Nikon D7000 manual

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D A VID BU SCH’S NIK ON D 7 000 GUIDE T O DIGIT AL SLR PHO T OGRAPHY David D . Busch Course T echnology PTR A part of C engage L earning Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Me xico, Singapore, Spain, U nited Kingdom, United States ®[...]

© 2012 David D. Busch ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stor ed, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing , taping, W eb distribution, information networks, or information[...]

F or Cathy[...]

Acknowledgments Once again thanks to the folks at Course T echnology PTR, who recognized that a cam- era as popular as the N ikon D7000 deserves in-depth full-color coverage at a price any- one can afford. S pecial thanks to executive editor Kevin Harr eld, who always gives me the freedom to let my imagination run free with a topic, as well as my v[...]

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii P AR T I: GETTING ST AR TED WITH YOUR NIKON D7000 Chapter 1 Nikon D7000: Thinking Outside of the Box 5 First Things First . . [...]

Other Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Adjusting White Balance and ISO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Using the Self-T imer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Reviewing the Images Y ou’ve T aken . . . . . [...]

Choosing a Metering Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Matrix Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Center -W eighted Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Spot Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]

Chapter 6 Live V iew and D-Movies 153 The New Perspective of Live V iew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 What Y ou Can Do with Live V iew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Beginning Live V iew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 V iewing Live V iew Informat[...]

P AR T III: ADV ANCED TOOLS Chapter 8 Setup: Playback and Shooting Menus 213 Anatomy of the Nikon D7000’ s Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Playback Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]

Chapter 9 Setup: The Custom Settings Menu 275 Custom Settings Menu Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Reset Custom Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 a. Autofocus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 a[...]

d12 Flash W arning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 d13 MB-D11 Battery T ype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 d14 Battery Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 e. Bracketing/Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]

Image Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318 Auto Image Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318 Image Dust Off Ref Photo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318 Battery Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]

Chapter 11 W orking with Lenses 345 Sensor Sensibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 Crop or Not? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 Y our First Lens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3[...]

A T ypical Electronic Flash Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 Choosing a Flash Sync Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411 Ghost Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414 High-Speed (FP) Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]

Other Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 DxO Optics Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451 Phase One Capture One Pro (C1 Pro) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451 Bibble Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]

Y ou don ’ t want good pictures from y our new Nikon D7000—y ou demand outstanding photos. After all, the D7000 is the most advanced mid-level camera that N ikon has ever introduced. I t boasts 16.2 megapixels of resolution, and blazing-fast automatic focus. But your gateway to pix el proficiency is dragged down b y the slim booklet included in[...]

I’ ve owned every Nikon digital SLR since the D70 (16 different models in all), and none of them made the first impression that the D7000 did. The first time I picked up this camera, the absolutely stunning image quality and feature set of the N ikon D7000 threw me for a loop, which is why I decided to spend an extra thr ee months developing a co[...]

There ’ s always the manual furnished with the D7000. I t’ s compact and filled with infor- mation, but there ’ s really very little about why you should use particular settings or fea- tures. I ts organization may make it difficult to find what you need. M ultiple cross-refer ences may send you searching back and forth between two or three s[...]

arranged by menu listings and written by a camera vendor emplo yee who last threw together instructions on how to operate a camcorder . Once you ’ ve read this book and are r eady to learn more, I hope you pick up one of my other guides to digital SLR photography . Fiv e of them are offered b y Course T echnology PTR, each approaching the topic f[...]

Mastering Digital SLR Photogr aphy, Thir d Edition This book, completely revamped with six brand new chapters for this latest edition, is an introduction to digital SLR photography , with nuts-and-bolts explanations of the technology , more in-depth coverage of settings, and whole chapters on the most com- mon types of photography . While not speci[...]

F rom a functional level, you probably fall into one of these categories: ■ P rofessional photographers who understand photography and digital SLRs, and simply want to learn how to use the N ikon D7000 as a backup camera, or as a cam- era for their personal “ off-duty” use. ■ Individuals who want to get better pictures, or perhaps transform[...]

■ Ho w digital photography differs from film: The image is stored not on film (which I call the first write-once optical media), but on a memory card as pixels that can be transferred to your computer , and then edited, corrected, and printed with- out the need for chemical processing. ■ What the basic tools of correct exposur e are: D on ’ t[...]

■ Film SLR v eterans new to the digital world: Y ou understand photography , you know about f/stops and shutter speeds, and thrive on inter changeable lenses. If you have used a newer film SLR, it probably has lots of electronic featur es already , including autofocus and sophisticated exposure metering. P erhaps you ’ ve even been using a N ik[...]

took me to “ exotic” locations that included Florida, S an Diego, and Ir eland. Y ou ’ll find photos of some of these visual treasures within the pages of this book. Like all my digital photography books, this one was written by a N ikon devotee with an incurable photography bug. M y first Nikon SLR was a venerable N ikon F back in the 1960s,[...]

Pa r t I Getting Started with Y our Nikon D7000[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 2 This first part of the book, consisting of just three short chapters, is designed to famil- iarize you with the basics of your N ikon D7000 as quickly as possible, even though I have no doubt that you ’ ve already been out shooting a few hundred (or thousand) pho- tographs with your p[...]

■ Chapter 3: This is a Str eetsmar t Roadmap to the N ikon D7000. Confused by the tiny little diagrams and multiple cross-refer ences for each and ever y control that send you scurrying around looking for information you know is buried somewhere in the small and inadequate manual stuffed in the box? This chapter uses multiple large full-color pic[...]

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Whether you subscribe to the “ my camera is just a tool” theory , or belong to the “ an exquisite camera adds new capabilities to my shooting arsenal” camp , picking up a ne w N ikon D7000 is a special experience. Those who simply wield tools will find this cam- era as comforting as an old friend, a solid piece of fine machiner y ready and [...]

Depending on your path to the camera, the N ikon D7000 is either the company’ s most ambitious amateur camera, or most affordable entry-level “ pro ” camera, which are both distinctions that I find almost meaningless in the greater scheme of things. I know con- summate professionals who produce amazing images with a D90; experienced wedding p[...]

N o matter how extensive your experience level is, you don ’ t need to fret about wading through a manual to find out what you must kno w to take those first few tentative snaps. I’ m going to help you hit the ground running with this chapter , which will help you set up your camera and begin shooting in minutes. Y ou won ’ t find a lot of de[...]

In all three cases, the first thing to do is to car efully unpack the camera and double- check the contents with the checklist on one end of the box, helpfully designated under a “This package includes” listing. While this level of setup detail may seem as superflu- ous as the instructions on a bottle of shampoo, checking the contents first is [...]

■ USB cable UC-E4. Y ou can use this cable to transfer photos from the camera to your computer (I don ’ t recommend that because direct transfer uses a lot of battery power), to upload and do wnload settings between the camera and your computer (highly recommended), and to operate your camera r emotely using Nikon Camera Control P ro software ([...]

■ DK-21 ey ecup. This is the square rubber eyecup that comes installed on the D7000. I t slides on and off the viewfinder . If you prefer , you can also use round, screw-in eyepiece accessories, such as the DK-3 circular rubber eyecup or DG-2 eyepiece 2x magnifier by substituting the N ikon No . 2370 eyepiece adapter for the DK-23 eyecup. ■ DK-[...]

laptop, a CD-R OM, or other media in case you want to access this reference when the paper version isn ’ t handy . If you have an old memory card that ’ s too small to be usable on a modern dSLR (I still have some 128MB and 256MB cards), y ou can store the PDF on that. But an ev en better choice is to put the manual on a low- capacity USB “ t[...]

■ Extra EN-EL15 battery . I mentioned the need for an extra battery earlier , and I’ll mention it here, again. E ven though you might get 1,000 or more shots from a sin- gle battery , it’ s easy to exceed that figure in a few hours of shooting sports at 6 fps. Batteries can unexpectedly fail, too, or simply lose their charge from sitting ar o[...]

■ N ikon GP-1 global positioning system (GPS) device. This accessor y attaches to the accessory shoe on top of the Nikon D90 and captures latitude, longitude, and altitude information, which is imprinted in a special data area of your image files. The “ geotagging” data can be plotted on a map in N ikon ViewNX or other soft- ware programs. I?[...]

Initial Setup David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 14 This section helps you familiarize yourself with the thr ee impor tant controls most used to make adjustments: the multi selector and the main and sub-command dials. Y ou ’ll also find information on charging the battery , setting the clock, mounting a lens, and making [...]

With the D7000, the multi selector is used extensively for navigation, for example, to navigate among menus on the LCD or to choose one of the 39 focus points, to advance or reverse display of a series of images during pictur e review , or to change the kind of photo information displayed on the screen. The center button is used to select a high- l[...]

Setting the Clock I t’ s likely that your N ikon D7000’ s internal clock hasn ’ t been set to your local time, so you may need to do that first. If so, the flashing CL OCK indicator on the top-panel LCD will be the giveaway . Y ou ’ll find complete instructions for setting the four options for the date/time (time zone, actual date and time,[...]

All rechargeable batteries undergo some degree of self-discharge just sitting idle in the camera or in the original packaging. Lithium-ion power packs of this type typically lose a few percent of their charge every few days, even when the camera isn ’ t turned on. The small amount of juice used to provide the “ shots remaining ” figure on the[...]

I’ m going to provide a little extra detail for those of y ou who are new to the Nikon or SLR worlds. Mounting the Lens As you ’ll see, my recommended lens mounting procedur e emphasizes protecting your equipment from accidental damage and minimizing the intrusion of dust. If your D7000 has no lens attached, select the lens you want to use and [...]

Chapter 1 ■ Nikon D7000: Thinking Outside of the Box 19 DEALING WITH ERRORS After you ’ ve mounted your lens properly (or think you have), you might find various error codes appearing on the top-panel LCD, viewfinder , and back-panel color LCD. Her e are the most common error codes, and what you should do next: ■ FE E. This error code, with a[...]

Adjusting Diopter Correction Those of us with less than perfect eyesight can often benefit from a little optical cor- rection in the viewfinder . Y our contact lenses or glasses may pro vide all the correction you need, but if you are a glasses w earer and want to use the D7000 without your glasses, you can take advantage of the camera ’ s built-[...]

Inside, you ’ll find two SD car d slots. (See F igure 1.8.) Y ou can use one card, or two . The slot closest to the top of the camera is Slot 1; the other is S lot 2. If you load only one card, it ’ s customar y to insert it in Slot 1, but the camera will operate even if the only SD card in use is placed in S lot 2. Chapter 1 ■ Nikon D7000: T[...]

Formatting a Memory Card There are four ways to cr eate a blank memor y card for your D7000, and two of them are wrong. H ere are your options, both correct and incorr ect: ■ T ransfer (mo v e) files to your computer . When you transfer (rather than copy) all the image files to your computer from the memory card (either using a direct cable trans[...]

Chapter 1 ■ Nikon D7000: Thinking Outside of the Box 23 HOW MANY SHOTS? The D7000 provides a fairly accurate estimate of the number of shots r emaining on the top-panel LCD at all times (even when the camera is turned off ), as well as at the lower- right edge of the viewfinder display when the display is active. (T ap the shutter release button [...]

T able 1.1 shows the typical number of shots y ou can expect using 12-bit color depth and an 8GB memory card. (Hold do wn the QUAL button [the bottom button in the column to the left of the back-panel LCD] and rotate the main command dial to change the file/formats in column 1, and rotate the sub-command dial to change the image sizes in columns 2,[...]

N ow it’ s time to fire up your N ikon D7000 and take some photos. The easy par t is turn- ing on the power—the O ff-On switch is on the right side, concentric with the shutter release button. T urn on the camera, and, if you mounted a lens and inserted a fresh bat- tery and memor y card—as I prompted you in the last chapter—you ’ re read[...]

I’ll explain all these modes in more detail and pr ovide tips for using them in particular situations in Chapter 8. The Shooting modes are as follo ws: ■ Single frame. I n single shot mode, the D7000 takes one picture each time you press the shutter release button down all the way . If you pr ess the shutter and nothing happens (which is very f[...]

Chapter 2 ■ Nikon D7000 Quick Start 27 SHOOTING MOVIES Y ou ’ll learn more about shooting HDTV movie clips with y our D7000 later in Chapter 6. But if you want to get started right away , it’ s easy . Just select Live View mode by rotat- ing the Live V ie w (Lv) switch located just northwest of the multi selector . When you want to start shoo[...]

the window . The remote control can be used in three modes: Delayed R emote (shutter releases two seconds after you pr ess the button on the ML-L3 IR remote); Quick Response R emote (the shutter trips immediately when the button is pressed); and Remote M irror U p (press once to flip up the mirror , a second time to release the shutter). I’ll exp[...]

The Scene modes take full control of the camera, make all the decisions for you, and don ’ t allow you to override the D7000’ s settings. They are most useful while you ’ re learn- ing to use the camera, because you can select an appropriate mode (A uto, Auto/N o Flash, P ortrait, Landscape, Child, Sports, Close U p, or N ight P ortrait) and [...]

■ Close U p. This mode is helpful when you are shooting close-up pictures of a sub- ject from about one foot away or less, such as flow ers, bugs, and small items. The D7000 focuses on the closest subject in the center of the frame, but you can use the multi selector right and left buttons to focus on a different point. U se a tripod in this mode[...]

Choosing an Advanced Mode If you ’ re very new to digital photography , you might want to set the camera to P (P rogram mode) and start snapping away . That mode will make all the appropriate set- tings for you for many shooting situations. If you hav e more photographic experience, you might want to opt for one of the semi-automatic modes. These[...]

■ Matrix metering. The standard metering mode; the D7000 attempts to intelli- gently classify your image and choose the best exposure based on r eadings from a 2,016-segment color CCD sensor that interprets light reaching the viewfinder using a database of hundreds of thousands of patterns. ■ Center-weighted metering. The D7000 meters the entir[...]

focus) and autofocus pattern ( which of the 39 available autofocus points or zones are used to interpret correct focus). T o specify when the D7000 locks in focus, follo w these steps: 1. Activate autofocus. M ake sure the camera is set for autofocus mode by sliding any MA/M or AF/M switch on the lens to the MA or AF position. The camera body AF/M [...]

The three autofocus modes are: ■ (AF-C) Continuous-servo autofocus. This mode, sometimes called continuous autofocus , or AF-C, sets focus when you partially depress the shutter button (or other autofocus activation button), but continues to monitor the frame and refo- cuses if the camera or subject is moved. This is a useful mode for photographi[...]

the top panel LCD (see F igure 2.5, left) and an equivalent indicator in the viewfinder (see F igure 2.5, right). 3. Choose AF-area mode. For no w , you should set to Auto-area AF and allo w the D7000 to choose the focus zone for you. The six AF area modes are as follo ws. ■ Single-point. The camera focuses on a point you select, using the multi [...]

■ 3D-tracking. Y ou select the focus point, and the camera will track your subject, using any of the other focus points, as needed, when using AF-A and AF-C modes. (In AF-S mode, focus tracking is not used, as focus is locked in when you pr ess the shutter release halfway .) ■ Auto-ar ea AF . The D7000 chooses a focus point. Other Settings Davi[...]

Using the Self-T imer If you want to set a short delay before your pictur e is taken, you can use the self-timer . P ress the lock release button to free the release mode dial, and r otate it five clicks clock- wise until the self-timer icon appears next to the indicator line. P ress the shutter release to lock focus and start the timer . The self-[...]

Using the Built-in Flash W orking with the D7000’ s built-in flash (as well as external flash units like the N ikon SB-900) deserves detailed coverage, and I’ m providing the information you need (see Chapter 12). But the built-in flash is easy enough to work with that y ou can begin using it right away , either to provide the main lighting of [...]

or , alternatively , you can expose that scene at the original 10 feet distance at f/11. Ordinarily , the D7000 takes care of all these calculations for you. I f you need a bigger blast of light, you can add an external flash, like the N ikon SB-900, which lets you reach out to 32-45 feet at ISO 200 and f/5.6 (or even farther at larger f/stops). Wh[...]

When using PSAM modes, you can preview the effect of your flash visually by pr essing the depth-of-field button, which activates a brief, continuous series of bursts (which look to the eye like a single, long flash of light)—unless you ’ ve disabled this “ modeling light” using C ustom Settings menu entry CSM #e4. Y ou ’ll also learn in C[...]

Changing Default Settings Chapter 2 ■ Nikon D7000 Quick Start 41 Figure 2.8 Images can be transferred to y our computer using a USB cable connected to this port. Figure 2.9 A card reader is the fastest way to transfer photos. A Secure D igital reader is shown above. O ther readers accept both types of cards. USB port This section is purely option[...]

Resetting the Nikon D7000 If you want to change from the factory default values, you might think that it would be a good idea to make sure that the N ikon D7000 is set to the factor y defaults in the first place. After all, even a brand-new camera might have had its settings changed at the retailer , or during a demo. U nfor tunately , Nikon doesn [...]

2. S tart reset. P ress and hold the two buttons for more than two seconds. The mono- chrome LCD contr ol panel switches off momentarily while the settings are reset. 3. Release the two buttons. Y our camera ’ s settings have been returned to the factory default, as described below . Once a two-button reset has been performed, the following setti[...]

■ Autofocus/Viewfinder: Autofocus mode: AF-A AF-area mode: Close U p, Candlelight, F ood, Beach, High Key , Low Key – S ingle- point AF AF-area mode: S ports, P et - 39-point dynamic area AF AF-area mode: All other - A uto-area AF ■ Autofocus/Liv e View , Mo vie: Autofocus mode: AF-S AF-area mode: S ports, Night Landscape, P et P or trait, Be[...]

2. Choose Shooting menu or C ustom Settings menu. P ress the multi selector down button to scroll down to either the S hooting menu (represented by a camera icon; the second icon from the top in the left-column of the menus) or the C ustom Settings menu (repr esented by a pencil icon; the third icon from the top). P ress the right multi selector bu[...]

Her e are some of the changes I recommend you make to the defaults that N ikon sets up for you. (I have no changes to recommend for the P layback, Setup, and M y Menu settings, which are fine the way they are for most people, nor for the R etouch menu, which doesn ’ t have parameters that can be stored.) Y ou ’ll find other settings recom- mend[...]

M ost of the N ikon D7000’ s key functions and settings that are changed frequently can be accessed directly using the array of dials, buttons, and knobs that populate the cam- era ’ s sur face. With so many dedicated contr ols available, you ’ll find that the bulk of your shooting won ’ t be slowed down by a visit to the vast thicket of te[...]

button presses (you ’ll need to choose between which of the two SD car d slots you want to format—if both contain cards) and you ’ ve successfully formatted your memor y card. Y ou didn ’ t really need instructions—the menu system itself led you to the right com- mand. If you don ’ t format another card for weeks and weeks, y ou can com[...]

Y ou ’ll also find this “ roadmap ” chapter a good guide to the rest of the book, as well. I’ ll try to provide as much detail here about the use of the main controls as I can, but some topics (such as autofocus and exposure) are too complex to addr ess in depth right away . So, I’ ll point you to the relev ant chapters that discuss thing[...]

redefined the behavior of the self-timer to take 1 to 9 exposures when its delay has expired. (I’ll sho w you how to take multiple shots with the self-timer in Chapter 9.) T apping the shutter button when the D7000’ s exposure meters have turned them- selves off reactivates them, and a tap can be used to r emove the display of a menu or image f[...]

control how the sub-command dial is used to set aperture, and tell the D7000 that you want to use the main command dial to scroll through menus and images. All these options are discussed in more detail in Chapter 9. ■ AF-assist illuminator/Red-ey e reduction/S elf-timer lamp. This LED provides a blip of light shortly before a flash exposure to c[...]

The main points of interest shown include: ■ Bracket button. H old down this button and rotate the main command dial to change the number of bracketed exposures to shoot; rotate the sub-command dial to change the exposure increment to be changed betw een each bracketed shot. When the number of exposures is set to zero, bracketing is turned off . [...]

■ Lens autofocus/manual switch. Y ou can change from A utofocus mode to Manual using this switch, or the switch on the camera body . ■ N eck strap lug. It comes with a split-ring attached that can be used to fasten a neck strap to the D7000. ■ Microphone. The D7000 has a micr ophone built into the front of the camera, seen as a trio of holes [...]

The main feature on the side of the N ikon D7000 is a pair of rubber covers that pro- tect the five connector ports underneath from dust and moisture. The five connectors, shown in F igure 3.5, with the rubber covers r emoved, are as follo ws: ■ Audio/Video port. Y ou can link this connector with a television to view your pho- tos and movies on a[...]

