Well I Guess these things Don't Always Have to be

....Intrapersonal.

So here is Tutorial based on Nikon D70SLR experience:

~    DATA RECOVERY  ~

To Begin with, security of intellectual property at a basic, crucial level~
pcinspector.de/SmartRecovery/i…?
Has not failed me with recovering Camera format files from Flash memory cards.

Select your format whether it be .jpg, RAW formats or video formats...
Select the drive in which your Card is appended to the PC interface by.

It will tell you if you need to do a deep scan, but in options you can tick it prior to trying.
This will ensure it does the best it can do to find and recover files,
which it automatically stores to your designated recovery folder/location.

My moto to help with queries is "Freeware is the only Wares".
Also. Rarely must you beware of it in comparison to sluggishly large,
self validated programs touting a huge install file size and not much else.


~  Shooting SLR Full Manual  ~ Single.Lens.Reflex
www.dcresource.com/reviews/nik…
www.digitalreview.ca/pics/D700…

ISO:  the sensor behind the flip up mirror has variable sensitivity settings, call it boost.
(the image you see is off the shutter mirror to a prism infront of the eye-piece)

Shutter Speed: this mirror blocks light, but also dust (yay) and your view when up!
The faster the time the sensor is exposed, the less motion/shake Blur,
but less exposure time.

Times to use a fast shutter speed include - shooting towards a strong light source,
fast moving subjects (iso will have to be increased when aperture is max-open).

Aperture: aka www.cameratechnica.com/wp-cont… :
the blades within the lens slide in sync to make a small circle like hole,
this having subtle edges, light flares like star shapes in odd lighting.

The higher the sensitivity by altering ISO, the cruder and ruffer the image
(esp. grainy with hot spots), so to grab more light... one uses the widest aperture.

Situations where you don't want to compromise and open up just for light:

Because a small hole lets less light in, this gives more time for 'ambient' sources
to expose properly and this results in well defined edges through out an image.
A camera chip is actually rather good at determining distance, these are 3D
perception-capable devices, depth does exist even if images are 2D.

Also I think the center of lenses are made to be sharper,
so a small hole in the middle utilizes this region more.

If you want your whole scene in focus, or more ambient gloaming,
glows and presence from multiple sources of slow wave or subtle light,
then you will compromise on speed and maybe get a tripod if your ideas are darker.

Don't pay more than $20.Aud

When shooting night skies, sometimes it is worth putting the iso up,
to then use a smaller aperture at the longest shutter time possible,
because the celestial objects, harsh light, will become finer and crisper.

I have used a 50mm (focal length) prime (no zoom), wide open at f 1.8 (blades unwound),
and was much happier with the same 30second exposure done at about 5.6 or 7.1 f.stop.

This isn't the case on the 18mm-55mm, typically with a small aperture range,
I want as much light (3.5) at the widest focal length.

Zoom or no Zoom:

The compromise of using zoom, is when you extend the barrel of the lens,
less light can get in, so essentially you lose a few stops from your widest aperture size.
Which is why photos will shoot slower in auto and when light is scarce,
it might be worth having more mega pixels and simply cropping the photo in post later.

You can choose to fuss over framing your photo in the moment,
or grab the moment and tinker it to perfection later.

These ideas are the parallels of photo ideology...

Shoot in RAW in camera and use software to get what I actually wanted.
Or USE the device, the amazing image processing firmware in-camera
and let the camera really paint with light. My hands the director to a master-mind.

Other situations where you don't want the Largest Aperture just for grabbing at light:

~ Bokeh ~ sta.sh/0xerg98jvsd

Your eyes actually do focus, unless you're slow you wouldn't notice.

As well they adjust to light conditions with great finesse and organic fluidity.

You look at the shadowy depths beneath foliage on a sunny day
and it is dark in there, you try to take a photo and find it shoots at one 200th of 1-second.

You look at the same area when the sun is shaded and it looks just as dark in there,
you try to take a photo and you find it shoots at one fifteenth the fractions of a second.

Let your body feel out your settings with experience and be mindful of lights' situation.

When you're wide eyed, your eyes are seeking more light, usually at night.
When you force a camera to open its' eyes wide in auto, it wants to blink quickly.

Like being awoken into daylight streaming in but wanting to close your eyes non- the less.
Even if having dozed off, what you did see was vivid, but pretty damn blurry. (some how).

And some how... whether speedy wide open, or longer wide open...
you will get exactly what you focus on and the Bokeh effect of
combined lens elements in disarray will make out the rest.

Well it is more of a texture than a fault.

~ Low and High Contrast ~

The contrast between bright and dim lit subjects in an image,
are also known the extreme counter variables describing a dynamic range.

