the fingertips work the way you expect
| | 03:51 | them to, rolling in one direction
or another, as makes sense to you.
| | 03:55 | So dig into the Custom Settings Menu:
the f category and the g category.
| | 03:59 |
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| Autofocus fine-tuning| 00:00 | Using the AF fine-tune command here in the
Setup menu, I can refine my camera's understanding
| | 00:06 | of a particular lens's optical characteristics.
| | 00:09 | In other words, I can make it
focus better with a very specific lens.
| | 00:14 | Now in the real world, you really only going
to notice the difference if you're working
| | 00:18 | with a lens that can open to a very, very
wide aperture, so a 2.8 lens or a 1.8, or
| | 00:23 | faster. Anything that's slower than that,
there's really no point in fine-tuning.
| | 00:28 | Also, this fine-tuning
process is pretty complicated.
| | 00:32 | You need some special gear to really do it
well, and a company called Michael Tapes Design
| | 00:37 | makes an excellent product called the LensAlign
that's designed specifically for going through
| | 00:42 | this particular process, so you probably
want to invest in some of that hardware.
| | 00:48 | You can find instructions on how to use
this feature on page 338 on your manual.
| | 00:52 | Note that it also does warn you that fine-
tuning is not recommended in most situations and
| | 00:58 | that it is possible to screw up your focus.
| | 01:00 | Now, I've never actually messed up a lens.
| | 01:02 | I have, before, found through fine-tuning
process that my lens needed some adjustment.
| | 01:07 | I've done that and not really noticed
any difference at all in my final results.
| | 01:11 | So whether this is worth dealing with
really depends on the type of shooting you do.
| | 01:14 | If you do a lot of shooting at f1.2, and
are finding that maybe your focus is a little
| | 01:19 | bit off--more than you can compensate for
with sharpening software--than you might want
| | 01:23 | to take a look at this.
| | 01:24 |
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| Saving and loading settings| 00:00 | By now you should realize there are lots and lots
of settings that you can customize on your D800.
| | 00:06 | You can rearrange controls. You can tweak lots
of settings throughout the camera, throughout
| | 00:12 | all of its menus, to get it
working exactly the way that you want.
| | 00:16 | It's a shame to get it, over weeks or months
or however long it takes, to get it configured
| | 00:20 | exactly how you want and then something
happens that forces you to maybe reset the settings
| | 00:25 | to factory defaults, or something gets scrambled.
| | 00:28 | Fortunately, you can save and load your
settings so that you can restore them later.
| | 00:33 | If I choose Save settings from the Setup
menu and hit save, the Save settings option, it
| | 00:37 | will write out all of the settings for my camera to
my card into a file called NZ setup and the numeral 8.
| | 00:46 | I can now take that file and
back it up on my computer somewhere.
| | 00:49 | I can give it to other D800 users if
I think I've got a really cool setup.
| | 00:53 | I can give it to my friends.
| | 00:54 | If you have multiple D800 bodies, you can use
that file to immediately get your other bodies
| | 01:00 | configured the same way.
| | 01:01 | All you do is put that file back on the card
and choose the Load settings button and all
| | 01:06 | of your settings will be restored.
| | 01:08 | Page 335 of your manual shows you a list of
everything that is saved with the Save settings
| | 01:13 | command, and it's pretty much
everything you'd want it to save.
| | 01:16 | So after you get your camera customized, I
really recommend doing this so that you have
| | 01:20 | a backup of your settings.
| | 01:22 | Whether or not you have another camera body,
whether or not you have any friends, it doesn't
| | 01:26 | matter; you'll get an easy way to restore
your image to your tweaked refined customized
| | 01:32 | version of your camera that you've
probably worked pretty hard to achieve.
| | 01:35 |
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|
15. Using Custom SettingsWorking with custom settings| 00:00 | There are a huge number of parameters, settings,
and functions that you can customize and tweak
| | 00:05 | using the Custom settings menu on your D800.
| | 00:08 | Now we're not going to cover every custom
setting option in this course because there
| | 00:12 | are simply so many of them and some of
them are fairly specialized and esoteric.
| | 00:18 | Instead, in this chapter, we're going to look
at some settings that I find especially useful.
| | 00:21 | If you've been working through this course
in order, then you've already seen some custom
| | 00:25 | settings and you should be
comfortable with changing them.
| | 00:28 | The custom settings appear here in the Custom
Setting menu, which is the one with the little
| | 00:32 | pencil. I think the idea is that with the pencil,
you're drawing in your own customizations with the camera.
| | 00:40 | Since we're not covering every single
custom setting that's available on the D800, you
| | 00:43 | should look at the full list that
begins on page 278 of your D800 manual.
| | 00:48 | There, you'll find detailed
descriptions of each function.
| | 00:50 |
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| Using the Focus Priority feature| 00:00 | There's a useful Shutter button and
focus behavior you can change on your D800.
| | 00:06 | I am here in the Custom Setting menu, going
into the Autofocus category, the first two
| | 00:11 | items--a1 and a2--AF-C priority
selection and AF-S priority selection.
| | 00:16 | I am going to look at the second one first.
| | 00:19 | AF-S of course is Single-Servo Autofocus.
| | 00:23 | That's for locking focus once and then shooting.
| | 00:27 | Right now it's set so that it will
only take a picture when it's in focus.
| | 00:31 | I cannot fire a shot until it has locked focus.
| | 00:34 | If I want, I can change that to Release priority,
meaning it will absolutely take the shot when
| | 00:39 | I press the button, regardless
of whether it's in focus or not.
| | 00:42 | And you may think, why would I want to
shoot a picture that's out of focus?
| | 00:46 | Sometimes maybe you're shooting a really fast
subject or you're in a quickly changing situation
| | 00:50 | where you're moving around a lot and you
don't care about pinpoint-perfect focus; you don't
| | 00:55 | want to miss a moment, even if it's a blurry
moment, just because the camera is hunting around.
| | 00:59 | At that time you may want to change to
Release priority; most of the time you'll want to
| | 01:03 | stick with Focus priority.