■ USB port. Plug in the USB cable furnished with your N ikon D7000 and connect the other end to a USB port in your computer to transfer photos, to upload Picture Control settings, or to upload/download other settings betw een your camera and computer . ■ Microphone connector . Although the D7000 has a built-in microphone on the front, if you wa[...]

Y ou can see the controls clustered along the top edge of the back panel in F igure 3.7. The key buttons and components and their functions are as follows: ■ Playback button. P ress this button to review images you ’ ve taken, using the con- trols and options I’ll explain in the next section. T o remo ve the displayed image, press the Playbac[...]

Chapter 3 ■ Nikon D7000 Roadmap 57 Figure 3.7 Playback button T rash/F ormat #1 button Viewfinder eyepiece Diopter adjustment wheel AE-L/AF-L button Speaker Main command dial ■ S peaker . Y our D7000 emits sounds, such as your movie audio track, through this device. ■ AE-L/AF-L (autoexposure/autofocus) lock. This button can be pr ogrammed by [...]

Y ou ’ll be using the four buttons to the left of the LCD (sho wn in Figur e 3.8) quite fre- quently , so learn their functions now . ■ MENU button. S ummons/exits the menu displayed on the rear LCD of the D7000. When you ’ re working with submenus, this button also serves to exit a sub- menu and return to the main menu. ■ Help/P rotect/Whi[...]

the Remote position. Y ou ’ d use this receiver to trigger the camera using the ML-L3 infrared remote contr ol when you want to release the shutter while standing behind the camera. ■ F ocus selector lock. Rotate this switch to the L position to disable changing the focus point with the multi selector . ■ M emory card access lamp. When lit or[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 60 Figure 3.10 Figure 3.11 Playing Back Images Reviewing images is a joy on the N ikon D7000’ s big three-inch L CD. The display is big and bright, and there is abundant detail on that 920,000-dot, V GA-resolution screen. Her e are the basics involved in reviewing images on the LCD scr [...]

■ View thumbnail images. T o change the view from a single image to four , nine, or 72 thumbnails, follow the instructions in the “Viewing Thumbnails ” section that follows. ■ Zoom in and out. T o zoom in or out, pr ess the Zoom/Thumbnail key , following the instructions in the “Zooming the N ikon D7000 Playback Display ” in the next se[...]

4. T o detect faces, rotate the sub-command dial while an image is zoomed. U p to 35 faces will be detected by the D7000, indicated by white bor ders in the navigation window . Rotate the sub-command dial to move highlighting to the individual faces. 5. Use the main command dial to mo ve to the same zoomed area of the next/ previous image. 6. Use t[...]

P ages of thumbnail images offer a quick way to scroll through a large number of pic- tures quickly to find the one you want to examine in mor e detail. The D7000 lets you switch quickly from single- to four- to nine- to 72-image views, with a scroll bar dis- played at the right side of the screen to sho w you the relative position of the displayed[...]

■ P rotect and delete images. When viewing thumbnails or a single page image, press the P rotect button to preserve the image against accidental deletion (a key icon is overlaid o ver the full-page image; press P rotect again to remov e protection). ■ Exit image r eview . T ap the shutter release button or press the Playback button to exit imag[...]

■ View a date ’ s images. P ress the Zoom In button to toggle betw een the date list to the scrolling thumbnail list of images taken on that date at the right of the screen. When viewing the thumbnail list, you can use the multi selector up/down keys to scroll through the available images. P ress the Zoom I n button again to return to the date [...]

■ Photo Data. These are a series of up to eight screens (including GPS data, which appears only if you used a GPS device to take the picture) that pro vide various types of shooting and other information about a particular image that you are reviewing. The data shown applies only to that image, and does not reflect y our D7000’ s cur- rent shoo[...]

Chapter 3 ■ Nikon D7000 Roadmap 67 Figure 3.15 The shooting information display has this kind of infor- mation, color- coded here for simplicity . 1 Shooting mode 1 Flexible progr am indicator 3 Flash mode 4 Flash sync indicator 5 E ye-Fi connection 6 Release mode/ Continuous shooting speed 7 V alue lock indicator 8 Shutter speed/Exposur e compen[...]

■ ISO N oise Reduction/Long Exposure N oise Reduction. Y ou can turn each of these two types of noise reduction off , or to high, normal, or low settings. ■ Activ e D-Lighting. Choose to extend the dynamic range of your image to one of four levels (Low , N ormal, High, E xtra High), plus A uto or Off. I’ ll explain the pit- falls/advantages o[...]

Using the Photo Data Displays When reviewing an image on the screen, your D7000 can supplement the image itself with a variety of shooting data, ranging from basic information presented at the bot- tom of the LCD display , to three text o verlays that detail virtually every shooting option you ’ ve selected. There is also a display for GPS data i[...]

Although none of them apply to the background image shown in F igure 3.22, I’ ve added a few entries to show the kind of changes that can be made. Y ou ’ll learn more about the Retouch menu in Chapter 10, which also will tell you ho w to create an image comment, like the one shown in the figure. ■ Shooting Data 4. This scr een appears only if[...]

Chapter 3 ■ Nikon D7000 Roadmap 71 Figure 3.18 Highlights screen. Figure 3.19 R GB histogram screen.[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 72 Figure 3.20 Shooting Data 1 screen. Figure 3.21 Shooting Data 2 screen.[...]

Chapter 3 ■ Nikon D7000 Roadmap 73 Figure 3.22 Shooting Data 3 screen. Figure 3.23 GPS data screen.[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 74 Figure 3.24 Overview data screen. Memory card in use Date photo taken F older name White balance settings and adjustments File name T ime photo taken Color space Picture Control JPEG image quality Siz e (resolution) Metering method Exposure compensation Exposure mode Shutter speed/ ape[...]

Chapter 3 ■ Nikon D7000 Roadmap 75 Figure 3.25 Figure 3.26 Mode dial Release mode dial lock release Release mode dial Flash accessory shoe[...]

■ M ode dial. Rotate this dial to select from two fully automatic modes (A uto and Auto N o Flash), four adv anced exposure modes (M anual, Aperture-priority , Shutter-priority , and P rogram), 19 different Scene modes (first described in Chapter 2, and next in Chapter 4) selected by rotating the main command dial, plus two U ser Setting position[...]

■ M etering mode button/F ormat #2. P ress this button and rotate the main com- mand dial while watching the top-panel LCD to change to Center-weighted (top), Matrix (middle), or S pot metering. If you ’ d like to switch back and for th between one metering mode and another rapidly , set your default mode, such as Matrix metering, with this swi[...]

as plus or minus values. This button is also used in conjunction with the QUAL button to provide a quick two-button r eset of the camera to many of the factor y default settings, as described in Chapter 1. (Any reassignment of the AE-L/AF-L button you made using C ustom Settings menu CSM #f6 is unaffected.) H old down the two buttons, each marked w[...]

3.30. I’ ve color-coded the display and divided the figure into two parts to avoid drown- ing you in labels for this intensely dense readout. The information does not appear in color on the actual D7000, and all of these indicators will not appear at once. Many of the information items are mutually exclusiv e (that is, in the white balance area a[...]

F irst, in Figur e 3.29: ■ Shutter speed/additional functions (magenta). H ere you ’ll find the shutter speed, exposure compensation values, color temperatur e, and other useful data. ■ Apertur e/additional functions (magenta). The selected f/stop appears here, along with a lot of other alternate information, as shown in the label in the figu[...]

In F igure 3.30, you ’ll find the following r eadouts highlighted: ■ Battery status (gray). F ive segments show the approximate battery power r emain- ing. A better indicator is the Battery Info entry in the Setup menu. ■ MB-D11 battery indicator (gray). Appears when the D7000 is being power ed by the MB-D11 battery grip. ■ Beep indicator ([...]

■ Image Quality (dar k orange). Sho ws current image quality , including JPEG, RA W , and RA W+JPEG F ine, N orm, or Basic. ■ Secur e Digital indicator (gray). Sho ws when a card of either type is inserted in the camera. ■ Autofocus-ar ea indicator (dark red). Displays the autofocus area status, with the active focus zone sho wn from among th[...]

■ F ocus scale. This is a readout found on many lenses that rotates in unison with the lens ’ s focus mechanism to show the distance at which the lens has been focused. I t’ s a useful indicator for double-checking autofocus, roughly evaluating depth-of-field, and for setting manual focus guesstimates. Chapter 11 deals with the mysteries of l[...]

■ Apertur e lock. If you want y our D7000 (or other Nikon dSLR) to control the aper- ture electronically , you must set the lens to its smallest aperture (usually f/22 or f/32) and lock it with this control. ■ F ocus limit switch. Some lenses have this switch (shown in F igure 3.32), which limits the focus range of the lens, thus potentially re[...]

taking aperture is determined by the camera ’ s metering system (or by you when the D7000 is in Manual mode), and is communicated to the lens through the elec- tronic contacts described next. (An exception is when the aperture ring on the lens itself is unlocked and used to specify the f/stop.) H owever , the spring-loaded phys- ical levers are w[...]

what f/stop has been set. F or a D7000 owner , this means that older manual focus lenses (including pre-1977 lenses that have been converted to this system) can be used for automatic metering with the Aperture-priority exposur e mode, and for manual metering in Manual exposure mode. ■ Autofocus driv e screw slot. (Not sho wn in the figure.) As yo[...]

■ Autoexposur e (AE) lock/Flash value lock indicator . Sho ws that exposure or flash exposure has been locked. ■ Flash sync. S hows that the shutter speed has been locked in S or M modes at the x250 (1/250th second) setting (located, not between 1/125th and 1/500th second, but as the speed past bulb and 30 seconds). ■ Shutter speed. D isplays[...]

■ Apertur e. Shows the curr ent aperture chosen by the D7000’ s autoexposure system, or specified by you when using M anual exposure mode. ■ Automatic ISO indicator . Is shown as a r eminder that the D7000 has been set to adjust ISO sensitivity automatically . ■ Flash compensation indicator . Appears when flash EV changes hav e been made. ?[...]

The socket is also used to secure the optional MB-D11 battery grip, which pro vides more juice to run your camera to take more exposur es with a single charge. Figur e 3.35 shows the underside view of the camera. Using the MB-D11 Multi-Power Battery Pack/V ertical Grip One optional accessory that you might want to consider is the Nikon MB-D11 batte[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 90 Figure 3.36 The Nikon MB-D11 M ulti-P ower Grip can double the length of your battery-power ed shooting session, while adding convenient vertically oriented controls. Shutter release (vertical) V er tical shutter release lock-out switch Sub- command dial Locking wheel M ulti selector/ [...]

T o use the MB-D11, just follow these steps: 1. Expose contacts. R emove the rubber protective cov er over the contacts on the bot- tom of the D7000 body . (See F igure 3.35, earlier .) Don ’ t worry about losing the cover: it fits in a matching w ell inside the MB-D11. Retrieve the cover fr om that safe location when you remo ve the grip. N ext,[...]

3. T ighten the connection. When the grip and D7000 are fit snugly together , rotate the large wheel under the base of the MB-D11 to lock the device onto the D7000. 4. Add batteries. The MB-D11 is furnished with two trays to hold batteries. Y ou can add a second EN-EL15 battery to one tray to double your available power . Or you can use eight AA al[...]

P art II Beyond the Basics[...]

Why do you need the four chapters in P art II: Beyond the Basics? I think you ’ll find that even if you ’ ve mastered the fundamentals and controls of the D7000 ther e is lots of room to learn more and use the featur es of the camera to their fullest. Even if you ’ re getting great exposures a high per centage of the time, you can fine-tune t[...]

When you bought your N ikon D7000, you probably thought your days of worrying about getting the correct exposure w ere over . T o paraphrase an old K odak tagline dat- ing back to the 19th Century—the goal is, “y ou press the button, and the camera does the rest.” F or the most part, that’ s a realistic objective. The D7000 is one of the sm[...]

correct exposure is one of the foundations of good photography , along with accurate focus and sharpness, appropriate color balance, freedom from unwanted noise and ex ces- sive contrast, as well as pleasing composition. The N ikon D7000 gives you a gr eat deal of control ov er all of these, although compo- sition is entirely up to you. Y ou must s[...]

Chapter 4 ■ Getting the Right Exposure 97 Figure 4.1 At left, the image is exposed for the highlights, losing shadow detail. At right, the exposur e captures detail in the shadows, but the highlights are washed out. Figure 4.2 Combining the two exposures produces the best compromise image. (about $100 from www .hdrsoft.com). The resulting shot is[...]

T o understand exposure, you need to understand the six aspects of light that combine to produce an image. S tar t with a light source—the sun, an interior lamp, or the glo w from a campfire—and trace its path to your camera, thr ough the lens, and finally to the sensor that captures the illumination. H ere’ s a brief review of the things wit[...]

■ Light captured b y the sensor . N ot all the light falling onto the sensor is captured. If the number of photons reaching a particular photosite doesn ’ t pass a set thresh- old, no information is recor ded. Similarly , if too much light illuminates a pixel in the sensor , then the excess isn ’ t recorded or , worse, spills over to contamin[...]

These four factors—quantity of light, light passed by the lens, the amount of time the shutter is open, and the sensitivity of the sensor—all work proportionately and recip- rocally to produce an exposure. That is, if you double the amount of light, increase the aperture by one stop , make the shutter speed twice as long, or boost the ISO setti[...]

How the D7000 Calculates Exposure Y our D7000 calculates exposure by measuring the light that passes through the lens and is bounced up by the mirror to sensors located near the focusing surface, using a pat- tern you can select (more on that later) and based on the assumption that each ar ea being measured reflects about the same amount of light a[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 102 Figure 4.4 When exposure is calculated based on the middle-gray cat in the center , the black and white cats are rendered accu- rately , too. thinks is a middle gray , calculates an exposure based on that, and the feline in the cen- ter of the strip is rendered at its pr oper tonal va[...]

Underexposed The third possibility in this simplified scenario is that the light meter might measur e the illumination bouncing off the white cat, and try to render that feline as a middle gray . A lot of light is reflected by the white kitty , so the exposure is reduced , bringing that cat closer to a middle gray tone. The cats that were originall[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 104 WHY THE GRA Y CARD CONFUSION? Why are so many photographers under the impression that cameras and meters ar e cali- brated to the 18-percent “ standard,” rather than the true value, which may be 12 to 14 percent, depending on the vendor? Y ou ’ll find this misinformation in an a[...]

Choosing a Metering Method The D7000 has three different schemes for ev aluating the light received by its exposure sensors: Matrix (with several v ariations, depending on what lens you have attached), Center-weighted, and S pot metering. Select the mode you want to use by holding down the M etering button and twirling the main command dial while n[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 106 Figure 4.8 Complex scenes lend themselves to the exposure interpretation pr ovided by Matrix metering. Figure 4.7 Matrix meter- ing calculates exposure based on 2,016 points in the frame.[...]

■ Color Matrix metering. I f you ’ re using a non-CPU lens (such as an older manual focus lens) and have specified the focal length and maximum aperture in the Setup menu (as described in Chapter 10), then the D7000 uses plain old color Matrix metering, which evaluates exposure based only on brightness and color informa- tion detected in the sc[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 108 Figure 4.10 Scenes with the main subject in the center , surrounded by areas that are significantly darker or lighter , are perfect for Center-weighted metering. Figure 4.9 Center- weighted metering calcu- lates exposure based on the full frame, but gives 75 per- cent of the weight to[...]

suggests, the light reading is weighted to wards the central portion, but information is also used from the rest of the frame. If y our main subject is surrounded by very bright or very dark areas, the exposure might not be exactly right. H owever , this scheme works well in many situations if you don ’ t want to use one of the other modes. This [...]

exactly where to measure exposur e when using the optical vie wfinder . How ever , if a non- CPU lens is mounted, or you have selected A uto-area AF , only the center focus point is used to spot meter . Y ou ’ll find S pot metering useful when you want to base exposure on a small area in the frame. If that area is in the center of the frame, so m[...]

Choosing an Exposure Method Y ou ’ll find four methods for choosing the appropriate shutter speed and aperture, when using the semi-automatic/manual modes. (Scene modes, which use their own exposure biases, are described next.) Y ou can choose among P rogram, Aperture-priority , Shutter- priority , or Manual options by rotating the mode dial on t[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 112 Figure 4.13 U se Aperture- priority to “lock in ” a large f/stop when you want to blur the background.[...]

with a bit of experience in choosing settings. Many seasoned photographers leave their D7000 set on A all the time. The exposure indicator scale in the status panel and viewfinder indicate the amount of under- or over exposure. Shutter -Priority Shutter-priority (S) is the inverse of A per ture-priority: you choose the shutter speed you ’ d like [...]

shot outdoor soccer games on sunny F all evenings and used Shutter-priority mode to lock in a 1/1,000th second shutter speed, and was unable to continue when the sun dipped behind some trees and there was no longer enough light to shoot at that speed, even with the lens wide open. Like A mode, it’ s possible to choose an inappropriate shutter spe[...]

while automatically producing a shorter shutter speed that provides the same equiv a- lent exposure as metered in P mode. An asterisk appears next to the P in the mono- chrome LCD so y ou ’ll know you ’ ve overridden the D7000’ s default program setting. Y our adjustment remains in force until you rotate the main command dial until the asteri[...]

the main command dial to change to Manual mode, and then turn the main command dial to set the shutter speed, and the sub-command dial to adjust the aperture. P ress the shutter release halfway or press the AE lock button, and the exposur e scale in the viewfinder shows you ho w far your chosen setting diverges from the meter ed exposure. Using Sce[...]

■ Landscape. Select this mode when you want extra sharpness and rich colors of dis- tant scenes. The built-in flash and AF-assist illuminator are disabled. ■ Child. U se this mode to accentuate the vivid colors often found in children ’ s cloth- ing, and to render skin tones with a soft, natural looking texture. The D7000 focuses on the close[...]

■ Blossom. U ses a small f/stop to expand depth-of-field when shooting landscapes with broad expanses of blossoms. This Scene mode may result in longer shutter speeds, so consider using a tripod. ■ Autumn colors. M akes reds and yellows in F all foliage richer . ■ F ood. Boosts saturation to make food look more appetizing in your snaps. ■ S[...]

ISO settings can, of course, also be used to boost or reduce sensitivity in particular shoot- ing situations. The D7000 can use ISO settings from ISO 100 up to ISO 6400, plus H 1.0 and H 2.0 (ISO 12800 and 25600 equivalent). The camera can also adjust the ISO automatically as appropriate for various lighting conditions. When you choose the Auto ISO[...]

F ortunately , Nikon ’ s electronics geniuses have done an exceptional job minimizing noise from all causes in the D7000. E ven so, you might still want to apply the optional long exposure noise reduction that can be activ ated using Long Exp. NR in the Shooting menu, where the feature can be turned O n or Off. This type of noise reduction involv[...]

increment of your choice up to +2/–2 stops. (Choose between incr ements by setting Custom F unction CSM #b2.) In S mode, the aperture will change, while in A mode, the shutter speed will change. U sing autoexposure bracketing is trickier than it needs to be, but you can follow these steps to get results like those shown in F igure 4.15: 1. Choose[...]

4. Choose bracket increment. With the setting button still held down, r otate the sub-command dial to choose the exposure increment, 0.3, 0.7, 1.0, 1.3, 1.7, or 2.0 EV (unless you ’ ve redefined the exposur e compensation increment in CSM #b2). BKT will be displayed in the viewfinder and top-panel LCD. 5. F rame and shoot. As you take your photos[...]

according to the white balance settings you opted for in the camera when the photo is imported into your image editor (if you make no white balance changes during importation). White balance bracketing produces JPEG files that v ary , not by f/stops (which is the case with exposure bracketing), but by units called mir eds (micro r eciprocal degrees[...]

■ 2. A pair of shots will be taken, one with ADL turned off (your “ control”, so to speak), and a second shot with ADL applied at the setting you specified in the Shooting menu (A uto, Extra High, H igh, N ormal, or Low). Howe ve r , if you have turned ADL off in the Shooting menu, the D7000 will take the second shot using Auto, in effect o v[...]

3. Still holding down the bracketing setting button, rotate the main dial until the 3F setting is made. This will take a total of three exposures, one at the meter ed expo- sure, one 1 stop under , and one 1 stop over . 4. R otate the release mode dial to one of the continuous shooting modes. This will ensure that all three bracketed shots ar e tak[...]

