Introduction

I love the workflow in Aperture. I hate the user interface in Capture NX. That said, I decided to see if the RAW conversion in Aperture lives up to my expectations. Frankly, I think I am getting great images out of Aperture, but I am letting others that I read cast some doubts on the quality of the RAW conversion. Also, I really do like the fact that Capture NX can read the camera settings in the file and that makes it my application of choice when I need to generate a quick CD of JPEGs for someone who says, “hey, can I have a copy of those photos you took tonight?” It is easier to just generate JPEGs than explain that I have to process the files first. (more…)

tags: post-processing | software | technique

The fact that I just got around to processing some photos from a trip to Glenwood Caverns over a month ago illustrates the problem with shooting snapshots in RAW. Sure, I could have batch processed them with Capture NX and uploaded the JPEGs right away, but I new these photos would need some work. The conditions were far from ideal. We were in a large tour group, several hundred feet inside a dripping wet mountain, and the wet, reflective surface wasn’t cooperating with my attempts to light things up with my SB-800. I was anxious to get some decent shots because I had visited these caves a year ago with a point-and-shoot Pentax Optio, and the photos were worthless. Too bad, because it was dry on my first trip and we were a small group.
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tags: post-processing | technique

By Saturday, I had my D200 for four days. I was anxious to get out to do some real photography, but I just had major surgery and I am limited in my activities. Up until Saturday, all my photos were of my pet cockateil, Blake. Here is one of hundreds…
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tags: d200 | nikon | photos

Note: this entry is based on something I posted on the D200 forum at Nikonians

There has been a lot of posting in online forums about how to choose between the D80 and the D200 (believe me, I have read a lot of it in the past two weeks) and the best advice that I have found in those threads is to look inward at the type of photographer you are and then match the camera to your needs. I am posting this to help others who may be going through the same process, but ultimately, you need to make the choice based on your own evaluation of your needs and your assessment of the equipment you test. In other words, don’t decide to buy one camera or the other based on my choice or someone else’s review. Instead, evaluate your needs; evaluate the features of the cameras you are considering, and best of all, test them all, if you can.

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tags: d200 | d80 | nikon | Photography | Review