Disappointed

[Caroleen]

I purchased a Nikon D80 a couple of months ago. I'm really disappointed in the pictures because they just seem blah. They look like any other point and shoot camera and that is not good since the camera was really a very major expense.
Am I doing something wrong as far as taking these pictures? I used to have a Canon 35 mm and it took absolutely gorgeous pictures but I wanted to go digital? Are there any DVD's out there for learning photography or what is the best way to learn how to take full advantage of a nice camera like the Nikon? Just a little flustered right now.

[NMarti]

Carol
I used the book for Canon Rebel XT from this site and they also have one for your camera. I was really pleased with the book. It had a lot of useful information. You might want to check out this site (http://www.gmbooks.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=gmb&Product_Code=D80-OOC).

[Winsunn]

When I bought my Nikon D50, the quality of the pictures just blew me away compared with my point and shoot. But I don't have a great eye for photography and depend on the camera to work for me. Maybe you just have an eye for the sport and can take a decent picture with any camera, point and shoot or SLR.

[TonyW]

I guess the question is what do you mean by blah. I have a D80 and out of the box it won't give you the bright, highly saturated colors you might get with a P&S because Nikon take a more conservative approach to in camera processing than a P&S designed for the average consumer. But you can change all that by selecting the right shooting mode and changing the custom settings. I would highly recommend a good book. For the D80 I started with the D80 User Guide on Ken Rockwell's site (it's free):

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d80/users-guide/d80-users-guide.pdf

I'd also recommend the D80 Digital Field Guide by David Busch and the D80 Magic Lantern Guide by Simon Stafford.

Having done some reading and got the camera figured out I'm extremely pleased with the camera and the pictures you get with it.

So tell us what you mean by "Blah" and I'm sure it can be changed to suit your taste :)

Tony

[Caroleen]

What I mean by "blah" is that there are not bright, sharp and just plain stunning. I really don't know how to explain myself but my hubby has a Kodak Easyshare P&S and his pictures are much better than mine even though we might shoot the same thing.
I've looked at several of others photos and they are really nice. I just need to get me some books like you said. I appreciate all the advice and have looked online for DVD tutorials but they don't seem to have too many. I looked at Laurie's website and boy, those are some stunning pics. I was just wandering, if maybe, I was missing something.

[Caroleen]

Tony,
thanks again for your info, too. I did look up the www.kenrockwell.com (http://www.kenrockwell.com) site and there is tons of info there. In fact, he said the same thing about photos. He gave an example of a P&S camera and a very expensive camera and the photo was very good on the P&S. He says the difference is the settings on the camera. I'll do a lot more reading on his site and see if I can improve things. Thanks a lot.

[Not4wood]

Caroleen,

I also have the D80 but since right before Thanksgiving.

If the shots are blurry, check your shutter speed or better yet. What shooting mode were you in. You can check this by looking at the Exif Data and it will let you look at the information of the shot as you took it.

Some of the program modes also change your focusing modes so if your not using the correct mode your focus will be slightly off as well.

I am not familiar with your level of Exposure experience so I will make one comment. If you images are slightly blurry, maybe your camera focused on something else besides what you wanted at the time of exposure. This camera has a puter built in. I thinks just like you do, and is also very smart. Except, if your trying to focus on one thing in your shot the camera might want to focus on something else. This might be the cause of your Blah photos.

Depth of Field, if your focus in the shot is on a part of the subject and you need more depth of field to keep other things in focus as well you have to move your exposure to give you an smaller or lower f: stop. For example: the camera likes to shoot a f:4 or f:5.6 but if you want more depth of field or more of the shot in focus you might need f:8 or f11.

Me thinks its time to look at the pdf file that was offered. I was reading it and it has a lot of info about changing some of the settings to make the photographers life a lot easier.

[JulieM]

Caroleen,

Also, remember that when you shot film with your 35mm camera, the lab made adjustments to your images before you even saw the prints. Depending on the camera settings on your digital camera, your images may need similar post-processing in Elements before they will look as good.

