ND70

[Mike McCarty]

Here's a link that you might find useful when your D70 arrives. It's entitled: Nikon D70: Lessons for Digital Newbies.

http://members.aol.com/bhaber/D70/setup.htm

The following was excepted from the beginning:

How to Set Up Your D70

Anyone who has found a workable setup for their D70 will be inclined to suggest you use the same setup. I am doing the same thing here. I have found this to be an excellent setup that works for all kinds of photography, and I want you to get going quickly without getting mired down in the complexities of differing opinions and rationales for different setups. You can get mired down in that stuff later!

This setup will give you balanced exposures and will be perfect for our workflow which will include taking the shot, getting it to your computer, and perfecting it with post processing.

The author indicates that the D70 shoots it's images slightly to the dark side. This is something that find is very noticeable. The author suggests (he's living in California light) that you bump up the exposure a third of a stop to compensate for this. I did a few tests and find this to be a good way to go. When I compared the two images (no compensation vs one third stop brighter) side by side and tried to manipulate the dark one back to the one that had been lightened by a third, I found that I lacked the precision of the cameras original third stop compensation.

The other suggested setting he offers will have to be tested out individually over time.

[Michele Rushworth]

Can you post these images, Mike?

Also, is there a setting where you can boost the exposure on every shot, so the camera does it all the time?

[Mike McCarty]

I found that I lacked the precision of the cameras original third stop compensation.

What I was trying to say is -- I lacked the precision, with my software, to know how much to lighten the image in order to bring it to the cameras one third stop brighter image. When I do this brightening routine, and I find that I do it with every image I shoot, I am just eyeballing until I see what I like. I think I would rather the camera start with the better exposure. Anyway, I'm going to try this for a while. I understand that it's trying to preserve the highlights.

Michele,

I've ditched the images. The differences were very subtle (moving back and forth between a third of a stop) and I don't think you could appreciate them here. The third did seem very slightly noticeable. Which is where I was trying to end up anyway.

You can set the camera to lighten a third stop all the time:

In the "Pink Pencil" Icon menu, scroll down to 09 "EV step" and set it to 1/3 or 1/2 increments depending on your preference.

On the top of the camera by the on / off switch there is a (+-) button, if you depress this and scroll with the dial you can set for over or under exposure that should remain.

I'm going to try lightening up by a third and see how that feels for a while.

[Michele Rushworth]

Thanks, Mike.

it's trying to preserve the highlights.

Actually I will probably stick with the standard D70 settings since once highlights are blasted out there's no way to get the information back. I can always lighten the image later, but if the highlights are gone... too late! I've been experimenting with some very high contrast, almost chiaroscuro, compositions and keeping the information in the highlights is already a problem.

[Mike McCarty]

A third of a stop is not very much.

Also, when you shoot with spot metering on the face you will tend to get some distant ranges on the perimeter.