For me–like many others–I had narrowed down my first DSLR to a Canon or a Nikon. I didn’t realize that whichever I picked would put me on a path to fandom that few people have ever broken. When you commit to one DSLR manufacturer, you typically stay with them. After all, the lenses and other accessories typically aren’t interchangeable.

So it was for me. I would become a Nikon fanboy.

Nikon D40

Nikon D40

I wouldn’t have called myself a Nikon fanboy at the outset.

While I had used a Nikon point and shoot to capture some great photos, I had always been impressed with photos I had seen taken with Canon DSLRs. I could have easily flipped a coin, but my decision mostly came down to affordability and the Nikon D40 was the one that fit my budget best. The D40 was already a couple of years mature when I bought one. Still, it was cheap, and as a newbie there were two things I didn’t know.

1. Would I really like photography as a hobby?
2. What features do I really need in a DSLR?

So, with that blissful naivety, I bought my D40. And, I fell in love.

I started taking lots of photos. First at conferences I attended, then more often, my vacations–especially those to Hawaii.

Nikon D80

Nikon D80

I soon outgrew the 6 megapixel limitation of the D40. Also, I had just bought a 50mm f1.8 prime lenses, but the D40 didn’t have autofocus built-in to the camera, and the lens didn’t have a drive either. Also missing was exposure bracketing. I had started to see HDR photos, but to take them on the D40 was near impossible without a lot of effort.

I loved the D80! Some of my favorite photos have been taken with it. Still, I was still behind the curve. The D80 was already dated, thanks to the new D90, but I figured I didn’t need that many extra megapixels (12.3 on the D90, versus 10.2 on the D80). Also, video didn’t interest me much.

The D80 is the camera that first got me interested in doing HDR photos–something that has now become a passion!

Nikon D90

Nikon D90

After prices started to come down on the D90, and I realized that I did actually need the extra megapixels–I did a lot of cropping–I decided to upgrade. I knew I’d enjoy the better noise handling at higher ISOs, and the built-in sensor cleaning would be useful after swapping out lenses a lot.
What I still didn’t expect to use much was the video. Yet, slowly and surely, I started to use the video recording more often. Compiling short video vignettes for Go Visit Hawaii. I really though the D90 was going to be the camera I used for years.

Nikon D7000

Nikon D7000

Hello my precious!

For the first time in my DSLR journey, I bought a camera soon after it was released. My wife had mentioned she wanted to do more videos and, in particular, video interviews. The D90 did HD but only at 720P and it did not support external microphones or have auto-focus when in video mode. I convinced myself that I needed the D7000 as it offered the dreamy 1080P at 24fps and it supported external microphones. That provided all the options for interviews such as this one.

I also love that the D7000 offers much better noise control at higher ISOs than any of my previous cameras. The extra megapixels come in handy too. I never have bought into the “more is better” sales pitch surrounding megapixels–I’ve taken some great shots on the lowly 5MP iPhone–but the 16.2 MP in the D7000 allow me to crop in really close without much loss of detail.

In Summary

So, I’ve had 4 different Nikon cameras in as many years. You probably think that I have money to burn. Not so fast! One thing that was a welcomed surprise was just how well each Nikon retained its value in the used market. I was able to sell each camera for around 70% of what I paid for it, which made upgrading a lot easier on the wallet.

I am now well and truly a Nikon fanboy, but that didn’t stop me from recommending that my brother (Hi Mat!) buy a Canon for his first camera. They are both excellent camera manufacturers and I would have been just as happy with a Canon–and likely a Sony or Pentax. In fact, being a Nikon lover didn’t stop me from picking up a Panasonic Lumix LX5 for travel, and the brand new Fuji X100.

Still, with the Nikon lenses at my disposal, and my knowledge of Nikon’s terminology, it will be unlikely that I will switch. In fact, I only know of one photographer that has successfully switched from a Nikon to Canon.

So, I’d like to finish by asking you what’s your favorite camera? It doesn’t have to be a DSLR, it could be a compact camera that you’ve fallen in love with. Please let me know in the comments below!

Camera: Nikon D2X
Exposure: 4.7
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

How I got this shot:

The camera was on a tripod in “Bulb” mode with a cable release. As the show progressed, I watched the trajectory of the rockets and got an “average” of likely explosion spots, and set my compositions accordingly.

I set the ISO to 200 to get a little more speed while keeping the noise to a minimum, and the aperture to f/11 to get some good depth of field. I opened the shutter manually just before the explosions and held it open until the light trails faded, about 3-5 seconds on the average, constantly checking the LCD for composition and exposure.