If you do everything correctly , you ’ll end up with a photo like the one shown in F igure 4.18, which has the properly exposed foreground of the first shot, and the w ell-exposed rocks of the second and third images. N ote that, ideally , nothing should move between shots. In the example pictures, the ocean wav es are moving, but the exposures w[...]

Chapter 4 ■ Getting the Right Exposure 127 Figure 4.18 Y ou ’ll end up with an extended dynamic range photo like this one.[...]

up with a finished image that has the extended dynamic range you ’ re looking for . ( This concludes the image editing portion of the chapter . W e now r eturn you to our alternate sponsor: photography .) Fixing Exposures with Histograms While you can often reco ver poorly exposed photos in your image editor , your best bet is to arrive at the co[...]

pixels at a given lev el, the taller the bar at that position. If no bar appears at a particu- lar position on the scale from left to right, there ar e no pixels at that particular bright- ness level. As you can see, a typical histogram produces a mountain-like shape, with most of the pixels bunched in the middle tones, with fewer pix els at the da[...]

The histogram can also be used to aid in fixing the contrast of an image, although gaug- ing incorrect contrast is more difficult. F or example, if the histogram shows all the tones bunched up in one place in the image, the photo will be low in contrast. If the tones are spread out mor e or less evenly , the image is probably high in contrast. In e[...]

In working with histograms, y our goal should be to have all the tones in an image spread out between the edges, with none clipped off at the left and right sides. U nderexposing (to preserve highlights) should be done only as a last resort, because retrieving the under- exposed shadows in your image editor will fr equently increase the noise, even[...]

Overexposed yello ws (which are very common) will be shown by blowouts in both the red and green channels. T oo-bright cyans will manifest as ex cessive blue and green highlights, while over exposure in the red and blue channels reduces detail in magenta colors. As you gain experience, you ’ll be able to see exactly how anomalies in the R GB chan[...]

One of the most useful and pow erful features of modern digital SLR cameras is their ability to lock in sharp focus faster than the blink of an eye. Sometimes. Although aut- ofocus has been with us for more than 20 years, it continues to be problematic. While vendors like N ikon are giving us faster and more precise autofocus systems, with many mor[...]

F ocusing was problematic because our eyes and brains have poor memory for correct focus, which is why your eye doctor must shift back and forth between sets of lenses and ask “Does that look sharper—or was it sharper before?” in determining y our cor- rect prescription. S imilarly , manual focusing involves jogging the focus ring back and fo[...]

Chapter 5 ■ Mastering Autofocus Options 135 Figure 5.1 The D7000’ s focus sensors cover an ar ea in the center of the frame. Figure 5.2 When an image is out of focus, the split lines don ’ t align precisely . Figure 5.3 U sing Phase Detection, the D7000 is able to align the features of the image and achieve sharp focus quickly .[...]

quickly and precisely snap the image into sharp focus and line up the vertical lines, as shown in F igure 5.3. Of course, this scenario—vertical lines being interpreted b y a hor- izontally oriented sensor—is ideal. When the same sensor is asked to measur e focus for , say , horizontal lines that don ’ t split up quite so conveniently , or , [...]

Chapter 5 ■ Mastering Autofocus Options 137 Figure 5.4 A horizontal focus censor doesn ’ t handle horizontal lines very well. Figure 5.5 Cross-type sensors can evaluate contrast in both horizontal and vertical directions, as well as diagonally . Figure 5.6 The D7000’ s cross-type sen- sors are located in the middle of the frame.[...]

Contrast Detection This is a slower mode, suitable for static subjects, and used b y the D7000 in Live V iew and M ovie modes. I t’ s a bit easier to understand, and is illustrated by F igure 5.7. At top in the figure, the transitions between the edges found in the image ar e soft and blurred because of the low contrast between them. Although the[...]

be focusing on, by choosing a focus zone or by allo wing the camera to choose a focus zone for you. I’ ll address that topic shortly . As the camera collects focus information from the sensors, it then evaluates it to deter- mine whether the desired sharp focus has been achieved. The calculations may include whether the subject is moving, and whe[...]

depth-of-field. By the same token, a lens with a maximum aperture of f/1.8 will be eas- ier to autofocus (or manually focus) than one of the same focal length with an f/4 max- imum aperture, because the f/4 lens has more depth-of-field and a dimmer view . That’ s why lenses with a maximum aperture smaller than f/5.6 can give your D7000’ s auto-[...]

5 × 7-inch print vie wed at arm ’ s length, might appear blurr y when blown up to 11 × 14 and examined at the same distance. T ake a few steps back, howev er , and it may look sharp again. T o a lesser extent, the vie wer also affects the apparent size of these cir cles of confusion. Some people see details better at a given distance and may pe[...]

Using Autofocus with the Nikon D7000 Autofocus can sometimes be frustrating for the new digital SLR photographer , espe- cially those coming from the point-and-shoot world. That’ s because correct focus plays a greater role among your cr eative options with a dSLR, even when photographing the same subjects. M ost non-dSLR digital cameras have sen[...]

Autofocus Simplifies Our Lives… Doesn’t It? Manual focus is tricky , requires judgment, and fast r eflexes. So, we ’ re all better off now that autofocus has become almost universal, right? On the one hand, AF does save time and allows us to capture subjects (particularly fast-mo ving spor ts) that are difficult to image sharply using manual [...]

Bringing the Multi-CAM 4800DX AF System into Focus I’ ve explained individual bits and pieces of the Nikon D7000’ s autofocus system earlier in this book, particularly in the “ roadmap ” sections that showed you where all the con- trols were located, and the “ setup ” chapters that explained the key autofocus options. N ow it’ s time [...]

selector among the three-dozen (plus) focus points. That’ s why CSM #a6 lets you switch the D7000 to a more widely spaced set of 11 focus zones that you can select quickly . (Learn how to do that in Chapter 9.) F igure 5.10 shows the distribution of the activ e focus points when in 39-point mode (left) or 11-point mode (right). As the camera coll[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 146 Figure 5.11 Autofocus mode selector switch is used to choose autofocus settings. Figure 5.12 Autofocus point selection modes. Autofocus/Manual focus switch Autofocus mode button L CD indicators Viewfinder indicators Single-point AF 9-point dynamic-area AF 21-point dynamic-area AF 39-p[...]

Dynamic-Area AF In this mode, you still select the focus point y ourself using the multi selector button, and when using Single-servo autofocus (AF-S, discussed later), the D7000 will evalu- ate focus solely based on that point. In that respect, the D7000 behav es exactly as it does in Single-point AF mode. H owever , if you have chosen Continuous-[...]

Automatic-Area AF In this mode, autofocus point selection is out of your hands; the D7000 performs the task for you using its own intelligence. I f you are using a type G or D lens, the camera can even work with the supplied distance information to distinguish humans from their background, so a person standing at the side of the frame will be detec[...]

Single-Servo Autofocus (AF-S) In this mode, also called AF-S , focus is set once and remains at that setting until the button is fully depressed, taking the picture, or until y ou release the shutter button with- out taking a shot. F or non-action photography , this setting is usually your best choice, as it minimizes out-of-focus pictures (at the [...]

Automatic Autofocus (AF-A) This setting is actually a combination of the first two. When selected, the camera focuses using AF-S and locks in the focus setting. But, if the subject begins mo ving, it will switch automatically to AF-C and change the focus to keep the subject sharp. AF-A is a good choice when you ’ re shooting a mixture of action p[...]

J ust follow these steps: 1. Activate manual focus. S et the lens and camera focus mode to M (see the warn- ing above). I f you happen to be using an old non-autofocus (manual focus) lens, you ’ re all set—it won ’ t autofocus under any circumstances. 2. Select a focus point. With the focus point selector lock off, select one of the 39 focus [...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 152 TRAP (AUTO) FOCUS This technique comes in handy when you know wher e the action is going to take place (such as at the finish line of a horse race), but you don ’ t know exactly when. The solution is to prefocus on the point where the action will occur , and then tell your D7000 not[...]

I’ ve saved some advanced techniques for this chapter , which devotes a little extra space to some special features of the N ikon D7000. This chapter covers Live View and shoot- ing HDTV movies. The New Perspective of Live V iew Live V ie w is one of those features that experienced SLR users (especially those dating from the film era) sometimes t[...]

There wer e technical problems, as well. Real-time previews theoretically disabled a dSLR’ s autofocus system, as focus was achieved by measuring contrast through the opti- cal viewfinder , which is blocked when the mirror is flipped up for a live view . Extensive previewing had the same effect on the sensor as long exposures: the sensor heated u[...]

■ Shoot from y our computer . W ith Camera Control Pr o 2 (an extra cost option), you can control your camera fr om your computer , so you can preview images and take pictures without physically touching the D7000. ■ Continuous shooting. Y ou can shoot bursts of images using Live View . ■ Shoot from tripod or hand-held. Of course, holding the[...]

LCD. The available modes differ slightly from those possible when not shooting in Live View . T o use manual focus, set the focus mode selector switch to M. Y ou can also choose AF-S or AF-F using Custom S ettings menu CSM #a8. ■ AF-S. This single autofocus mode, which N ikon calls Single-servo AF , locks focus when the shutter release is pressed[...]

Y our choices are as follows: ■ F ace-priority AF . The camera automatically detects faces, and focuses on subjects facing the camera, as when you ’ re shooting a portrait. Y ou can ’ t select the focus zone yourself. I nstead, a double yellow border will be display ed on the LCD when the camera detects a face. Y ou don ’ t need to press th[...]

■ N ormal-area AF . This mode uses smaller focus zones, and so is best suited for tri- pod-mounted images where the camera is held fairly steady . As with Wide-ar ea AF , the focus zone will be outlined in red. Y ou can mov e the focus zone around the screen with the multi selector buttons. When sharp focus is achieved, the focus zone box will tu[...]

Chapter 6 ■ Live View and D-Movies 159 Figure 6.4 N ormal-area AF allows you to zero in on a specific point of focus. Figure 6.5 Subject-track- ing can keep focus as it fol- lows your sub- ject around in the frame.[...]

Introducing Subject-T racking The useful S ubject-tracking autofocus feature is one of those features that can be con- fusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it ’ s remarkably easy to use. F ace-priority , in comparison, is almost intuitive to learn. H ere ’ s the quick introduction you need to S ubject-tracking. ■ Ready , aim… W[...]

Chapter 6 ■ Live View and D-Movies 161 Figure 6.6 The Live V ie w display includes a lot of infor- mation, some of which can be hidden. Metering mode Shutter speed Apertur e ISO setting Shots remaining Flash ready Live V iew time remaining Mo vie time remaining F ocus point Mo vie frame size Monitor brightness Action icons Shooting mode No movies[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 162 Figure 6.10 The Live V ie w display with 16:9 HDTV frame shown. Figure 6.9 The Live V ie w display with virtual horizon. The overlaid indicators include: ■ Shooting mode. This indicator shows the mode dial position you ’ ve selected, including any of the P ASM (Pr ogram, Aperture-[...]

Chapter 6 ■ Live View and D-Movies 163 ■ White balance. Displays the curr ent white balance preset or WB A uto. ■ M ovie time r emaining. Indicates the number of minutes and seconds remaining for movie shooting. ■ M ovie frame siz e. Displays the r esolution of the movie frame and frames per sec- ond rate, from 1920 × 1080 pixels to 1280 ?[...]

2. Zoom in/out. Check y our vie w by pressing the Z oom In and Zoom Out buttons (located to the left of the color LCD). F ive levels of magnification are av ailable, up to 6.7X zoom. A navigation box appears in the lo wer right of the LCD with a y el- low box r epresenting the portion of the image zoomed, just as when you ’ re review- ing photos [...]

In the M ovie Settings entry of the Shooting menu, you can make the follo wing choices: ■ M ovie Q uality . Choose your resolution. U se the Movie S ettings entr y in the Shooting menu. Or , when Live View is activated, and before y ou start shooting your video clip, y ou can select the resolution/frame rate of your movie. Y our choices are as fo[...]

■ Microphone. Her e you can set audio sensitivity . Choose from A uto, High Sensitivity , Medium S ensitivity , Low S ensitivity , or Off. ■ Destination. Select S lot 1 or Slot 2. The display will show how much r ecording time is available with the memory cards currently installed in each slot. ■ Manual mo vie settings. T urn On or Off to ena[...]

During playback, you can perform the following functions: ■ P ause. Pr ess the multi selector down button to pause the clip during playback. P ress the multi selector center button to resume playback. ■ Rewind/Adv ance. P ress the left/right multi selector buttons to rewind or advance (respectively). P ress once for 2X speed, twice for 8X speed[...]

6. Mark trim point. When y ou reach the point where y ou want to trim, press the P ause button (if the movie is not already paused), and then pr ess the multi selector up button. All frames prior to the pause will be deleted if you ’ re in Choose Start P oint mode; all frames after the pause will be deleted if you ’ re in Choose End P oint mode[...]

3. Choose Proceed to confirm. 4. Y our frame will be stored on the memor y card, and will be marked with a scissors icon. T ips for Shooting Better Movies P roducing high-quality movies can be a real challenge for amateur photographers. After all, by comparison we ’ re used to watching the best productions that television, video, and motion pictu[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 170 Figure 6.12 A storyboard is a series of simple sketches or photos to help visualize a segment of video. want, as I did in F igure 6.12. In this case, I took pictures of a parade, and then used them to assemble a storyboard to follow when I shot video at a similar parade on a later dat[...]

■ W asted space at the sides. Mo ving in to frame the basketball player as outlined by the yellow bo x in F igure 6.13, means that you ’ re still forced to leave a lot of empty space on either side. (Of course, you can fill that space with other people and/or interesting stuff , but that defeats your intent of concentrating on your main sub- je[...]

■ The time dimension. U nlike still photography , with motion pictures ther e ’ s a lot more emphasis on using a series of images to build on each other to tell a story . S tatic shots where the camera is mounted on a tripod and everything is shot from the same distance are a recipe for dull videos. W atch a television program sometime and noti[...]

Chapter 6 ■ Live View and D-Movies 173 Figure 6.14 An establishing shot from a distance sets the stage for closer views. Figure 6.15 A medium shot is used to bring the viewer into a scene without shocking them. It can be used to introduce a character and pro vide context via their surroundings. Figure 6.16 A close up generally shows the full face[...]

shooting in high-definition video and you may be playing the video on a high-def TV ; be careful that you use this composition on a face that can stand up to high definition. (See F igure 6.17.) ■ “T wo ” shot. A two shot shows a pair of subjects in one frame. They can be side by side or one in the foreground and one in the background. This d[...]

Lighting choices for amateur videographers are a lot better these days than they wer e a decade or two ago. An inexpensive shoe mount video light, which will easily fit in a cam- era bag, can be found for $15 or $20. Y ou can even get a good quality LED video light for less than $100. W ork lights sold at many home improv ement stores can also ser [...]

particular scene or individual. With flat lighting, y ou ’ re tr ying to create even light- ing levels throughout the video space and minimizing any shado ws. Generally , the lights are placed up high and angled downwar d (or possibly pointed straight up to bounce off of a white ceiling). ■ “Ghoul lighting.” This is the style of lighting us[...]

T ips for Better Audio Since recor ding high-quality audio is such a challenge, it’ s a good idea to do ever ything possible to maximize recor ding quality . Her e are some ideas for impro ving the quality of the audio your camera recor ds: ■ Get the camera and its microphone close to the speaker . The far ther the micro- phone is from the audi[...]

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I’ ve saved some advanced techniques for this chapter , which devotes a little extra space to some special features of the N ikon D7000. This chapter covers GPS techniques and special exposure options, including time-lapse photography , very long, and ver y short exposures. I wind up this section with a list of recommended settings for y our Shoo[...]

The increased capacity of digital memory cards gives you a pr odigious number of frames to work with. At a basketball game I co vered earlier this year , I took more than 1,000 images in a couple hours. Y et, even shooting RA W+JP EG F ine I could fit more than 700 images on a single 32GB Secure D igital card. If I’ d switched to JPEG only (which[...]

T o increase this number , reduce the image-quality setting by switching to JP EG only (from JPEG+RA W), to a low er JPEG quality setting, such as JP EG N ormal, or by reduc- ing the D7000’ s resolution from L to M or S. The reason the size of your bursts is lim- ited is that continuous images are first shuttled into the D7000’ s internal memor[...]

■ 1.0-3.0 fps. Y ou can set Continuous L mode to use a relatively pokey frame rate, too. U se these rates when you just want to be able to take pictures quickly , and aren ’ t interested in filling up your memory card with mostly duplicated images. At 1 fps you can hold down the shutter r elease and fire away , or ease up when you want to pause[...]

But if you want to do some ex otic action-freezing photography without resorting to electronic flash, the D7000’ s top shutter speed is at your disposal. Here ar e some things to think about when exploring this type of high-speed photography: ■ Y ou ’ll need a lot of light. H igh shutter speeds cut ver y fine slices of time and sharply reduce[...]

■ High shutter speeds with electronic flash. Y ou might be tempted to use an elec- tronic flash with a high shutter speed. P erhaps you want to stop some action in day- light with a brief shutter speed and use electronic flash only as supplemental illumination to fill in the shadows. U nfortunately , under most conditions you can ’ t use flash [...]

■ V anquish camera shake and gain new angles. Her e’ s an idea that’ s so obvious it isn ’ t always explored to its fullest extent. A high enough shutter speed can free you from the tyranny of a tripod, making it easier to capture new angles, or to shoot quickly while moving around, especially with longer lenses. I tend to use a mono- pod o[...]

Long Exposures Longer exposures are a doorway into another world, showing us ho w even familiar scenes can look much different when photographed o ver periods measured in seconds. At night, long exposures produce str eaks of light from moving, illuminated subjects like automobiles or amusement park rides. Extra-long exposures of seemingly pitch-dar[...]

Three W ays to T ake Long Exposures There are actually thr ee common types of lengthy exposures: timed exposures , bulb expo- sures ,a n d time exposures . The D7000 offers only the first two, but once you understand all three, you ’ll see why N ikon made the choices it did. Because of the length of the exposure, all of the following techniques s[...]

W orking with Long Exposures Because the D7000 produces such good images at longer exposures, and there are so many creative things y ou can do with long exposure techniques, you ’ll want to do some experimenting. Get yourself a tripod or another firm support and take some test shots with long exposure noise reduction both enabled and disabled (t[...]

■ P roduce light trails. At night, car headlights and taillights and other moving sources of illumination can generate interesting light trails, as sho wn in Figur e 7.7. Y our camera doesn ’ t even need to be mounted on a tripod; hand-holding the D7000 for longer exposures adds mo vement and patterns to your streaky trails. If you ’ re shoot[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 190 Figure 7.8 A three-second exposure blurr ed this cascade of flowing water . Figure 7.7 Long exposures can capture several bursts of fireworks in one frame.[...]

Delayed Exposures Sometimes it ’ s desirable to have a delay of some sort before a picture is actually taken. P erhaps you ’ d like to get in the picture yourself , and would appreciate it if the camera waited 10 seconds after you press the shutter r elease to actually take the picture. Maybe you want to give a tripod-mounted camera time to set[...]

Y ou probably won ’ t be shooting such constr uction shots, unless you have a spare D7000 you don ’ t need for a few months (or are willing to go through the rigmarole of figuring out how to set up your camera in pr ecisely the same position using the same lens set- tings to shoot a series of pictures at intervals). Ho wever , other kinds of ti[...]

■ Make a mo vie. While time-lapse stills are inter esting, you can increase your fun factor by compiling all your shots into a motion picture using y our favorite desk- top movie-making softwar e. ■ P rotect y our camera. M ake sure your camera is pr otected from weather , earth- quakes, animals, young children, innocent bystanders, and theft. [...]

labeled with a remote control icon, so you can plug in the N ikon MC-DC2 remote cable release, which would otherwise attach to the GPS port when you ’ re not using the geotagging unit. A third connector connects the GP-1 to your computer using a USB cable. N ikon has released a utility for Windo ws and Mac operating systems that allo ws you to re[...]

Y ou ’ re all set. Once the unit is up and running, you can view GPS information using photo information screens available on the color L CD (and described in Chapter 3). The GPS screen, which appears only when a photo has been taken using the GPS unit, looks something like F igure 7.11. W iFi These days, GPS and W iF i capabilities work together[...]

picture was taken, with the actual photograph itself . It can be done with the location- mapping capabilities of the W iF i card, or through add-on devices that third parties make available for your D7000. A relatively affor dable solution is offered by E ye-F i (www .eye.fi). The E ye-F i card is an SDHC memory card with a wireless transmitter bui[...]

