BJMark,
I'm something of a digital photography nut myself -- you've hit on one
of my favorite subjects. As others have noted, you're asking a *very*
broad question, but I'm going to try and answer it by pointing you in
the directions that have really helped me improve my technique, and
tell you about some of the products, technologies, and sites that make
digital photography really exciting. This will by no means be
comprehensive, but almost all of it will come from personal
experience.
I should provide a bit of information about my experience with digital
photography first: I first started shooting digitals about 2 years
ago. My first camera was the Sony DCS-F505v, the sort-of 3mp
descendant of the 505, and the ancestor of Sony's F707 and F717
cameras. It was a great learning tool, but I soon reached it's
'limits' and realized I needed an SLR if I was going to continue. Not
long after the Canon D30 came out (canon's prosumer-grade digital SLR)
I bought one and fell in love with it. When the D60 came out (same
camera but twice the resolution) I 'upgraded' and have never looked
back.
I take *lots* of pictures of all sorts of things, and I spend a lot of
time learning about ways to make my prints better. It's a continuous
learning curve, and there's no way to learn everything at once, but
I'm going to do my absolute best to point you in the right direction.
I'm going to break my comments down into a number of topics to make it
easier for you to use the information. I'm going to tell you a lot,
and you may want to take it in installments. When I suggest trying
varous techniques or tools, don't feel you have to do everything at
once. It will take some time (at least it has for me) to really get a
feel for all this. It's a different world.
HARDWARE
========
You're in luck, as (and I'm sure you already know this) the equipment
you have is very, very good.
CAMERA: The D-100 is a great camera, and with 6 megapixels you can
comfortably make prints up to 12x18 -- the largest size 4x6-ratio
print your printer can produce (13x19 - borders). That means your
camera is not going to limit the quality of the images you produce in
any practical way, assuming you do the following:
1. use good lenses. At 6MP, the cheap lenses will really show why they
were so, well, cheap. Use good quality glass and you'll be much
happier with the end results.
2. read your manual, get to know how to use the metering, aperture,
and various auto modes. Before you can play with the file, you have to
know how to take good pictures. If you're not already experienced with
film photography and your camera, you may want to take a course at a
local school, photo store, community center, etc. This is definitely
hands-on learning (if you're already a film pro and making the move to
digital, just ignore this.)
3. Always use the highest resolution setting on your camera, even
though the pictures take a lot of space on your CF card, and when
you're ready (i'll explain more on this later), use the RAW mode so
you don't lose any data. Until then, just use the JPEG mode (see your
manual for details).
PRINTER: Certainly one of the key aspects of producing good prints is
having a good printer, and you have probably the best inkjet printer
available today. The inks, when used on Epson papers, are rated at
archive length and color-fastness, though some dispute whether or not
this is possible. At any rate, you've got the best option out there
for home printing, and many professionals use it to produce their (for
sale) fine art prints.
If you *really* want gallery quality work, you may have to work with a
print studio that can produce giclees, a professional-grade printing
process which makes stunning and truly gallery-quality prints. Ask for
clarification if you want to know more about this, but bear in mind
that a top-notch machine to make these prints runs around $50,000, and
having prints made on one are not cheap. Unless you've actually got a
contract with a gallery, the 2200 is probably all you need.
COMPUTER: You didn't mention what kind of computer you have, but you
need to remember that if you can't see accurate colors on your screen,
you can't produce accurate prints. You'll need to first make sure you
have a good quality CRT or LCD screen, and then you need to purchase a
spider, a screen calibrator, to get the colors accurate. This is a
*must* if you're serious about digital photography. See article from
the luminous landscape
(http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/monitor_profiling.shtml )
for more information.
You’ll also want a computer that’s fast enough to handle Photoshop
crunching your files and with a large enough hard drive to store all
your pictures.
SOFTWARE
==========
Once you’re set with hardware, you’re going to need some software to
complete the picture.
DIGITAL CAMERA SUPPORT: Fortunately, all the drivers you need should
be provided with your camera, though from time to time updates are
made. You should keep up with the latest news on the D100, and Nikon
provides a site with just that information (
http://www.nikonusa.com/usa_tech_center/dtc_options.jsp?cat=1&grp=2&productNr=25206
) Right now there’s nothing there, but check back from time to time.
IMAGE IMPORTER: You’re going to need something to get the files off
your camera and onto your computer. The easiest way to do this
(generally) is either by plugging the USB cable that came with your
camera into the computer (and camera) and using the Nikon View 5
software that came with your camera to import the pictures. See your
owner’s manual for details. There are lots of other ways to do this,
and you may find a different process (or other software) works better
for your particular needs over time. I’ll provide more info about how
to learn more towards the end of this document.
