Long, long ago... before the digital era... photography was done with film. (If you don't know what it is, just play along. It would take too long to explain.)

Photographers used to store their film in a refrigerator (device for keeping things cool), typically with the film in plastic containers enclosed inside two zip-lock bags to keep out moisture. I was one of those people. In fact, until last night I still was. I had a whole drawer of my refrigerator dedicated to film.

However, with this new day a new era has dawned on, and inside of, my refrigerator. (Excuse me, I'm married now, our refrigerator.)

The negative film I will keep as I still keep a device that uses the ancient material in my truck for photo emergencies. The slide film.... Mmmm? Anybody want to buy it? I might put it on eBay or something.

For future historians and biographers of my life, here is a tally of my final film inventory:

• 4 rolls of Kodak Gold 200 ISO 24 exp. negative film
• 2 rolls of Kodak High Definition 200 ISO 24 exp. negative film
• 1 roll of Fuji Superia 400 ISO 24 exp. negative film
• 1 roll of Fuji Super HQ 200 ISO 24 exp. negative film
• 3 rolls of Fuji Sensia 100 ISO 36 exp. slide film
• 1 roll of Fuji Velvia 50 ISO 36 exp. slide film
• 1 roll of Fuji Provio 400F 36 exp. slide film
• 1 roll of Kodak T-MAX 100 ISO 120 format negative film

Historians should also note that the above list is not entirely reflective of my film-era shooting tastes. I greatly preferred Fuji Velvia and Provia during that era.

The Lightroom 3 public beta is out and D-65 has a preview of it for those of us who don't want to install the buggy beta on our own machines:

http://www.d65.com/lightroom3_beta.pdf

My final image tally for my recent trip to Europe was 3,290, nearly all of which were shot with the new Nikon D300s. Maybe about 200 to 300 were shot with the Nikon D200 when I was carrying two camera bodies around.

After running it through its paces, I love this camera. It was definitely worth the investment. Everyone has talked about shooting at high ISOs with the D300 and D700, so I was eager to test out the D300s and wasn't disappointed. It really, really performs, especially when shooting at night. While I normally would not think of shooting at night without a tripod (and I did carry one around for some night shots), I also shot some night scenes of cafes in Paris hand-held at 800 ISO and you can zoom in at 100% and not even tell they were shot hand-held or at such a high ISO! Granted, I did shoot on continuous high mode where I was bursting off 7 or 8 shots at a time within a second or two. It was hand-held after all! But the frames that were sharp, and I only need one from each scene, are really, really sharp and generally noise-free.

I only started shooting HD video later in the trip. Frankly, I haven't gotten in the habit of shooting video yet. I need practice just to remind myself to do it! On our last night in Paris my wife and I walked from Rue Cler over to the Eiffel Tower, and ran into a big college party (so it seemed) of people on Champ de Mars including a very good Michael Jackson impersonator. I shot touristy video of it at 800 ISO, and it's actually very good. Not cinema quality of course, and the audio is poor (you can purchase in a high-end microphone to plug into the camera though) but given that the only lights available were street lights and the light coming from the Eiffel Tower it's pretty impressive that it was able to capture the moment.

Here are my custom menu settings for the Nikon D300s. Please post a comment if you have any questions about them.

Playback Menu

• Basic photo info - Highlighted all of the following: Focus point, Highlights, RGB histogram, Data

Shooting Menu

The D300s has four different banks (i.e. sets of memory settings) of shooting options: A, B, C, and D. The settings below are for the A bank. You can also give each bank a name which is really cool! I've named A "TSI Primay". These are my customizations for that bank:

• File Naming - By default files are saved as "DSC_*" for sRGB and "_DSC*" for Adobe RGB. Part of my workflow is to rename all my files after editing; however, since the D300s gives you the option of imputting your own three letters instead of "DSC" I put in "TSI" anyway. It can't hurt.
• Image Quality - RAW
• NEF (RAW) Bit Depth - Options are 12-bit (defalut) or 14-bit. From the manual:

  NEF (RAW) images are recorded at a bit-depth of 14 bits, producing files roughly 1.3 times larger than 12-bit files but increasing the color data recorded. Maximum frame advance rate falls to 2.5 fps. (emphasis added)

  What's difference in tones? 12-bit produces 4,096 tones and 14-bit produces 16,384 tones. That's a slight difference!