E ye-F i currently offer four models, including the basic E ye-F i Home (about $50), which can be used to transmit your photos from the dSLR to a computer on your home net- work (or any other network you set up somewhere, say , at a family reunion). E ye-F i Share and E ye-F i Share V ideo (about $60 and $80, respectively) are basically exactly the[...]

problem is focus stacking, a procedure that can be consider ed like HDR translated for the world of focus—taking multiple shots with different settings, and, using software as explained below , combining the best parts from each image in order to make a whole that is better than the sum of the parts. F ocus stacking requires a non-moving object, [...]

3. Set the camera to manual focus mode. 4. Set the exposure, ISO, and white balance manually , using test shots if necessar y to determine the best values. This step will help prevent visible variations from aris- ing among the multiple shots that you ’ll be taking. 5. Set the quality of the images to RA W & JPEG FINE. 6. F ocus manually on t[...]

10. At the bottom of the next dialog box that appears, check the box that says, “ Attempt to Automatically Align S ource Images,” then click OK. The images will load; it may take several minutes for the program to load the images and attempt to arrange them into layers that are aligned based on their content. 11. Once the program has finished p[...]

the D7000 a little extra time to get that first picture in sharp focus. I understand that the continuous shooting speed may be a little slower in that mode, but it wor ks for me. Y ou can set up three “banks ” of most of these settings simultaneously . Install one set of recommendations as your default set that your camera uses normally . Then [...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 202 T able 7.1 Shooting Menu Recommendations #1 (continued) Option Camera Default Basic Setting Studio Flash Portrait Long Exp. NR Off Off Off Off High ISO NR N ormal Low Low Lo w ISO sensitivity settings: >ISO sensitivity 200 200 200 200 > ISO sensitivity Off On O ff Off auto contr[...]

Chapter 7 ■ Advanced T echniques 203 T able 7.2 Shooting Menu Recommendations #2 (continued) Option Long Exposure Sports Indoors Sports Outdoors Landscape White Balance Auto A uto Auto Auto Set Pictur e Control Standar d Standar d Standard C-2 (Vivid+S harp 5) Color Space Adobe R GB Adobe R GB Adobe R GB Adobe R GB Auto distortion control Off Off[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 204 T able 7.3 Custom Settings Menu Recommendations #1 Camera Basic Studio Long Item Option Default Setting Flash Portrait Exposure Autofocus a1 AF-C priority selection Release Release Release Release Release a2 AF-S priority selection F ocus F ocus F ocus F ocus F ocus a3 F ocus tracking[...]

Chapter 7 ■ Advanced T echniques 205 T able 7.3 Custom Settings Menu Recommendations #1 (continued) Camera Basic Studio Long Item Option Default Setting Flash Portrait Exposure T imers/AE Lock c1 Shutter-release O ff Off Off Off Off button AE-L c2 Auto meter-off delay 6 sec. 6 sec. 6 sec. 6 sec. 6 sec. c3 Self-timer 10 sec. 20 sec. 10 sec. 10 sec[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 206 T able 7.3 Custom Settings Menu Recommendations #1 (continued) Camera Basic Studio Long Item Option Default Setting Flash Portrait Exposure d10 LCD Illumination Off Off Off Off Off d11 Exposure Delay M ode Off Off Off Off Off d12 MB-D11 Battery T ype AA Alkaline AA Alkaline AA Alkalin[...]

Chapter 7 ■ Advanced T echniques 207 T able 7.3 Custom Settings Menu Recommendations #1 (continued) Camera Basic Studio Long Item Option Default Setting Flash Portrait Exposure f6 Customize Command D ials > Reverse rotation No (OFF) No (OFF) No (OFF) No (OFF) No (OFF) > Change main/sub N o (OFF) No (OFF) No (OFF) No (OFF) No (OFF) > Aper[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 208 T able 7.4 Custom Settings Menu Recommendations #2 (continued) Item Option Sports Indoors Sports Outdoors Landscape Bracketing >AF-area mode: Normal-ar ea AF Normal-area AF N ormal-area AF Normal-ar ea AF Close-up, F ood >AF-area mode: F ace-priority AF F ace-priority AF F ace-p[...]

Chapter 7 ■ Advanced T echniques 209 T able 7.4 Custom Settings Menu Recommendations #2 (continued) Item Option Sports Indoors Sports Outdoors Landscape Bracketing Shooting/display d1 Beep >V olume Off Of f Off Off >Pitch High Low Low Lo w d2 Viewfinder grid display Off Off Off On d3 ISO display and Show frame Sho w frame Show frame Show fr[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 210 T able 7.4 Custom Settings Menu Recommendations #2 (continued) Item Option Sports Indoors Sports Outdoors Landscape Bracketing e4 Modeling F lash Off Off On Off e5 Auto B racketing Set AE & Flash AE & Flash AE & Flash Y our choice e6 Bracketing Or der M eter>Under> M[...]

P art III Advanced T ools[...]

The next five chapters are devoted to helping y ou dig deeper into the capabilities of your N ikon D7000, so you can exploit all those cool features that your previous cam- era lacked. Chapters 8, 9, and 10 list every setting and option found in the Playback, Shooting, C ustom Settings, Setup, R etouch, and My M enus. I’ll not only tell you what [...]

The N ikon D7000 is undoubtedly one of the most customizable, tweakable, fine-tun- able cameras N ikon has ever offered, and pr ovides an amazing degr ee of adjustments for a camera in its price range. This versatility has made the D7000 popular among pro- fessional photographers as well as advanced amateurs. On a r ecent trip to Old San J uan, P u[...]

that I will give you the information you need in a much mor e helpful format, with plenty of detail on why you should make some settings that are particularly cryptic. I’ m not going to waste a lot of space on some of the more obvious menu choices in these chapters. F or example, you can probably figure out that the Beep option in C ustom Setting[...]

■ P ressing the multi selector left button usually backs you out of the current screen, and pressing the MENU button again usually does the same thing. Y ou can exit the menu system at any time by tapping the shutter release button. ■ The N ikon D7000 “ remembers ” the top-level menu and specific menu entr y you were using (but not any subm[...]

Playback Menu Options The blue-coded Playback menu has ten entries where you select options r elated to the display , review , transfer , and printing of the photos you ’ ve taken. The choices you ’ll find include the following entries (the last two, S lide Sho w and Print Set [DPOF] ar e not pictured in F igure 8.1, and don ’ t appear until [...]

mark to that date. P ress the Zoom Out/I ndex button to vie w/confirm that the images for the date you ’ ve marked are those you want to delete, and pr ess the button again to return to the Select D ate screen. When you ’ re finished choosing dates, press OK to delete the images from the confirmation screen. Y our final choice from the main Del[...]

This menu item allows you to choose which folders ar e accessed when displaying images using the D7000’ s Playback facility . Y our choices are as follo ws: ■ D7000. The camera will use only the folders on your memory card created by the D7000 and ignore those created b y other cameras. Images in all the D7000’ s fold- ers will be displayed. [...]

superimposed on the image, showing you that it is no w protected from accidental era- sure. Reformatting the car d removes the H idden and Pr otected attributes, of course— because it remo ves those images as well! Display Mode Y ou ’ll recall fr om Chapter 3 that a great deal of information, available on multiple screens, can be displayed when[...]

■ Highlights. When enabled, o verexposed highlight areas in your image will blink with a black border during pictur e review . That’ s your cue to consider using expo- sure compensation to reduce exposur e, unless a minus-EV setting will cause loss of shadow detail that you want to pr eser ve. Y ou can read more about corr ecting expo- sure in [...]

T o copy images from one card to another , just follow these steps (which are available only when two memory cards are present in the camera): 1. Access copy menus. Choose Copy I mage(s) from the Playback menu. There are four choices that may be available to you: S elect Source; S elect Image(s); Select Destination F older; and Copy Image(s)?. ■ [...]

3. Select destination folder or images. P erform one or both of these tasks. ■ If you are choosing a destination folder , you can select by folder number (either a current folder number or one you cr eate by specifying a number for the new folder), or choose from a list of existing folders. (See F igure 8.5, left.) Pr ess OK when finished to retu[...]

Image Review There are certain shooting situations in which it ’ s useful to have the picture you ’ ve just shot pop up on the LCD automatically for review . P erhaps you ’ re fine-tuning exposure or autofocus and want to be able to see whether your most recent image is acceptable. Or , maybe you ’ re the ner vous type and just want confirm[...]

Rotate T all When you rotate the D7000 to photograph vertical subjects in portrait (tall), rather than landscape (wide) orientation, you probably don ’ t want to view them tilted onto their sides later on, either on the camera LCD or within your image viewing/editing application on your computer . The D7000 is way ahead of you. It has a dir ectio[...]

When Rotate T all is turned on, the D7000 rotates pictures taken in vertical orientation on the LCD screen so y ou don ’ t have to turn the camera to view them comfortably . Ho wever , this orientation also means that the longest dimension of the image is shown using the shortest dimension of the LCD, so the picture is r educed in size, as you ca[...]

As the images are displayed, pr ess the up/down multi selector buttons to change the amount of information presented on the screen with each image. F or example, you might want to review a set of images and the settings used to shoot them. At any time during the show , press the up/down buttons until the informational screen y ou want is overlaid o[...]

4. T o unmar k an image for printing, highlight and hold down the P rotect/Info but- ton while pressing the down button until the number of prints r eaches zero. The printer icon will vanish. 5. When you ’ ve finished marking images to print, press OK. 6. A final scr een will appear in which you can request a data imprint (shutter speed and apert[...]

specifying noise reduction for long exposures or high ISO settings. Y ou might make such adjustments as you begin a shooting session, or when you mo ve from one type of subject to another . Nikon makes accessing these changes very easy . This section explains the options of the Shooting menu and ho w to use them. The options you ’ll find in these[...]

Reset Shooting Menu Don ’ t feel bad over being confused about what this menu item does. The Nikon D7000 has, in effect, three differ ent kinds of resets. This is one of them. ■ Shooting menu r eset. U se this option to reset the values of the curr ently selected Shooting menu bank except for image quality , image size, white balance, and ISO s[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 230 T able 8.1 Default Shooting Menu V alues Function V alue F ile Naming DSC Role played b y card in S lot 2 Overflow Image Quality JPEG N ormal Image S ize Large JPEG Compression Size priority NEF (RA W Recor ding) T ype Lossless compr essed Bit Depth 14-bit White Balance Auto>N orma[...]

Or , maybe you ’ d like to separate those wedding photos you snapped at the ceremony from those taken at the reception. As I mentioned earlier , the N ikon D7000 automat- ically creates a folder on a newly formatted memory card with a name like 100D7000, and when it fills with 999 images, it will automatically create a new folder with a num- ber [...]

When you select F ile Naming in the S hooting menu, you ’ll be shown the curr ent set- tings for both sR GB (and RA W ) and Adobe R GB. Press the right multi selector but- ton, and you ’ll be taken to the (mostly) standard N ikon text entr y screen, like the one shown in F igure 8.10, and allow ed to change the DSC value to something else. In t[...]

N aming, then use the right multi selector button to reveal the text entry screen. After that, you can use the multi selector navigational buttons to scroll around within the array of alphanumerics, and enter your text: ■ Highlight a character . U se the multi selector keys to scroll around within the array of characters. ■ Insert highlighted c[...]

Role Played by Card in Slot 2 Y ou can specify how you want that handy second slot used. Y ou have three choices: ■ Ov er flow . Use this default function when y ou want to create one larger virtual memory card. Images will be stored to the primary card in S lot 1 until that card is full, and then the D7000 will save any additional photos to the [...]

until the quality/image size settings (respectively) that y ou want are shown in the top- side monochrome status LCD. Y ou can also use this menu option to make the quality settings using the bigger , brighter three-inch color LCD. Y ou might want to do that when the D7000 is mounted on a tripod and the top-panel LCD is abo ve eyelevel, or you simp[...]

T o choose the combination you want, access the Shooting menu, scroll to Image Quality , and select it. A screen similar to the one shown in F igure 8.12 will appear . Scroll to highlight the setting you want, and either press OK or push the multi selector right button to confirm your selection. In practice, you ’ll probably use the JP EG Fine, R[...]

N ormal so they’ ll have a moderate quality JPEG file for r evie w only and no intention of using for editing purposes, while retaining access to the original RA W file for serious editing. F or most work, using lower resolution and extra compr ession is false economy . Y ou never know when you might actually need that extra bit of pictur e detai[...]

post-processing, forgetting that, if the camera settings you would have used for JP EG are correct, each RA W image’ s default attributes will use those settings and the RA W image will not need much manipulation. P ost-processing in such cases is optional , and overwhelmingly helpful when an image needs to be fine-tuned. Although some photograph[...]

much visual information at all. If you don ’ t mind losing some quality , you can use more aggressive N ormal compression with JPEG to cut the siz e in half again, to 2.9MB. In my case, I shoot virtually everything at RA W+JPEG F ine. Most of the time, I’ m not concerned about filling up my memory cards, as I usually have a minimum of five 32GB[...]

Image Size The next menu command in the Shooting menu lets you select the r esolution, or num- ber of pixels captured as y ou shoot with your Nikon D7000. Y our choices range from Large (L—4928 × 3264 pixels, 16.1 megapix els), M edium (M—3696 × 2448 pixels, 9.0 megapixels), and S mall (S—2464 × 1632 pixels, 4.0 megapixels). P ersonally , [...]

14-bit depth. The default values for type (Lossless compressed) and color depth (14- bit) work best for most situations, but there ar e times when you might want to use one of the other choices. Compression is a mathematical technique for reducing the siz e of a collection of infor- mation (such as an image; but other types of data or even programs[...]

The Bit Depth setting is another option that looks good on paper but, in the r eal world, is less useful than you might think. F or most applications, the default value that pro- duces 14-bit image files is probably your best choice, especially if you ’ re exposing images that will be combined using HDR (High Dynamic Range) softwar e later on. In[...]

Y our two choices look like this: ■ 12 bit. This is an optional bit depth for the N ikon D7000. Images ar e recor ded at 12-bits per channel in the RA W file, and end up with 12 bits of information per channel that is translated during conversion for your image editor either into 12 bits within a 16-bits-per-channel space or interpreted down to 8[...]

duplicated using the WB button located second from the top to the left of the camera ’ s color LCD, but the menus offer even mor e choices, as you ’ll see. Y our white balance settings can have a significant impact on the color rendition of your images, as y ou can see in F igure 8.14. In this section I’ m going to describe only the menu comm[...]

recall custom white balance settings suitable for environments with unusual lighting or mixed lighting, as described later in this section. F or all other settings (Auto, Incandescent, D irect Sunlight, F lash, Cloudy , or Shade), highlight the white balance option you want, then press the multi selector right button (or press OK) to view the fine-[...]

When you ’ ve fine-tuned white balance, either using the Shooting menu options or the WB button, left/right triangles appear in the white balance section of the monochrome LCD at lo wer right to remind y ou that this tweaking has taken place. Using Preset Manual White Balance If automatic white balance or one of the predefined settings available [...]

3. Activate captur e mode. Release the WB button for a moment, then pr ess and hold it again until the PRE icon on the monochrome LCD begins a flashing cy cle of about six seconds. 4. Captur e white balance of refer ence. While the PRE icon is flashing, take a pic- ture of the refer ence object. The white balance will be stored in a preset menu slo[...]

Storing and Retrieving White Balance Settings A memory slot, labeled d-0, always stores the last white balance captured. When y ou capture a new white balance, the old value in d-0 is replaced with the new captur ed value. The value in slot d-0 can be summoned at any time (press the WB button on the top left of the camera and dial it in by rotating[...]

Chapter 8 ■ Setup: Playback and Shooting Menus 249 Figure 8.18 The P reset Manual screen lets you fine- tune preset white balance settings, label them with a comment, select an image to use as a white balance reference, and copy captured settings. Figure 8.19 Add a com- ment to your white balance setting.[...]

Set Picture Control N ikon ’ s Picture Control styles allow y ou to choose your own sharpness, contrast, color saturation, and hue settings and apply them to your images as they are taken. If y ou have used an older N ikon camera with the Optimize Image option, you ’ll recall that it offered five fix ed settings to choose from (Normal, S ofter [...]

Choosing a Picture Control Style T o choose from one of the predefined styles (Standar d, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, P or trait, or Landscape) or select a user-defined style (numbered C-1 to C-9), follow these steps: 1. Choose Set P icture Contr ol. This option is located in the Shooting menu. The screen shown in F igure 8.20 appears. N ote that P[...]

Editing a Picture Control Style Y ou can change the parameters of any of Nikon ’ s predefined Pictur e Controls in P , S, A, and M modes, or any of the nine user-defined styles you create. I n other modes, the camera selects a Picture Contr ol automatically . Y ou are given the choice of using the quick adjust/fine-tune facility to modify a Pictu[...]

5. Change other attributes. Scroll do wn to the Sharpening, Contrast, Brightness, Saturation, and H ue sliders with the multi selector up/down buttons, then use the left/right buttons to decrease or increase the effects. A line will appear under the original setting in the slider whenever you ’ ve made a change from the defaults. N ote: Y ou can [...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 254 Figure 8.22 Picture Contr ols allow you to adjust attributes like sharpness (upper-left pair); contrast (upper-right pair); saturation (lower-left pair); and hue (lo wer-right pair). FIL TERS VS. TONING Although some of the color choices seem to overlap , you ’ll get very different [...]

Chapter 8 ■ Setup: Playback and Shooting Menus 255 Figure 8.23 N o filter (upper left); Y ellow filter (upper right); Gr een filter (lower left); and Red filter (low er right). Figure 8.24 T oning effects: Sepia (upper left); P urple Blue (upper right); Red P urple (lower left); and G reen (lower right). The Red filter produces the darkest sky of[...]

When you press the Thumbnail/Zoom Out button, a grid display , like the one shown in F igure 8.25, appears, showing the relativ e contrast and saturation of each of the prede- fined Picture Contr ols. If you ’ ve created your o wn custom Picture Controls, they will appear on this grid, too, represented b y the numbers 1-9. Because the values for [...]

■ Sav e an edited copy . Choose Save/Edit, select from the list of available P icture Controls, and then press the multi selector right button to edit the style, as described in the previous section. P ress OK when finished editing, and then save the modi- fied style in one of the user-defined slots C-1 to C-9. ■ Rename a style. Choose Rename, [...]

Auto Distortion Control This option can correct barrel distortion (outwar d bowing of lines that should be straight) that sometimes occurs with telephoto lenses, and pin-cushion distortion (lines that curve inwards, towar ds the center of the frame) that can appear when using wide- angle lenses. When turned on, the D7000 uses information about your[...]

is represented b y the odd-shaped splotch of color shown in F igure 8.27, as defined by scientists at an international organization back in 1931. The colors possible with Adobe R GB are represented b y the larger , black triangle in the figure, while the sR GB gamut is represented b y the smaller white triangle. Regar dless of which triangle—or c[...]

While both Adobe R GB and sR GB can reproduce the exact same 16.8 million absolute colors, Adobe R GB spreads those colors o ver a larger por tion of the visible spectrum. Think of a box of crayons (the jumbo 16.8 million crayon v ariety). Some of the basic crayons from the original sR GB set have been remo ved and replaced with new hues not contai[...]

and making prints, you ’ll want a more advanced system (up to $500) like the various S pyder products from D atacolor (www .datacolor .com), or Colormunki from X-Rite (www .colormunki.com). Active D-Lighting Active D-Lighting is a featur e that improves the rendition of detail in highlights and shadows when you ’ re photographing high contrast [...]

time. Y ou wouldn ’ t want to use Active D-Lighting for continuous shooting of sports subjects, for example. There are many situations in which the selectiv e application of D-Lighting using the Retouch menu is a better choice. Y ou have six choices: Auto, E xtra High, H igh, Normal, Lo w , and Off. Y ou may need to experiment with the feature a [...]

sample images shown have been half-toned and r endered to the printed page, the dif- ferences may be fairly subtle. F or that reason, I’ m not illustrating the effects of the Auto setting (which varies, of course, depending on the scene) and Extra H igh, which is dif- ficult to distinguish from H igh under normal circumstances. Look at the amount[...]

Some noise is created when you ’ re using shutter speeds longer than eight seconds to cre- ate a longer exposure. Extended exposure times allow more photons to reach the sen- sor , but increase the likelihood that some photosites will react randomly even though not struck by a par ticle of light. Mor eover , as the sensor remains switched on for [...]