Metering modes:

Spot - measures light from middle dot in view finder.
Center weight - the wider {-} area, which you can vary in size in settings.
Matrix - basically the full frame.

I mention this because, when you point at a low light reflecting subject
and want the standardized camera to make its usual 'well exposed' image,
but with assurance your subject will be the priority.

You would spot meter on them, or center meter depending on circumstance;
how close you are or how much else of a contrasty scene you want to balance into view.

Well if you matrix meter zoomed in on their black tie, it is likely even then you'd 'blow' their hair.
Anyway, shooting SAP-priorities, spot metering and exposure locking is alternative-full manual.

Exposure Lock:

So your subject is important, but it doesn't have to be the center of the universe.
You meter on them, lock the cameras semi/auto reading for exposing them to your liking.
'Recompose' your photo, i.e. frame how you like and press the shutter button.

Bam! you have the same result you metered from them, just with a nicely proportioned image,
your subject off to the side, a tree creeping in the other side making a nice frame-edging.


Auto/Programmed-Modes:

You know. You ~action action action, fumble brain, what is all these extra buttons again!!!

"No time to... hmm fast but not VERY fast object, I will speculate 2000th of a second will freeze it.
But I won't compromise on time for light to get into my lens too much so 1250th will do, and I will
make it about f.9 instead, to get a little bit more stuff in focus either way from my focal point."

So neh, I guess if categorization is quicker for your brain to process, you go,
"HOLY THRIFT NIPPLE, THIS DUCK IS IN SPORTS MODE! pewpewpew".


P of the MASP modes?

You want the camera to take a photo.

You want stuff to happen when you use a control dial.

You want full access to all settings and these to be engaged in your image.

Thus you get Exposure Compensation, A, Ss, ISO, Metering, Pop-Flash tinkering and so on,
capabilities with the ability to bother learning what the buttons do. But if you don't press buttons,
turn knobs or do a combination of both at the same time, you still get a visible image *yay.

All you have to do is set your Priority to your own personal Program!

~        ~FULL MANUAL!~        ~ oogy boogy boogy.

Ok so.

ISO high = Fuzz
Aperture small incuring exposure time= Blur
Speed fast = stark light

Moving away from the in-built programs which draw upon a database of 'perfect examples',
raw photographic data turned into numerical figures and scrutinized scrupulously.

i.e. Tone Compensation works of OEM Tonal Curves.

Using MASP is a balance with compromises,
where as using automated 'happy mediums' is a dance with the unknown,
never knowing whether you could have got the photo you wanted.
(You aren't always leading).

So to jump into this realm, you must make one key compromise, (de-categorize)
stick with it and try-try-try to work with it, or work things out from your experience.
You might feel more conditioned, but essentially... the only condition you gain,
is knowledge, where as the other condition is a loss of involvement in creative process.

MMMMMmmmm maybe I will try it out.

Where to start or a key basis to form an ideology upon.

With ISO changing, your ideas of the right values to use are... worthy but invalid, or relevance is lost.

Decide not to compromise on compromises;

'I want smooth clarity' = Sensitivity of sensor minimum
(new compact camera image processing chips flounder this theory).

Start with this as one part to your basis and it will become your latter compromise.
(this is my suggestion)

Example:

NikonD70SLR

ISO 200

Shutter 125th of a second during the day, facing away from the sun at a shady tree; f.4.

Sky blow out highlights. Hmmm, smaller aperture! (f.11)
It is just a landscape, no focal point really; well background, middle range, foreground but no item.

Smaller aperture + same fixed speed will = darker image.
If blown highlights, darker image = good.

Leaving Speed with relatively slow time = think warm decent glows or desired depthy image.

But if a bird flies past and you get bright ideas, just quicken the speed (=wider aperture),
with less likelihood of getting the animal in focus, with a shallower field of ...
focal range (depth)... so unless you know the flight path, focus on something
a similar distance away. Your best chance is having more of the image in focus.

I mean at f 2.8 considering the ISO not to be variable, then you get the right amount of exposure,
by altering the speed, which will be fastest at the widest value,
but nonetheless you're only focused on a small region of air.

So if want more depth, you will use a smaller aperture (higher f number), but you want to keep the speed?
Boost the ISO. (D70 = 200 to 1600, 800 is my max before I feel a diminish in the quality I want in images).
Also it is probably the point where the in-camera processing chip starts to stop managing
light artifacts very well. The data being processed is bright RAW sensitivity.

ISO 200

Aperture f.8 for Macro style close up of a point of focus with less the subject being Bokeh; 30th second.

