I recently got a D200 with the 18-135 lense. What is the best settings for outdoors shots mainly waterfalls and wilderness.

The most important issues for that kind of photography are finding the right place to stand/sit/lie/climb to/... when shooting and finding the right time of day to shoot. You should know your camera well enough that you don't need to think much about it, e.g., read the manual several times and practice, practice, practice.

Auto works well...:|

Kidding, of course.

atomhart wrote:
Actually, that's why most digital cameras have an auto setting :blah:
Whenever I've had a new camera, I've used auto to start off with but less and less as I get to grips with the camera.

Auto is a good setting - perhaps not the best, but most often good. Using that setting lets you think about what is most important about the shot such as timing, composition, light, ... Also to figure out other issues about the camera such as focus point(s), focus type, metering, ...

You can learn a lot of the technical stuff by using bracketing with an auto setting. Then look at the results with the aid of an EXIF reader. That is one of the big advantages of digital: the camera takes notes for you.

As you figure things out and do some reading, you will probably move toward using a fixed ISO and aperature priority - on the way to full manual settings. Perhaps using one or more of the other shooting modes like sports, sunset, portriat, landscape, cheese, .... along the way.

I find that if you are going to let Walgreens or Walmart type stores do your printing you just need to use sRGB and program automatic. You will usually always get good prints. I think that the machines they use are geared to look at the meta-data files from your camera to process the image.

If you are going to process the pictures yourself you should use Adobe98 and a good program such as CS2 or elements.

Our Sam's club here in Daytona will process using Adobe98 and print from a color corrected DVD or CD but Walgreens can't and Walmart won't.

Ronnie

Ronnie948 wrote: Interesting. By automatic do you mean white balance and exposure, but perhaps holding ISO at a set value? With any editing afterwards? Even cropping? Only straight from the camera - like with chemical camera?

Gonna have to give that a try - I think I have been doing to much with after shot editing.

What I'm saying Bill is that at our Walgreens here in Daytona the employees that do the photos are not trained to do any other settings on their processing machines. If it is not shot in sRGB you can probably bet you will have a crummy final print. We have a CVS store that will print Adobe RGB98 as well as our Sam's club. If You want just plain normal snap shot 4 X 6 photographs you can just use the camera program mode and get excellent results. If you want perfection you need to learn and shoot like a pro and process your photo's yourself after learning what you want and how to shoot and process for it.

It is not much different then the old film days when the drugstore labs butchered your prints. That is why Custom Labs were the choice of every professional photographer I have ever been associated with.

The machines they use now for digital cameras are no brain automatic and use the meta-data from the camera information to process the photographs. If the operator does not know how or is not allowed to change some processer settings you will have off color lousy output.

Mostpeople just take their CF or SD cards in to the drugstore and load the photos to the store processer without ever seeing them on a computer. That is what the processers in those type stores are geared for.

Just take some photos using sRGB and take the card to Walgreens, then take the same pictures on another card using Adobe 1998 RGB and take that card in to the same store. You will be in for a surprise at the complete difference unless you are lucky enough to have an operator that cares enough to learn how to use the processing machine other then in automatic mode.

Ronnie,

bmaness wrote: Upgrading to a D200 from a D50 was quite daunting, all the extra settings and what to set the camera at for each subject or scene etc.

I found a spreadsheet for custom settings very useful,I have my D200 set up as per the spreadsheet.
Its then just a quick menu & custom settings switch for different subject/scenes.
the shooting modes are

1. point & shoot[/*]
2. portrait[/*]
3. landscape/macro[/*]
4. sports/action[/*]

there are custom settings that correspond to each shooting mode

http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCF...202/17033.html

I found this really helpful in understanding my camera

you will need office software to view the spreadsheet,if you dont have one, Open Office is a good freebie,mac or pc

http://www.openoffice.org/


TD