| | 01:05 | Up here, Continuous-Servo
Autofocus, I've got the same options.
| | 01:10 | It defaults to saying I will take a
picture anytime you press the button.
| | 01:14 | This is a good setting for Continuous-Servo
Autofocus, because since it's constantly tracking
| | 01:19 | focus, odds are it's probably pretty close
to being in focus, even if it's not dead on.
| | 01:24 | So you do want it to take a
shot whenever you press the button.
| | 01:28 | I can change it so that it will only fire
when I have achieved focus--that is, when I
| | 01:34 | get the circle indicator in my
viewfinder showing that it has locked focus.
| | 01:39 | Notice that either of these modes which give
priority to focus are going to slow down your
| | 01:44 | continuous shooting.
| | 01:45 | If you're used to fast shooting in Continuous-
Servo mode, that's because it's not waiting to achieve
| | 01:50 | focus before it fires the shot.
| | 01:52 | If you choose either of those, you're going
to have a harder time knocking off lots of
| | 01:55 | photos in a hurry, because the camera is not
going to shoot until it has arrived at good focus.
| | 02:01 | So those are both things to fiddle with if
you're finding yourself shooting fast-moving
| | 02:06 | subject matter or in a rapidly changing
environment where you're moving a lot and you're missing
| | 02:10 | shots because the camera is hung up
on being focused before it will fire.
| | 02:14 |
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| Using the AF Activation feature| 00:00 | By default of course when you press the shutter button
on your D800 it auto focuses and meters at the same time.
| | 00:07 | I can change this behavior.
| | 00:09 | Let me show you how to change it first,
and then we'll talk about why you might want to.
| | 00:12 | I am here in my Custom settings
menu, in the Autofocus category.
| | 00:16 | a4 AF activation is currently set to on, and
what that means is that when I press the shutter
| | 00:23 | button Autofocus turns on.
| | 00:26 | If I want I can change this to
AF-ON only. I am going to hit OK.
| | 00:32 | And now the way this works is when I press the
shutter button it meters, but no Autofocus happens.
| | 00:36 | I am going to rack my lens out of focus
here and if I press the AF-ON button, I now get
| | 00:43 | metering and Autofocus.
| | 00:45 | So I've separated the Autofocus
function from the metering function.
| | 00:50 | I still getting metering back here. But the
idea here is let's say that I'm shooting a
| | 00:54 | portrait or a landscape, some subject where
my distance to the subject is not going to
| | 01:00 | change, but I want to try
several different compositions.
| | 01:02 | This is especially true with portraits.
| | 01:04 | I can focus once by pressing this button and
once I've got focus locked, I can then just
| | 01:11 | start shooting away with my shutter button
and my metering will stay up to date as I
| | 01:15 | move around or my subject
moves or the lighting changes.
| | 01:18 | So, separating focus from exposure can make
for much faster shooting in certain situations.
| | 01:25 | Again, that's right here in Autofocus,
AF activation. It's custom function a4.
| | 01:32 |
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| Controlling the number of focus points| 00:00 | Your D800 has 51 Autofocus points,
which might in some situations be more than you need.
| | 00:07 | Custom Setting menu here in the Autofocus
category, if you go down here to a7, you will
| | 00:12 | find a number of focus points.
| | 00:14 | By default I'm set to the full 51.
| | 00:17 | If I'd like I can choose to go to only 11.
| | 00:19 | Now, these 11 focus points
spread pretty evenly around the frame.
| | 00:25 | If you're in a situation where you're manually
changing focus points and you're finding that
| | 00:29 | it's a hassle to scrub through all 51 of them,
this might make for faster focus point selection.
| | 00:35 |
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| Using ISO sensitivity step value| 00:00 | By default, the ISO control on your
D800 moves in one-third stop increments.
| | 00:07 | If I cycle through my ISOs here,
you see I go from 100 to 125, to 160, to 200.
| | 00:14 | So that's a third of a stop, two-thirds
of a stop, one full stop over ISO 100.
| | 00:19 | That might be more granular than you need.
| | 00:22 | If you would like to change the interval of
your ISO control, you can go here to the Custom
| | 00:27 | Settings menu and drop into the Metering/exposure
category, the first item here B1, ISO sensitivity step value.
| | 00:35 | You can see that it
defaults to one-third of a stop.
| | 00:38 | If I like, I can change that to half a
stop or go to simply one-stop intervals.
| | 00:43 | I am going to say OK, and now when I change
my ISO, I go from 100 to 200, to 400, to 800.
| | 00:52 | Again, if you don't need that fine level of
ISO control, you may find this easier because
| | 00:57 | it's simple doublings. If you are coming from a film background,
this maybe how you are used to thinking anyway.
| | 01:02 | So that's Metering/exposure, B1,
ISO sensitivity step value.
| | 01:06 |
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| Working with EV steps for exposure control| 00:00 | By default when I make a change to shutter
speed or aperture, or when I am defending
| | 00:05 | an auto bracket, the intervals between
shutter speed or aperture are one-third of a stop.
| | 00:11 | So I'm here to 30th of a second on my shutter
speed. One click up goes to 40th of a second,
| | 00:17 | then a 50th, and then to my
full-stop change of a 60th.
| | 00:21 | If you're not used to thinking in thirds of
stops and you tend to do a lot of manual calculation
| | 00:26 | of exposure, you may want to come in here to
Custom Settings menu, into the Metering/exposure
| | 00:32 | category, and go down here to B2, EV steps for
exposure control, which defaults to one-third of the stop.
| | 00:38 | I can change to a half stop
or even full-stop changes.
| | 00:41 | I am going to dial in one stop here.
| | 00:44 | Now, when I change shutter speed,
I go from a 30th to a 60th, to 125th.
| | 00:49 | This is also great if you are coming from an
old-school film background where your camera
| | 00:52 | only had full-stop steps between each exposure.
| | 00:56 | This also makes it much quicker to cycle up
from slow exposures or slow shutter speeds
| | 01:03 | to faster shutter speeds or from
small apertures to large apertures.