■ On. When exposures are eight seconds or longer , the N ikon D7000 takes a sec- ond, blank exposure to compare that to the first image. (While the second image is taken, the warning J ob nr appears on the monochrome LCD panel and in the viewfinder .) Noise (pix els that are bright in a frame that should be completely black) in the “ dark frame[...]

ISO 6400 can generate good results. Some kinds of subjects may not r equire this kind of noise cancellation, such as those that have a texture of their o wn that tends to hide or mask the noise. ISO Sensitivity Settings Y ou ’ll have to scroll do wn the Shooting menu to see the final five options, including this one. (See F igure 8.31.) This menu[...]

been carefully selected. F ortunately , you can set some boundaries so the D7000 will use this adjustment in a fairly intelligent way . When Auto ISO is activ ated, the camera can bump up the ISO sensitivity , if necessar y , whenever an optimal exposure cannot be achieved at the curr ent ISO setting. Of course, it can be disconcerting to think you[...]

Multiple Exposure This option lets you combine two exposures into one image without the need for an image editor like Photoshop and can be an entertaining way to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear , when complex photos were created in the camera itself . In truth, prior to the digital age, multiple exposures wer e a cool, groovy , far-out[...]

Movie Settings This menu entry allows you to choose three mo vie making parameters, which I dis- cussed in Chapter 6. T o begin shooting, r otate the Live V iew switch, and then push the red M ovie button. Y our three options ar e: ■ M ovie Q uality . Choose from 1920 × 1080 pixels/24 fps; 1280 × 720 pix els at 24 fps or 30 fps; or 640 × 424/3[...]

■ Manual mo vie settings. Select On if you want to adjust shutter speed and ISO sensitivity while shooting movies with the D7000 in M anual exposure mode. Note that, due to the interval required between frames, shutter speeds no slo wer than 1/30th second can be used. S peeds up to 1/8000th second are possible, and ISO settings from ISO 100 to H [...]

set the release mode dial to S. H owever , you can still specify multiple shots per inter- val when using S; the D7000 will use the frame rate specified in CSM #d6 just as if you had set the release mode to C L . 3. Bracket, if desir ed. If you ’ d like to bracket exposures during interval shooting, set up bracketing prior to beginning. (Y ou ’[...]

When you ’ re ready to go, set up the D7000 for interval shooting: 1. Select timer . Choose Interval T imer Shooting from the Shooting menu. 2. S pecify a starting time. Y ou must do this befor e the D7000 will let you set other parameters. Highlight either N ow or S tart Time and pr ess the multi selector right button. If you choose N ow , the i[...]

Remote Control Mode This option lets you select how y ou want the D7000 to respond to the optional ML- L3 infrared remote contr ol. I really like how this camera has IR sensors on both front and back, which makes this remote much more useful. I t’ s smaller than the MC-D10 wired remote, and doesn ’ t need to be “ plugged in ” to use. Y ou h[...]

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U nlike the Shooting menu options, which you are likely to modify fr equently as your picture-taking environment changes, C ustom Settings are slightly more stable sets of preferences that let y ou tailor the behavior of your camera in a variety of different ways for longer-term use. Some options are minor tw eaks useful for specific shooting situa[...]

Custom Settings Menu Layout There are 48 differ ent Custom Settings, arranged in six different categories, as sho wn in F igure 9.1: Autofocus, M etering/Exposure, Timers/AE Lock, S hooting/Display , Bracketing/F lash, and Controls. Some of those may seem to be an odd match. What does bracketing have to do with flash? Oh, wait! Y ou can bracket fla[...]

F or simplicity , in this book I have been consistently referring to the C ustom Settings menu entries by their letter/names, so that you always kno w that when I mention CSM #a6, I am describing the sixth entry in the Autofocus menu, N umber of Focus P oints. That terminology makes it easy to jump quickly to the specific entry . Y ou can select a [...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 278 T able 9.1 (continued) Function Option Default a8 Live view/movie AF Autofocus mode Single-servo AF AF-area mode: S port, Night P ortrait, P ets, Beach, H i Key , Low Key Wide-area AF Close-U p, F ood Normal-ar ea AF Other shooting modes F ace-priority AF T able 9.2 Default Custom Set[...]

Chapter 9 ■ Setup: The Custom Settings Menu 279 T able 9.3 (continued) Function Option Default c4 Monitor off delay Playback 10 seconds M enus 20 seconds Information display 10 seconds Image review 4 seconds Live view 10 minutes c5 Remote on duration 1 minute T able 9.4 Default Custom Settings Bank V alues: Shooting/Display Function Option Defaul[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 280 T able 9.5 Default Custom Settings Bank V alues: Bracketing/Flash Function Option Default e1 Flash sync speed 1/250 second e2 Flash shutter speed 1/60 second e3 Flash contr ol for built-in flash TTL e4 M odeling flash On e5 Auto bracketing set AE & Flash e6 Bracketing or der MTR&g[...]

a. Autofocus The red-coded A utofocus options (see Figur e 9.2, which shows all but the last two entries) deal with some of the potentially most vexing settings available with the N ikon D7000. After all, incorrect focus is one of the most damaging picture-killers of all the attributes in an image. Y ou may be able to compensate for bad exposure, p[...]

a1 AF-C Priority Selection As you learned in Chapter 5, the N ikon D7000 has three primar y autofocus modes when using the optical viewfinder: Continuous-ser vo autofocus (AF-C) and Single-servo autofocus (AF-S)—plus AF-A, which, in effect, flips between the two main modes as appropriate. (Live View has two similar modes, AF-S and AF-F .) This me[...]

a3 Focus T racking with Lock-on Sometimes new subjects interject themselves in the frame temporarily . P erhaps you ’ re shooting an architectural photo from across the str eet and a car passes in front of the camera. Or , at a football game, a referee dashes past just as a r eceiver is about to make a catch. This setting lets you specify how qui[...]

a5 Focus Point Wrap-Around This setting is purely a personal prefer ence parameter . When you pr ess the multi selec- tor left/right and up/down buttons to choose a focus point, the D7000 can be told to stop when the selection reaches the edge of the 39-point array—or , it can continue, wrapping around to the opposite edge, like P ac-Man leaving [...]

a7 Built-in AF-Assist Illuminator U se this setting to control whether to use the AF-assist lamp built into the Nikon D7000, or rely on the more po werful AF-assist lamp built into Nikon electronic flash units (like the N ikon SB-900) and the N ikon SC-29 coiled remote flash cord (for fir- ing the flash when not mounted on the camera). ■ On. This[...]

b1 ISO Sensitivity Step V alue This setting determines the size of the “jumps ” it should use when making ISO adjust- ments—either one-third or one-half stop . At the one-third stop setting, typical ISO val- ues would be 200, 250, 320, 400, 500, 640, 800, 1000, 1250, 1600, and so forth. Choose 1/2 stop settings, and your choices would be 200,[...]

Choose the 1/3 stop setting when you want the finest increments between shutter speeds and/or f/stops. F or example, the D7000 will use shutter speeds such as 1/60th, 1/80th, 1/100th, 1/125th, and 1/160th second, and f/stops such as f/5.6, f/6.3, f/7.1, and f/8, giving you (and the autoexposure system) maximum flexibility . With 1/2-stop increments[...]

b4 Center -Weighted Area This setting changes the size of the center-weighted exposure spot (ex cept when the D7000 is used with a non-CPU [generally older AI and AI-S and earlier lenses that haven ’ t been updated with a “ computer” chip]). Y our choices include 6mm, 8mm, 10mm, 13mm, or full-frame average (which turns the metering mode from [...]

4. P ress the up/down buttons to dial in the exposure compensation you want to apply . Y ou can specify compensation in increments of 1/6 stop, half as large a change as conventional exposure compensation. This is truly fine-tuning. 5. P ress OK when finished. Y ou can repeat the action to fine-tune the other two expo- sure modes if you wish. c. T [...]

All you need to know is: ■ Off. Exposure is locked only when the AE-L/AF-L button is pr essed. This is the default. ■ On. Exposure locks when either the shutter release button is depr essed halfway or the AE-L/AF-L button is held down. c2 Auto Meter -Off Delay U se this setting to determine how long the D7000’ s exposure meter continues to op[...]

■ N umber of shots. After the timer finishes counting down, the D7000 can take from 1 to 9 different shots. This is a godsend when shooting photos of groups, espe- cially if you want to appear in the photo itself. Y ou ’ll always want to shoot several pictures to ensure that ev er yone’ s eyes are open and ther e are smiling expressions on ea[...]

c5 Remote on Duration Y ou can adjust the amount of time the D7000 “looks ” for an IR signal from its front and rear infrared sensors. Y ou can select 1, 5, 10, or 15 minutes. Use a shorter active interval to save power . d. Shooting/Display This menu section (see F igure 9.6) offers a variety of mostly unrelated shooting and dis- play options [...]

d1 Beep The N ikon D7000’ s internal beeper provides a (usually) superfluous chirp to signify various functions, such as the countdown of y our camera ’ s self-timer or autofocus con- firmation in AF-S mode (unless you ’ ve selected Release P riority in CSM #a2). Y ou can (and probably should) switch it off if you want to avoid the beep becau[...]

intersections of these lines do not follow the R ule of Thirds convention, and so ar e less useful for composition, assuming you want to follow the R ule of Thirds guideline in the first place. If you happen to subscribe to the R ule of Quarters, you ’ re all set. N ote that for critical applications, it’ s possible that your D7000’ s viewfin[...]

command dial (when using A mode). This feature can come in handy when you ’ re adjusting the ISO frequently under changing light conditions, or are using ISO adjustments to allow changing exposure while keeping the apertur e and shutter speeds the same. F or example, say you ’ re using Aperture-priority at ISO 200 to shoot a sports event and, u[...]

d7 Max. Continuous Release U se this setting to limit the number of consecutive shots that can be taken in one burst when using continuous shooting modes. Y our choices are any v alue between 1 and 100. Choosing a particular setting does not mean that the D7000 will actually take that many shots if you hold down the shutter button long enough. As y[...]

■ Y ou ’ ve taken more than 9,999 shots with the camera and the counter has rolled over to 0001 again, and y our ne w total is 1,235 shots. Y ou insert an old memory card with a pictur e from before the r ollover that ’ s numbered 8,281. The next pic- ture will be numbered 8,282, and that v alue will be stored in the camera ’ s menu as the [...]

d9 Information Display The shooting information display that appears when you press the I nfo button can be set to change automatically from dark lettering on a light background to light lettering on a dark background (see F igure 9.9), or you can select one or the other to be used all the time. The color LCD monitor will automatically change its b[...]

d11 Exposure Delay Mode This is a marginally useful feature you can use to force the N ikon D7000 to snap a pic- ture about one second after you ’ ve pressed the shutter r elease button all the way . It ’ s use- ful when you are using shutter speeds of about 1/8th to 1/60th second hand-held and want to minimize the effects of the vibration that[...]

exhausted, and then the D7000 switches to the other . Y ou can choose the order in which this switch-off takes place. The default setting is MB-D11: U se MB-D11 Batteries F irst. Y ou can also specify D7000: U se Camera Batter y F irst. If you were using AA alkaline batteries in the MB- D11 as an emergency reserve, you ’ d probably want to use th[...]

e1 Flash Sync Speed As you may already kno w (or will learn in Chapter 12), the focal plane shutter in the N ikon D7000 must be fully open when the flash fires; otherwise, you ’ll image one edge or the other of the vertically traveling shutter curtain in your photo. O rdinarily , the fastest shutter speed during which the shutter is completely op[...]

If you don ’t want that second exposure, you should use the highest shutter speed that will synchronize with your flash. This setting prevents P rogram or Aperture-priority modes (which both select the shutter speed for you) from inadvertently selecting a “ too slow ” shutter speed. Y ou can select a value from 30 s to 1/60 s, and the D7000 w[...]

e4 Modeling Flash The N ikon D7000, and certain compatible external flash units (the SB-900, SB-800, SB-700, SB-600, and SB-R200) have the capability of simulating a modeling lamp, which gives you the limited capability of previewing ho w your flash illumination is going to look in the finished photo. The modeling flash is not a perfect substitute [...]

e6 Bracketing Order U se this setting to define the sequence in which bracketing is carried out. Y our choices are the default: MTR>U nder>Over (metered exposur e, followed b y the version receiv- ing less exposure, and finishing with the picture r eceiving the most exposure) and U nder>MTR>Over , which orders the exposures from least e[...]

f1 Illuminator Switch When you rotate the po wer switch, located concentrically with the shutter release, all the way to the clockwise position, the monochrome LCD contr ol panel is backlit for approximately six seconds. Choose the L CD Backlight option, the default, and that ’ s exactly what happens. The S witch and Information Display also turn[...]

■ Flash off. The built-in flash (if elevated) and any external flash attached and pow- ered up will not fire while the Fn button is held do wn. Handy if you want to tem- porarily disable the flash, say , to take a picture or two by available light, and then return to normal flash operation. ■ Bracketing burst. I f the Fn button is pressed while[...]

■ 1 step spd/aperture. I f you sometimes prefer coarser exposure settings of 1 whole step (instead of the 1/3 or 1/2 step increments that are normally set), use this option. When holding down the Fn button and rotating a command dial, shutter speed and aperture changes are made in whole step increments instead. ■ Choose non-CPU lens number . If[...]

T o recap your options: ■ AE/AF Lock. Lock both focus and exposure while the AE-L/AF-L button is pr essed. ■ AE Lock only . Lock only the exposure while the AE-L/AF-L button is pressed. ■ AF Lock only . F ocus is locked in while the AE-L/AF-L button is held down. ■ AE Lock (Hold). Exposure is locked when the AE-L/AF-L button is pressed, and[...]

Change main/sub option above). The default setting of Sub-Command D ial retains this behavior . If you ’ d rather unlock the aper ture ring on the lens and use that instead, choose Aperture ring. T ype G lenses, which lack an aperture ring, will still be adjusted using the sub-command dial, regar dless of how this setting is made. N on-CPU lenses[...]

The pictures you actually “ take ” are displayed on the LCD with the legend “Demo ” superimposed on the screen, and they are, of course, not sav ed. Note that if you ar e using the optional Camera Control P ro 2 software to recor d photos from a USB-teth- ered D7000 directly to a computer , no memor y card is required to unlock the shutter [...]

W e’ re not done covering the N ikon D7000’ s Setup options yet. There are three mor e menus to deal with. These include the Setup menu (which deals with adjustments that are outside the actual shooting experience, such as formatting a memory card, adjust- ing the time, or checking your battery); the Retouch menu (which enables you to fine- tun[...]

Y our choices include: ■ F ormat memor y card ■ Auto image rotation ■ Save user settings ■ Image D ust Off ref photo ■ Reset user settings ■ Battery info ■ LCD brightness ■ Wireless transmitter ■ Clean image sensor ■ Image authentication ■ Lock mirror up for cleaning ■ Copyright information ■ Video mode ■ S ave/load sett[...]

Format Memory Card I recommend using this menu entry to reformat your memory card after each shoot. While you can mov e files from the memor y card to your computer , leaving behind a blank card, or delete files using the Playback menu ’ s Delete feature, both of those options can leave behind stray files (such as those that have been marked as P[...]

AF-area modes to be applied when using the optical viewfinder , as well as bracket- ing parameters, and choices in the Shooting and C ustom Settings menus. All these can be registered and r etrieved. How ever , you can ’ t register a particular storage folder or file naming scheme, nor Picture Contr ols, multiple exposure settings, or inter- val [...]

Y ou can also tell the D7000 when you ’ d like it to per form automatic cleaning without specific instructions from you. Select from: ■ ON. Clean at startup. This allows you to start off a particular shooting session with a clean sensor . ■ OFF . Clean at shutdown. This removes any dust that may hav e accumulated since the camera has been tur[...]

Lock Mirror Up for Cleaning Y ou can also clean the sensor manually . Use this menu entry to raise the mirror and open the shutter so you ’ll have access to the sensor for cleaning with a blower , br ush, or swab, as described in Chapter 14. Y ou don ’ t want power to fail while you ’ re poking around inside the camera, so this option is avai[...]

T ime Zone and Date U se this menu entr y to adjust the D7000’ s internal clock. Y our options include: ■ T ime zone. A small map will pop up on the setting screen and you can choose your local time zone. I sometimes forget to change the time zone when I travel (espe- cially when going to Eur ope), so my pictures are all time-stamped incorr ect[...]

Language Choose from 22 languages for menu display , choosing from Czech, D anish, German, English, S panish, Fr ench, Indonesian, Italian, D utch, Norwegian, P olish, P ortuguese, Russian, F innish, S wedish, T urkish, Arabic, T raditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, J apanese, Korean, or Thai. Image Comment The Image Comment is your opportunity [...]

T o use this feature, select Image Dust Off R ef Photo, choose either Start or Clean Sensor and then S tart, and then press OK. If directed to do so, the camera will first perform a self-cleaning operation by applying ultrasonic vibration to the low-pass filter that r esides on top of the sensor . Then, a screen will appear asking you to take a pho[...]

the standard N ikon text entr y screen described earlier . Highlight the Attach Copyright Information option and press the right multi selector button to mar k/unmark it to con- trol whether your copyright data is embedded in each photo as taken. Save/Load Settings Y ou can store many camera settings to your memory card in a file named NCSETUP5, an[...]

The following settings are sav ed: ■ Playback menu. Display mode, I mage Review , After Delete, Rotate tall. ■ Shooting menu. F ile naming, Role played by car d in Slot 2, Image quality , Image size, JPEG compr ession, NEF (RA W ) recording, White balance, Set Picture Control, A uto distortion control, Color space, Active D-Lighting, Long exp .[...]

■ P osition. This is an information display , rather than a selectable option. I t appears when the GP-1 is connected and receiving satellite positioning data. I t shows the latitude, longitude, altitude, and Coordinated U niversal Time (UT C) values. ■ U se GPS to set camera clock. Select Y es or N o. When enabled, y our D7000’ s inter- nal [...]

That’ s the problem. All my tripods and tripod heads already have bubble lev els built in. So, when I’ m using the D7000 on a tripod, I really don ’ t need the V ir tual Horizon. I n addition, the feature only shows when y ou ’ ve rotated the camera along the axis of the lens. If you tilt it forward or back (pointing the lens a bit towar ds[...]

AF Fine T une T roubled by lenses that don ’ t focus exactly where they should, producing back-focus or front-focus problems? N o need to send your lens and/or camera into N ikon for servic- ing. The Nikon D7000 allo ws you to fine-tune focus for up to 12 different lenses. Y ou ’ll probably never need to use this feature, but if y ou do, it’ [...]

■ Default. Set the default v alue to be applied to lenses that haven ’ t been recalibrated. Y ou ’ d use this if your D7000 has a certain amount of front- or back-focus problems with all lenses. U se with caution, as it affects ever y CPU lens that you use. ■ List sav ed values. View and delete tuning values y ou ’ ve saved for up to 12 d[...]

Firmware V ersion Y ou can see the current firmware r elease in use in the menu listing. Y ou can learn how to update firmware in Chapter 14. Retouch Menu Options ■ D-Lighting ■ Color balance ■ Red-eye corr ection ■ Small pictur e ■ T rim ■ Image overlay ■ M onochrome ■ NEF (RA W) P rocessing ■ F ilter effects ■ Quick Retouch Th[...]

a JPEG version of an image in the camera when y ou are shooting RA W -only photos. While you can retouch images that have alr eady been processed by the Retouch menu, each retouch option can be applied only once, except for the I mage Overlay and Edit M ovie tools. Y ou may notice some quality loss when applying more than one retouch option. T o cr[...]

D-Lighting This option brightens the shadows of pictures that hav e already been taken. Once you ’ ve selected your photo for modification, you ’ll be shown side-by-side images with the unal- tered version on the left, and your adjusted v ersion on the right. Press the multi selec- tor’ s up/down buttons to choose from H igh, Normal, or Lo w [...]

If no red-eye is found, a copy is not cr eated. Figur e 10.12 shows an original image (left) and its processed copy (right). T rim This option creates copies in specific sizes based on the final size y ou select, chosen from among 3:2, 4:3, and 5:4 aspect ratios (proportions). Y ou can use this feature to cr eate smaller versions of a picture for e[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 330 Figure 10.13 The T rim fea- ture of the Retouch menu allows in-cam- era cropping. T able 10.1 T rim Sizes Aspect Ratio Sizes A vailable 3:2 4480 × 2984, 3840 × 2580, 3200 × 2128, 2560 × 1704, 1920 × 1280, 1280 × 856, 960 × 640, 640 × 424 4:3 3840 × 2880, 3200 × 2400, 2560 ×[...]

