The number one reason you should shoot RAW is that it allows you to adjust your white balance during post processing.  Here is an example of what I’m talking about:

The shot’s original white balance is on the right, and the adjusted white balance is on the left.  No more ugly amber light from the street lights of downtown Winston-Salem!

One of the first things I bought for my Nikon D5000 was a WhiBal white balance card (a gray card), a must-have if you’re going to be shooting RAW and want to make these post processing adjustments easily. It’s usually as simple as click an eye drop tool and clicking on the card (in Lightroom or Aperture).  There really is no good reason to not shoot in RAW.  You’re given up few megabytes per picture to retain all of the shot’s information, which gives you better options and freedom to work with the picture after it was taken.  Sure, you have to spend a little extra time with your pictures to make them better, but you might be able to make decent shots into great shots! Just remember: once you take that photo in JPEG, that’s it- it’s done and baked in (and compressed!).

If you do have a white balance card, remember to use it! And don’t forget to take another picture of the card (at the subject, unless lighting is constant) whenever the lighting/exposure changes.

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After shooting in JPEG for a couple of weeks on my new Nikon D5000, I quickly noticed a tiny, pixel-sized bright red spot showing up at the same place in most of pictures.  This was especially noticeable when the red spot was surrounded by darker colors.  At first I thought it might have had to do with a certain condition I was shooting the camera under (high ISO, certain aperture or shutter speed, etc.) but I soon realized it was happening pretty much regardless of any specific condition, so I ruled dust out as the source of the problem.  I wasn’t too worried about the spots as I could easily and quickly batch-remove them in Lightroom, but it was still annoying and an extra time consuming step in my post-processing work flow.  I showed my brother the following 100% zoom of a picture of Sammy to see if he had any ideas on what this might be:

He had no idea because he never saw anything like it before in any of his photos. I did some quick Googling to see if anyone else had this issue…. and low and behold I found out what my problem was: I had a stuck “hot” pixel.  “Hot” pixels are dead pixels picked up by the camera’s sensor and are most likely red, green, blue or white.  Already, on a brand new Nikon camera, I had a “hot” pixel!  But apparently this is a rather common problem with Nikon cameras.  Unfortunately the only way to remove these “hot” pixels is by pixel mapping (which requires shipping your camera to a Nikon repair center for a few weeks) or exchanging your camera (and risking getting more “hot” pixels on your replacement). What a sad choice of options.  You would think Nikon would build in pixel mapping into the firmware of the camera.

However, not all is lost! I discovered that if you shoot in RAW, then “hot” pixels will automatically be “fixed” for you when you import your pictures into an application like Lightroom without having to perform any of your own spot removals. But the hot pixels are still there.  The software simply automatically compensates for them via algorithms during the conversion process.

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After receiving a nice tax refund this year, I decided to splurge on something that I have been wanting for quite some time: a DSLR camera!  I ended up purchasing the Nikon D5000, mainly because my brother, my brother-in-law and my uncle all shoot Nikon (and therefore I can share lenses or experiences with them).  The usual rule of thumb with purchasing DSLRs is that you either buy based off of equipment you already have, or if this is your first DSLR, then you buy what your friends and family have (for borrowing lenses and equipment).

The Nikon D5000 with the kit 18-55mm lens attached

Body: The D5000 is a pretty nice entry-level DSLR.  It has the ability to take short 5 min HD videos (and 20 minute non-HD videos) and has a nifty articulating LCD viewscreen, which combined with LiveView enables some interesting self shots (or angles above your head or at the floor).  Unfortunately the auto focus in LiveView is INCREDIBLY slow (3-5x slower than via the viewfinder).  Don’t bother using it if timing is a necessity of your shot. However, I found it easier to manually focus shots in LiveView, but there is still an additional shutter delay that can throw off timing. Pictures also look pretty decent when the ISO bumped up to 3200 and above.  There are plenty of other features to discuss, but I’m still getting familiar with them. I’ve mainly been shooting in JPEG, but plan on shooting RAW from now on (for the post-processing benefits).

Lenses: The camera came with a kit lens: a Nikkor 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6 VR.  The lens is a great starter lens, but I have quickly found myself in situations not ideal to this lens.  The first situation is taking pictures of landscapes and wild life beyond my range.  The 18-55mm just does not reach far enough when I tried shooting at ducks at the pond in King’s central park or at the lake behind Shannon’s house.  You can only get so close to the ducks before you exceed their comfort zone or come to the water’s edge. Therefore I need a telescopic lens! I’ve considered adding the Nikkor 55-200mm F/4-5.6 VR to my bag to supplement the 18-55mm, but I’m heavily weighing the Nikkor 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6 VR  option to completely replace the 18-55mm as a very versatile lens for any situation.  The best benefit is not needing to swap lenses (or miss any shots because the wrong lens is on!), yet that comes at the price of a heavier/longer lens and higher cost. I’m thinking that the pro is outweighing the cons, but I am going to wait a bit before making a purchasing decision.

