Complete Guide to the Nikon D200- P6 potx

The NEF White Balance Controversy If you’ve spent any time on the Internet researching the D2x, you’re likely to have seen comments about the encryption of the white balance value in D2x

detail than with JPEG images (resolution chart numbers are about 2-3% higher on average in my testing; they can be considerably higher in NEF if you’re using noise reduction in the camera)

Post-processing exposure changes are also more easily made with NEF files (these are not really exposure changes, but changing of the linearityF

57

of the exposure, which is why it works better to correct underexposed images instead of overexposed ones, though note that underexposure definitely brings up more noise on a D200, so the amount of correction range you have will be dependent upon your tolerance for

noise) You also gain full post-shooting control over color

correction and white balance decisions (with JPEG those decisions are irrevocably recorded in the data when the picture is taken) And, as just noted, you can usually “correct” slightly incorrect exposures

With JPEG images, you’re working from the camera’s

interpolation of the color and white balance While you can often rebalance images using a program like Photoshop, you’re one step removed from the original information—in digital media, each interpolation of original data can result in lost data or changes to data The more changes you make, the more likely that artifacts of those changes become visible

Tip: If storage space isn’t a consideration, strongly consider

shooting in one of the image qualities that saves both NEF and JPEG files for each image This gives you the best of both worlds If image space is a consideration, remember that every NEF file embeds a JPEG Normal image in it that can be extracted, if necessary

57

You may wonder what “changing the linearity” means Normally, each rise in bit value represents an equal corresponding rise in “brightness”—when we change the linearity, we change the progression Instead of a data increase of, say, 16 being output as a value 16 higher, we might lower that number (e.g an increase of 16 is output as an increase of 8) or raise it (e.g an increase of 16 is output as an increase of 32) Moreover, as shot, images have input-to-output relationship that is almost a straight line from 0,0 on a graph to 255,255 (you may have seen such a line in Capture or Photoshop’s Curves tool) We can actually change the straight line to a curved one or a complex relationship

The NEF White Balance Controversy

If you’ve spent any time on the Internet researching the D2x, you’re likely to have seen comments about the encryption of the white balance value in D2x NEF files, including those in

my review of the camera (which can be found at

subsequent to the D2x (the D50 and D200 as I write this), use the same white balance encryption technique, so the same comments apply

To reiterate the problem: camera settings are stored in EXIF tags for all NEF files and not initially applied to the data (well, okay, the embedded JPEG image used for thumbnails and previews has the camera settings applied, but the raw camera data isn’t messed with) In theory, you can simply pick new camera settings while looking at your image in a NEF

converter program such as Nikon Capture and have them applied to the original sensor data White balance is one such camera setting

Nikon has been doing something strange with white balance values, though There are two types of EXIF tags: those

defined by a standard and in common use amongst all camera makers, and what’s known as Manufacturer’s tags—tags defined by a specific manufacturer White balance should be

in the common use tags Nikon some time ago began splitting

it out into the Manufacturer’s tags of their NEF files The result was that software that looked in the common tags for image data didn’t find any information about white balance for Nikon NEF images That meant special programming to deal with the Nikon images, but most programs that deal with white balance in any way (reporting or manipulating it) now understand Nikon’s special white balance tags

The D2x introduced yet another wrinkle, however Not only

is the white balance information split out into the

Manufacturer’s tags, but it was now encrypted Essentially, the camera serial number and shot number are one set of keys, and a constant serves as a hidden key The camera serial

number and shot number are visible to anyone, but the constant and the actual white balance data tables are hidden within Nikon Capture (or the Nikon SDK files)

Encrypting shot data had implications for third-party software Officially, Nikon’s position is that third-party software should use the Nikon SDK (freely available under license agreement)

to access NEF file data Unfortunately, that had a number of implications, not the least of which is that performance of any raw conversion was therefore dependent upon Nikon’s programming efforts (The SDK files are apparently not

“threaded,” meaning that they don’t support background processing, which many imaging programs use to do multiple things simultaneously and increase performance.)