4. M ov e cropped area within the image. U se the multi selector left/right and up/down buttons to relocate the y ellow cropping border within the frame. 5. Sav e the cropped image. P ress OK to save a copy of the image using the current crop and size, or press the P layback button to exit without creating a copy . Copies created from JP EG Fine, N[...]

T o produce this composite image, follow these steps: 1. Choose Image Overlay . The screen shown in F igure 10.15 will be displayed, with the Image 1 box highlighted. I f you want to choose an image from a car d in another slot in the camera, in the playback mode, press and hold the BKT button and then press the multi selector up button to choose t[...]

6. When you ’ re ready to store your composite copy , press the multi selector do wn but- ton when the P review box is highlighted to select Save, and press OK. The com- bined image is stored on the memory card. NEF (RA W) Processing U se this tool to create a JPEG version of any image saved in either straight RA W (with no JPEG version) or RA W+[...]

3. P ress the Zoom In button to magnify the image temporarily while the button is held down. 4. P ress the Playback button if y ou change your mind, to exit from the processing screen. 5. When all parameters are set, highlight EXE (for Execute) and press OK. The D7000 will create a JPEG file with the settings y ou ’ ve specified, and show an Imag[...]

Resize This option, the first on the second page of the Retouch menu (see F igure 10.17), cre- ates smaller copies of the selected images. I t can be applied while viewing a single image in full-frame mode (just press the OK button while viewing a photo), or accessed from the Retouch menu (especially useful if you ’ d like to select and resize mu[...]

Quick Retouch This option brightens the shadows of pictures that hav e already been taken. Once you ’ ve selected your photo for processing, use the multi-selector up/do wn keys in the screen that pops up (see F igure 10.18). The amount of correction that you select (H igh, N ormal, or Low) will be applied to the version of the image shown at rig[...]

Distortion Control This option produces a copy with reduced barr el distor tion (a bowing out effect) or pin- cushion distortion (an inward-bending effect), both most noticeable at the edges of a photo. Y ou can select A uto to let the D3100 make this correction, or use M anual to make the fix yourself visually . Use the right dir ectional button t[...]

Color Outline This option creates a copy of your image in outline form (see F igure 10.20), which N ikon says you can use for “ painting.” Y ou might like the effect on its own. I t’ s a little like the F ind Edges command in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, but you can per- form this magic in your camera! David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide t[...]

Miniature Effect This is a clever effect, and it ’ s hampered by a misleading name and the fact that its prop- erties are hard to visualize (which is not a gr eat attribute for a visual effect). This tool doesn ’ t create a “ miniature” pictur e, as you might expect. What it does is mimic tilt/shift lens effects that angle the lens off the [...]

3. Adjust selected ar ea. A wide yellow box (or a tall yello w box if the image is rotated to vertical perspective on playback) highlights a small section of the image. (N o, we ’ re not going to create a panorama from that slice; this N ikon super-tricky fea- ture has fooled you yet again.) U se the up/down buttons (or left/right buttons if the [...]

Side-by-Side Comparison U se this option to compare a retouched photo side-by-side with the original from which it was derived. Don ’ t look for Side-by-S ide Comparison in the Retouch menu. It does- n ’ t appear there. Instead, this option is shown at the bottom of the pop-up menu that appears when you are viewing an image (or copy) full scree[...]

3. H ighlight the original or the copy with the multi selector left/right buttons, and press the Zoom I n button to magnify the image to examine it more closely . 4. If you have created mor e than one copy of an original image, select the retouched version shown, and pr ess the multi selector up/down buttons to view the other retouched copies. The [...]

Using My Menu The last menu in the D7000’ s main menu screen has two versions: Recent Settings and M y Menu. The default mode is Recent Settings, which simply shows an ever-changing roster of the 20 menu items you used most recently . Y ou ’ll probably find it mor e useful to activate the M y Menu option instead, which contains only those menu [...]

I tend to include frequently used functions that aren ’ t available using direct access but- tons in M y Menu. F or example, I include High ISO NR and Long Exp . NR, and Battery Info there, because I may want to turn noise r eduction on or off, or check the status of my battery during shooting. I don ’t include ISO, Qual, or WB changes in My M [...]

If N ikon has one advantage over many of the other vendors of digital SLRs (other than making great, affor dable cameras), it’ s the mind-bending assortment of high-quality lenses available to enhance the capabilities of cameras like the N ikon D7000. Y ou can use thousands of current and older lenses introduced by N ikon and third-party vendors [...]

D7000. I t’ s easy to see from the illustration that the 1X rendition pro vides a wider , more expansive view , while the inner field of view is, in comparison, cropped. The cropping effect is produced because the sensors of DX cameras like the N ikon D7000 are smaller than the sensors of the D700, D3, or D3x. These “ full-frame ” cam- eras ([...]

sensors (like the Mamiya 645ZD or Hasselblad H3D-39 medium format digitals). B y their reckoning, the “half-size ” sensors found in cameras like the Nikon D700 and D3/D3x are “ cropped.” If you ’ re accustomed to using full-frame film cameras, you might find it helpful to use the crop factor “ multiplier” to translate a lens ’ s rea[...]

■ Lack of wide-angle perspectiv e. Of course, the 1.5X “ crop ” factor applies to wide- angle lenses, too, so your 20mm ultrawide lens becomes a hum-drum 30mm near- wide-angle, and a 35mm focal length is transformed into what photographers call a “ normal” lens. Zoom lenses, like the 18-105mm lens that is often purchased with the D7000 in[...]

N ikon offered it as a kit with the 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED VR II zoom. (See F igure 11.3.) Ho wever , the body was also readily available for many purchasers who, like me, fall into one of the following categories: Those who are upgrading from the N ikon D300, from a N ikon film camera, or who are buying the D7000 as a second camera body to comp[...]

When deciding on a first lens, there are sev eral factors you ’ll want to consider: ■ Cost. Y ou might have stretched your budget a bit to purchase y our Nikon D7000, so you might want to keep the cost of your first lens fairly lo w . F ortunately , there are excellent lenses av ailable that will add from $100 to $300 to the price of your camer[...]

your first lens. H ere ’ s a list of N ikon ’ s best-bet “ first” lenses. Don ’ t worr y about sorting out the alphabet soup right now; I pro vide a complete list of Nikon lens “ codes ” later in the chapter . ■ AF-S DX N ikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR. This lens, introduced at the same time as the D90, is an excellent choice as a [...]

■ AF-S DX Zoom-N ikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED. This lens has been sold as a kit lens for intermediate amateur-level N ikons, and some retailers with stock on hand are packaging it with the D7000 body as well. While decent, it’ s really best suited for the crow d who buys one do-everything lens and then never purchase another . A vailable for[...]

elimination of “ zoom creep,” which caused the original to zoom out when tilted down. The new lens retains the stunning 11X zoom range and covers ev erything from the equivalent of 27mm to 300mm when the 1.5X crop factor is figur ed in, and its VR capabilities plus light weight let y ou use it without a tripod most of the time. ■ AF-S VR Zoom[...]

different designators to indicate these lenses, such as HSM (for hyper-sonic motor). Y ou ’ll have to check with the manufactur er of non-N ikon lenses to see if they are com- patible with the D7000, particularly since some vendors have been gradually introduc- ing revamped versions of their existing lenses with the addition of an internal motor [...]

a lens ’ s name, but you may come across some of these terms in discussions of particu- lar N ikon optics: ■ AF , AF-D, AF-I, AF-S. In all cases, AF stands for autofocus when appended to the name of a N ikon lens. An extra letter is added to pro vide additional information. A plain-old AF lens is an autofocus lens that uses a slot-drive motor i[...]

■ E. The E designation was used for Nikon ’ s budget-priced E Series optics, five prime and three zoom manual focus lenses built using aluminum or plastic parts rather than brass, the preferred material in those days, so they w ere less rugged. All are effectively AI-S lenses. They do have good image quality , which makes them a bar- gain for t[...]

■ IF . Nikon ’ s internal focusing lenses change focus by shifting only small internal lens groups with no change requir ed in the lens’ s physical length, unlike conventional double helicoid focusing systems that move all lens gr oups toward the front or rear during focusing. IF lenses are more compact and lighter in w eight, provide better [...]

14-24mm, 17-35mm, 24-70mm, 18-70mm, and 28-200mm zooms as I do. I ndeed, a much saner approach to expanding your lens collection is to consider what each of your options can do for you and then choose the type of lens and specific model that will really boost your cr eative oppor tunities. So, in the sections that follo w , I’ m going to pro vide[...]

Chapter 11 ■ Working with Lenses 359 Figure 11.6 An ultra-wide- angle lens pro- vided this view of Sedona ’ s Cathedral Rock. Figure 11.7 This photo, taken from roughly the same distance shows the view using a short telephoto lens. Figure 11.8 A long tele- photo lens cap- tured this close-up view of Cathedral Rock from approximately the same sh[...]

■ M ore speed. Y our Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 telephoto zoom lens might have the perfect focal length and sharpness for sports photography , but the maximum aper- ture won ’ t cut it for night baseball or football games, or , even, any spor ts shooting in daylight if the weather is cloudy or you need to use some ungodly fast shutter speed, such[...]

When selecting between zoom and prime lenses, there ar e several considerations to pon- der . Here ’ s a checklist of the most impor tant factors. I already mentioned image qual- ity and maximum aperture earlier , but those aspects take on additional meaning when comparing zooms and primes. ■ Logistics. As prime lenses offer just a single focal[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 362 Figure 11.9 An 85mm f/1.4 lens was perfect for this hand- held photo.[...]

Categories of Lenses Lenses can be categorized by their intended purpose—general photography , macro photography , and so for th—or by their focal length. The range of available focal lengths is usually divided into three main groups: wide-angle, normal, and telephoto . Prime lenses fall neatly into one of these classifications. Zooms can o ver[...]

great when you want to emphasize that lake in the for eground, but problematic when your intended subject is located farther in the distance. ■ Super-siz ed subjects. The tendency of a wide-angle lens to emphasize objects in the foreground, while de-emphasizing objects in the background can lead to a kind of size distortion that may be more objec[...]

Chapter 11 ■ Working with Lenses 365 Figure 11.10 T ilting the camera back produces this “ falling back” look in archi- tectural photos. ■ Inter esting angles. Many of the factors already listed combine to produce more interesting angles when shooting with wide-angle lenses. Raising or low ering a tele- photo lens a few feet probably will h[...]

T able 11.1 turns the conventional “ equivalent” listing on its head. U sually , you ’ll see a table that tells you that, say , a 100mm lens when used on a camera like the Nikon D7000, will have an equivalent field of view of a 150mm lens on a full-frame camera. That’ s actually not a difficult calculation, and might not be as useful as you[...]

A voiding Potential Wide-Angle Problems Wide-angle lenses have a few quirks that you ’ll want to keep in mind when shooting so you can avoid falling into some common traps. H ere’ s a checklist of tips for avoiding common problems: ■ Symptom: conv erging lines. U nless you want to use wildly diverging lines as a creative effect, it ’ s a go[...]

mighty N ikon SB-800 can solve both problems, as it has zoomable co verage up to as wide as the field of view of a 14mm lens when used with the included adapter . I ts higher vantage point eliminates the problem of lens hood shado w , too. ■ Symptom: light and dark ar eas when using polarizing filter . If you know that polarizers work best when t[...]

Using T elephoto and T ele-Zoom Lenses T elephoto lenses also can have a dramatic effect on your photography , and N ikon is especially strong in the long-lens arena, with lots of choices in many focal lengths and zoom ranges. Y ou should be able to find an affor dable telephoto or tele-zoom to enhance your photography in several different ways. H [...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 370 Figure 11.12 A wide f/stop helped isolate the statue from its background.[...]

A voiding T elephoto Lens Problems Many of the “ problems ” that telephoto lenses pose are really just challenges and not that difficult to over come. Here is a list of the seven most common pictur e maladies and suggested solutions. ■ Symptom: flat faces in portraits. H ead-and-shoulders por traits of humans tend to be more flattering when a[...]

■ Symptom: lo w contrast from flar e. Lenses are furnished with lens hoods for a good reason: to reduce flar e from bright light sources at the peripher y of the pic- ture area, or completely outside it. B ecause telephoto lenses often create images that are low er in contrast in the first place, you ’ll want to be especially careful to use a l[...]

T elephotos and Bokeh Bokeh describes the aesthetic qualities of the out-of-focus parts of an image and whether out-of-focus points of light—circles of confusion—are r endered as distracting fuzzy discs or smoothly fade into the background. Boke is a J apanese word for “blur ,” and the h was added to keep English speakers from rendering it [...]

discs are a uniform shade, which, while better than the doughnut effect, is not as pleas- ing as the bright center/dark edge rendition. The shape of the disc also comes into play , with round smooth circles considered the best, and nonagonal or some other polygon (determined by the shape of the lens diaphragm) considered less desirable. If you plan[...]

T elephoto Converters T eleconver ters (often called telephoto extenders outside the N ikon world) multiply the actual focal length of your lens, giving you a longer telephoto for much less than the price of a lens with that actual focal length. These converters fit between the lens and your camera and contain optical elements that magnify the imag[...]

Macro Focusing Some telephotos and telephoto zooms av ailable for the N ikon D7000 have par ticularly close focusing capabilities, making them macro lenses. Of course, the object is not nec- essarily to get close (get too close and you ’ll find it difficult to light your subject). What you ’ re really looking for in a macro lens is to magnify t[...]

VR a rather specialized tool for macro work. S ome 99 percent of the time, I shoot close-ups with my D7000 mounted on a tripod or , at the ver y least, on a mono- pod, so camera vibration is not much of a concern. Indeed, subject mo vement is a more serious problem, especially when shooting plant life outdoors on days plagued with even slight breez[...]

V ibration Reduction N ikon has a burgeoning line of about a dozen and a half lenses with built-in vibration reduction (VR) capabilities. I expect another half dozen or so new VR lenses to be intro- duced rather early in the life of this book. The VR featur e uses lens elements that are shifted internally in response to v er tical or horizontal mot[...]

The original AF-S VR Z oom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED, which I discuss next in terms of its role in the N ikon lens menagerie’ s ideal “Magic Three” (discussed belo w) is typical of the VR lenses N ikon offers. It has the basic controls sho wn in Figur e 11.17, to adjust focus range (full, or limited to infinity down to 2.5 meters); VR On/O[...]

Y our Second (and Third…) Lens There are r eally only two advantages to using just a single lens. One of them is creative. Keeping one set of optics mounted on your D7000 all the time forces y ou to be espe- cially imaginative in your approach to y our subjects. I once visited Eur ope with only a single camera body and a 35mm f/2 lens. The experi[...]

you significant yen—or dollars, or whatever curr ency you use.) In its worst manifesta- tions, sufferers find themselves with lenses that have o verlapping zoom ranges or capa- bilities, because one or the other offers a slight margin in performance or suitability for specific tasks. When you find y ourself already lusting after a new lens before[...]

wide-angle, or close-up photography . I generally take these three lenses with me every- where, adding another lens or two as requir ed for specialized needs. ■ AF-S Zoom-N ikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED. When I am shooting landscapes, doing street photography , or some types of indoor sports, this lens goes on my D7000 and never comes off. I t was m[...]

T o the Original Magic T rio, I often recommend adding one (or both) of these lenses: ■ AF N ikkor 85mm f/1.4D IF . The nickname of this lens is “ The Cream M achine” because of its remarkably smooth bokeh, which pro vides absolutely gorgeous out- of-focus backgrounds, especially when the lens is used with a wide aperture. I t’ s incredibly[...]

pictures of , say , flowers, and when I am traveling light. F or example, when shooting in Eur ope I take along the 17-35mm lens (which is much smaller than the 14-24, and can be used with polarizing filters, to boot), and my 28-200mm zoom. Carefully consider the focal lengths you need befor e deciding which “ magic” triad is best for you. The [...]

Fine-T uning the Focus of Y our Lenses In Chapter 10, I introduced y ou to the D7000’ s AF Fine tune capability . In this sec- tion, I’ll sho w you how to calibrate y our lenses using this feature. Why is the focus “ off ” for some lenses in the first place? There are lots of factors, includ- ing the age of the lens (an older lens may focus[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 386 Figure 11.20 Correct focus (top), front focus (middle), and back focus (bottom).[...]

Lens T une-up The key tool you can use to fine-tune your lens is the AF F ine tune entry in the Setup menu, shown in F igure 11.21. Y ou ’ll find the process easier to understand if you first run through this quick overview of the menu options: ■ AF fine tune (On/Off ). This option enables/disables AF fine-tuning for all the lenses you ’ ve d[...]

■ Default. This entry often confuses. It is a value that is applied to ev ery lens mounted on the camera that doesn ’ t already have a customized saved value associated with it. That is, if your D7000 has consistent front or back focus problems with all lenses, you can enter a value here, and the camera will apply the corr ection to each CPU le[...]

Chapter 11 ■ Working with Lenses 389 Figure 11.22 U se this focus test char t, or create one of your own.[...]

largest paper your printer can handle. (I don ’ t recommend just displaying the file on your monitor and focusing on that; it ’ s unlikely you ’ll have the monitor screen lined up perfectly perpendicular to the camera sensor .) Then, follow these steps: 1. P osition the camera. Place your N ikon D7000 on a sturdy tripod with a remote release [...]

Changing the Fine-T uning Setting Adjust the fine-tuning for the lens you hav e mounted on the camera by following these steps: 1. If you haven ’ t been r unning the test described previously , mount the CPU-equipped lens you want to fine-tune on the N ikon D7000. The camera will automatically recognize the lens you ar e using during the “ cali[...]

6. Choose List Saved V alues to see the lenses you ’ ve fine-tuned. (See F igure 11.24.) 7. Assign a lens identifier from 00 to 99 to the lens you ’ ve just calibrated. This iden- tifier can be used to differentiate a particular lens from other lenses of the same type, if you own, say , some duplicate lenses. That’ s not as far-fetched as you[...]

Chapter 11 ■ Working with Lenses 393 Figure 11.25 Assign a lens number , if necessary , to differentiate a particular lens from other lenses of the same type you may use. Figure 11.26 Choose a default value to be applied to all lenses not already fine- tuned.[...]

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S uccessful photographers and artists have an intimate understanding of the importance of light in shaping an image. Rembrandt was a master of using light to create moods and reveal the character of his subjects. Artist Thomas Kinkade’ s official tagline is “P ainter of Light.” The late Dean Collins, co-founder of F inelight Studios, rev olut[...]

provides an intr oduction to using the two main types of illumination: continuous light- ing (such as daylight, incandescent, or fluorescent sources) and the brief , but brilliant snippets of light we call electronic flash. Continuous Illumination versus Electronic Flash Continuous lighting is exactly what you might think: uninterrupted illuminatio[...]

accessory shoe or used off-camera and linked with a cable or triggered by the D7000’ s wireless Commander mode. S tudio flash units are electronic flash, too, and aren ’ t lim- ited to “ professional” shooters, as there ar e economical “ monolight” (one-piece flash/power supply) units av ailable in the $200 price range. Anyone can buy a[...]

There are adv antages and disadvantages to each type of illumination. Here ’ s a quick checklist of pros and cons: ■ Lighting preview—P ro: continuous lighting. With continuous lighting, y ou always know exactly what kind of lighting effect you ’ re going to get and, if multi- ple lights are used, how they will interact with each other (see[...]

■ E venness of illumination—Con: electronic flash. Electronic flash units, like con- tinuous light sources such as lamps that don ’ t have the advantage of being located 93 million miles from the subject, suffer from the effects of their pro ximity . The inverse squar e law , first applied to both gravity and light by Sir Isaac N ewton, dic- [...]

■ Action stopping—P ro: electronic flash. When it comes to the ability to freeze moving objects in their tracks, the advantage goes to electr onic flash. The brief dura- tion of electronic flash serves as a very high “ shutter speed” when the flash is the main or only source of illumination for the photo. Y our D7000’ s shutter speed may [...]