| | 01:06 |
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| Using exposure flash compensation step value| 00:00 | Normally, when I dial in exposure compensation on
my D800, I get changes in third-stop increments.
| | 00:07 | So I go from zero to a third of a stop,
two-thirds of a stop, one stop. It works the same way when
| | 00:12 | I am going the other direction.
| | 00:14 | If you like, you can change that.
| | 00:16 | I'm here in the Metering/exposure category
of the Custom Setting menu, coming down to
| | 00:21 | B3, Exposure/flash compensation step value.
| | 00:25 | You can see it defaults to a
third of a stop between clicks there.
| | 00:31 | I can bump that up to half or one.
| | 00:33 | I'm going to go ahead and look at half.
| | 00:36 | Now when I dial in exposure compensation,
it comes in and it changes in half stop intervals.
| | 00:41 | So I lose some granularity, but I can
more speedily zip through my options here.
| | 00:47 | You might even prefer to go to full stops if
you know you're in a more extreme situation
| | 00:54 | and that you just want to be quickly
dialing in a lot of exposure compensation.
| | 01:00 |
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| Turning on easy exposure compensation| 00:00 | The default behavior on the D800 when I
want to perform exposure compensation is that I
| | 00:06 | have to press the exposure compensation button,
which then allows me to change exposure compensation
| | 00:11 | with my main command dial.
| | 00:13 | I can change that behavior so that the main
command dial is always simply exposure compensation.
| | 00:18 | If I go in here to my menu, Metering/
exposure in the Custom Settings menu, and I am going
| | 00:23 | to come down here to Easy exposure
compensation, which is currently turned off.
| | 00:28 | You didn't know this, but you've been
doing difficult exposure compensation.
| | 00:32 | So I am going to switch
this to on here and say OK.
| | 00:35 | Now, anytime that I meter, a simple turn of the Sub
command dial will give me exposure compensation.
| | 00:41 | This saves me the extra
step of pressing that button.
| | 00:43 | I find this a much easier way to work, a
much faster way to work, because when my hand is
| | 00:48 | on the shutter button, all I have to do to
get some exposure compensation is to just
| | 00:52 | move right down here.
| | 00:54 | There's another option in
this menu, which is Auto reset.
| | 01:01 | So what this means is that if I dial in some
exposure compensation and then the metering
| | 01:07 | times out, it will reset to
ditch the exposure compensation.
| | 01:12 | If I re-meter here, you see that
now there is no exposure compensation.
| | 01:16 | I typically don't work this way because once
I've dialed it in I want it to stay there until
| | 01:20 | I'm done, because usually I've chosen that exposure
compensation because of the lighting in the scene.
| | 01:26 | So I personally would go back here
and switch that back simply to on.
| | 01:30 |
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| Using Exposure Delay mode| 00:00 | Earlier when we looked at the D800's
self-timer, I mentioned that one of the things you can
| | 00:05 | use it for is when you have the camera
locked down on a tripod and you're doing the long
| | 00:09 | exposures and you want to be
sure that there's no camera shake.
| | 00:12 | With the self-timer you're able to press the
shutter button, get your hand off the camera,
| | 00:17 | give it time to calm down
before the shutter actually fires.
| | 00:20 | There is actually an even better way to
handle that situation, and that's to go here into
| | 00:24 | your menu, to the Custom setting menu,
go down to the Shooting/Display category.
| | 00:30 | Inside there you will find
something called Shutter delay mode.
| | 00:34 | This lets you dial in a delay of either one,
two or three seconds. That will occur between
| | 00:40 | the time when the mirror
flips up and the shutter fires.
| | 00:43 | So I'm going to put in a two-second delay here.
| | 00:46 | And as I shoot, you should
hear two different things.
| | 00:49 | I am going to switch over to manual focus,
just because we don't have anything for the
| | 00:54 | camera to lock focus on.
| | 00:55 | There is the mirror going up.
| | 00:59 | There's the shutter firing.
| | 01:00 | So because there was a delay between those
two, that gave the camera time to stop any
| | 01:05 | possible vibration that might've
happened when the mirror flipped up.
| | 01:08 | So this can be a nice way to really ensure
that you're getting sharp images when you're
| | 01:13 | shooting those long
exposures, ones around a second or so.
| | 01:17 | Much longer than that, you probably
don't need to worry about this too much.
| | 01:19 |
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| Using the Assign FN button| 00:00 | By default the function button on the front
of your camera doesn't do anything, but it's
| | 00:04 | in a great location.
| | 00:05 | When your hand is on the hand grip, you've
got easy access to the top button for Depth
| | 00:09 | of Field Preview by default, and this bottom
button here, which you can add another function to.
| | 00:15 | To set that function you want to go here into
your menu, into the Custom Setting menu, down
| | 00:19 | to the Controls category, and you're
looking for f4 Assigned function button.
| | 00:26 | If I come in here, you can see that it
defaults to off, and again, the camera is highlighting
| | 00:31 | it for me, just in case you ever
get confused as about where it is.
| | 00:35 | And when you come in here, you're actually
going to be looking at the bottom of a very
| | 00:38 | long list of functions.
| | 00:39 | You may think at first, well, there are
only three things I can do. That's not true.
| | 00:42 | There's this really long list of things that
you can define for the function button.
| | 00:47 | I'm just going to go through this
quickly and call out a couple of the cool ones.
| | 00:51 | I could of course move Depth of
Field Preview button to the lower button.
| | 00:54 | If you find that that's easier for
you to reach, you may want to do that.
| | 00:57 | Flash Value lock,
that locks my exposure value.
| | 01:00 | I've got all sorts of different auto
exposure locks that I can dial in here.
| | 01:05 | You can find out more about those and what
they do starting on page 311 of your manual.
| | 01:11 | I can set this button to Start Autofocus, if I
want to separate Autofocus from the Shutter button.
| | 01:17 | I can set it to turn the flash off.
| | 01:19 | This is a cool feature.
| | 01:20 | If I've got an autobracket set, I can
hold in the Function button, press the Shutter
| | 01:26 | button once and it will automatically
take all the shots needed for my bracket.