Hmmmm sky around flower very white, lost nice blues and cloud...

Quicker speed!! Oh look that bug is so sharp! ohhhh quicker speeeddd woo! QUICKER!!! Ok...
Image dark... cannot see flower :<

I KNOW! Flash!


Second basis to the foundry of preference:

ISO minimum + lets your brain learn the relationship of exposing a sensor through a variable sized hole in a dark room/box.

Now.. what is your second priority..? Not sure. Well simply this is situation based.

Subject focus think Aperture priority in mind.

Subject stillness rather than a still subject think Speed.

8000th of a second bird is humming bird style.

300th is a fruit dropping, where as a raindrop probably 800th (velocity + wind)

125th of a second... well how long is a second? What can happen 125 times in a second?

40th of a second, might be a classy rude gesture.

30th of a second... you wobbly bastard.

15th of a second, be still.

3seconds... wait it out, steady like you saw a t-rex or an ex.

10seconds... it is dark out or you are shooting at f.32 in the shade, why you do this?

f.32, you just got to Dinosaur Valley and although nothing is moving,
there are some amazingly unique land formations, but you want to see them all!

f.18, you are doing a similar thing, but it is noon, not looking at the sun.

f.8, apparently sharp text, thus sharp macro.

f.5.6, you aren't feeling very "Bokeh-licious" today.

f.3.5 with macro tubes on... you want to get a mote of dust in focus — yes.. just one.
(macro tubes move the lens from the sensor, this equates to Bokeh-central (un-literal).

f.1.4 being serious again... it is dim light, but nice light.. your friend is naked and willing.
hahah I jokes.

Like I mentioned Wide apertures can make things look out of focus,
maybe due to the very fine focal range allowed by a small point of focus (Bokeh leaves sharp).

Anyway so if you're taking subjects in low light, this is a compromise,
but it is a nice compromise, if you just want that thing at standard portrait length.

So.. ideally... this is one situation .. well THE situation (low light) where ISO is ditched...

ISO 500-800, minimum shutter speed for your ability to keep still the camera,
then all that is left is to pick your depth of the field range of the image,
where by your focus point within the focus length is extended,
to include surrounds, literally surrounding this point.

There are new cameras you take 'DATA' with - essentially making photos in software
by choosing the focus later, or post tilt shift which is 'artificial' focus
(/blur not using the organics inherent to the device).

Anyway so... you are balancing;

-wanting the smoothest imagine quality by ISO minimum,
-wanting depth of feel as I call it or wanting still momentum.

If you can't get the DoF you want by aperture being too small for the available light,
you can get a tripod, use a flash or pump the ISO...

This depends on how much the composites of the image are moving
and how much you mind if they are in motion blur. A back ground light bulb is,
swinging in a draft, nice! Slow speed to get dim light wide open (lowest f.).

Also how long you can hold still as mentioned and whether you can include
more 'natural' sources of light. Varies these situations. For instance,
instead of gathering more light by compromising settings, compromise the
composition of a photo by adding lamps, or using a torch, or reflecting beams of light.

If you're not using Manual, but letting the camera meter light rather than your creative-eyes
AND you are getting darker or brighter over all or parts of an image than you like/want...
this is where you would exposure lock or alternatively and more average/standard...

...Alter the Exposure Compensation:

+ is more - is less, in terms of light.

AUTO: + 2 is combination of aperture wider and shutter open longer,
the camera is judging distances remember and if it sees a depthy field,
well it will shoose a smaller aperture by way of averages to get more of it in focus.

-2 it would make smaller aperture and speedier shutter, to get a darker image overall.

Semi-Auto: A-Priority; it will only apply this enhance reading to the speed.
S -Priority; it will only alter the aperture to gain or lose light.

You don't gain ISO BOOST like some sources suggest with Exp.Compensation.
The camera merely... compensates in the realm of exposure.

Well the technical(s) I will leave to anyone who felt like reading and has a query,
or anyone that is inquisitive enough to ask complex questions
in comment, without caring for indulging in overviews.


^   ____ ^


Hint:

*Can alter Flash power in settings or... stick a piece of a tissue to it? - ?

**Exposure locking has its' own dedicated button usually,
but I do Ken Rockwells trick with the D70 and set this to be half pressing the shutter.
Where as Autofocus is then set to the Ae-L button.

*** When zooming alot and wanting to set the Aperture to its' widest value,
with only the speed changing automatically for you, use A or 'Program' priority.
On the D70, when you set the aperture at its' widest, make sure to do with
at the lenses widest focal length.

18mm-200mm VR, you'd go 18mm (unzoomed) set f 3.5, then zooom.

