Chapter 3
Playback and Shooting Menu Settings
The Playback and Shooting menus determine how the D5500 displays images on review, and how it uses many of its shooting features to take a photo. You’ll find the Custom Setting, Setup, Retouch, and My Menu options in Chapter 4.
Anatomy of the Nikon D5500’s Menus
Press the MENU button, located to the left of the viewfinder, to access the menu system. The most recently accessed menu will appear.
Access menus. Press the MENU button to display the main menu screens.
Navigate menus. Next, use your favorite navigation method to locate the setting you want to work with:
Touch screen. Tap the icons in the left column to select the top-level menu you want to use. Then tap a specific menu entry to jump to that item, and tap again to select any submenu entries. The Return icon (a reverse-pointing arrow) will appear in the upper-right corner of the submenu to allow you to back up to the previous screen.
Button navigation. Use the multi selector’s left/right/up/down buttons to navigate among the menu entries to highlight your choice. Moving the highlighting to the left column lets you scroll up and down among the six top-level menus, as described next.
Learn the top-level menus. From the top left in Figure 3.1, they are Playback, Shooting, Custom Setting, Setup, Retouch, and My Menu, with Help access represented by a question mark at the bottom of the column.
A selected top-level menu’s icon will change from black-and-white to yellow highlighting. Use the multi selector’s right button to move into the column containing that menu’s choices, and the top-level icon will change once again, to the color associated with that menu (Playback: Blue; Shooting: Green; Custom Setting: Red; Setup: Orange; Retouch: Purple; My Menu: Gray). Use the up/down buttons to scroll among the entries. If more than one screen full of choices is available, a scroll bar appears at the far right of the screen, with a position slider showing the relative position of the currently highlighted entry.
Access entry. To work with a highlighted menu entry, press the OK button in the center of the multi selector, or just press the right button on the multi selector. Any additional screens of choices will appear. You can move among them using the same multi selector movements.
Confirm selection. You can confirm a selection by pressing the OK button or, frequently, by pressing the right button on the multi selector once again. Some functions require scrolling to a Done menu choice, or include an instruction to set a choice using some other button.
Back out. Pressing the multi selector left button (or tapping the Return icon at upper right) usually backs you out of the current screen, and pressing the MENU button again usually does the same thing. You can exit the menu system at any time by tapping the shutter release button, too.
Deja view. The Nikon D5500 “remembers” the top-level menu and specific menu entry you were using (but not any submenus) the last time the menu system was accessed, so pressing the MENU button brings you back to where you left off.
Playback Menu Options
The blue-coded Playback menu has ten entries related to the display, review, and printing of the photos you’ve taken. (Eight are shown in Figure 3.1.) The choices you’ll find include:
Delete
Playback Folder
Playback Display Options
Image Review
Auto Image Rotation
Rotate Tall
Slide Show
DPOF Print Order
Rating
Select to Send to Smart Device
Delete
Options: Selected, Select Date, and All
My preference: N/A
You’re given three choices: Selected, Select Date, and All. To delete only some pictures from a folder, choose Selected; you’ll see an image selection screen like the one shown in Figure 3.2. Then, follow these instructions:
1. Scroll. Use the multi selector cursor keys to scroll among the available images. You can also scroll by sliding a finger up or down the touch screen and tapping on an image to highlight it.
2. Zoom in. When you highlight an image you think you might like to delete, press the Zoom In button to temporarily enlarge that image so you can evaluate it further. When you release the Zoom In button, the selection screen returns. You can also zoom in by tapping the Zoom icon at the bottom of the screen; however, to zoom back out you must either tap the Return icon in the upper-right corner, or press the OK button. I find it’s much easier to simply press and release the Zoom In button rather than resort to the touch screen.
3. Mark images. To mark an image for deletion, press the Zoom Out button (not the Trash button). A trash can icon will appear overlaid on that image’s thumbnail. To unmark an image, press the Zoom Out button again. You can also tap the highlighted thumbnail to mark it for deletion, and unmark it with another tap.
