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D700
The setting I’ve adjusted most on my Nikon D700 is the white balance. I find the auto white balance a hit or miss feature. As a result, I’ve spent a lot of time fine tuning the default settings, as well as creating a few of my own. It’s probably one of the trickier areas to master, because of the numerous customizations available, but I feel it makes the best improvement on photographs.
Setting White Balance
On the top-left of the camera body, there is an easily accessible WB (white balance) button. Pressing this displays the selected white balance setting on the top-right control panel. Using the main command dial while holding down the WB button, you can set the white balance to 9 different settings: auto, incandescent, fluorescent, direct sun, flash, cloudy, shade, custom temp., and preset. Fluorescent has 7 subsets to choose from in the shooting menu.
Fine Tuning
These settings can be fine tuned on the shooting menu. When selecting a white balance setting on the shooting menu, a color chart pops up with a blue-amber x-axis, and green-magenta y-axis. Using the multi-selector, you can fine tune the temperature. I seem to favor a slight amber shift.
As for custom temp, denoted with ‘k’ icon, you can select a setting from 2500-10,000K. The higher then number, the warmer the photograph. I’ve used this feature the least.
Preset White Balance
The preset setting can come in handy if you have a gray card, or if you have a neutral gray or white object that you can photograph. The idea is to place this object under the lighting that will be used in the photograph.
To create a new preset, press the WB button and navigate the main command dial to PRE. Release the WB button, then hold it down again, until Pre blinks in the control panel. Then take a picture of a white or neutral gray object. If the camera can use the image, the control panel will flash ‘good.’
You now have a reference image saved to slot d-0 in the preset menu. The d-0 slot is selected by default when PRE white balance is set. If you want to prevent this preset from being wiped out the next time you want record another preset, you must save it to one of four additional slots.
To do this, access the preset menu within the white balance menu. Use the multi-selector to hover over any slot other than d-0. Hit the button in the center of the multi-selector to select the slot. You’ll be presented with a menu, one option will be ‘copy d-0.’ Select this option to save d-0 to another slot.
Now you can fill d-1 to d-4 with different presets. To use these presets, press the WB button, and navigate to PRE on the control panel using the main command dial. With WB button still depressed, turn the sub-command dial. You’ll notice settings from d-0 to d-4. From here, you can access any of your saved presets.
What Do I Use?
I stick to the basic settings mostly: incandescent, fluorescent, sunny, flash, cloudy, and shade. I fine tune these to wherever I am. I notice when using a flash, the light will take on the colors of the room, so this can require minute adjustments prior to a shooting session.
I’ve been experimenting more with preset function, but I am awaiting a gray card to make the process more consistent.
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