Upgraded (I think) from the D40 to the D7000

tcole1983

If you want to shoot RAW you might try for free Nikon ViewNX for free. It is pretty basic and simple I think, but can do the job editing. I use lightroom which I have found pretty easy and isn't as in depth as normal photoshop. I am a lazy photo editor, but I can still work fairly quickly in lightroom.

I didn't read everything everyone said, but it will take some time to adjust. Also if you just shoot jpeg you really lose out on much editing power. I always shot jpeg until I really noticed how much more editing room yo have with RAW. In programs you can also easily output jpegs if you don't feel like editing.

Anyway, good luck with the new camera.

Genopher

Thanks everyone for all of your responses! I'm getting a little more comfortable with the D7000. I had never played with picture control before or exposure compensation! I am completely self taught and take every single picture with a tri-pod and remote so it is quite a bit of work to get my pics to my liking (much easier when I am actually behind the camera). And I have to move around a lot to keep the backgrounds interesting. I despise editing so jpegs are my friend right now. I truly appreciate everyone's help here...I will be back with more questions!

MikeGunter

Hi all,

@Genopher - The camera is great and your blog is great, too.

I don't know if you can return the camera - there's nothing wrong with it, but the D5200 has a screen that allows you to 'see' what you're getting, use the 'timer' on it, and make your shooting a lot easier.

The D5200 doesn't have as many features, but I don't think you'd miss much and would enjoy being able to preview (even if the sample is tiny in the swivel screen) what you are shooting as a self portrait.

As for color, you'll find that the advice to learn RAW color workings is good. It won't take long. Good software for photo editing isn't expensive and the learning curve for the sort of thing you're want to do - simple color correction and cropping - is terribly easy. Software I have taught is for professional users, to include motion editing, and the level of time investment is on a scale exponential to what I think you would want to do, but then these folks work in movies or labs for corporations or the government and have full time jobs in graphics.

Much of the consumer software have 'one touch' (one button) solutions that work very well to adjust white balance, levels, curves, contrast, and much more. You can also tweak those settings to taste, too.

In the "I hate editing" thread, I tried to make case that editing makes one a better photographer. I believe that's correct. If you learn your software, you can then see where you made your mistakes shooting by seeing such things as over exposures or framing or understanding where you needed to fill with flash and if you used RAW, even by how much fill flash you needed like +.3, +.7,+1,+1.3, etc.

Advanced editors can enhance their photos, too, far beyond adjusting white balance. While that might see a simple statement of fact, a good Photoshop user can make a good photograph a great one. Ansel Adams did that with every photograph he made. His photos didn't stop at the negative. In his home he had a microwave (new technology when I was there) that he dried his test prints (16x20s) to see what they would look like and tweaked the exposures.

My advice is certainly to 'previsualize' what you want - your final product - to be, but make your picture. Don't take it. This photo, for example:



was adjusted in Adobe Camera Raw, my tool - at the moment. While the sky is blue, it's hard to say that the blue you see here is 'exactly' the blue in the picture. The same is true for the other colors, too. But it is the vision I saw when I took the picture, and that's the point I'm trying to drive home. Editing focus your vision as well.

My best,

Mike