Initially, Adobe did not support the D2x white balance values

in NEF files converted through the ACR function (raw

converter) of Adobe Photoshop CS2 That’s because they couldn’t use the SDK as is, and they didn’t want to decrypt the data as that might be construed as a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The net result was that for a short period of time we didn’t have a full complement of optimal D2x NEF converters available, and it appeared that subsequent Nikon bodies wouldn’t be supported, either

Eventually, Nikon produced what they call the mini-SDK, which allows a developer to query for the white balance data only Adobe and others have now used this in their software programs and thus support the D2x, D50, and D200

The primary benefit of white balance encryption really only amounts to slowing down other converter and software developers from fully supporting the Nikon cameras This is certainly not a benefit to D200 purchasers, because it slows down software developers Indeed, it means that software engineers working on converters have to spend time trying to figure out what Nikon did rather than adding features to their converter That’s simply not a good use of their time

But there’s a bigger danger here: Nikon has abandoned software in the past (can you say Photo SecretaryF

58), and NEF images are our originals Thus, there’s the potential for the mini-SDK to go away at some future point in time

Meanwhile, Adobe wants the camera makers to unite around

an open format for raw images called DNG (Digital Negative) The camera makers don’t want Adobe to define their raw formats The ironic thing is this: until Nikon decided to

encrypt data in the NEF format, I was perfectly happy with the format and not worried about its longevity

Already I’m shooting RAW+Large JPEG Fine as a backup

scenario Beyond that, sometimes I use the latest DNG

converter to convert my NEF images into DNG, though I don’t

do a lot of that because it further increases my image storage requirements, and I already have two terabytes of space hanging off my server

If you’re as worried about this change as I am, I suggest that you write a letter stating your wish to have NEF an

unencrypted and openly documented format to:

58

Photo Secretary was a image data program that Nikon created for the F100 and F5, which is no longer available Meanwhile, Canon has dropped support for some early digital cameras in their latest versions of Canon conversion software, something that

we Nikon users have to fear in the future, too

Setting NEF

õ To set the camera to record NEF images:

1 Press the MENU key to show the menu system

2 Use the Direction pad to navigate to the SHOOTING MENU (the green camera icon tab)

3 Use the Direction pad to navigate to the Image Quality option and press > key on the Direction pad

to select it

4 Use the Direction pad to navigate to the NEF (RAW)

and press the > key on the Direction pad to select it

5 I always suggest checking the Raw Compression

setting after setting NEF, just to make sure it is still at the setting you wish Use the Direction pad to

navigate to RAW Compression and press the > key

on the Direction pad to select it

6 Navigate to NEF (RAW) (or navigate to Comp NEF (RAW) if you want to use compression) and press the

> key on the Direction pad to select it

Note: You can also choose to save both NEF and JPEG images

simultaneously on the D200, which gives you the best of both worlds: the “digital negative” of the NEF and an immediately usable JPEG for simplified workflow The D200 allows you to choose the JPEG quality level that’s saved

with the NEF, so you get choices of NEF(RAW)+JPEG

Fine, NEF(RAW)+JPEG Normal, and NEF(RAW)+JPEG Basic

Tip: A JPEG image (Normal quality) is already stored along with

the NEF image! It’s embedded as the preview image Software exists that let’s you extract this JPEG (see

http://drchung.new21.net/previewextractor/ ), so the NEF+JPEG choices are a bit redundant Too bad Nikon didn’t think to have an option for Extract JPEG during download of NEFs from camera to computer

Alternatively, hold down the QUAL button on the back of the camera and rotate the Rear Command dial to select RAW (or one of the RAW+JPEG options; the top LCD displays the

Image Quality setting as you change it); this assumes you haven’t used Custom Setting #F5 to change the dial functions:

Top LCD (only one option will appear at any given time; the

LMS indicators only appear if you’ve selected a RAW+JPEG

option):

Note that you don’t normally set the Image Size when you select NEF (RAW) format, as the D200 always records the

full 4288 x 2848 image size for NEF files However, if you

elect to record a JPEG image along with your NEF, you can

set the size of the JPEG image that’s recorded using Image Size (or the Front Command dial with the QUAL button)

Setting Compressed NEF

Compressed NEFs are selected using a separate menu

function

1 Press the MENU key to show the menu system

2 Use the Direction pad to navigate to the SHOOTING MENU (the green camera icon tab)

3 Use the Direction pad to navigate to the RAW

Compression option and press > key on the

Direction pad to select it

4 Use the Direction pad to navigate to the selection

labeled Comp NEF (RAW) and press the > key on

the Direction pad to select it

Here’s the rub: since you set compression separately from

Image Quality, it’s easy to forget that you’ve left it set For

example, you shoot with compressed NEF to save space on a card during one session Later you switch the camera to shoot JPEG Still later you decide to shoot NEF again, but want regular NEF Unless you remember to cancel compression separately, you’ll get compressed NEFs

The problem is complicated by the fact that you often just use

the QUAL button shortcut to set the RAW Image Quality, so

you’d never see the compression setting (which is shown only

in the menu system) I understand why Nikon chose to do it this way—we would have had even more menu choices to

scroll through in the Image Quality setting list—but I can

think of better implementations than they chose, and a

compression indicator would have been nice

Note: If you select compressed NEFs, the file size is smaller (by

about 50%), but the Frames Remaining indicator does not reflect this In the best case scenario, you can usually store

about 2x the number the camera indicates when

compressed NEF is active (e.g if the camera says 24 frames remain, you really have space for about 48) The worst case I’ve seen for a single D200 NEF file is a 1.5x change (e.g if