| | 01:29 | So that's one shutter button pressed to
get my seven-shot bracket taken care of.
| | 01:35 | I can set it so that the Function button
temporarily turns on any of these metering modes.
| | 01:40 | So let's say that I normally stay in Matrix
metering, which is pretty much the best metering
| | 01:44 | mode for general-purpose use,
but that I occasionally want Spot metering.
| | 01:48 | Rather than having to change to a different
metering mode, I can simply press and hold
| | 01:52 | the Function button and
have a temporary spot meter.
| | 01:55 | I can use it to jump into Playback mode.
| | 01:58 | If I have built a custom menu, I can set
it to automatically access that top item.
| | 02:03 | So let's say that I've set the top item in
My Menu to be format, because that's something
| | 02:07 | I do pretty regularly. This would
be a very speedy way to get there.
| | 02:11 | Perhaps you're a JPEG shooter, but you
occasionally run into situations where you think I'm going
| | 02:16 | to need a RAW file here.
| | 02:18 | You can assign it so that when you press
the Function button it temporarily adds raw to
| | 02:23 | your format choice here, so you'll still get
your JPEG shot, plus a raw file. Press it again,
| | 02:28 | it will turn off the raw file.
| | 02:29 | Or I can have it turn on my
virtual horizon here in my viewfinder.
| | 02:34 | So there are lots of really useful things
that you can assign to this button, and thanks
| | 02:38 | to its position, you can get really
easy access to these different functions.
| | 02:41 |
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|
|
16. Caring for Your CameraCamera sensor cleaning| 00:00 | Basic maintenance of your camera is pretty
intuitive: don't drop it; don't bang it into things.
| | 00:06 | If you want to clean it, use a dry cloth.
| | 00:08 | If you're going to store the camera for a
while, be sure to take the battery out it.
| | 00:12 | You've already seen a little bit about how
the camera cleans its own sensor, but there
| | 00:16 | are some other built-in sensor-cleaning options.
| | 00:19 | In the Setup menu you'll see an
item called Clean image sensor.
| | 00:23 | If you open that up,
you have a couple of options.
| | 00:25 | First, you can say Clean now.
| | 00:27 | That will actually send the camera into
its cleaning cycle, wherein it will shake the
| | 00:32 | filter that's in front of the
image sensor to shake off any dust.
| | 00:35 | I can also from this menu control whether
or not the camera cleans its sensor when it
| | 00:40 | is powered up and down.
| | 00:42 | So if I go in here, I have the option to say
Clean at startup, Clean at shutdown, or the
| | 00:46 | default value, which is both,
or I can turn it off altogether.
| | 00:50 | Because the cleaning is interruptible--that
is, because once it's started, I can just half-
| | 00:54 | press the Shutter button to immediately go
into shooting--there is really no reason to
| | 00:58 | turn it off, and the cleaning feature does
do a good job of keeping dust off the sensor.
| | 01:03 | You could argue that this uses up a little
more battery power, but it's so negligible
| | 01:07 | that I really can't see any reason not to
simply leave it on Clean at startup/shutdown.
| | 01:13 | As good as the built-in cleaning feature is,
there will still be times when you get dust on your sensor.
| | 01:19 | When that happens, you'll need
to manually clean the sensor.
| | 01:23 | And to do that you'll use the
Lock mirror up for cleaning command.
| | 01:27 | Now, cleaning your sensor is a fairly involved
process that involves very specific cleaning implements.
| | 01:34 | You can learn more about those in my
Foundations of Photography: Lenses course, and I would
| | 01:39 | definitely recommend at least reading the
manual about cleaning before you do any attempt
| | 01:44 | at all at cleaning your own sensor.
But you can see a detailed walkthrough of how to
| | 01:49 | clean your sensor in my Lenses course.
| | 01:51 | What you don't ever want to do is blow
compressed air into the inside of your camera.
| | 01:56 | Let me just tell you that right now.
| | 01:57 | Just don't do that.
| | 01:58 | As much as you may think
that's a good idea, it's not.
| | 02:01 | There is another way of
dealing with dust on your sensor.
| | 02:04 | If you're out in the field and you're
reviewing some images and you see that they have some
| | 02:07 | dust on them and you're not really in a
position to clean your sensor, you can take a Dust
| | 02:13 | Off reference photo.
| | 02:14 | What this does is take a picture of just the
dust on your sensor. Later, using Nikon's Capture
| | 02:20 | NX image processing software, you can have the dust
automatically removed from your image by blending--
| | 02:27 | the software will automatically blend this
dust-off reference photo with your final image.
| | 02:32 | So to do this I come into the Image
Dust Off reference photo item.
| | 02:36 | I have the option to clean the
sensor first or to simply start.
| | 02:40 | I point the camera at a blank white subject
of some kind--a white wall, a piece of paper--
| | 02:47 | and then I start the process.
| | 02:49 | It will then record the Dust Off
reference (ref) photo on my storage card.
| | 02:54 | Later, Capture NX can grab that dust-off
photo and use it to clean your images.
| | 03:00 | While the camera's built-in sensor cleaning
is very good, the best way to keep your sensor
| | 03:05 | clean is through prevention.
| | 03:07 | When you take caps of the ends of your lenses,
don't just stick them in your pocket, get
| | 03:11 | them all covered with lint, and
then put them back on the lenses.
| | 03:13 | That's an easy way to transfer all
that lint directly to your camera.
| | 03:16 | When you're changing lenses, be sure to
keep the camera sheltered, ideally pointed down
| | 03:20 | if it's very windy out.
| | 03:22 | If you can work to make sure that the camera
is not getting into a bad dust environment,
| | 03:26 | then you should be able to
keep your sensor pretty clean.
| | 03:28 |
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| Exploring operating conditions and temperatures| 00:00 | When you first get a new piece of gear,
you are of course very careful with it and you're
| | 00:04 | proud of it, and it's great
how clean it looks and all that.
| | 00:07 | Fortunately, that wears off.
| | 00:09 | I say fortunately, because your camera is
actually quite durable, and once you get over
| | 00:13 | trying to keep it all pristine, you will be more
likely to take it into more shooting conditions.