This is because as mentioned, you lose f stops with zoom, so when you zoom,
you will see the values go from 3.5 - 5.6 at 200mm (as rated on each lens).

BUT if you set it to minimum, at 80mm and zoom back to 18mm,
because you have selective control of setting the aperture,
the value will stay at f 5 or what ever it is, even when at 18mm again.

So, telling the camera to use the minimum at 18mm, when you zoom out to 200mm,
it will use the minimum the whole way through and back again... as it has been set.

****

Autofocus setting - Closest Subject is due to the chips ability to determine depth,
not black Magic!

Also when you focus on wire-mesh/window mesh, it will vanish when focusing distantly through it.


*****

Custom tonal curves can be added to get decent dynamic range for contrasty subjects.

You want detail under a bridge well lit, but a blue cloudy sky, not a white flarey one.

Currently I can't see much uniformly useful variation using the 'Tone Compensation'
-2 (low contrast) or +2 (high contrast) maximums.

The sensors Dynamic range will be the next advancement,
although it seems the path being chosen is more in-camera firmware,
to process the data into some weird thing. I think with fps a priority,
in continuous shooting, making sensors more variable is still worthy.

But this is where taking multiple exposures, one to get blue sky,
one to get graffiti and tones under a bridge. Then stitches or combined,
give you a 'High Dynamic Range' photography... and even with blue sky,
in the water that was glaring at you near the bridge woo!

HDR requires timely processing, like noise reduction done in camera.

*Yawnzies... Sensors must evolve and computers must be utilities.

The point is if you have a white sky, not much can bring artifacts of detail,
back into the reality of a high light image. Even by changing tone curves in 'Post.


******

White balance is important, if to do anything flat in-camera and alter in post processing,
this would be it. Also you can add custom images as the Cameras 'Go-to' white balance...

I'm still not quite sure what effect different images have exactly,
but my custom preset is a blue circle shot out of focus with a white middle.

This is complicated to un-do in post, but instead will create an 'effect', woo! Uniqueness.


*******

With a sensitive sensor and long exposures, light traces get in through the
viewfinder where your eye would normally cover. This is a purpley haze called 'bleed'.


********

When wanting Macro type shots, focus at your minimum focusing distance by default,
then use your body to get the subject in focus.


*********

a DX sensor is a 'cropped' version from the old 35mm film days,
but considering the advantages of digital, it isn't cropped as much as ... well.. smaller.

an FX sensor is mimicking the sensor from old film cameras,
this is for lens comparability. An old Full frame lens (one that uses the whole sensor)
of a film camera, when over a DX sensor, IS a cropped use of a lens.

This is why a 135mm 2.8 Nikkor, will have an 'equivalent' focal length of 200+mm,
when used on a smaller sensor camera.

With all the new sensor sizes in compacts, who can compare really.

Now that more light sensitive pixel sized sensors can sit into a space,
overall sensor size can be smaller again, or bigger for super-mega-pixels 28 THOUSAND!
Each pixel sensor has usually 3 component sub-sensors, red, blue and green.

And again, using a lens which directs light to a DX sized area,
is a cropped use of an FX sensor camera... and you lose MegaPixel area obviously..
thus your image is made up of less little sensitives/details.

Or you can make bigger sensors with bigger, higher quality pixel sensors on it...
and make everything too confusing to bother with. yay!

**********

You trifle/dislike flash as much as me... use your fingers transparent warm glow close up,
or alternatively to get warm tones of pre-existing light, shoot at 2.5th of a second,
which is on the ways to a second long. And use Flash to grab sharpness of subject.

So you get the warm glows of ambient light and a nice 'Rear' flash at the end,
to superimpose the subject back over the mucky blur if hand held.

Normal flash is before the exposure, so a car will be sharp and then ghost forward,
where as Rear flash will let the image exposure, then the ghosting will trail the car.

Which gives a sense of motion in terms of chronology.

Also this is a way to layer a photo.

You can set f 22 and 30 seconds, meaning bits of light take longer to impact upon the sensor.
Which means if you walk past the lens, it will not notice, or paint a thin layer of your shirt.

So in a dark scenario... use an appropriate aperture size, meaning you get a visible image,
even before messing around in the photo. This can include calculating your activities light prior to,
or just get a nice background and blow the foreground.

Use a torch to draw shapes and jump around not to be seen.

If you stand still and there is a light source, it will reflect from you still, for long enough exposing .. you.

Thus... at night... grab a bright light if in the pitch darkness maybe with a dim street lamp lighting one area.

Jump in the photo and exposure yourself... jump to a different place and turn the torch/light on yourself again.
There you have it, photon copies of your carbon self.