# Experimenting with the D90 this weekend



## TLudwig (Mar 30, 2004)

It was a beautiful day yesterday, and I had just cleaned my car, so I thought I'd drive around and learn how to use my new camera. These are unedited except for a little bit of cropping on a few of them.


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## mullman (Jan 5, 2006)

Nice work.
I also have a D90, what lens(es) are you using?


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## JerseyNative (Jan 25, 2010)

Phenomenal shots! I'd say you're doing pretty well with the new camera


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## TLudwig (Mar 30, 2004)

mullman said:


> Nice work.
> I also have a D90, what lens(es) are you using?


For this shoot, I just used my 18-200mm VRII. It has its limitations, but the versatility has been great for a newb like me. It's let me do a lot of experimenting to figure out what works without changing lenses a bunch of times.



JerseyNative said:


> Phenomenal shots! I'd say you're doing pretty well with the new camera


Thanks! Although you didn't see the other 40 I took before getting these! I'm doing lots of trial and error at this stage.


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## JerseyNative (Jan 25, 2010)

TLudwig said:


> For this shoot, I just used my 18-200mm VRII. It has its limitations, but the versatility has been great for a newb like me. It's let me do a lot of experimenting to figure out what works without changing lenses a bunch of times.
> 
> Thanks! Although you didn't see the other 40 I took before getting these! I'm doing lots of trial and error at this stage.


Practice makes perfect :thumbup:

on a side note.....why can't i find an "Edit Avatar" option in the User CP?? :dunno:


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## TLudwig (Mar 30, 2004)

JerseyNative said:


> Practice makes perfect :thumbup:
> 
> on a side note.....why can't i find an "Edit Avatar" option in the User CP?? :dunno:


I believe you need 100 posts before you can add your own avatar, but if you ask one of the admins nicely, they've been known to make special exceptions.


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## JerseyNative (Jan 25, 2010)

TLudwig said:


> I believe you need 100 posts before you can add your own avatar, but if you ask one of the admins nicely, they've been known to make special exceptions.


Aaah...gotcha....thank you :thumbup:


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

start to fiddle with exposure compensation to get your subject into the proper range...

some the subject is a little to dark and some the background to light.... just start fiddling from zero and go up and down plus or minus .7....

when the scene exceeds the sensors range like you have in your scenes its fiddling time to expose for what you want..

overall very nice for the first time


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## TLudwig (Mar 30, 2004)

mathjak107 said:


> start to fiddle with exposure compensation to get your subject into the proper range...
> 
> some the subject is a little to dark and some the background to light.... just start fiddling from zero and go up and down plus or minus .7....
> 
> ...


I also noticed that the subject/background lighting was off. Thanks for the practical advice on how to fix that.


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## Dave 330i (Jan 4, 2002)

Nice job. I love the pics.


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## chicagofan00 (Feb 10, 2008)

Awesome M3 and fantastic photos! :thumbup:


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## Dave 330i (Jan 4, 2002)

TLudwig said:


> I also noticed that the subject/background lighting was off. Thanks for the practical advice on how to fix that.


Check your D-Lighting setting.

http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/d90/en/hi-quality-image/#c-4


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## TLudwig (Mar 30, 2004)

Dave 330i said:


> Nice job. I love the pics.





chicagofan00 said:


> Awesome M3 and fantastic photos! :thumbup:


Thanks, guys!



Dave 330i said:


> Check your D-Lighting setting.
> 
> http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/d90/en/hi-quality-image/#c-4


Awesome! You can tell I'm still working my way through the owner's manual. Only about halfway so far because my day job keeps getting in the way.


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

i would keep d lighting off until you got getting the exposures right on your own..the d lighting can be very unpredictable at times.

its actually a 2 step process.. d lighting under exposes your picture on any setting other then low and at the same time it forces up the shadow detail. it can create quite a bit of noise at times....

it barely helps when the scene is over extended and i find it just makes things worse more ofton then not. typically it never looks like nikons promotional literature showing d-lighting...

you also cant turn it off later on in the software as although you can turn off the shadow boosting in capture nx you cant erase the fact it altered your exposure and may have created noise as you compensate later on for that fact.

increasing exposure later on in post processing really is akin to increasing iso when it comes to noise


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## Est1974 (Jul 9, 2008)

Try using it in A (aperture) mode. especially with that 18-200 that is a huge range in focal length.
Nice pics!


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## Dave 330i (Jan 4, 2002)

Take some good pics at the car show. Too bad, I don't think Porsche will be there. Houston is not a Porsche country, trucks are.


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## Chris90 (Apr 7, 2003)

Pics are nice but the car is just gorgeous.  

Are you shooting jpegs? After a couple years I switched to shooting NEF, and I like that better, in combination with Nikon's Capture NX2 and View NX software. It's easy to adjust exposure compensation after the fact with NX2, also the white balance. Maybe if you're a Photoshop wizard you can do fine with jpegs but I'm not, so NEF works great for me.


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## TLudwig (Mar 30, 2004)

Est1974 said:


> Try using it in A (aperture) mode. especially with that 18-200 that is a huge range in focal length.
> Nice pics!


Thanks. I have been starting to practice with aperture priority mode. Seems pretty simple in concept, but a little more difficult in practice.



Dave 330i said:


> Take some good pics at the car show. Too bad, I don't think Porsche will be there. Houston is not a Porsche country, trucks are.


I'm bringing my camera -- can't promise the pics will be good though. That will be very disappointing if Porsche isn't there again. Not many new cars I'm excited about right now, which I guess is good, so I can't be tempted by something new.



Chris90 said:


> Pics are nice but the car is just gorgeous.
> 
> Are you shooting jpegs? After a couple years I switched to shooting NEF, and I like that better, in combination with Nikon's Capture NX2 and View NX software. It's easy to adjust exposure compensation after the fact with NX2, also the white balance. Maybe if you're a Photoshop wizard you can do fine with jpegs but I'm not, so NEF works great for me.


Thanks, Chris. I am shooting in raw, and I've been practicing with post-processing in PS Elements, but I still suck at it. The steep learning curve on all of this is somewhat depressing, especially when one has as little free time as I do, but it does make me appreciate what goes into some of the images others post up.


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

i like capture nx2 for my basic editing better then elements...

its nice to be able to read your in camera settings in capture nx and its soooooooo much easier to dodge and burn spots .. the color points are so easy to use compared to fiddling with layers and creating masks..

no you cant extract things from their back ground or merge photos like elements can but i much prefer capture to elements.


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