| | 00:17 | The D800 manual lists its working
temperature range as 32 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
| | 00:23 | That's 0 to 40 degrees Celsius.
| | 00:25 | Now, while it's a good idea to follow these guidelines,
I've also gone beyond them and I've never had any problems.
| | 00:31 | I am not saying that you can absolutely go
into really extreme heat or really deep cold
| | 00:35 | and not have issues, but my experience is
that that specified temperature range is
| | 00:39 | a little conservative.
| | 00:41 | Fortunately, the camera will begin to
exhibit certain symptoms when you start pushing the
| | 00:45 | limits of its temperature range.
| | 00:47 | If you're in extreme heat, the LCD screen on
the back of the camera might start to discolor.
| | 00:51 | It might also start to discolor in cold weather,
as well as exhibiting a really slow refresh rate.
| | 00:57 | If any of that starts to
happen, just turn the camera off.
| | 01:00 | Now, cold weather will also
reduce your battery life.
| | 01:03 | Don't worry; there won't be any permanent damage, but
you may find that your battery just goes dead quicker.
| | 01:08 | If it does lose its charge when you're out
in the cold, take it out of the camera and
| | 01:11 | put it in your pocket or against your body.
| | 01:13 | If you can warm it back up, you just might
be able to coax a few extra shots out of it.
| | 01:18 | One of the biggest problems with cold weather
is that when you take your camera back indoors
| | 01:23 | after being out in the cold, a sudden warming
of the camera can cause condensation to form
| | 01:28 | inside and that can mess up your viewfinder.
| | 01:30 | If you're been out shooting in subfreezing
temperatures for a while, put the camera in
| | 01:34 | a Ziploc bag, seal it up, and then go inside.
| | 01:37 | Leave it in the bag for a while the
temperature equalizes before you take it out and use it.
| | 01:43 | Water and electronics typically don't mix
very well, but just because it's raining doesn't
| | 01:47 | mean you should stop shooting.
| | 01:49 | Light rain, a little splash on the
outside of the camera won't hurt anything,
| | 01:53 | so don't use a little rain
as an excuse to stay inside.
| | 01:56 |
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| Getting firmware updates| 00:00 | Your camera is a piece of hardware of course
and it comes with editing software that you
| | 00:07 | install on your computer.
| | 00:08 | And somewhere between the hardware and
software--reversed my hands there--is firmware:
| | 00:13 | software that runs on the
computer inside your hardware.
| | 00:18 | The firmware in your camera is what controls
all of the camera's functions and operations,
| | 00:23 | and occasionally Nikon
will update that firmware.
| | 00:27 | Before you check to see if there's a
new version of the firmware for your D800, you
| | 00:31 | need to know what version you're already have.
| | 00:33 | Go to the camera's menu and here in the
Setup menu--that's the wrench at the very bottom--
| | 00:38 | you'll find Firmware version.
| | 00:40 | Just select that and you'll see these three
things listed. Copy all of these down. There's
| | 00:45 | an A, a B, and an L.
| | 00:47 | So just take note of all of those because
next you're going to go to the Nikon website
| | 00:50 | and see if there's a newer version.
| | 00:53 | To find out if there's a newer version of
your D800 firmware go to support.nikonusa.com
| | 01:00 | and search for D800.
| | 01:01 | You should find firmware that you can download,
if there's a version, as well as instructions for installing.
| | 01:06 | Now, installation is a simple process, so don't be
afraid to keep your camera's firmware up to date.
| | 01:11 | In addition to fixing problems and possibly
improving performance, you might also occasionally
| | 01:17 | get entirely new features.
| | 01:18 |
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|
17. Applying Settings and ShootingExploring focus and composition| 00:00 | If you've slogged all the way through the
rest of this course up till now, I commend you.
| | 00:04 | That's a lot of material and
some of it is pretty dry material.
| | 00:07 | That said, it is important to really know all the
features of your camera, and know how to drive each one.
| | 00:12 | So sitting with these videos or
with the manual is a good exercise.
| | 00:16 | But there's a difference between sitting
in a room simply studying those features and
| | 00:20 | being out using them.
| | 00:21 | So it's time to get outside with your camera and
start actually getting some real-world practice.
| | 00:26 | Remember, these cameras were
designed with photography in mind.
| | 00:29 | It's not just engineers just sticking
buttons and features on as they like.
| | 00:33 | There has been a lot of thought put into how
different features work together, which ones
| | 00:38 | you need access to quickly,
which ones can be buried in menus.
| | 00:41 | And a lot of these features work in concert.
| | 00:44 | As you start thinking of the whole camera
as a system, then the way you'll approach
| | 00:49 | different subject matter will change.
| | 00:50 | So in this chapter we're going to spend
just a little bit of time going over some real-
| | 00:55 | world scenarios so that you can see what my
thought process is in relation to the camera
| | 00:59 | and kind of how I work around certain things.
| | 01:03 | So we're going to start
with focus and composition.
| | 01:06 | We've talked some about autofocus, about how
you have different focus modes, how you have
| | 01:11 | different focus spots you can choose between,
and most importantly, that you have to prefocus,
| | 01:15 | that you have to choose your focus point
and lock it in before you take a picture.
| | 01:19 | So I want to take a picture of
these nice pink flowers back here.
| | 01:23 | And I don't want them in the dead center
of the frame; I'd like them off to the side.
| | 01:27 | Right now I've got my D800 set to
automatically pick a focus point.
| | 01:31 | So if I frame my shot the way that I want it,
with my flowers off to the side, and take
| | 01:38 | a shot, it accurately chose a focus point.
