Well, first let me say I like the camera to do as much of the work as possible, both shooting and post-processing. Getting good focus manually with the ED82 is hard enough and pixel peeping pics on a PC is not my idea of a fun night! So my style and methods may be "heresy" to those who prefer maximum control and like playing in Photoshop.
My end game is to have an image good enough to print directly from the camera/memory card, bypassing the need for a PC. If I can get a high "keeper ratio" I can quickly pick and choose my shots on the train ride home from my outing. Then I just pop into the local print kiosk to get my prints done while I have a few beers at the pub. I prefer prints as no monitor I have can really do the image justice.
That said, I have only had the D90 for a few weeks with only about 800 shots so far. My "keeper ratio" is only about 1:10 now, so I am having to take about 200 shots per outing to get anything worth printing. Way too many pics to easily sort through in camera! I am still tweaking the settings, particularly the Picture Controls and I only have the Nikon View NX and Capture NX2 demo to post process with. The D90 has much more dynamic range the my D40 and I am having to adjust my methods to compensate. I am thinking I may need several Custom Picture Controls to get more keepers.
Of course, with the FSA-L1 the camera Mode Dial is set to Aperture Priority. Metering is set to MATRIX (somtimes Center Weighted if I can get close enough for the bird to fill the view, HA!) Exposure Compensation and sometimes Active D-Lighting are adjusted depending on the Playback Histogram. I shoot Continuous H4.5fps and sometime Remote shutter release modes.
So here are my current D90 Menu settings:
Shooting Menu
Picture Control "BIRDS" - modified VIVID with Sharpening 7, Saturation -1, Hue 0 (Active D-Lighting is ON -Auto so Contrast and Brightness are not unavailable)
Image Quality - RAW (eventually Normal JPEG once I get the Pic Control tweeked)
White Balance -Auto
ISO Sensitivity settings - Auto ISO ON, Range 200-3200, Min shutter speed 1/250 (I raise/lower min shutter depending on light conditions and the movement of the bird. Ideally, I want to keep ISO ≤800 with a shutter of 1/500 for still birds, and 1/1600 for birds in flight)
Active D-Lighting -Auto (may change this if I can't get Contrast toned down in Picture Control)
Color Space - Adobe RGB (eventually sRGB to save having to convert later for prints)
Long exp NR - OFF
High ISO NR- High (only kicks in above ISO800)
The rest of the Shooting Menu is not important.
Custom Settings Menu (*changed from default)
a2-WIDE
a3-OFF
a5-ON
a7-NORM
c5-15m
d1-OFF
d2-ON
d3-ISO
d7-ON
d10- Usually OFF but depends on shutter speed
f3-ACCESS TOP ITEM MY MENU
My Menu
Set Picture Control
ISO Sensitivity Settings
ISO Sensitivity auto control
d10 Exposure delay mode
e4 Auto Bracketing set
That's it. Hope it helps!
Rick
