The Lens Mount

I heard this one from Darwin Wiggett while attending the Windsor International Photo Seminar and thought it was hilarious. How many photographers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Answer: 10,000. 1 to screw it in, and 9999 to say "I could have done that"

One of the most important settings for getting the look you want right out of the camera is white balance. Nikon cameras have had the ability to warm or cool a given white balance setting for some time. For example if you like warmer images you can set your white balance setting to auto with A6 (for amber 6) which will perform the usual auto white balancing then warm it up +6 in the amber direction so to speak. Of course you can accomplish the opposite if you prefer cooler images by dialing in B1 up to B6 for bluer, cooler images. All of this can be accomplished by pressing WB (white balance) button on the back of the D90 and using the command and sub-command dials to select Auto and A6. This is great, and it can be done separately for each white balance setting (e.g. Incandescent, Fluorescent, Direct Sunlight, Flash, etc...). At first glance however it does not appear possible with the Preset Manual white balance settings, since neither command or sub-command dials alter the blue or...

I noticed that Nikon claims that Matrix metering is recommended when using Active D-Lighting. Of course they don't mention what happens if you don't use Matrix metering. So if you're someone who always uses Matrix metering then you can stop reading. However if you are someone like me who enjoys using center weighted metering then read on. Now one benefit of buying a D90 is the feature called Active D-Lighting which essentially increases the dynamic (tonal) range of your images. This feature can be set to Auto, so that it will automatically determine when a scene is high in contrast and could benefit from an increase in dynamic range, and to what degree. This automatic setting unfortunately doesn't work as well if you are not using matrix metering. So if you are a photographer who often chooses to use center weighted metering you will find that the Active D-Lighting will work much better if you set it to one of its non-Auto settings, like Extra high, High, Normal, or Low...

I'm old enough to know that no statement about the best way to make photographs is ever categorically correct. Some might say "always use a tripod" or "never use auto anything on your camera". In looking at the diverse features provided by today's modern cameras, I often wonder who uses some of them. But I'm certain that there is likely someone out there that uses each of them and has their own good reason for doing so.