IMAGE MANIPULATION: You’re also going to want to play with the
brightness and contrast of your images, crop them, maybe paint out
parts you don’t like, get rid of red-eye, etc. There’s lots of ways to
do all of this, but the de facto standard for photo work is Photoshop,
which you already have. The good news is that you own it, the bad news
is that it’s very difficult to learn. At the very least, I suggest you
purchase a tutorial book, but you may want to take a hands-on course
if you can at a local school, etc. There are some online tutorials
that I will mention towards the end, but like learning to take
pictures, Photoshop is something that requires much time and effort to
become skilled at.
PRINTING: You’ll print from Photoshop, which is good. If you follow
your printer’s installation instructions, printing should be a breeze
from Photoshop. You’ll have to select the settings you want for the
printer, etc., but you’ll get the gist pretty quickly.
STORAGE: You’ll also want to use a program to store and archive your
photos. Windows XP provides good built-in tools for photos (Windows
2000 does as well, though they’re not as good, and if you have a Mac
you should get iPhoto ( http://www.apple.com/iphoto )), but once you
get a lot of pictures you may want to purchase a media organization
tool (aka digital asset management database). My favorite is Expenses
Portfolio ( http://www.extensis.com/portfolio/ ) though many people
prefer
Cumulus (http://www.canto.com/ ). I’d wait on this step until you have
a lot of photos.
PROCESS
==========
OK – You’ve got the hardware and software, now what do you do with it?
It’s not much fun to have all this stuff and not no how to use it. I’m
going to go through a basic workflow, and then suggest ways that you
can learn much more detail about what to do. This is a general
framework to help you get an idea of step-by-step what’s going to
happen.
STEP 1: Shooting. You’ve obviously got to begin by taking a set of
pictures you want to work with. After shooting away you may want to go
through the pictures using the LCD screen on the back of the camera
and erase the pictures you’re sure you won’t want to print or save. I
always take some duds.
STEP 2: Importing pictures. The easiest way to do this is to use the
USB cable and the Nikon View software that came with your camera. See
your manual for details.
STEP 3: Photoshop. If you’re using RAWs (see your manual, but I’d wait
until you get the hang of other things), you’ll want to convert your
raw to a 16-bit TIFF image before you use Photoshop. If you’re using
JPEGs, you can just open the file in Photoshop and start working on
it. Adjust brightness and contrast, crop the image, fix any
blemishes, etc. When you get really good with Photoshop you’ll want to
play with color spaces, but that’s another bit you’ll want to wait on.
STEP 4: Save and Print. Once you’re finished, save a copy with a new
name (so you don’t overwrite the “negative”) and print it on the 2200.
That’s the basic process. Most of the work (and most of the skill) is
in steps 1 and 3. As step 1 is more-or-less like standard film
photography, we’ll just look a bit more at step 3.
Photoshop Techniques
=================
There are so many things you can do in Photoshop it can be a bit
overwhelming. Fortunately, many digital photographers have already
struggled with this before you. In particular, the Luminous Landscape
publishes a very nice intro to Photoshop which walks you through many
of the basic techniques.
Instant Photoshop
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/instant_photoshop.shtml
In addition, if you want a much more detailed process, one of the best
ones I’ve seen can be found here. It includes not only details in
Photoshop, but an extended overall workflow as well.
Workflow
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/workflow1.shtml
These pages are really good, and do a much better job than I would at
introducing you to this very important step in the digital process.
Remember (and they’ll tell you too) that if you *really* want to get
good at this tool, you’ll need to learn hands-on from others.
GENERAL RESOURES
==================
Obviously I’ve only scratched the surface of digital photography, but
the best thing to do from here is spend time on some of the sites that
are dedicated to helping digital photographers get the information and
techniques they need. I’m going to recommend three, all of which have
been exceptionally helpful for me.
The Luminous Landscape is an incredible site. Michael Riechmann is a
photographer first and a webzine author second, and he’s a star at
both. His site is dedicated to landscape photography, but as his
interest has grown in the digital photography realm, he’s really found
his niche. The site has numerous fabulous tutorials, as well as
DVD-based tutorials for sale on a bi-monthly basis and lots of product
reviews, etc. I recommend spending much time here.
The Luminous Landscape
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/
Digital Photography Review is the place to go to get all the info on
hardware. They review just about every digital camera that comes to
market, and they know a lot about what to look for. In addition, there
are forums for many types of cameras, and the Nikon SLR forum is your
best way to get connected to other photo enthusiasts with your same
technology. Right now the forum has some 98,000 messages related to
Nikon digital SLR cameras.
Digital Photography Review
http://www.dpreview.com
Nikon SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review.
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1021
I hope this answer provides just the right mix of enough to get you
started, enough to keep you going, and not so much that you’re brain
screams out for help. If I misunderstood something, part of my answer
isn't clear, a link doesn't work, or for any other reason you need
clarification, I'll be more than happy to follow up.
Good luck with your digital photography. I hope you find it as
enjoyable as I have. |
