The Photography Thread

[ispoonwithmugen]

Bracketing:
This is where the camera will take different EV steps (you can set). For example it'll take a picture -1, 0 and +1. That way, theoretically, you have a full range and no blowouts. It's common with HDR and astrophotography. I use it as a backup in case (you'll want a tripod for this)

Active D-lighting:
It's a Nikon thing that is used in high dynamic ranges. It'll bump shadows and bring down highlights if I had to guess. I would just shoot RAW and edit in Lightroom and you could achieve the same if not better image.

Metering:
Metering is how the camera reads the light. If you have it set to 0EV and metered for the whole image I believe it takes the average to guess the correct exposure. If you have it on a single point (like I do) it'll take what your focus point it and ensure that that is metered at 0EV (or whatever you keep it at). From my research and in the field I almost always keep it at -.7 or -.3 EV.

So if I use bracketing without HDR turned on I'll get 2-3 seperate image files every time I press the shutter?

Sounds like I want to leave ADL alone and mess with metering and see what gives me the best results.

I'm mostly just shooting stuff directly to share, I don't know if it's worth the disk space of shooting raw if I'm not really planning on doing crazy editing. I also don't have a work computer with photoshop anymore, so I'm doing all my editing in GIMP. I guess I can just set it to capture both file types, I've got 2 64GB cards for it.

I'll check out those 50mms, probably gonna wait and cool off a bit before i start blowing money on lenses.

Depending on what you're trying to accomplish, yes, it appears you'll get 3 shots. Check this link out: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dummies.com/photography/cameras/nikon-camera/how-to-bracket-exposures-on-your-nikon-d5500/">http://www.dummies.com/photography/came ... kon-d5500/</a><!-- m -->

Bingo on the ADL.

Even shooting to share. I'd look into Lightroom (it's fast and easy) to just quickly import and shove photos around. You can get the license on Amazon fo cheap. I hardly use Photoshop unless I'm doing some hardcore editing. You can accomplish most everything in Lightroom. You'd be amazed at the results you can get from it. Check this timelapse out here:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kycqOtcSsFY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kycqOtcSsFY</a><!-- m -->
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Hear ya on that. Gear envy is a real disease.