  I've kept my set to 12-bit for now, because I want to burst off frames as fast as possible on a tenth-of-a-second's notice. However, I plan to experiment with the 14-bit option whenever I'm shooting landscapes in the future.

• Color space - Adobe RGB - Always use this. The gamat of colors is much wider than sRGB.
• Movie settings - Quality - 1280x720 - Have have an HD camera if you don't keep it set on HD mode?
• Movie settings - Destination - SD card slot - I put all my movies on an SD card. This keeps 'em separated. Images on CF and movies on SD. This way when I import my pictures with Lightroom I don't have to go manually copy movies off the card.

Custom Setting Menu

• a: Autofocus
  • a9: Built-in AF-assist Illuminator - Off - As a travel photographer I don't want the headlight on the front of the camera to come on when I'm photographing, especially in places like museums or subways. I also keep this off because I've had the light come on in the past when shooting wildlife photography.
• b: Metering/exposure - No changes
• c: Timers/AE lock - No changes
• d: Shooting/display
  • d1: Beep - Off!
  • d2: Viewfinder grid display - On
• e: Bracketing/flash
  • e1: Flash Sync Speed - 1/320s (Auto FP) - There is no reason not to select this as long as you are using Nikon speedlights.
  • e2: Flash Shutter Speed - From the manual:

    This option determines the slowest shutter speed available when using front- or rear-curtain sync or red-eye reduction in programmed auto or aperature-priority auto exposure modes...

    It defaults to 1/60s! I set this to the max, 30 seconds. If I want to use a really long exposure and then let rear-curtain sync freeze the action, then I don't want this setting slowing me down. Note that when you're in shutter-priority this setting is by-passed anyway; however, I usually shoot in aperture-priority and I don't want to have to think about switching modes when doing a blurred motion shot.
  • e3: Flash Cntrl for Built-in Flash - I normally keep this in TTL mode; however to setup the camera I put it in Commander mode and set it to channel 3 and then set it back to TTL. I often using an SB-600 as one of my off-camera flashes, and the camera must be on channel 3 in order to fire the SB-600 remotely. Also, while I'm in there I change the built-in flash from "TTL" to "---". This turns it off so that it is acting only as a commander and not as a flash.
  • e7: Bracketing order - I change this "Under > MTR > over". It's more logical to me than "MTR > under > over" and also when editing the shots in Lightroom I want to see the exposures in natural, progressive exposure compensation order.
• f: Controls
  • f1: (Light bulb icon) Switch - This setting is new to me. By default with any Nikon DSLR when you rotate the power switch to the light bulb position it illuminates the control panel. This setting allows you to also have it display shooting information on the monitor. It sounds cool for photographing at night. I also often find myself with the camera raised on a tripod so high that I can't see the control panel. This should help resolve that problem as well.
  • f2: Multi-selector Center Button - Playback Mode: View histograms - GREAT SETTING! - By default when you're in playback mode viewing your images, if you press the center button on the multi-selector it puts you in thumbnail mode. This is stupid because you could just press the Thumbnail button on the other side of the LCD to achieve the same effect. However, what is COOL is that you can set it to display a very large histogram overlaid on top of your image instead! Press to display histogram to check your exposure. Release to have it go away!
  • f5: Assign Fn button - FV lock - You should set this to something! Because by default it is set to do nothing. I set it to "FV lock" which locks the last recorded flash value until the button is pressed again. I've taken this tip from Joe McNally's The Hot Shoe Diaries, page 23, where is says:

    But, if you wanna get brass tacks about your flash output, and you make a frame you really like, and the value is dead bang on, a good move is to program the function button so that with a middle finger tap, you enable flash value (FV) lock. Tap the button, and the flash will no longer shift in output. It will stay locked, right there, until you tap the button again. ... FV lock quenches the pre-flash. With FV lock enabled, you get one flash--the exposure-making flash--and that's it.