■ Cost—P ro: continuous lighting. Incandescent or fluorescent lamps ar e generally much less expensive than electronic flash units, which can easily cost several hun- dred dollars. I’ ve used everything from desktop high-intensity lamps to reflector flood lights for continuous illumination at very little cost. There are lamps made especially [...]

excessively blue outdoors in full daylight. Y et, these color temperature variations ar e real and the sensor is not fooled. T o captur e the most accurate colors, we need to take the color temperature into account in setting the color balance (or white balance ) of the D7000—either automatically using the camera ’ s smar ts or manually using o[...]

5,500K for most of the day . Starting an hour before dusk and for an hour after sunrise, the warm appearance of the sunlight is even visible to our eyes when the color temper- ature may dip to 5,000-4,500K, as shown in F igure 12.5. Because you ’ll be taking so many photos in daylight, you ’ll want to learn how to use or compensate for the brig[...]

Although incandescent illumination isn ’ t a per fect black body radiator , it’ s close enough that the color temperature of such lamps can be precisely calculated and used for photo- graphy without concerns about color variation (at least, until the very end of the lamp ’ s life). Of course, old-style tungsten lamps are on the way out, to be[...]

Adjusting White Balance I showed y ou how to adjust white balance in Chapter 8, using the D7000’ s built-in pre- sets, white balance shift capabilities, setting exact color temperatures, and white balance bracketing (there ’ s more on bracketing in Chapter 4, too). In most cases, ho wever , the N ikon D7000 will do a good job of calculating whi[...]

Remember that if you shoot RA W , you can specify the white balance of your image when you import it into Photoshop, P hotoshop Elements, or another image editor using N ikon Capture NX2, A dobe Camera Raw , or your preferr ed RA W converter . While color-balancing filters that fit on the front of the lens exist, they are primarily useful for film [...]

making the flash exposure. Then, after a delay that can var y from 30 seconds to 1/250th second (with the N ikon D7000; other cameras may sync at a faster or slower speed), a second curtain begins moving across the sensor plane, co vering up the sensor again. If the flash is triggered just before the second curtain starts to close, then second-curt[...]

easily see that the built-in flash would begin to peter out at about 20 feet, where you ’ d need an aperture of f/2 (with a fast prime lens) at ISO 100. Of course, in the real world you ’ d probably bump the sensitivity up to a setting of ISO 800 so you could use a more practical f/5.6 at that distance. T oday , guide numbers are most useful fo[...]

Chapter 12 ■ Making Light Work for Y ou 409 Figure 12.7 A focal plane shutter has two curtains, the lower , or first curtain, and an upper , second curtain. When first-curtain sync is used, the flash is triggered at the instant that the sensor is com- pletely exposed. The shutter then remains open for an additional length of time (from 30 seconds[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 410 Figure 12.8 Icons for flash sync modes include front sync (top left), rear sync (top middle), red- eye reduction (top right), slow sync (lower left), and slow sync with red-eye reduction (lower right). 4. Check exposure. Select a shutter speed when using Manual, P rogram, or Shutter- [...]

Chapter 12 ■ Making Light Work for Y ou 411 Ti p If you want to confirm that the pre-flash fir es before the mirror flips up, set the D7000 to M up (Mirror U p) mode using the release mode dial. (This separates the firing of the pre- flash from the flash used to make the exposure.) P ress the shutter release as you look through the viewfinder . Y[...]

■ Rear-curtain sync. With this setting, which can be used with Shutter-priority , Aperture-priority , P rogram, or Manual exposure modes, the front curtain opens completely and remains open for the duration of the exposure. Then, the flash is fired and the rear curtain closes. If the subject is mo ving and ambient light levels are high enough, th[...]

Chapter 12 ■ Making Light Work for Y ou 413 Figure 12.9 I deliberately used flash and slow sync to separate this Roman sphinx sculpture (limned in bluish light from the flash) from the background illuminated by warmer incandescents. ■ Rear-curtain sync. As noted previously , in this sync mode, the front curtain opens completely and remains open[...]

Ghost Images The difference might not seem like much, but whether you use first-curtain sync (the default setting) or rear-curtain sync (an optional setting) can make a significant differ- ence to your photograph if the ambient light in your scene also contributes to the image. At faster shutter speeds, particularly 1/250th second, there isn ’ t [...]

lightning-fast superheroes who always left a ghost trail behind them , that looks unnat- ural (see F igure 12.10, bottom). So, N ikon provides rear (second) curtain sync to remedy the situation. I n that mode, the shutter opens, as before. The shutter remains open for its designated duration, and the ghost image forms. If your subject mo ves from t[...]

If the flash is triggered while this slit is mo ving, only the exposed por tion of the sensor will receive any illumination. Y ou end up with a photo like the one shown in F igure 12.12. N ote that a band across the bottom of the image is black. That’ s a shadow of the second shutter curtain, which had started to move when the flash was triggered[...]

I generally end up with sync speed problems only when shooting in the studio, using studio flash units rather than my D7000’ s built-in flash or a Nikon dedicated S peedlight. That’ s because if you ’ re using either type of “ smart” flash, the camera knows that a strobe is attached, and remedies any unintentional goof in shutter speed se[...]

Ho wever , the D7000 and cer tain N ikon flashes pro vide a partial solution, called high- speed sync or FP sync (focal plane sync). Those flash units can fire a series of flashes con- secutively in rapid succession, producing the illusion of a longer continuous flash, although at reduced intensity . These multiple flashes have a duration long enou[...]

Nikon D7000 Built-in Flash The built-in flash has a guide number of 12/39 (meters/feet) at ISO 100 and must be activated by manually flipping it up (I t will also pop up automatically when using cer- tain Scene modes any time it’ s needed). This flash is powerful enough to pro vide pri- mary direct flash illumination when required, but can ’ t [...]

included flash diffuser dome, which can be purchased separately . Other differences include a wireless Commander mode, and automatic detection of DX format when mounted on the D7000. Nikon SB-600 This lower-cost unit (see F igure 12.14) has a guide number of 30/98 (meters/feet) at ISO 100 when set to the 35mm zoom position. I t has many of the SB-9[...]

■ Flash groups. The SB-600 cannot function in Commander mode to control other N ikon flash units, but it can serve as a slave unit triggered by a commander as part of a flash group. ■ Bounce capability . The flash head tilts upwar ds up to 90 degrees, plus 180 degrees to the left or 90 degrees to the right. The SB-600 is long over due for repla[...]

for ISO 100 as you might expect for a unit used to photograph subjects that are often inches from the camera. I t has a fixed coverage angle of 78 degr ees horizontal and 60 degrees vertical, but the flash head tilts down to 60 degr ees and up to 45 degrees (with detents every 15 degrees in both directions). In this case, “ up ” and “ down ?[...]

T o set the zoom position manually , follow one of these steps: ■ SB-900. Pr ess the Zoom button (located southwest of the selector dial/OK button pad) once, release it, and then rotate the selector dial until the zoom setting y ou want appears on the LCD. An “M” appears on the L CD abov e the Zoom indica- tor to show that the zoom setting ha[...]

Flash Modes The external flash units have various flash modes included, which are av ailable or not available with different camera models, categorized into nine differ ent groups. A table showing most of the groups is included in the manuals for the external flash units, but the table is irrelevant for D7000 users (unless you happen to o wn an old[...]

for TTL, Manual, and GN settings. Those are the only modes available with that flash when you ’ re using it as a Master . Ho wever , when the SB-700 is used as a remote flash triggered by a M aster Commander flash, it can operate in Repeating mode.) ■ iTTL Automatic Balanced F ill Flash. In both Matrix and Center-weighted cam- era exposure mode[...]

■ GN: Distance priority manual. Y ou enter a distance value, and the SB-900 adjusts light output based on distance, ISO, and aperture to produce the right exposure in either Aperture-priority or M anual exposure modes. Pr ess the Mode button on the flash and rotate the selector dial until the GN indicator appears (the GN option appears only when [...]

W orking with W ireless Commander Mode The D7000’ s built-in flash can be set to Commander mode (as described in Chapter 9) and used to control other compatible flash units. The Nikon SB-900 and SB-700 can also be a flash “Commander” to communicate with and trigger other flash units. N ikon offers a unit called the SU-800, which is a commande[...]

2. Use the multi selector left/right buttons to highlight M ode in the Built-in F lash row , then press the up/down buttons to choose T TL, M, or - - (flash disabled). Then use the multi selector right button to highlight the Comp. parameter in the third column. If y ou chose TTL, you can select exposure compensation from –1 to +3.0; choose M, an[...]

Setting Commander and Remote Modes for the SB-900 Setting modes for the SB-900 has been greatly simplified, compar ed to the previous SB-900. J ust rotate the On/Off/Wir eless mode switch to the Remote or Master posi- tions. In R emote mode, the SB-900 will be triggered by the Commander flash unit in its group. I n Master mode, the SB-900 will serv[...]

7. Once the modes for all the flash units have been set on the master flash, press F unction Button 2 and rotate the selector dial to set a channel number that the master flash will use to control its groups. 8. No w take each of the remote flash units and set the correct group and channel num- ber you want to use. J ust press F unction Button 1 on[...]

■ Third-party wir eless solutions. I’ m especially impressed with the RadioP opper JrX line of wireless flash triggers, particularly since they can be used to control the output levels of N ikon flash units attached to them, and also the output of the Alien Bees flash units I use in my studio. P ocket W izards are another wireless trigger prod-[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 432 Figure 12.19 Window light makes the per- fect diffuse illu- mination for informal soft- focus portraits like this one.[...]

Chapter 12 ■ Making Light Work for Y ou 433 Figure 12.20 F ill flash brightened up the shadows in this photo.[...]

■ Bounce the light. External electronic flash units mounted on the D7000 usually have a swivel that allo ws them to be pointed up at a ceiling for a bounce light effect. Y ou can also bounce the light off a wall. Y ou ’ll want the ceiling or wall to be white or have a neutral color to avoid a color cast. ■ U se reflectors. Another way to boun[...]

Using Multiple Light Sources Once you gain control o ver the qualities and effects you get with a single light source, you ’ll want to graduate to using multiple light sources. U sing several lights allows you to shape and mold the illumination of your subjects to pro vide a variety of effects, from backlighting to side lighting to more formal po[...]

and lots of light to smaller subjects. The output of such units is measured in watt sec- onds (ws), so you could purchase a 200ws, 400ws, or 800ws unit, and a po wer pack to match. Their advantages include greater po wer output, much faster recycling, built-in model- ing lamps, multiple power lev els, and ruggedness that can stand up to transport, [...]

Connecting Multiple Non-Dedicated Units to Y our Nikon D7000 N on-dedicated electronic flash units can ’ t use the automated i-TTL features of your N ikon D7000; you ’ll need to calculate exposure manually , through test shots evaluated on your camera ’ s LCD, or by using an electronic flash meter . Mor eover , you don ’ t have to connect t[...]

Other Lighting Accessories Once you start working with light, you ’ll find there ar e plenty of useful accessories that can help you. H ere are some of the most popular that y ou might want to consider . Soft Boxes Soft box es are large square or rectangular devices that may resemble a squar e umbrella with a front cov er , and produce a similar [...]

Snoots and Barn Doors These fit over the flash unit and dir ect the light at your subject. Snoots ar e excellent for converting a flash unit into a hair light, while barn doors give you enough control o ver the illumination by opening and closing their flaps that you can use another flash as a background light, with the capability of feathering the[...]

[...]

P art IV Enhancing Y our Experience[...]

What do you do after the shutter clicks and your image has been captured in electr ons for posterity? This final part of the book will help you get more from your N ikon D7000 as you download and edit the pictur es you ’ ve taken, and take the steps necessary to keep your camera humming like the finely (non-oiled) machine that it really is. Chapt[...]

U nless you only take pictures, and then immediately print them directly to a P ictBridge- compatible printer , somewhere along the line you ’ re going to need to make use of the broad array of software available for the N ikon D7000. The picture-fixing options in the Retouch menu let you make only modest modifications to y our carefully crafted [...]

those who have been using N ikon ’ s software exclusively get a feel for what y ou can do with the Adobe product. The basic functions found in most of the programs discussed in this chapter include image transfer and management, camera control, and image editing. Y ou ’ll find that many of the programs ov erlap several of these capabilities, so[...]

If you like to shoot RA W+JP EG, you can review image pairs as if they wer e a single image (rather than view the RA W and JPEG versions separately), and work with whichever version you need. The active focus area can be displayed in the image (see F igure 13.1 again), and there are histogram, highlight, and shado w displays to help you evaluate an[...]

N ikon T ransfer , now included with N ikon View NX 2, is particularly well-suited for D7000 owners, because it integrates easily with other N ikon software products, includ- ing V iew NX and Nikon Captur e NX2. Y ou can download photos to your computer , and then continue to work on them in the N ikon application (or third-party utility) of your c[...]

One neat feature is the ability to name a B ackup Destination location, so that all trans- ferred pictures can also be copied to a second folder , which can be located on a differ- ent hard disk drive or other media. Y ou can embed information such as copyright data, star ratings, and labels in the images as they are transferred. When the file tran[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 448 Figure 13.4 Y ou can tell Nikon T ransfer what to do after images are transferred in the P references tab. Figure 13.5 Capture NX2’ s tools are arranged in dockable palettes.[...]

All the tools are arranged in dockable/expandable/collapsible palettes (see F igure 13.5) that tell you everything you need to know about an image, and pro vide the capabilities to push every pixel in interesting ways. Photographers tend to lov e Capture NX or hate it, particularly in the NX 2 version that was current when I wrote this book, and it[...]

There are also Color A berration Controls, D-Lighting, Image Dust Off , Vignette Control, F isheye-to-Rectilinear Image T ransformation (“ de-fishing”), and a Distortion Control to reduce pincushion and barr el distor tion. Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 N ikon ’ s Camera Control Pro 2 is a v ersatile utility that allows you to communicate direct[...]

manipulation is the specialized task of noise reduction, which can be performed within Photoshop, A dobe Camera Raw , or tools like Bibble P rofessional. There are also spe- cialized tools just for noise reduction, such as N oise Ninja (also included with B ibble) and N eat Image. Some programs, like the incomparable DxO Optics P ro per form mag- i[...]

One is a leading supplier of megabucks digital camera backs for medium and larger for- mat cameras, so they really understand the needs of photographers. The latest features include individual noise reduction contr ols for each image, auto- matic levels adjustment, a “ quick develop ” option that allows speedy conversion from RA W to TIFF or JP[...]

find myself disliking the generic filenames applied to digital images by cameras, so I really like Bibble ’ s ability to rename batches of files using new names that you specify . Bibble is fully color managed, which means it can support all the popular color spaces (Adobe sR GB and so forth) and use custom profiles generated by third-party color[...]

D7000 on a long USB tether , and relaxing while you wait for that elusive plaid-bellied sapgrabber to perch within view of your lens. Y ou can shoot time-lapse photos to capture flowers blooming, construction sites con- structing, or dawns breaking. I t’ s easy to adjust Pictur e Controls from your PC, too. One of my favorite features is the P ho[...]

The latest version of Photoshop includes a built-in RA W plug-in that is compatible with the proprietary formats of a growing number of digital cameras, both new and old, and which can perform a limited number of manipulations on JPEG and TIFF files, too. This plug-in also works with Photoshop E lements, but with fewer features. H ere’ s how easy[...]

6. Also in the Basic tab you can choose white balance, either from the drop-down list or by setting a color temperature and gr een/magenta color bias (tint) using the sliders. 7. O ther sliders are available to contr ol exposure, reco ver y , fill light, blacks, bright- ness, contrast, vibrance, and saturation. A checkbox can be marked to convert t[...]

The Basic tab is displayed b y default when the ACR dialog box opens, and it includes most of the sliders and controls you ’ll need to fine-tune your image as you import it into Photoshop. These include: ■ White Balance. Leav e it As Shot or change to a value such as D aylight, Cloudy , Shade, T ungsten, F luorescent, or Flash. If y ou like, yo[...]

David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography 458 Figure 13.10 Mor e controls are available within the additional tabbed dialog boxes in A dobe Camera Raw .[...]

One of the nice things about modern electronic cameras like the N ikon D7000 is that they have fewer mechanical moving parts to fail, so they ar e less likely to “ wear out.” N o film transpor t mechanism, no wind lever or motor drive, no complicated mechan- ical linkages from camera to lens to physically stop down the lens aperture. I nstead, [...]

On the other hand, one of the chief drawbacks of modern electronic cameras is that they are modern electronic cameras. Y our D7000 is fully dependent on two different batteries. W ithout them, the camera can ’ t be used. There are numerous other electrical and electronic connections in the camera (many connected to those mechanical switches and d[...]

A good use for those extra batteries is in the N ikon MB-D11 M ulti-P ower B atter y P ack (about $250), which holds an EN-EL15 batter y , effectively doubling your total shooting time. The MB-D11 can also be used with the included AA Battery Holder , allowing you to use six AA batteries in a pinch (included) so users can use AA batteries as a powe[...]

■ M onitor Off Delay . In CSM #c4, set for the minimum, 4 seconds, for playback, menus, shooting info display , and image review . That three-inch LCD uses a lot of juice, so reducing the amount of time it is active when you don ’ t turn it off manu- ally can boost the effectiveness of your battery . ■ Auto meter off-delay . S et to 4 seconds[...]

How It W orks If you ’ re computer savvy , you might wonder how your N ikon D7000 is able to over- write its own operating system—that is, ho w can the existing firmware be used to load the new version on top of itself? I t’ s a little like lifting yourself by reaching do wn and pulling up on your bootstraps. N ot ironically , that’ s almos[...]

But there ’ s a more important reason for having at least two firmware modules. If y our camera had just one, and you had the misfortune to munge that firmware during an ill- fated upgrade, it’ s very likely your camera would be magically transformed into a digi- tal doorstop. P art of the firmware is needed simply to install (or re-install fir[...]

The first thing to do is determine whether you need the current firmwar e update. First, confirm the version number of your N ikon D7000’ s current firmware: 1. T urn on the D7000. 2. P ress the MENU button and select F irmware V ersion from the S etup menu. The camera ’ s firmware version will be displayed. (See F igure 14.2.) 3. W rite down t[...]

The D7000’ s firmware comes in two parts, A and B, which can be updated individu- ally (plus the third, L file, which is updated less often). The actual update files will be named something like: D7000_0101.bin F or the most recent update, both A and B modules were included in a single file. I n the past, N ikon has also used separate files for t[...]

5. The camera will appear on the Macintosh desktop, or in the Computer/M y Computer folders under W indows 7/W indows Vista/Windows XP . 6. Drag one of the firmware files to the memory card. I t doesn ’ t matter whether you install “ A” or “B”, if two are available. If your particular upgrade consists of only one .bin file, drag that to t[...]

7. Remove the memory card. 8. T urn the D7000 back on to load the updated firmware. 9. P ress the MENU button and select F irmware V ersion in the S etup menu to vie w the current firmware number . If it matches the update, you ’ ve successfully upgraded that portion of the firmware. 10. Reformat the memor y card. 11. If there is a second part to[...]

■ Flip-up hoods. These protectors slip on using the flanges around y our D7000’ s eyepiece, and pro vide a cover that completely shields the LCD, but unfolds to pro- vide a three-sided hood that allows viewing the L CD while minimizing the extra- neous light falling on it and reducing contrast. They’ re sold for about $40 by Delkin (www .delk[...]

access any of them. Don ’ t panic! If these scenarios sound horrific to you, there ar e lots of things you can do to prevent them fr om happening, and a variety of remedies avail- able if they do occur . Y ou ’ll want to take some time—before disaster strikes—to con- sider your options. All Y our Eggs in One Basket? The debate about whether[...]

(When I shoot sports, my cards rarely reach 80 to 90 percent of capacity befor e I change them.) U sing multiple smaller cards means you have to change them that more often, which can be a real pain when you ’ re taking a lot of photos. As an example, if you use 1GB memory cards with a Nikon D7000 and shoot RA W+JPEG FINE, you may get only a few [...]

■ T ransmit y our images. Another option is to transmit your images, as they are shot, over a networ k to your laptop, assuming a network and a laptop are av ailable. Y ou can use N ikon ’ s Wireless T ransmitter WT -4a, and beam the images over to a com- puter as you shoot them using the gadget ’ s Image T ransfer mode. A company called E ye[...]

What Can Go Wrong? There are lots of things that can go wr ong with your memor y card, but the ones that aren ’ t caused by human stupidity are statistically very rare. Y es, a memory card’ s inter- nal bit bin or controller can suddenly fail due to a manufacturing error or some inex- plicable event caused by old age. H owever , if your card wo[...]