The flowers is in focus; the shot looks fine.
| | 01:43 | That said, I usually don't work that way,
and the reason is it changes my thought process
| | 01:48 | while I'm shooting.
| | 01:49 | When the camera is automatically
selecting a focus point, I frame my shot.
| | 01:53 | I half-press to focus.
| | 01:54 | Then I have to stop and go, oh, did it
choose the focus point on my subject?
| | 01:59 | For some reason, that's putting the focusing
part in a different part of the thought process
| | 02:03 | than I like to work, so what I normally do is
I switch the camera to a center-point focus.
| | 02:10 | I make sure that the very center of the
frame is where the camera is going to focus.
| | 02:15 | Now, if I were to frame the shot like you
saw it and focus with center-point focus right
| | 02:20 | now, the flowers are going to be out of focus.
| | 02:21 | I've got pretty shallow depth of field and
that center point is going to focus on those
| | 02:25 | plants way in the back.
| | 02:26 | So instead, what I have to do is I first have
to put the center focus point on the flowers.
| | 02:31 | Then I half press the
Shutter button to focus in meter.
| | 02:33 | And then while still holding the Shutter
button at the halfway point, I reframe my shot.
| | 02:38 | Now I can press it the rest of the way to
get the shot and the flowers will be in focus.
| | 02:41 | So that's what I'm going to do right now.
| | 02:43 | I've got the center point on the flowers.
| | 02:46 | I half-press to focus.
| | 02:47 | You heard the beep. It has locked focus.
| | 02:49 | I still have the button
halfway down, so focus is still good.
| | 02:52 | Now, I'm reframing my shot to put the
flowers where I want them, pressing the button the
| | 02:56 | rest of the way, and there's my shot.
| | 02:58 | Now, it's the same picture; the flowers are
in focus, just like they were the first time.
| | 03:03 | The difference is now my thought process is,
there's my subject. Am I focused on it? Yes.
| | 03:08 | How do I want the framing?
Great, now I take the shot.
| | 03:11 | It's putting the focus decision making
process in a different place, and for some reason
| | 03:15 | it makes more sense to me to do focusing first.
| | 03:18 | That may simply be because I have been shooting
since before there was Autofocus Point Selection
| | 03:23 | and that's the way that I'm used to working.
| | 03:26 | It's worth experimenting on your own with that.
| | 03:28 | Try these different focus modes.
| | 03:29 | One of the things that's nice about the D800 is
you can configure it in lots of different ways.
| | 03:33 | You will probably never use all the focus modes.
| | 03:35 | You'll find some that you like
and some that don't work for you.
| | 03:39 | So I'm going to do something else now.
| | 03:42 | I want to try a few
different framings of the flower.
| | 03:45 | The distance between me and the flower is
not going to change, because I'm going to
| | 03:47 | stand right here and just put it
in different parts of the frame.
| | 03:50 | The problem with the center point autofocus
technique is I'm constantly having to go back
| | 03:53 | and grab focus and reframe,
and that can slow things down.
| | 03:57 | So instead, what I'm going to do is put the center
point on the flowers, half-press the Shutter button.
| | 04:01 | Now, I've got focus set for the flowers.
| | 04:03 | I'm going to switch my camera--
or my lens, rather--to manual focus.
| | 04:07 | Now that focus is locked in no
matter what I do with the Shutter button.
| | 04:10 | Now I can just shoot away.
| | 04:11 | I can put the flower wherever I want it and
easily shoot a bunch of pictures, and they
| | 04:15 | will all be in focus as long as the distance
between my camera and the flowers doesn't change.
| | 04:20 | If I was working with extremely razor-thin
shallow depth of field, this technique may
| | 04:24 | not work so much, because at that point even
a little bit of forward or back motion might
| | 04:28 | throw things out of focus.
| | 04:30 | So what you'll probably find is that you
like a couple of different focus strategies.
| | 04:33 | I tend to switch between center-point autofocus and
fully automatic autofocus depending on subject matter.
| | 04:40 | Most of the time I stay in center point,
but if I'm really having to move fast in a changing
| | 04:43 | environment and it's an environment where I
know I can trust the Autofocus Point Selection,
| | 04:47 | then I'll switch back to that.
| | 04:49 | So do a little experimenting with both and
just be sure that you have a handle on these
| | 04:52 | different autofocus strategies.
| | 04:53 |
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| Using an exposure strategy| 00:00 | So I found the shot here that I want to take.
What caught my eye was just simple geometry.
| | 00:05 | I like the black triangle created by
the trees with this path coming out of it.
| | 00:10 | So I have got a strong compositional idea
there, but I have also got an interesting
| | 00:14 | dynamic range situation here. The shadow
is very black. The path can be very light.
| | 00:18 | I need to decide how I want to handle that.
Do I want the shadows to go into complete blackness?
| | 00:22 | Do I want some detail back there?
| | 00:24 | What's the relationship I want
between those two different tonal areas?
| | 00:28 | That might lead me to think, do I want
to do this in black and white or color?
| | 00:31 | To be honest, I am not being
struck by any particular idea right now.
| | 00:35 | So since I don't have a really clear idea
what my final goal is, I want to be sure that
| | 00:40 | I have captured enough exposure latitude,
enough image data, that I can really work with
| | 00:45 | this in post and play around with it.
| | 00:47 | I am in program mode right now.
| | 00:49 | I am going to just knock off a shot here, just to
get an idea of what I think my composition looks like.
| | 00:56 | That's pretty good.
| | 00:57 | But again, I don't know how much I
can move all this around, tonally.
| | 01:03 | So I think I want to go in and get a
little more detailed about my approach here.
| | 01:07 | The first thing I want to
think about is depth of field.
| | 01:08 | I want to be sure
everything in this image is in focus.
| | 01:10 | So I am going to switch over to Aperture priority mode,
because that's going to give me depth of field control.
| | 01:15 | And I am going to just go ahead
and dial in an aperture of F11.
| | 01:18 | I am not metering or anything.
| | 01:19 | I know I want an aperture of F11, because F11
is going to give me very deep depth of field.
| | 01:25 | Now I could go to a smaller aperture.
| | 01:26 | I could go to F22 if I wanted.
| | 01:28 | But as I do that, I'm going to--as I go
past 11, I am going to start risking a softening
| | 01:33 | in my image that's caused by an
optical effect called diffraction.
| | 01:37 | You can learn all about this in my
Foundations of Photography: Lenses course.
| | 01:41 | So I am going to stay on F11 and
I am going to take another shot.