24 frames remain, you really get 36 on the card) So we can generally assume that you’ll get something between those two values Personally I multiply by 2 and then watch carefully when the indicator gets below 10

Yes, this is very annoying, and it’s been a problem for compressed NEFs on almost every Nikon DSLR to date (curiously, the D70s doesn’t share this trait, and the D70

firmware update also fixes the problem, so perhaps we’ll get

a firmware update to address it on the D200, as well)

EXIF

Even if you’re a seasoned computer graphics pro, you may be surprised to find that JPEG and NEF files contain more than the image data This extra information about the photo is

sometimes referred to as metadata

Nikon D200 cameras follow a standard developed by the JEIDA (a Japanese standards body), sometimes referred to as EXIF The current standard version is EXIF 2.21, and is

supported by the D200

The additional data EXIF tags attach to an image includes:

• The name of the camera maker (Nikon)

• Camera model (D200)

• The camera’s firmware version number

• Information about the exposure itself: shutter speed, aperture, exposure mode, ISO value, date/time, overall brightness of scene (EV), exposure compensation, focus distance, metering mode, flash mode, focal length, and even the average compression ratio

59 (see “D200-related Software” on page

59

Well, as I point out in “The NEF White Balance Controversy” on page <152>, not every program understands Nikon’s encrypted white balance tag

<H613>) Some programs may not fully display all the EXIF data values, though

Not only is looking at EXIF data fun for the merely curious, but if you study the information closely, you may even learn about the idiosyncrasies of your camera and your shooting practices

Here’s the EXIF (Shooting Data) window as shown in Nikon View Note how all the most important exposure data is shown, as is information about a number of camera settings

EXIF is one of the reasons why you can’t create or edit a JPEG file on your computer, save it back to the camera, and then see it on the camera’s LCD, by the way When you perform

any Save or Update action on your computer, some of the

EXIF tags in the file get modified (or removed) in ways that the D200 detects This is too bad, as it prevents you from editing

a series of JPEG files on your computer, then moving them to the camera for playback as a slide show (In theory, if you replaced the EXIF tag with the correct, camera-consistent information, and didn’t edit the thumbnail, you might be able

to display edited pictures on the D200 In practice, I don’t know of anyone who’s successfully doing this.)

Note: For a program to display the correct EXIF information for an

image, it has to know something about the camera and the codes that are stored in the EXIF tags (e.g “18-70mm F/3.5- 4.5” isn’t stored in the lens field, but is instead stored as a short code that is unique to this lens) Now that the Nikon DLSRs have firmly established themselves (and because Nikon used consistent codes for many of the manufacturer functions in the various digital SLR models), most software applications correctly identify most D200 EXIF data

However, if you find the program you’re using doesn’t, check to make sure that you’re using the latest version If you are, suggest to the developer that they contact Nikon for the EXIF codes for Nikon cameras In theory, products that use Nikon’s SDK should return correct EXIF data tags

Unfortunately, as I’ve already pointed out, with the D200 Nikon has done something a bit sordid The white balance setting used to be stored as a value in one of the

Manufacturer’s Tags, which are defined by the camera maker Previous to the D2x, the values in this tag were open and understandable Beginning with the D2x, and now including the D50 and D200, the white balance tag is encrypted, which makes it difficult for third party software

to support that value

Note: Older EXIF specifications define the color space of all digital

images as being sRGB, and a number of digital editing programs, including earlier versions of Photoshop (but not

CS or CS2), assume that sRGB is the color space of any JPEG file that is opened and has EXIF data The current EXIF definition has a special way of dealing with color space: the file is named differently for AdobeRGB color space: instead

firmware Some programs you use may or may not

recognize the color space if they haven’t been updated to support the new standard See “Color Profiles, Color Spaces, and Color Modes“ on page <H557> for more

information on this subject

IPTC

Another type of metadata is sometimes incorrectly referred to

as IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) IPTC is an organization, and the standard they’ve developed for common digital photo metadata is DNPR (Digital

Newsphoto Parameter Record)

Like EXIF data, the DNPR metadata is stored in the photo file

A DNPR-aware program is required to show and edit the DNPR metadata (again, it’s often referred to as IPTC data by many programs) If you shoot photos for news organizations, you need to be aware of this data and have some way of entering it, as most publications require it to be in place with photo submissions—it’s become the primary method by which news organizations track captions and photographer credits IPTC has defined a common set of coding guidelines, but you should also check with the publication you’re

working with, as they may have their own specific standards,

as well

Though the D200 doesn’t create any IPTC metadata, some third-party software programs allow you to add it to your D200 files Nikon View’s image transfer function has a setting that allows you to copy EXIF data into the IPTC fields, which I recommend using I’ll deal with that in the sections on Nikon PictureProject and Nikon View later in this book (see “Nikon PictureProject” on page <H614> and “Nikon View” on page

