The Bells And Whistles Inside Our Cameras

Hello all,
Sorry I have been a little lax in posting the past couple days. I am right in the heart of wedding and portrait season and have been swamped with photo shoots and whatnot.

So I was with my assistant on Saturday shooting a wedding and it dawned on me that our digital SLR's have come a REAL long way! She has herself a Pentax DSLR and she was having a real tough time with it during the reception which reminded me of how spoiled my D700 has gotten me. Some might think of them as just bells and whistles but I think that many of these can be really helpful... That is IF you know how to use them! I mean heck, Program mode could be considered the best feature that camera's have since it does everything for you pretty much... Do you think DaVinci hand drew his lines or used a ruler? Know what I mean? We are given these tools so we need to utilize them to make our life easier.

Here are some features that I am particularly fond of and use often. Some are new, some are old and some have totally different names that you just need to link up with the lingo that your camera uses. My experience is with Nikon so that is what I am going to roll with.

1.) Av Mode: It really rocks. I know what my shutter speed should be, it is just that one isn't always fast enough to get to that proper setting in time to capture "the moment". I have lost some good pics by being too slow. When I do weddings and portraits, I am really only concerned with setting my aperture and ISO. I want to set it and forget it so Av mode is where it's at for me. Now Av Mode is not the say-all-be-all and that is where item #2 comes in handy.

2.) Exposure Compensation: If your shots in Av Mode, are too bright or too dark then you need to rock the Exposure Compensation to tell the camera that you want your images to be darker or lighter than what it thinks is a good exposure. Too bright, tell the EC to dial it down by -1.0 or to brighten it up by +1.0. Digital is awesome so you can do a test shot and do the proper EC based upon the histogram and image preview... Check out #3 for a better indication on if your images are over exposed. This works for all the modes except for Manual mode... Using EC in Manual mode does give you a quick way to control your speedlights TTL flash compensation however! More on that in another article though.

3.) Highlight Warning: This feature is great for a quick indication letting you know if your image is blown out and over exposed. Little "blinkies" will fade in and out in the areas that are blown out.

4.) Auto-ISO: I know I want my shots to be above 1/60" to ensure that I am showing the least camera shake and motion blur from the subject. Auto ISO gives asks for you to set a minimum shutter speed that your camera should not go under... I set mine for 1/80" to be safe. You also get to choose a lowest and highest ISO that you want to use... This works for all the modes except for Manual mode. So how it works is that as soon as your camera sees that it needs more light and has to go under your lowest shutter speed, it just kicks up the ISO for you to get the shot... Cool huh? My D700 has a minimum of ISO 200 and a maximum of ISO 6400... Why? Because those high ISO files look darned good! I do disable auto ISO when shooting with a flash however... It throws things out of whack for me and it is too much dependencies on one another for my liking.

5.) Custom Menu / Button Assignment: Nothing is worse than having a bunch of buttons that you never use. Instead, I can allocate useful features to otherwise useless buttons on my D700... I have the buttons doing cool stuff like Virtual Horizon, Access Top Item of my Custom Menu (which is set to show my Commander Mode stuff for CLS flash work) and stuff like that.

6.) 3D Matrix Metering: I don't 'use' this much but can see it being REAL helpful for sports shooters. All you really have to do is set the AF point and keep tracking in Continuous AF and you will actually see the AF point move (showing that the AF is following) with your subject as they cross your frame! You should probably enable the 51 AF points and definitely need to use the dynamic AF control.

So those are really cool features that I use and abuse. I would really just suggest cracking open your user manual and search for those little gems that may help out when you out the next time shooting.

Thanks for stopping by,
Mike

inLIGHTin'ed Lightroom Presets

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This collection includes Over 75 Lightroom Presets and instructional video to help maximize their potential. These presets have been divided up into categories for the ease of use.

Get the Quick Fix Preset HERE

Get the Aqua Duotone Preset HERE

Get one of the Nostalgia Presets HERE

Here is a brief description of what each category entails:
QUICK FIXES: One click awesomeness! These are great presets for your proofing needs. Apply these to all your images and grab a coffee while these presets take care of everything for you.
SPECIAL EFFECTS: These help to take Photoshop out of the equation. It is called 'workflow' not 'work-slow' people!
BLACK AND WHITE: What good would presets be without killer black and white presets?
DUOTONES: These add a little spice to black and white images.
SHARPENING: Believe it or not, Lightroom actually has useful sharpening tools!
VIGNETTE: Pick your vignette tolerance and watch it go.
WHITE BALANCE: These presets help to give you instant color correction!

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Click HERE to view more Lightroom Preset Examples!

Using the Gradient Filter in Lightroom

Lightroom 2 introduced a lot of amazing new features. One of which happened to be the Gradient Tool (shortcut = M). This tool basically makes it so that you can do without using a physical graduated neutral density filter. Granted, nothing beats getting the shot perfect in camera so using actual graduated neutral density filters is always encouraged. I use the Galen Rowell grad ND filters manufactured by Singh-Ray. I use these filters because they provide me with the best image hands down. Other filters by other companies can demonstrate an odd color cast and other undesirable effects.

Anyways, the Singh-Ray grad ND filters are amazing... BUT they cost around $250 each. That is the basically the price of Lightroom. So for those who want the best images without breaking the bank then look no further than shooting your images in RAW and using Lightroom's Gradient Tool. This tool is basically a digital graduated ND filter and can help to bring your sky or foreground in the same exposure range. The resulting image is one that has amazing sky and cloud detail while still having a well exposed foreground.

Another way to achieve a similar effect is to use HDR (high dynamic range) techniques. I personally think that HDR images can be too overwhelming. Look into it though and see if you like it.

YouTube video up soon!

Finding Your Niche

A niche is defined as an employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted. Finding your niche market is crucial to any business and especially for photographers! Take a step back and think about things from a consumers standpoint for a second. What if you walked into your favorite restaurant that also doubled as a mechanics garage and pet groomer. Yeah it might be convenient this is pretty far fetched. The point is that having TOO MANY options can and usually does hurt a business more than it helps. This is why niche marketing is preferred.

Speaking for myself, I would rather take my dog to a pet grooming place that specializes in pet grooming than.. I don't know, say a restaurant that also did pet grooming.

Let's put this into the realm of the photographer. Hanging a shingle out there saying that you specialize in weddings, portraits, sports, landscapes, real estate, commercial, studio and fashion photography may seem prestigious and that you are a jack of all trades but in reality, it is probably giving your clients a less than ideal view of your business. They may think; "are they hurting for money? Is that why they try to do everything and then some?"

So what should we do as photography business owners? Well, here is the cool part. WE get to pick what we want to specialize in? This is YOUR business so if you are getting business from all different areas of photography then keep it up. Otherwise, if you aren't getting the business that you want then it may be time to re-evaluate your business approach and incorporate a niche market to hone in on your specialty. All you have to do is take the stuff that you love to photograph and get rid of the rest. For me, studio photography is cool and all but I could surely do without it. I would rather do fun, candid photos outdoors... That is where my Lifestyle Portraits come into play. They are usually outdoors and are fun and allow me to capture the moments of the shoot rather than "Say Cheese" poses.

If you love baby portraits and hate weddings, then ditch the weddings and do only what you love and are passionate about. THAT will be your niche market and you will feel rejuvenated with your business because you are doing what you love and what you enjoy doing. Nothing is better than being your own boss and nothing is better than loving what you do!

Remember the saying, "Jack of all trades... Master of none." Do what you want to do, and do it well.

So what is your niche?

Thanks for stopping by,
Mike