    The advantage of shutting-out the pre-flash is that some people's eyelids will shut in between the milliseconds of the pre-flash firing and the flash going off.
  • f7: Assign AE-AF-L button - I change this setting from "AE/AF lock" to "AE lock only". I want the button to do one thing only. I can lock the focus when I want by keeping the shutter button half-pressed. I don't need the button to do that for me. If I meter a scene and then recompose, especially when spot metering, I want to be able to press this button to lock only the exposure and then recompose, refocus if needed, and then take the shot. As soon as I let up off the button, the locked-in exposure goes away and the meter is re-exposing again. This setting is very important for how I work with the camera.
  • f10: No memory card? - CHANGE THIS SETTING!!! It defaults to "OK: Enable release" which allows you to fire the shutter with no memory card in the camera! I've tested it, and it at least shows the image on LCD after every shot with "DEMO" in red in the upper left corner. Even still, I don't want to take the chance. Plus, if a family member picks up your camera to photograph the dog are they going to know it's not really taking pictures? Set it to "LOCK: Release locked".

Setup Menu

• Time zone and date - Obviously, set this.
• Image comment - I used to put my copyright information in this field automatically on every shot, but now that be set with a separate setting, see below. In the comment field I put my domain name and Google Voice phone number. (I'm now using a Google Voice number as my business number. In theory, it will act similar to a domain name in that I can redirect it in the future to different cell and office numbers as those numbers change in the future.) Be sure to check mark "Attach comment" and then select Done in order for the comment to be written to every image.
• Battery info - Nothing to change here, but view this screen as it's really neat and useful.
• Copyright Information - SET THIS ON YOUR CAMERA!!!! - There are separate text fields for Artist and Copyright. I set artist to "Terry Smith Images" and copyright to "Copyright Terry Smith". Be sure to check mark "Attach copyright information" and then select Done and press OK.
• Virtual horizon - A built-in level! There's nothing to change here, but look at the screen and get familiar with it because it's neat.

Retouch Menu

• Cameras are optimized for taking pictures. Image processing software is optimized for editing software. Don't modify your pictures in the camera.

My Menu

This is worth doing. Customize your own menu by adding in the things you change the most. Here's what is in my My Menu:

• e3 Flash cntrl for built-in flash - Allows me to quickly change the built-in between TTL and Commander modes (or Manual or Repeating flash).
• Commander mode - This is neat. You can add the submenu of the above setting to your My Menu as well. This allows me to go straight into the Commander menu and set the exposure compensation for Group A and Group B when working with off-camera flashes, something I do VERY FREQUENTLY. It's great to have a short-cut for it.
• c3 Self-timer - Shortcut for changing the length of the timer: 2s, 5s, 10s, or 20s.
• Multiple exposure - Shortcut to multiple exposure mode.

Got it in on Friday! I've been busy with website changes, so I've just now got to blog about it. I'll be taking making thousand frames with it for something coming up very shortly, so I'll be blogging more about the camera soon. So far I've worked my way through all the customization menu settings, and soon I'll also be posting all of my recommended settings. A lot has changed! I've never owned the D300, but the D300s has a lot of features buried in there that are new to me. Here are some pics of the grand unveiling:

I've often seen photographers ask in forums where to buy fake ice. There are other options of course; but one such place is Trenglove Studios in New York. Larger pieces for closeup shots are $40 for acrylic or $35 for solid glass. Bulk "display ice" can be purchased for $15 for a dozen. If you're in NY, you can rent your fake ice instead of buying it. They also have fake splashes, liquid spills, etc., even fake bubbles for that extra clean shot.

My new Profoto lights came in today! I got a kit of two 300 ws Profoto monolights with reflectors, tripods, and a case. Best of all, the "R" in the model name means they're radio-enabled with built-in 32-channel PocketWizards. Here is a play-by-play on the unwrapping ceremony:

I got a great deal on these. Relatively speaking, they were cheap compared to list price. In percentage terms relative to my capital expenditure budget, they definitely were NOT cheap! I've been shopping all year though for a set of monolights. Profoto has the very best reputation but also the highest prices of anyone. This is a very entry-level set, but I could at least afford them. Bowens is coming out with a new line of monolights that I nearly bought, but they've just been too slow to market. You have to buy add-on cards for them as well for the PocketWizard receivers. Other manufacturer's have similar offerings. While I could have gotten more watt/seconds per dollar with another brand, paying extra on top of that for the PocketWizards made this kit come out to a decent deal. Now I just need to make some pictures to recoup the cost and then start making money with it. (It's good to have goals.) So far I'm extremely impressed with Profoto except for the tripods that came with the kit. They work, to some degree. That's the only good thing I can say about them. Can you believe they didn't even ship air-cushioned light stands with these heavy monolights? Nope. When the light is raised to 6+ feet it gets very wobbly as well. My Impact light stands are air-cushioned and of much better quality than what Profoto shipped. I'll probably put the Impact stands in the Profoto case and use the others for my Nikon Speedlights. Lights, camera, action!