M emory cards can also be stomped on, accidentally bent, dropped into the ocean, chewed by pets, and otherwise rendered unusable in myriad ways. I t’ s also possible to force a Secur e Digital card into your D7000’ s Secure D igital card slot incorrectly if you ’ re diligent enough, doing little damage to the card itself , but bending the con[...]

Things get more exciting when the car d itself is put in jeopardy . If you lose a card, ther e ’ s not a lot you can do other than take a picture of a similar car d and print up some Have Y ou Seen This Lost Flash Memory? flyers to post on utility poles all around to wn. If all you care about is r eusing the card, and have resigned yourself to lo[...]

A more reasonable appr oach is to tr y special data recovery software you can install on your computer and use to attempt to resurr ect your “lost” images yourself . They may not actually be gone completely . P erhaps your card ’ s “ table of contents ” is jumbled, or only a few pictures are damaged in such a way that your camera and comp[...]

Clean Y our Sensor Y es, the Nikon D7000 has a two-pronged sensor dust pr evention scheme: an innova- tive air control system that keeps dust away from the sensor in the first place, and a sen- sor-shaking cleaning mechanism. But no dust-busting technology is 100-percent effective. Indeed, there ’ s no avoiding dust. N o matter how careful you ar[...]

Dust the F AQs, Ma’am Her e are some of the most frequently asked questions about sensor dust issues. Q. I see tiny specks in my viewfinder . Do I hav e dust on my sensor? A. If you see sharp , well-defined specks, they are clinging to the underside of your focus screen and not on your sensor . They have absolutely no effect on your photographs, [...]

F inding one or two hot or stuck pixels in your sensor is unfortunately fairly com- mon. They can be “ remo ved” by telling the D7000 to ignore them through a sim- ple process called pixel mapping. If the bad pix els become bothersome, Nikon can remap your sensor ’ s pixels with a quick trip to a service center . Bad pix els can also show up [...]

T o see if you have dust on your sensor , take a few test shots of a plain, blank sur face (such as a piece of paper or a cloudless sky) at small f/stops, such as f/22, and a few wide open. Open Photoshop or another image editor , copy several shots into a single docu- ment in separate layers, then flip back and forth between layers to see if any s[...]

■ Clean lenses. There are a few paranoid types that avoid swapping lenses in order to minimize the chance of dust getting inside their cameras. I t makes more sense just to use a blower or brush to dust off the rear lens mount of the r eplacement lens first, so you won ’ t be introducing dust into your camera simply by attaching a new , dusty l[...]

■ Clone out existing spots in y our image editor . Photoshop and other editors have a clone tool or healing brush you can use to copy pixels from surrounding ar eas over the dust spot or dead pixel. This process can be tedious, especially if you have lots of dust spots and/or lots of images to be corrected. The advantage is that this sort of manu[...]

As I noted, sensors can be affected by dust particles that are much smaller than you might be able to spot visually on the surface of your lens. The filters that cover sensors tend to be fairly hard compar ed to optical glass. Cleaning the 23.6mm × 15.8mm sen- sor in your N ikon D7000 within the tight confines of the mirror box can call for a stea[...]

Air Cleaning Y our first attempts at cleaning your sensor should always involve gentle blasts of air . Many times, you ’ll be able to dislodge dust spots, which will fall off the sensor and, with luck, out of the mirror box. Attempt one of the other methods only when y ou ’ ve already tried air cleaning and it didn ’ t remove all the dust. He[...]

Brush Cleaning If your dust is a little more stubborn and can ’ t be dislodged by air alone, you may want to try a br ush, charged with static electricity , which can pick off dust spots by electrical attraction. One good, but expensive, option is the S ensor Brush sold at www .visible- dust.com. A cheaper version can be purchased at www .copperh[...]

Y ou want a sturdy swab that won ’ t bend or break so you can apply gentle pressur e to the swab as you wipe the sensor surface. U se the swab with methanol (as pure as you can get it, particularly medical grade; other ingredients can leave a residue), or the Eclipse solution also sold by Photographic S olutions. Eclipse is actually quite a bit p[...]

T ape Cleaning There are people who absolutely sw ear by the tape method of sensor cleaning. The con- cept seems totally wacky , and I have never tried it personally , so I can ’ t say with certainty that it either does or does not work. In the inter est of completeness, I’ m including it here. I can ’ t give you a recommendation, so if you h[...]

When I’ m using the MiniB rite, I locate the dust on the sensor with the magnifier , remembering that the position of the dust will be r eversed from what I might have seen on an image on the camera ’ s LCD (because the camera lens flips the image when mak- ing the exposure). Then, I use the SensorKlear wand or the blower brush to remo ve the a[...]

I t’ s always handy to have a single resource wher e you can look up various terms you ’ll encounter while working with your digital camera. H ere is the latest update of a glos- sary I’ ve compiled over the years, with some new additions specifically for the N ikon D7000. AE-L/AF-L A button on the D7000 that allows locking exposure and/or fo[...]

aspect ratio The proportions of an image as printed, displayed on a monitor , or cap- tured by a digital camera. The D7000’ s movie featur e, for example, includes options for HDTV ’ s 16:9 aspect ratio. Autofocus A camera setting that allo ws the Nikon D7000 to choose the correct focus distance for you, based on the contrast of an image (the i[...]

buffer The digital camera ’ s internal memor y where an image is stored immediately after it is taken until it can be written to the camera ’ s non-volatile (semi-permanent) mem- ory card. burst mode The digital camera ’ s equivalent of the film camera ’ s motor drive, used to take multiple shots within a short period of time, each stored i[...]

compression R educing the size of a file by encoding using fewer bits of information to represent the original. S ome compression schemes, such as JPEG, operate by dis- carding some image information, while others have options that pr eser ve all the detail in the original, discarding only r edundant data. Continuous-servo autofocus An automatic fo[...]

Exif See exchangeable image file format (Exif ). exposure The amount of light allo wed to reach the film or sensor , determined by the intensity of the light, the amount admitted by the iris of the lens, the length of time determined by the shutter speed, and the sensitivity of the sensor or film to light. exposure compensation E xposure compensati[...]

front-curtain sync (first-curtain sync) The default kind of electronic flash synchro- nization technique, originally associated with focal plane shutters, which consists of a traveling set of curtains, including a front curtain , which opens to reveal the film or sen- sor , and a rear curtain , which follows at a distance determined by shutter spee[...]

hot shoe A mount on top of a camera used to hold an electronic flash, while pro vid- ing an electrical connection between the flash and the camera. Also called an accessory shoe. hyperfocal distance A point of focus where everything from half that distance to infin- ity appears to be acceptably sharp. F or example, if your lens has a hyperfocal dis[...]

JPEG A file “lossy ” format (short for Joint Photographic Experts G roup) that supports 24-bit color and reduces file sizes by selectiv ely discarding image data. Digital cameras generally use JPEG compression to pack mor e images onto memor y cards. Y ou can select how much compression is used (and, ther efore, how much information is thro wn [...]

midtones P arts of an image with tones of an intermediate value, usually in the 25 to 75 percent brightness range. Many image-editing featur es allow you to manipulate mid- tones independently from the highlights and shadows. mirror lock-up The ability of the D7000 to retract its mirror out of the light path to allow access to the sensor for cleani[...]

rear-curtain sync (second-curtain sync) An optional kind of electronic flash syn- chronization technique, originally associated with focal plane shutters, which consists of a traveling set of curtains, including a front (first) curtain (which opens to reveal the film or sensor) and a rear (second) curtain (which follo ws at a distance determined by[...]

Setup menu The D7000’ s list of settings and options that deal with overall changes to the camera ’ s operation, such as Date/time, LCD brightness, sensor cleaning, self-timer delay , and so for th. See also Playback menu, R etouch menu, and Shooting menu. shadow The dar kest part of an image, represented on a digital image by pix els with low [...]

Through-The-Lens (TTL) A system of providing viewing and exposure calculation through the actual lens taking the picture. tungsten light Light from ordinary room lamps and ceiling fixtures, as opposed to flu- orescent illumination. underexposur e A condition in which too little light reaches the film or sensor , pro- ducing a thin negative, a dark [...]

A A (N on-T TL auto flash), 425 A (Aperture-priority) mode, 31 built-in flash with, 39–40 equivalent exposures in, 100 ISO settings and, 118 with older lenses, 115 second-curtain sync in, 412 slow sync in, 412 working with, 111–113 AA (Auto A per ture flash), 425 AC adapters, 13 for interval photography , 192 with Live V ie w , 155 accessory sh[...]

Adobe P remiere E lements, 167 Adobe R GB shooting information display settings, 68 Shooting menu options, 258–261 Adorama E ye-F i cards uploading to, 196 flash units, 437 Advanced modes, 31. See also A (Aperture-priority) mode; M (Manual) mode; P (P rogram) mode; S (Shutter-priority) mode built-in flash with, 39–40 Advanced Wir eless Lighting[...]

AF-S lenses, 355 AF-S DX Nikkor 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens, 351–352 AF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens, 351 AF-S DX Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens, 348–349, 351 AF-S DX Zoom-N ikkor 18-55mm f/3.5- 5.6G ED II lens, 348 AF-S DX Zoom-N ikkor 18-70mm f/3.5- 4.5G IF-ED lens, 351–352 AF-S DX Zoom-N ikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED l[...]

audio/video cable, 8 audio/video port, 54–55 auto-area AF , 35 shooting information display on, 67 working with, 148 auto distortion control, 66 Shooting menu option, 258 Auto FP sync, 418 Auto I mage Review , saving power with, 461 Auto I mage Rotation, Setup menu, 224–225, 318 Auto ISO, S hooting menu settings, 266–267 Auto M eter-off Delay[...]

bellows extension, 377 Bibble P ro, 452–453 noise reduction with, 265, 451 bit depth settings, Shooting menu, 242–243 black-and-white. See also M onochrome Pictur e Control Adobe Camera Raw , working in, 457 Retouch menu ’ s Monochrome options, 331 toning effects, 253, 255 viewfinder information, 86–87 black body radiators, 402 incandescent[...]

C cables. See also USB cables audio/video cable, 8 external flash, connecting, 430 HDMI cables, 8 locking cable release for long exposures, 188 multi-flash cables, 430 remote control cable, 12 Calendar view , working in, 64–65 calibrating lenses, 385–386 monitors, 260–261 camera shake. See also vibration reduction short exposures and, 185 wit[...]

Color Matrix metering, 107 Color Matrix metering II, 105 Color Outline option, Retouch menu, 338 color rendering index (CRI), 405 of compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), 404 Color Sampler , Adobe Camera Raw , 455 color spaces. See also Adobe R GB; RGB histograms; sR GB bit depth settings and, 242–243 overview data screen information, 74 shooting in[...]

contrast Active D-Lighting and, 262–263 Adobe Camera Raw , working in, 457 histograms for adjusting, 130 Picture Contr ols, adjusting for , 252–256 telephoto lenses, problems with, 371–732 contrast detection, 138–139 control panel, 77–78 readouts on, 78–82 conv erging lines with wide-angle lenses, 367 copperhillimages.com, 485 Copy Imag[...]

D D-lighting. See also Activ e D-Lighting Retouch menu options, 328 D series lenses, 356 ’ da Pr oducts, acrylic shields from, 10, 468 Dali, Salvador , 184 dark flash photos with telephoto lenses, 372 dark frame subtraction, 120 darkness with long exposur es, 186, 189 data in Playback menu ’ s display options, 220 Datacolor ’ s Spy der produc[...]

DOF (depth-of-field) and circles of confusion, 139–141 with telephoto lenses, 369 with wide-angle lenses, 363, 366 DOF (depth-of-field) button, 50–51 Custom S ettings menu options for , 307 shooting information display settings, 68 doughnut effect, 373 downloading. S ee also firmware; transferring images to computer user manuals, 10–11 DPOF ([...]

correct exposure, example of , 101–102 equivalent exposures, 100 fine-tuning optimal exposure, C ustom Settings menu options for , 288–289 flash, calculation for , 398, 407 with Live V ie w , 155 overview data screen information, 74 shooting information display on, 67 short exposures, 184–186 exposure modes, 104. S ee also Advanced modes; Sce[...]

fill flash/fill light Adobe Camera Raw , working in, 457 diffusing/softening light with, 431, 433 high-speed sync and, 418 power-saving options, 292 filter thread on lens, 82–83 filters. See also neutral-density (ND) filters; polarizing filters center-weighted metering with, 107 lighting gels, 401 with Monochr ome Picture Control, 253–255 Retou[...]

flash modes, 424–426 control panel readouts, 79–80 overview data screen information, 74 shooting information display on, 67 Flash pop-up button, 39, 53–54 flash-ready indicator , Custom S ettings menu, 299 flash sync. See sync speed Flash WB (white balance), 245 flat faces with telephoto lenses, 371 flat lighting for movies, 175–176 flexibi[...]

focus tracking, 151 Custom S ettings menu options, 283 foggy images with telephoto lenses, 371–372 folder names file information screen data, 70 overview data screen information, 74 folders. See also folder names; Playback folder copying images between, 220–222 DCIM (Digital Camera Images) folder , 313 storage folder options, Shooting menu, 229[...]

Graphic Conv er ter , 297 gravity and dust, 481 gray cards, 101–104 green filters, 253–255, 331 green toning effect, 253, 255 grids framing grid, Fn (Function) button functions with, 306 in Live V ie w information display , 160–161, 163 viewfinder grid display options, Custom Settings menu, 293–294 guide numbers (GN), 407–408 for built-in[...]

image editors. See also Adobe Photoshop/Photoshop E lements; Nikon C apture NX2 dust spots, cloning out, 482 for movies, 165 rotating images with, 224 WB (white balance), specifying, 406 image quality . See also JP EG formats; RA W formats; RA W+JPEG format control panel readouts, 81–82 file information screen data, 70 of first lens, 350 Live V i[...]

J JPEG for mats, 235–239. See also Ni k o n Captur e NX2; Nikon ViewNX 2 Adobe Camera Raw with, 455 compression with, 235 for continuous shooting, 180–181 hidden JPEG files, displaying, 239 memory cards, storage on, 234 movie frame as JP EG still, saving, 168–169 RA W formats compared, 237–239 remaining shots on memory card with, 23–24 Re[...]

compatibility issues, 353–354 components of, 82–86 crop factor and, 345–348 errors in mounting, 19 F irmware L for , 464 first lens, 348–350 indexing cutout for lenses, 85–86 light passed by , 98 Magic Three of, 381–383 mounting, 18–19 older lenses, metering with, 115 PC (P erspective Control) lenses, 357 perspectives with, 358 sharpn[...]

lossless compression, 241 lossy compression, 241 low dispersion cro wn glass, lenses made with, 367 Low Ke y mode, 30, 118 low-light capabilities, 5, 36 luminance histograms. See brightness histograms M M (Manual) mode, 31 Active D-Lighting in, 263 built-in flash with, 39–40 ISO settings and, 118 with older lenses, 115 second-curtain sync in, 412[...]

managing, 461 movies, defining destination for , 269 Nikon T ransfer , working with, 445–447 overview data screen information, 74 Picture Contr ols, storing, 257 reco very software, 476 reviewing images, changing card for , 60 Role Played b y Card in Slot 2 options, Shooting menu, 234, 471 shooting information display on, 67 smaller cards, shooti[...]

monolights, 397, 435 motor driv e. Se e continuous shooting mounting lenses, 18–19 Mo vie-recor d button, 58–59 movie r esolution, 66, 174 Shooting menu options, 165, 269 Mo vie Settings entry , Shooting menu, 165–166 movies, 163–177. S ee also audio contrast detection for , 138–139 Custom S ettings menu options, 285 editing, 167–169 Re[...]

Nikon C apture NX2, 12, 443 Auto I mage Rotation options, Setup menu, 318 noise reduction with, 265 WB (white balance), specifying, 406 working with, 447–450 Nikon C reativ e Lighting System (CLS), 422 flash modes and, 424 Nikon D7000 back view of, 55–60 bottom view of, 88–89 front view of, 49–55 top view of, 74–78 Nikon SB-400, 421 Nikon[...]

O OK button, 15, 58–59 on battery grip, 90 Custom S ettings menu options for defining, 305 older lenses. See also non-CPU lenses conversion of, 353 on-camera lighting for movies, 175 On/Off switch, 50 OnT rack, 475–476 Op-T ech neck strap, 9 Opandfa iExif, 297 optimizing images with Scene modes, 334 orange filters, 253–255 outdoor lighting fo[...]

relationship of controls, grid sho wing, 256 selecting style, 251 shooting information display settings, 68 Shooting menu options, 250–257 Pierce, E d, 395 pincushion distortion. See also auto distortion control Retouch menu ’ s distortion control option, 337 with telephoto lenses, 371–372 Pinnacle S tudio, 167 pixel density , 347 noise and, [...]

Q quartz-halogen/quartz-iodine light, 403 Quick Response R emote, 28 Quick Retouch option, R etouch menu, 336 Quick S tar t guide, 11 Quiet shutter r elease, 26–27 R RadioP opper JrX wireless flash triggers, 431, 437 rangefinder with manual focus, 150–151 phase detection, rangefinder approach to, 134–136 RA W formats, 235–239 bit depth sett[...]

release priority , 34, 282 remaining shots actuations, information on, 297 control panel readouts, 79–80 determining, 23–24 file information screen data, 70 Live V ie w information display , 161–163 shooting information display on, 67 viewfinder information, 86–87 Rembrandt, 395 remote contr ol, 26, 27–28. See also Commander mode; remote [...]

R GB histograms, 69, 71, 128–129 Highlights display , 130–132 Playback menu ’ s display options, 220 right-angle viewer , 13 Ritchie, Guy , 171 Role Play ed by Card in S lot 2 options, Shooting menu, 234, 471 Roscoe lighting gels, 401 Rotate T all options, Playback menu, 224–225, 318 rotating images with Adobe Camera Raw , 455 Auto I mage R[...]

sepia toning effects, 253, 255 setup final setup, 17–24 initial setup, 14–17 Setup menu, 311–326 AF F ine-T une options, 324–325 Auto I mage Rotation options, 224–225, 318 Battery Info, 319 Clean Image Sensor options, 314–315, 477 Copyright Information options, 318–320 E ye-F i Upload options, 325–326 F irmware V ersion information,[...]

short exposures, 184–186 short telephoto lenses, 363 shots remaining. See r emaining shots showing/hiding images, Playback menu, 218–219 shutter . See also shutter speed light passed through, 98 vibration reduction lenses, lag with, 378 Shutter-priority mode. See S (Shutter- priority) mode Shutter r elease button, 49–50, 76–77 AE-L options,[...]

speaker , 57 speed. See lenses; shutter speed; sync speed speedlights, 12. See also Commander mode; specific types Custom S ettings menu options for sync speeds, 301 overheating, 426 working with, 418–422 spherical aberration, 372–373 Sports mode, 29, 117 sports photography Active D-Lighting and, 262 AF-C (continuous-servo AF) for , 149 freezin[...]

T taking aperture, 84–85 T amron compatibility of lenses, 353 macro lenses, 377 teleconverters from, 375 tape cleaning sensors, 482, 487 tele-zoom lenses. See telephoto lenses teleconv er ters, 375–376 compatibility of, 375 crop factor and, 347 telephoto lenses, 358–359, 363 bokeh with, 372–373 f/stops with, 369–370 lens hoods for , 374 m[...]

short exposures and, 185 socket for , 88–89 Virtual Horiz on feature, Setup menu, 322–323 TTL (through the lens), 302 multi-flash cables, connecting, 430 TTL flash cords, 13 tungsten light, 403–404 12-bit color , 242–243 21-point dynamic-area AF , 35, 147 24-bit color , 242 two-button reset of defaults, 42–44, 229 two shots in movies, 174[...]

warranty card, 11 waterfalls, blurring, 189–190 WB (white balance) adjusting, 36 Adobe Camera Raw , working in, 455, 457 comment to setting, adding, 248–249 for continuous light, 402, 405–406 control panel readouts, 79–80 with flash, 406 with Image Overlay tool, 334 library of settings, creating, 250 Live V ie w information display , 161, 1[...]

Z zoom heads, 422–424 focal length and, 423 Zoom in button, 58–59 zoom lenses image quality with, 361 maximum aperture with, 361 prime lenses compared, 360–362 speed of, 361 Zoom out button, 58–59 zoom range of first lens, 350 zoom ring on lens, 83 zoom setting on lens, 83 zooming in/out with Adobe Camera Raw , 455 on reviewing images, 37, [...]

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