V1.02
Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D300
Page 307
remember this is not exactly the same as changing
exposure; what you change with Capture NX’s “exposure”
adjustment is the linearity of the data. Still, for errors of less
than a stop, this is a useful shortcut and a real butt-saver if
you weren’t paying attention while shooting. Beyond -1EV
compensation in Capture NX, you’ll almost certainly get
posterization of highlight data, while 1EV you’ll
begin pulling up visible noise. My photography mentors said
it perfectly: “everything you get right in the field saves you
time and effort in the darkroom.” That’s true of even the
digital darkroom.
Here are some useful bracketing settings:
Setting Use
-2F 0.7
When you’re in a hurry and think you might be
close to blowing out a channel.
5F 1 .0
or
7F 1.0
To create bracketing sets for Photoshop’s
Merge to HDR
function.
+3F 0.7
or
+3F 1 .0
Bracketing in very bright, high contrast scenes
(beach, snow, etc.)
Exposure Compensation
The D300’s exposure meter, like all modern meters, is set to
assume that the subject it is looking at has a reflectivity of
middle gray.
Camera meters are calibrated to ANSI standards, which use
luminance targets, not reflective targets. Plus there’s an almost
half stop tolerance in the manufacturing standards. So your
meter may be a bit off from what you expect it to register. My
experience with dozens of Nikon bodies has rarely indicated
any deviation between bodies, though, let alone one big
enough that I felt compelled to adjust exposure values to
compensate for a meter inaccuracy.