Recently I blogged about using the LR/Enfuse plug-in to automatically combine multiple exposures of a scene to create a "realistic HDR" look. It actually seems to be a very hit or miss thing, and I've yet to find any definite pattern as to what works and what doesn't work. Within Lightroom you can group all of your HDR sequences into stacks and then have Enfuse process all of them into 16-bit TIFFs in batch mode. Today I pointed it to 52 such stacks, 265 photos in all, all shot on one day from my D.C. stock photography trip this past spring. Then I went away for awhile... Out of the 52 resulting images, none are worth keeping. They all look hideous. I'll do them manually in Photoshop instead.

I was pretty excited last weekend to pick up this old Yashica Pro-50DX flash at a junk store that I visit frequently for only $2.00. I didn't know at the time if it would work, but it was certainly worth the risk. Luckily, it does! It will make a great off-camera flash for putting a splash of light in places. I'll put velcro on the sides, so I can attach my flash gels to it (See the Rosco Cinegel post.) and use it on portraits, product shots and still-lifes, etc. It's always nice to have more small lights to add in here or there. This little guy packs a punch too! The flash doesn't have any power settings, but that is easily controlled with some neutral density gels. It has a sync cable that I could tap into, but first I'm going to try an optical slave off of eBay. There are some that ship out of Hong Kong for $10 including shipping which should fire it whenever my other flashes go off. This next find is a piece of plastic trash. It's an all-plastic 35mm film camera. My mom actually got one almost just like this free in the mail once when I was kid. I shot a roll or two with it, but it was useless. The film didn't advance correctly. However, it's actually what I had mind when I went to this junk store recently. I'd seen them there before, and I picked this one up for 50 cents. It's worth less. I offered 25 and they countered at 50. The place actually sells donated items to raise money for charity, so I didn't complain. So what am I going to do with it? Well, I bought it for this one little piece right on the top, the flash shoe: Notice that it unscrews. Not immediately, but someday when I need it, I'll take the flash shoe off and mount it on something so I can place a light where I want it. If I pick up another one someday, I might build my own bracket for mounting two flashes within a softbox. If you have any old flash equipment in your closet that you want to get rid of contact me!

Nikon just announced the pending release of my next camera, the one I've been waiting for. It's the Nikon D300s. The biggest new feature over the D300 is the addition of HD video clips at 720p resolution. They also announced the D3000 and some new lenses included the "VR II" version of the 70-200mm 2.8. I have the, now out-dated and ancient, "VR I". The VR II is supposed to be even heavier than its predecessor. I won't be upgrading it anytime soon. Nikon Press Releases:

• Nikon D300s
• Nikon D3000
• AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 ED VR II and the AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

And a pod cast:

• Nikon Podcast #23: New Announcements - D300s, D3000 & Two New Lenses

As always, DP Review had the inside track and already has preview reviews posted:

• Nikon D300s brief hands-on
• Nikon D3000 brief hands-on
• Nikon annnounces AF-S DX 18-200mm VR II lens
• Nikon releases AF-S 70-200mm F/2.8G ED VR II

I was just looking at some websites that sell police and SWAT gear to scout equipment for a photo shoot. Along the way I noticed that these sites have some awesome gear bags and very cheap prices compared to what the photo bag dealers charge. These are designed for tactical gear and often come with a ton of pockets. I've been wanting a larger bag to get more of my on-location lighting accessories in one place, and I think I may have just found the answer. Maybe one of these could be your next photo bag? These are the two sites I've looked at so far:

• http://www.copsplus.com/policeequipmentbags.php
• http://www.mycopshop.com/category.cfm/policesupplies/cases

Besides, what photographer doesn't need tear gas compartments in their bag?