View Peter Liu’s Flickr Photostream

Camera: Nikon D80
Exposure: 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture: f/2.0
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 1000
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

How I got this shot

I love my 35mm f/1.8 prime lens. No, it doesn’t zoom–I use my legs for that–but it does give me some great bokeh.

For this shot, I placed the stuffed snowman on the floor. I then placed myself on the floor, so that I was at the same level–actually, looking up at the snowman. I then adjusted my aperture from 1.8 to 2.0, as I’ve read many articles that suggest you get a sharper shot when you step down from your camera’s maximum aperture.

I took a few test shots and made the following adjustments. I increased my ISO to the point that I could get enough light while still hand-holding the camera. You can see that I ended up at an ISO of 1000 and an exposure time of 1/20 second. Any higher ISO and I risked too much noise in the pic. Any slower shutter and I risked not being able to hold my camera still enough to avoid blurring.

Lastly, I positioned the snowman about 6 feet from the Christmas tree. The combined aperture and depth of field gave me that pretty “bokeh” effect on the lights. They were out of focus and hence, you get that flared look.

Processing

Not much processing in Apple’s Aperture software. I boosted the vibrancy and contrast a little, but not much else. The only other thing I did was to clone one of the lights and paste it twice on the right of the picture. I did this because I realized that I had a small black area with no lights. To keep the image balanced, I added these lights. That’s about as sophisticated as I get with “photoshop” (although I actually used Aperture’s clone feature).

View Andy Beal’s Flickr Photostream

One morning in November, I looked out the window to see what promised to be a gorgeous sunrise. Fortunately, my Nikkor 14-24mm lens was already on my camera, a Nikon D700, so all I had to do was grab the tripod and run out the door. I set up just behind the house and saw the bright clouds reflected in the windows of the house, giving a warm golden glow to the stone work.

One of the primary requirements for good HDR (High Dynamic Range) images is a tripod. Even if the normal exposure could be hand held, you still need to be sure that every image in the bracketed series will line up perfectly. Photomatix Pro, the software I use to process HDR images, can do a decent job of lining up images, but the result is often less than desirable if a tripod was not used – resulting in what appear to be out of focus images.

Other important considerations are:

* aperture priority (to have a consistent depth of field),
* auto-ISO off (set the lowest ISO possible to reduce noise in the images),
* and manual focus (to make sure the focal point doesn’t change from one image to the next).
* Some also recommend setting the white balance to something other than Auto. I always shoot in RAW, and this has not been an issue. If it were, the white balance of RAW images can always be changed with software.

So, I shot 7 bracketed images with 1EV spacing between each one, at an aperture of f/5.6 and the lens at 14mm.

After importing the images into Adobe Lightroom, I immediately exported them to Photomatix Pro. Photomatix default settings usually provide a very good starting point but optimum results will normally require tweaking some of the settings. In this case, I left the strength at 100%, but reduced the Luminosity slightly because the default setting was too bright.

Next, I increased the Smoothing setting slightly to get rid of the halo around the house – this is sometimes introduced by HDR processing and can add impact to some images but often results in an unnatural looking effect.

Finally, I reduced the Micro-smoothing to zero to retain texture in the clouds and stone work on the house and then saved the image back in to Lightroom for some minor tweaks.

The highlights were still a little too bright so I used Lightroom’s Highlight Recovery slider to reduce those slightly. I almost always add some Contrast and Clarity – it seems to add a bit of a sharpening effect. Then I normally increase the Vibrance, especially if there is some blue sky, to deepen and darken that sky. Finally, I’ll sharpen slightly and and do some noise reduction to make sure the image is as smooth and noise free as possible.

Producing HDR images is a lot of fun and can give some added dimension to your portfolio – so give it a try!

View Thru Mike’s Viewfinder Flickr Photostream

Waiting to pick up Chinese food tonight so I ran across the street to this place and shot a photo. I was in this shop a couple of months ago and all I can think about is that movie Grumpy Old Men. The guys that work here are actually really nice but it just reminds me of the 50’s or something. Anyway, back to the weekend!

Where
Bennington, VT

The Shot
Nikon D90, Sigma 10-20mm, bracket 3 exp (-2,0,+2) using a tripod

Photomatix
Generated HDR using Photomatix, tonemapped with Details Enhancer

Photoshop CS3
Layer mask of curves to slightly increase the contrast
Layer mask of decrease saturation (reds) to reduce the tone of the sign
Layer mask of levels to correct the overall shot
Blended some areas to correct the red color cast
Dup layer to apply high pass filter @ 60% to sharpen things up a bit

Noise Reduction
Neat Image Trial Version

You
I would always appreciate any suggestions you may have. I don’t always know the best way to adjust things in Photoshop so any areas of improvement are welcomed.