Boy, I understand your disappointment. But, you've got a great camera and I'm sure with some tweaking either in camera or in post-processing, you'll get your images the way you want.

[NickLewis]

Caroleen,

I'm a Canon user not Nikon. so I can't be terribly specific, but you may well achieve what you want by varying the Image Optimization presets (at least I think that's what they are called - they are "Parameters" on a Canon). These determine how contrasty and vivid the camera processes it's images to be. By default, they tend to be set fairly neutral on a DSLR compared with a P&S.

Nick

[billd2]

Caroleen, I also have a D-80 and I agree with what has been previously stated. The learning curve is quite a bit higher than a point and shoot camera and a good book is certainly necessary. Tony listed a few and if you do a google search for a Nikon D-80, I am sure you will be overwhelmed with what is presented. Needless to say, I am quite pleased with the photos from my camera and I will always be in a learning mode. What wasn't mentioned is the lens factor. I have found that matching the subject matter with the lens is very important. I'm sure with a little more experience you will be happy with the D-80.

[TonyW]

Nick: Us Nikonians have custom settings where you change all that stuff :). Funnily enough I'd always been told that Nikon have traditionally been more neutral than Canon, so if Canon is more neutral than a P&S then Nikon must be definitely more neutral. Not that it really matters because everything can be adjusted either in-camera or in post processing.

A bit off topic but an unexpected Christmas gift was Nikon Capture NX which lets you take a RAW file and apply the custom settings to it on the computer so you can see what they will all do to in-camera processed JPEG images. Saves a lot of experimenting in camera although I can't say that having played around with the program I'll be changing anything I haven't already changed. But Capture NX does have some other clever things that Photoshop/Elements doesn't do so I'm quite happy to now have it although it's certainly no replacement for Photoshop/Elements.

Tony

[mrod]

Hi Caroleen,

Another D80 newbie chiming in (about a month now). Right after I decided to buy, Grant, of Grant's Tools fame (and Village forum member) gave me some great advice that has helped me deal with all the lousy pictures I've taken in the process of learning about the camera. He said, in part:

Along the way you will make lots of mistakes but your images will become better and better.

The exposures I'm currently capturing sure aren't going to make anyone forget Laurie Excell, Joe McNally, or Moose Peterson (notice how I put those names in very diplomatic, alphabetical order? :D), but if I do say so myself, I think they are getting a little better.

Keep at it, and enjoy the journey!

Mike

[TonyW]

Just as an example here's a picture I shot recently with a D80. The only difference is that the one on the left is Color Mode II with Normal Saturation and the one one the right is Color Mode IIIa with Enhanced Saturation. It's actually the same RAW image using Capture NX to change the settings to what the JPEG would look like if you used those settings in camera. Which one you prefer is a matter of personal taste but as I like bright colors I tend to favor the one on the right as the one one the left looks a bit "blah" to me.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1N1IToEU5YeTFxgmapQEHNtWBQq2x1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1N1IToEU5YeTFxgmapQEHNtWBQq2x1)

The beauty of shooting RAW is that you don't need to decide ahead of time. You can always change it later.

Even with JPEG you aren't completely stuck with it because a little bit of editing in Elements can generally fix it. Here's the above image with a saturation boost and a levels adjustment done in Elements to the left hand image. Now it looks pretty much like the one on the right.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1rlscXbXQQpbFv8JsFdYfD4yXylGzt_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1rlscXbXQQpbFv8JsFdYfD4yXylGzt)

I think I actually now like the one on the left slightly better :D

Tony

[lexcell]

Caroleen,
It also depends on whether or not you are shooting in RAW or jpeg. P&S cameras shoot in jpeg and the image is processed in camera. The same goes to a D-SLR in jpeg but, in RAW, you still need to "process" the image. It may look dull and lifeless straight out of the camera but, by making a few adjustments in Elements the images should look much better.

Also, as mentioned, the camera has some optimize image settings you can adjust to "per" up your images.

[lexcell]

Great examples and explanation, Tony!