<H628>)

To find out more about IPTC, go to the organization’s Web site, Hhttp://www.iptc.org

DPOF and PictBridge

The D200 supports DPOF information in the image files DPOF stands for Digital Print Order Format and was

developed by Canon, Kodak, Fuji, and Matshushita to allow CompactFlash cards (or other storage cards) to contain

information that automatically instructs a printer (or photo finishing machine) Amongst other capabilities, DPOF-

capable cameras can specify:

• Which photos to print

• How many copies of each photo to print

• Whether or not to print a thumbnail index of all the images

• Whether photos should be rotated

• User information (name, address, etc.)

• Picture information (title, description, date, etc.)

You select the pictures to print on your D200 by adding them

to a Print Set (see “Printing Your Images” on page <H594>) When you remove the CompactFlash card from your D200 that has a defined Print Set and insert it into a DPOF-capable printer, such as the Epson Photo 875, the printer

automatically prints out all the photos you’ve selected

PictBridge is related to DPOF Think of DPOF as the print data embedded in the image file and PictBridge as a

communications protocol to transmit files from camera to printer The D200 supports PictBridge, so you can connect a printer directly to the D200 and print from the storage card in the camera (see “PictBridge Printing” on page <H597>)

If you’re confused about why I just covered DPOF in the Image Formats section of the book, remember that DPOF is a

set of standardized information that is stored in the image file

File Names and Folders

The D200 follows an industry standard practice for putting images on CompactFlash storage (Design Rule for Camera File Systems, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation DCF; the standard is published at

http://www.pima.net/standards/iso/tc42/wg18/ISO12234_all/

designers of this format didn’t make it particularly friendly (for that matter, neither are their URLs) Likewise, many of the standards digital cameras follow are interwoven DCF is related to the EXIF specification, for example

Essentially, the standards committees put together by the early digital camera manufacturers were trying to put together a set

of rules that made it easier to interchange data and connect devices So while the standards seem arcane and confusing, remember they’re actually there to make the user experience simpler Really

Folders

The top-level folder for a digital camera is named DCIM

(Digital Camera Images—all image storage occurs in the structure underneath this folder) Within that folder, digital cameras place one or more additional folders, each of which can have up to 999 images in them

On the D200, Nikon names the first such folder 100ND200, the second 101ND200, and so on

For example, if you use multiple cameras, you might find multiple folders under the DCIM folder, thus you need to know how your cameras name folders:

• On a D2x the folder names begin 100NCD2X, the second

101NCD2X, and so on

• On a D2h and D2hs the folder names begin 100NCD2H, the second 101NCD2H, and so on

• On a D50 the folder names begin 100NCD50, the second

101NCD50, and so on Folder names can be renamed to things like 100BYTHM

• On a D70 and D70s the folder names begin 100NCD70, the second 101NCD70, and so on Folder names can be renamed to things like 100BYTHM

• On a D100 the folder names begin 100ND100, the second

Remember, if you move a CompactFlash card between two different camera types, each will create an appropriate folder

name under the DCIM folder! And each camera usually won’t deal with the images already on the card from another

camera

Short of doing a complete card format, you won’t be able to remove a D70 folder that has images in it using a D200 And,

of course, if you perform a format on the D200 you may be

removing folders created by other cameras even if that’s not

what you want (this is one of the reasons why I’m a swap-cards-between-cameras guy)

never-Other pitfalls occur with multiple cameras, too Remember that three-digit number? If your D100 is set to use a folder named 145ND100, then if you take that card out of the D100 and put it into your D200 and do something that triggers a new folder creation, the number for the D200’s folder will be incremented to one past what the D100 was using (i.e

146ND200 in the example)

Yet another problem to watch for: if you have multiple folders

on a card, the D200 uses the highest numbered one Okay, it’s a little subtler than that: images are saved into the folder

name with the highest three-digit prefix number unless you’ve

told it to do otherwise by using the Folders option in the

SHOOTING MENU

The D200 allows you to do three things with folders:

• Select an active folder from existing folders

• Create a new folder

• Select a playback folder (or folders)

That’s all, folks And even that minimal set of options is

confusing (e.g what’s the difference between an active folder and a playback folder?F

60)

60

The active folder is where any new images are stored The playback folder is what is

used to display images (e.g for the Slide Show option)