View Eric Wood’s Flickr Photostream

By Peter Liu

Camera: Nikon D2X
Exposure: 0.2 sec (1/5)
Aperture: f/16.0
Focal Length: 29 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

How I got this shot:

This panorama was created with four exposures on a tripod with a 3-stop ND grad set on the horizon. I used the sun as a reference point and simply panned from left to right. I had to do this quickly, as the sun was moving and I wanted it to occupy the same relative spot in all the frames. I used an ExpoDisc to set the white balance beforehand and locked the focus and exposure.

From Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.5, I loaded the four frames directly into Photomerge in Adobe Photoshop CS4 and processed the panorama using the default settings. After flattening the resulting image, I used the Ruler Tool to straighten the horizon (I didn’t have time to make sure everything was level during the shoot) and did the final crop.

Then I saved the image as a TIFF, closed it and reopened it in Camera RAW, so that I could adjust the overall exposure and use Fill Light to open the shadows in the rocks. I saved the image again and imported it back into Lightroom, where I manage all my photos. As a finishing touch, I burned in the edges slightly using the Vignettes feature in Lightroom.

View Peter Liu’s Flickr Photostream

Camera: Nikon D90
Exposure: 30
Aperture: f/25.0
Focal Length: 62 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

How I Did It

I used an old double pole cloth hanger (google it) in a dark room to hold a little LED construction I made. The LED construction consists of 5 small LEDs of different colors and a detachable battery pack with an on/off switch.

The lamp is hanging from the cloth hanger. On the ground I put a 1x1m mirror. In an angle of about 60 degrees I put my camera on a tripod, facing the mirror and focusing on the little LEDs reflection.

I switched off the light in the room, set my shutter speed to 30 seconds and put the LEDs in a circular motion. As soon as they were spinning evenly, I switched on the LEDs via the battery pack switch, let them rotate for a short while and switched the lights off again. 30 seconds are a long time, you will probably need about 10 seconds where the LEDs are actually turned on. You have to pay attention that you switch off the LEDs in about the same position where you switched them on so that there is almost no telling where there is the beginning or end in your picture.

It was really fun taking those pictures and it is an easy setup with the “wow-effect” many of us are looking for

View derRuedi’s Flicker Photostream

Camera: Nikon D300
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/641)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 10 mm
ISO Speed: 200

How
3 exposures, -2, 0, and +2 using a Nikon D300 w/ Sigma 10-20mm Wide Angle

Process
Photomatix Pro for tonemapping
Photoshop CS4, made duplicate layer from original, adjusted Levels, adjusted Curves, adjusted Hue/Saturation, and used Unsharp Mask to sharpen a tad.

View Nimo’s Flickr Photostream

Camera: Nikon D300
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/2.0
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: On, Return not detected

Very “ghetto” setup. D300 hooked to Commodore 64 monitor used with liveview and a wired remote. My light stands are still packed up from my move so I put a flash on the floor with sync cord and bounced it off a large piece of white cardboard leaning against the tripod in front. Second flash put on top of a box in behind and used to whiten the wall. Front 1/8 Power Rear 1/4 Power. Camera F2 1/125 ISO 200.

Celebrate Movember: www.movember.com/

View jamesrdoe’s Flickr Photostream

By Andy Beal

Camera: Nikon D80
Exposure: 10
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 42 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: -1/3 EV
Flash: No Flash

I happened to be in Waikiki when they launched a few fireworks. I knew this ahead of time, so set up my camera on a tripod, on one of the small piers.

I wasn’t sure where the fireworks would launch, so I set a relatively wide angle on my zoom lens. Then, knowing that I’d need a long shutter time, I set my ISO to 100 (the lowest) and my Aperture to f/11. This seemed to work well.

I was in Manual mode, so experimented with changing the exposure time. If I had used Aperture priority, the camera would have selected it’s own shutter speed. If I had selected Shutter priority, the camera would have selected its own aperture.

I didn’t have my remote control with me, so I used the camera’s timer so that it took the shot 3 seconds after I hit the shutter release. This is important, because you want to avoid any shake in the camera, while it’s taking the photo.

One thing I learned with this shot, was that the best option was to manual focus to infinity. Using the auto focus didn’t work, because the camera would simply “hunt” for something to focus on–and it was too dark.

Then, I just kept hitting the shutter button and hoped that I’d get a shot like this.

There was very little I did to the photo in Aperture. Pretty much cropped it and that was it!

View Andy Beal’s Flickr Photostream.