D80 question

[Lizzard[MPE]]

Taking the new D80 out for a test drive tonight.. first time even holding an SLR.

25 mph wind gusts on the 11th floor didn't help so i was only out there for 15 minutes. Equipment caps flying everywhere scared the bejesus out of me.


Anyway. my question is. The photos on the viewfinder looked incredible. I was reviewing them like OOOhh yes!!! when i downloaded them to my computer... not so much.

what would make that big of a difference in appearance for the quality?

They are a lot darker too.. i tried to adjust my screen brightness but im already at 100%, what can i do!

[degrub]

what exposure mode were you using ?

fixed or auto on ISO ?

WHat does the histogram look like ? Do you have pixels at both ends or are they bunched up to the dark side ?

If you have Photoshop or similar (maybe even the Nikon software) you can increase the contrast or use auto levels adjustment., or adjust the image curves up and to the left.

Sometimes a night to get a good exposure i have to find the exposure for the darkest part i want to see, lock the exposure ( usually half press shutter release), and shoot what i was interested in.

Most of the time i shoot raw and just look at the live histogram to check exposure, with a bias to the light side, but not clipped.

[az]

Get a better screen, borrow a colormeter, calibrate.

Show us some of the pics so we can tell you what might be wrong with them.

[Wulfman]

what format did you use for shooting? nef or jpg?

higher nikons (-NOT- D40, D50, but D70, 80, 300) are known for getting kind of "bland" images directly out of camera when shooting jpg, and they tend to underexpose 0.3 stops or so, which can be easily compensated for. additionally, they have some colour/sharpness pre-settings you might want to look at as well.

to sum it up: no, the camera does not produce the kind-of-candy-style-coloured pics a compact would produce (and what most people expect from their snapshots), but a more neutral picture than can be optimized. mostly people suggest to shoot in nef, and adjust the images to your liking, or play with the settings in camera. and possible settings to play around with are plentiful:

check the dpreview-review:

Normal
• Softer
• Vivid
• More vivid
• Portrait
• Custom
Done
Image sharpening
Auto
Normal (0)
Low (-2)
Medium low (-1)
Medium high (+1)
High (+2)
None
Tone compensation
Auto
Normal (0)
Less contrast (-2)
Medium low (-1)
Medium high (+1)
More contrast (+2)
Custom
Color mode
Ia (sRGB)
II (Adobe RGB)
IIIa (sRGB)
Saturation
Auto
Normal (0)
Moderate (-)
Enhanced (+)
Hue adjustment
-9° to +9°
• Black and white
Standard
Custom
Done
Image sharpening
Tone compensation
Filter effects
Off
Yellow
Orange
Red
Green

if you are looking for a more snapshot-style setting, just try the presets vivid or so, but keep in mind that you can play around with the custom settings as much as you want.

and if you really want a hands-on-guideline instead of playing around by yourself, look at what ken rockwell has to say. imho his text is full of useful stuff for you to know about the D80, including the reset-shortcut.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d80/users-guide/index.htm

Image Sharpening: Auto (default).

Tone Compensation (contrast): Auto (default). The D80 automatically adjusts its contrast and dynamic range to each and every shot. It works great.

Color Mode: IIIa (three-a). This is critical: this gives brighter colors than the default of I. No, color mode II is pronounced "two" and not to be confused with 11 (eleven). You don't want Mode II even if you could use it. Details are here.

Saturation: +, of course. This gives brighter colors in addition to the boost from Color Mode III.

Hue: 0 (Default). Don't touch this! it will subtly mess around with your colors. Leave it at 0.

all the best,
wulfman

[VJ]

to sum it up: no, the camera does not produce the kind-of-candy-style-coloured pics a compact would produce (and what most people expect from their snapshots), but a more neutral picture than can be optimized. mostly people suggest to shoot in nef, and adjust the images to your liking, or play with the settings in camera. and possible settings to play around with are plentiful:

It is not as bas as it used to be, a D200 can produce very nice out-of-the-camera jpg files, but in the past this was most certainly true (with my D100, shooting NEF was the only option to get good photos).


Jörg

[The PIT]

As Az and Wulfman say. Kenrockwell guide is very good helped me out a lot.
Certainly calibrate your Monitor.

[Lizzard[MPE]]

that ken rockwell site is great. i was on it for hours!

[Lizzard[MPE]]

Here's an example. I pretty much shot at whatever settings they were set to. I couldnt see and the wind and the rain, it was a mess.





And that was not what it looked like in the viewer, unless someone dropped me drugs in my drink.

[Wulfman]

can you describe what you saw on the display? (I wouldn't call the display viewfinder, just confuses people - the viewfinder is where you look through).

mfg
wulfman

[Lizzard[MPE]]

haha sorry i'm so used to using the display AS my viewfinder on the 8800!!!



Well, it was a lot lighter, prettier, crisp, all the wonderful things that make a good night photo. the sky was even purple, not black..

[Wulfman]

Well, it was a lot lighter, prettier, crisp, all the wonderful things that make a good night photo. the sky was even purple, not black..

smaller images are always crisper. regarding the purple sky - if you shoot nef, you should be able to get that back by changing the white balance and upping the EV a little. you might want to test shooting a white sheet of paper as a reference to get "proper" white balance on site, when doing important stuff.

mfg
wulfman

[az]

Or shoot in JPG and use manual white balance, shooting a white sheet of paper or a gray card before taking the actual image.

The purple sky might also have been due to the Camera's screen being set too bright (easy to make this mistake in the dark), which would also explain why the image as a whole looked lighter. Just turn down the camera display brightness, and if you want brighter images, use exposure compensation, manual exposure or snow/beach program modes.

[az]

BTW, brightening the image will probably blow out highlights badly. Use the tone curve, histogram, change gamma settings or use highlights/shadows to bring out the shadows more. Be prepared for noise and generally little detail.

[VJ]

Just thought of something... What colourspace was used?
(I don't know if the D80 has an option to choose between sRGB and AdobeRGB, but displaying an AdobeRGB file on a viewer that is not colourspace aware results in flat looking colours)


Jörg