| | 01:44 | I am focusing in a very particular
place to maximize my depth of field.
| | 01:47 | So, I'm using center-point focusing here
to be sure that I have that kind of control.
| | 01:53 | Now, I'm feeling more confident about my
focus now that I did over Program mode because I'm
| | 01:58 | not really sure what Aperture Program mode
was using, and I have about the same exposure,
| | 02:02 | but I still don't really know
what I want to do with those shadows.
| | 02:05 | I would like some more
opportunity when I get home.
| | 02:07 | When I look at the histogram, I see that I
have got pretty good data, but I am going
| | 02:11 | to go ahead and overexpose by one stop.
| | 02:14 | So I'm dialing in one stop of
overexposure with my Exposure Compensation control.
| | 02:20 | Because I'm in Aperture Priority mode, it's
making that Exposure Compensation adjustment
| | 02:25 | by changing shutter speed.
| | 02:26 | So I am coming in at a shutter
speed of an 80th of a second.
| | 02:29 | That's still fine for handheld shooting.
| | 02:32 | So I don't need to worry
about increasing my ISO.
| | 02:33 | So I am going to take that shot.
| | 02:38 | As I do that, this stuff is
going to overexpose out here.
| | 02:41 | So I might want to even back off on
that Exposure Compensation adjustment.
| | 02:45 | Maybe I will go down to just a third of a
stop of overexposure, take another shot.
| | 02:49 | So I am really trying to protect myself in
terms of the highlights here, while still
| | 02:54 | having some brightening of the shadows.
| | 02:56 | On the other hand, there are some
bright lights back there in those shadows.
| | 03:00 | What if I decide I really
want the shadows to be dark.
| | 03:02 | Those bright highlights could be a problem.
| | 03:03 | I am going to try and actually just go
ahead and fully underexpose those shadows also.
| | 03:08 | I am going to drop down to one stop of
underexposure just by making an exposure compensation change.
| | 03:15 | In other words, I am bracketing.
| | 03:16 | I've now taken a shot one
stop under, one stop over.
| | 03:19 | I even did one just a third of a stop over.
| | 03:20 | I am really playing it safe here.
| | 03:23 | I also took a shot as metered.
| | 03:24 | I am really playing it safe here in terms of
capturing a really wide tonal range in my images.
| | 03:29 | But now I'm noticing this tree over here, this
discolored tree that might be an interesting
| | 03:34 | compositional element.
| | 03:35 | And so I would like to include that in the
shot, but I've still got my shadow question.
| | 03:39 | I am going to need to continue bracketing.
| | 03:40 | So enough of this manual bracketing.
I'm going to turn on Auto bracketing because that's
| | 03:47 | going to allow me to immediately easily
try a lot of different compositions and still
| | 03:52 | keep my bracketing going.
| | 03:53 | So I am going to frame with the tree on one
side and knock off a few shots, and maybe some
| | 03:59 | of this stuff over here
might be interesting. Oh, well!
| | 04:01 | I can go full wide here.
| | 04:02 | I haven't scene that before and get a shot
there, maybe zoom in a little bit. Each time
| | 04:07 | I am knocking off a full bracket, so I have got
lots of exposure options when I get back home.
| | 04:12 | Now you might think oh gosh!
| | 04:13 | In that case I am just going to turn on Auto
bracketing and leave it on all the time so
| | 04:17 | that I always have lots of
exposure options when I get home.
| | 04:20 | You can do that, but you are really going
to complicate your postproduction because
| | 04:22 | now you are shooting three times as much stuff
as you normally do and if the wind were blowing
| | 04:27 | now, you know things would be different
from one shot to another. So I'm bracketing now
| | 04:32 | because it's a good choice for addressing
an issue that I'm having, which is I'm not
| | 04:36 | sure what I want to do with those shadows.
| | 04:38 | There are going to be other times where I
might approach a scene like this and go absolutely,
| | 04:40 | I want those shadows dark. I know exactly
what to do. I am going to underexpose by a
| | 04:44 | third of a stop and I would just take that shot.
| | 04:46 | Bracketing would simply complicate
my postproduction at that point.
| | 04:49 | I've another option here though. My camera
has an HDR feature built into it, which we've
| | 04:56 | explored already. That's going to
automatically take two shots, each exposed a little bit
| | 05:01 | differently and it's going to merge them.
| | 05:03 | So I am going to just turn that feature on
right now and go ahead and take that HDR shot.
| | 05:14 | Now, what's nice about this is it gives me
a way to previsualize the HDR process on
| | 05:17 | the back of the camera and
actually, I like this HDR.
| | 05:20 | This might be an image that I want to
use. Or I might decide, HDR is the answer.
| | 05:24 | I will use the HDR software that I have at home.
| | 05:27 | Well, I have already shot bracketed sets of
everything that I wanted, so I always have
| | 05:31 | the option of merging those
into HDR later if I want.
| | 05:34 | If you are totally mystified by this whole
HDR thing, I've got an HDR course you can
| | 05:38 | watch that will explain it up.
| | 05:42 | What I'm doing here is strategizing my
exposure, and what's great about doing that on the D800
| | 05:46 | is I have got all this control that
I need on the outside of the camera.
| | 05:50 | So you have seen me changing
modes to get depth-of-field control.
| | 05:52 | You have seen me very easily bracketing my shots
manually by simply changing exposure compensation.
| | 05:58 | Then you have seen me zero in on that
bracketing process and turn on Auto bracketing in a drive
| | 06:03 | mode, or a continuous mode, so that I can blow
through a lot of different compositions all
| | 06:08 | with my same bracketing.
| | 06:09 | I didn't have to dip into the
menus till I went to the HDR thing.
| | 06:13 | So, having a handle on these controls, knowing
how to very quickly and easily change exposure
| | 06:18 | compensation to get different exposures, how to turn
on bracketing, how to turn on your continuous mode,
| | 06:23 | these are going to allow you to approach a
difficult exposure situation, or one that may
| | 06:29 | not be that difficult, but you
are just not sure what you want.
