As I slowly master the D300's JPG output, (just passed 50,000 images the other day!) ...I want to post some "SOOC" images as examples of how it is POSSIBLE to get great, proof-ready shots without spending any time in photoshop. Here goes!
I use spot metering and manual exposure for a few reasons. First, to get the best portraits, the best light is usually the tricky kind. A lot of the time, I go for backlighting, and this involves letting a "rim light" blow out. (within reason) I use manual exposure because my background light changes from shot to shot, but I keep my subjects in relatively consistent light. I don't want to have to worry about a shaded or sunny background causing my subject's faces to be too dark / bright from shot to shot, so I just set up the pose, get the exposure for their faces right, and then I'm free to move around and adjust my background. I use spot metering because having 51 focus points and a DX viewfinder (points are spread out more versus FX) allows me to ALWAYS have a focus point over my subject's faces... (Or any similarly lit skin will do...)
Shooting like this gives me consistent results that don't need constant brightening / darkening in Bridge CS3. If the backlighting was quite strong, I may need to brighten their faces with a burn / dodge in PS, but we're still talking about "proofing", so that's not an issue, yet... My goal is only to get images in my camera good enough that I can show clients right away. Of course when a print is ordered, or an image is going into an album, then I can fully retouch it. But by that point, I'm getting paid specifically to retouch the image.
(As opposed to having to optimize the color and brightness of EVERY image before uploading it because you left the camera in auto-WB and full matrix (evaluative) metering, etc etc... Not to mention doing something crazy like offering a COMPLETE set of fully-retouched images for free, and having to retouch each image even though they may never even print it. They probably won't notice a difference just looking at images on their family's un-calibrated monitor... And I won't even get into shooting RAW! I just don't do it anymore when the shooting conditions are this controlled. Unless I REALLY need dynamic range out of an image, or if the WB is constantly changing back and forth...)
But, back to the lighting being consistent- I also like to lock down my white balance. And again, in the spirit of owning a professional camera and NOT just using it in the built-in settings, I took the time to memorize which lighting conditions correspond with which specific kelvin temperatures. Broad daylight, for example, is 5500K. Every amateur photographer should know that. Then as it gets later in the day, the color temperature climbs up towards 6000K, 6500K, etc. So instead of trying to use the sunny WB preset and then dialing it to some arbitrary +/- compensation as the day gets warmer, I simply start at 5500 K and then I can follow the light all the way up to the end of the day without having to guess at when to switch from sunny WB to shady WB. It also has a LOT to do with WHAT the light is landing on and reflecting off of. Late in the summer in So Cal, I have a lot of warm-colored leaves and grass to work with, so this acts as a natural warm-it-up filter. If I can add REAL warmth in-camera, instead of having to do it in photoshop, awesome!
(Note: This is a LOT easier on Nikon cameras because you can directly change the Kelvin WB without going into a menu. I don't know if this method would work as well on other systems, but you can set the "set" button on Canon DSLRs to bring up an oft-used menu item, maybe set that to WB?)
Okay, moving on. If the contrast is high, (stark sunlight and shade) ...I turn on Nikon's "Active D-lighting" and set it to low or normal, depending on how harsh the contrast is. (the higher I set the D-lighting, the more it helps bring the dynamic range together. For this shot D-lighting was set to normal.
I did blow highlights in the red channel, on the tree trunk and some of the rim light on the subjects, but I kept a close watch on these so that it does not ruin a photo.
As far as the rest of the in-camera processing goes, well first of all I used the AWESOME D2X simulation preset, Mode III. Great for outdoors and bright colors... Of course my in-camera sharpening is always set to ZERO, because I have simply found that in-camera sharpening has NEVER been as good as Bridge CS3, let alone Photoshop CS3... Next, well in-camera contrast and brightness are trumped by Active D-lighting when it is turned on. (If I turn D-lighting off, I usually set in-camera contrast to -1 if it's bright out, +/- 0 if it's average, or +1, +2 or +3 if the lighting is really flat... Moving on then, saturation was set to +1, and Hue was set to +/- 0.
So, there you have it. Oh, and a couple other things related to shooting technique- I've been shooting static subjects in AF-S, (single) cause I like to hear the beep, but I've also been getting really good at flipping to AF-C really quick. (continuous)
Alright take care! If there's anything I missed, please do ask further questions!
=Matt=
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