The other situation I’ve had problems in is low lit indoor lighting, specifically, but not limited to, my sister’s house. Flash can overcome these lighting problems but I much prefer the natural lighting look (and no red eyes!  Especially with Audrina’s (or Landyn’s) beautiful blue eyes). Since the 18-55mm only allows the aperture to open up to F/3.5, I’ve decided that I need to invest in some “fast glass.” I’m currently borrowing (and plan on buying) a Nikkor 50mm F/1.8 from my brother which works great for these low light situations…. except that this lens does not auto focus on my camera.  After using it for a few times (and getting slightly better at manually focusing), I’ve decided that I’d like another fast, but wider lens that can also auto focus on my camera.  Shooting Audrina in her house was difficult with the 50mm because of the distance I needed to be away from her (and good luck with that with her curiosity!), but the 50mm was about the right distance for indoor basketball.  So, here comes into play the Nikkor 30mm F/1.8 that I just purchased this week. I’ve already used it once with the kids that Shannon babysits and am very happy with the results!  I can’t wait to try it out on Audrina and Landyn!

Other gear: I went ahead and snagged a nice camera sling bag (Lowepro SlingShot 100) and white balance card (as I begin to switch from shooting JPEG to RAW). I foresee a speed flash in the future, but not anytime soon.  And I really need to invest in a tripod.

Resources: Since I have jumped right into a field that I don’t know a whole lot about (beyond basic physics and point and shoot cameras, plus the Konica Minolta I was using before), I have quickly found podcasts to listen/watch and have been absorbing a ridiculous amount of information in the past couple of weeks.  If you are a Nikon shooter, I can highly recommend the short 10-15 minute video episodes of D-Town starring Scott Kelby and others. The first “season” is exclusively Nikon talk, but they have opened up more in their second “season.”  I also can recommend the podcast PhotoFocus, which follows a quick and easy reader Q&A session run by Scott Bourne and a weekly guest host and is not specific to any brand of equipment.

Pictures: Here is a sampling of some photos and albums I have taken so far with the Nikon D5000.  Please feel free to comment, constructive criticism is more than welcome!

Stokes County

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I drove around Stokes County snapping some pictures of Pilot Mountain, King, and Central Park with the 18-55mm. I quickly learned about dust appearing in photos shot at F/11 and above (small aperture).  The small aperture also allows for the star-like effect in bright lights like in the shot above.

Carli’s Babyshower and Shannon’s house and lake

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Again shot with the 18-55mm. The ducks were much more friendly allowing for closer shots, but I still wished I had a telescopic lens.  The above picture is actually a cropped photo.

Audrina

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My first set of Audrina! Since I was using the 18-55mm indoors I had to resort to flash….  which resulted in a lot of redeye from those beautiful blue eyes!

Landyn

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I went to visit my brother to pick up the 50mm lens.  I snapped most of these with the 18-55mm.

Sammy

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I practiced using the manual focus on the 50mm on our black cat, Sammy.  Focusing wasn’t too difficult since she didn’t move around too much.

WSHS Basketball vs. Bunker Hill

Luke Hunter going for two points.

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At this basketball game I experimented with the 50mm which was perfect for the lighting….  but I simply couldn’t keep up with the players with the manual focus, so I resorted back to the 18-55mm and flash.  I’d love to try this again with the 35mm, but their season is now over.

Audrina (take two)

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I (almost) exclusively shot with the 50mm in these pictures.  Audrina moves quick and I was still having difficulty focusing, but I managed to pull out quite a few good pictures.  I also didn’t like having to be so far away from her (meaning up against a wall or the other side of the room).

Lauren and Davis

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Lauren and Davis are Shannon’s next door neighbors that she occasionally babysits.  A lot of new things are going on in this album: I just bought the 35mm lens and this is my first time using it (and it was the only lens I used that night). I also switched to shooting in RAW (and used the WhiBal gray card to help adjust the white balance in the pictures).

Video: Here is a quick video I took of the West Stokes Cheerleaders at the basketball game vs. Bunker Hill.  The video was taken in HD, so be sure to bump the quality up to 480p.

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