| | 06:30 | You are going to be able to approach
those situations very quickly and easily.
| | 06:34 | The idea is you don't want to have to be
thinking about these controls or thinking about this
| | 06:37 | process; you want to be thinking
about tonality and composition.
| | 06:41 | And if you get these controls really under
your fingertips so that you can use them
| | 06:45 | without thinking, you are going to have an
easier time when you face a situation like this.
| | 06:49 |
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| Controlling exposure through Program mode| 00:00 | Sometimes people think that the further you
get from Program mode, the more sophisticated
| | 00:06 | you are as a photographer, or somehow you
unlock all sorts of new potential in your
| | 00:10 | camera, and really that's just not true.
| | 00:12 | Program mode, Aperture, Priority, Shutter
Priority, Manual mode, you can take the same
| | 00:17 | picture with all of those modes.
| | 00:18 | The differences are that some modes give
you more control than others, and for certain
| | 00:22 | situations you need that control.
| | 00:24 | There is a lot you can do
in Program mode in your D800.
| | 00:28 | I'm here just walking around today.
| | 00:31 | Honestly, I'm not expecting to come
out of here with any great pictures.
| | 00:33 | I'm mostly just kind of looking
at shapes and textures and things.
| | 00:37 | I think this is a good seeing exercise.
| | 00:39 | A lot of times if you just explore shapes
for a while, one day something kind of changes
| | 00:43 | and you see those shapes in a different way, and
you start seeing pictures that you didn't see before.
| | 00:48 | So I'm just kind of walking around,
just looking at stuff and shooting.
| | 00:50 | So I'm in Program mode, because
Program mode makes that very easy.
| | 00:54 | It's figuring out all my exposure stuff for
me so I can really just concentrate on the
| | 00:57 | forms that I'm seeing.
| | 00:59 | That said, there are some great manual
overrides in Program mode that I can use for those times
| | 01:04 | when suddenly my mind might
turn a little more technical.
| | 01:07 | So for example, I'm walking
along here and I see this plant.
| | 01:10 | I've got a kind of a thing for botany,
so I can tell you this is a plant.
| | 01:13 | And I stop here to grab a shot of it,
and what I'm doing is I'm just getting in close here.
| | 01:18 | I've got it right in the middle.
| | 01:20 | It's a nice shape,
and I'm taking pictures of it.
| | 01:23 | And as I am here with it framed, and as I'm
in here really looking at it, I realize, you
| | 01:27 | know, I'd like some depth-of-field control.
| | 01:28 | I'd actually like to sharpen up the background.
| | 01:30 | Well, I can do that without taking my eye from
the viewfinder, without breaking my composition.
| | 01:36 | I can just, still while I'm in here, turn my
main command dial to use the Flexible Program
| | 01:43 | capability of the D800.
| | 01:45 | This allows me to shift through all reciprocal
combinations that are going to yield the same
| | 01:49 | exposure and get me up to an f11,
which is going to give me more depth of field.
| | 01:52 | Maybe I want to go the other day also,
really open it up all the way and get myself some
| | 01:57 | really, really shallow depth of field.
| | 01:58 | I've done all of that without leaving
Program mode, and because it's right here under my
| | 02:02 | thumb, I can do all of that right
while I am here framing in the viewfinder.
| | 02:05 | Now, while I'm done here looking at the flower,
I also see that there's this nice shadow being
| | 02:10 | cast over about half the flower.
| | 02:11 | I'd like to darken that some more.
| | 02:13 | I think it would make the
image a little more contrasty.
| | 02:15 | So I can easily do that with Exposure
Compensation, which is right up here under my forefinger.
| | 02:20 | If I just turn the subcommand dial, I can
dial in some underexposure and take another
| | 02:27 | shot, and now I've got the shadow
part underexposed by about half a stop.
| | 02:31 | So I've done three or
four very different things.
| | 02:33 | I've shot with several depths of field,
I've done some exposure biasing to underexpose
| | 02:39 | my image beneath what the camera thinks it
should be metered at, and I've done all of
| | 02:42 | that without leaving Program mode, without
taking my hands off the camera, without taking
| | 02:46 | my eye from the viewfinder.
| | 02:47 | It's an incredible amount of power.
| | 02:50 | I have configured my D800 so that I don't
have to press and hold the Exposure Compensation
| | 02:57 | button, or even press it at all.
| | 02:59 | I've simply got both dials going here.
| | 03:01 | So under my thumb I've got Flexible Program;
under my forefinger I've got Exposure Compensation.
| | 03:06 | So I can really work quickly that way
without having to leave Program mode.
| | 03:09 | Now, that said, as I walk around here some
more today and start realizing, boy, I'm really
| | 03:14 | mostly shooting shallow
depth of field all the time.
| | 03:17 | I'm constantly flexible programming my
way down to a shallower depth of field.
| | 03:23 | Now I'm going to change modes.
| | 03:24 | Now I'm going to switch over to Aperture
Priority mode so that I've got control of aperture.
| | 03:29 | And then I might just dial the aperture up
all the way and know that now I'm going to
| | 03:34 | have the depth-of-field effect that I've
been going for. But until then, Program mode is
| | 03:37 | a really, really flexible way to go.
| | 03:39 | So if you're listening to this and going,
I don't know what he is talking about when
| | 03:42 | he is saying Flexible Program or Exposure
Compensation or Priority modes, you ought
| | 03:46 | to go back and watch those sections of this
course, because having a good handle on those
| | 03:51 | three different features and how they
balance each other is really going to make your use
| | 03:56 | of Program mode a lot more flexible.
| | 03:58 |
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Conclusion Goodbye| 00:00 | You should now have a pretty good idea about
what all those buttons and dials do on your camera.
| | 00:05 | Of course understanding what they do and being
comfortable with using them are two different things.
| | 00:10 | Now you need to take that
understanding out in the field and practice.
| | 00:13 | To be adept at shooting with your camera
you'll need to know all the controls by touch and
| | 00:16 | feel, and the best way to get that is by doing.
| | 00:19 | So turn off your computer and
get out there and start shooting.
| | 00:21 |
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