4. Confirm. When you’ve finished marking images to delete, press OK or tap the OK icon at the bottom of the screen. A final screen will appear asking you to confirm the removal of the image(s). Choose Yes to delete the image(s) or No to cancel deletion, and then press OK. If you selected Yes, then you’ll return to the Playback menu; if you chose No, you’ll be taken back to the selection screen to mark/unmark images.
5. Exit. To back out of the selection screen, press the MENU button or tap the Return icon.
Select Date. Highlight any of the available dates that have pictures, and press the multi selector right button to add a check mark to that date. Press the Zoom Out/Thumbnail button to view/confirm that the images for the date you’ve marked are those you want to delete, and press the button again to return to the Select Date screen. When you’re finished choosing dates, press OK to delete the images from the confirmation screen.
All. This removes all the “unprotected” images from your memory card. Keep in mind that Format is a faster way to remove images, but, unlike All, it deletes those marked as Protected as well.
Playback Folder
Options: D5500, All, Current
My preference: N/A
Your Nikon D5500 will create folders on your memory card to store the images that it creates. It assigns the first folder a number, like 100D5500, and when that folder fills with 999 images, the camera automatically creates a new folder numbered one higher, such as 101D5500. If you use the same memory card in another camera, that camera will also create its own folder. Thus you can end up with several folders on the same memory card, until you eventually reformat the card and folder creation starts anew.
This menu item allows you to choose which folders are accessed when displaying images using the D5500’s Playback facility. Your choices are as follows:
D5500. If you use the same memory card in more than one camera, each additional camera will automatically create a new folder for its images only. The D5500 is often able to display these “foreign” images with no problem, especially if they were created by another Nikon camera. If you choose this entry, the D5500 will play back only images created by your D5500, and ignore those created by other cameras. If you find the other images don’t display properly, or you just prefer to skip over them, select this entry or Current.
Current. The D5500 will display only images in the current folder. For example, if you have been shooting heavily at an event and have already accumulated more than 999 shots in one folder and the D5500 has created a new folder for the overflow, you’d use this setting to view only the most recent photos, which reside in the current folder. You can change the current folder to any other folder on your memory card using the Active Folder option in the Shooting menu.
All. All folders containing images that the D5500 can read will be accessed, regardless of which camera created them. You might want to use this setting if you swap memory cards among several cameras and want to be able to review all the photos (especially when considering reformatting the memory card). You will be able to view images even if they were created by a non-Nikon camera if those images conform to the Design Rule for Camera File System (DCF) specifications.
Playback Display Options
Options: None (image only), Highlights, RGB Histogram, Shooting Data, Overview
My preference: I prefer to enable all available information screens.
This menu item helps you reduce/increase the color LCD monitor clutter on playback by specifying which information and screens will be available. To activate or deactivate an info option, scroll to that option and press the right multi selector button or OK button to add a check mark to the box next to that item. Press the right button or OK button to unmark an item that has previously been checked. Important: when you’re finished, you must scroll up to Done and press OK or the right multi selector button to confirm your choices. Exiting the Display Mode menu any other way will cause any changes you may have made to be ignored. Your info options include:
None. This choice does not mean that all information will be hidden. (To do that, you’d need to uncheck all the boxes on this screen.) When you select this option, a playback screen with no shooting information will be shown in the cycle displayed when you press the up/down multi selector buttons.
Highlights. When enabled, overexposed highlight areas in your image will blink with a black border during picture review. That’s your cue to consider using exposure compensation to reduce exposure, unless a minus-EV setting will cause loss of shadow detail that you want to preserve.
RGB Histogram. Displays both luminance (brightness) and RGB histograms on a screen that can be displayed using the up/down multi selector buttons, as shown in Chapter 2.
Shooting Data. Activates the three pages of shooting data shown in Chapter 2. (Flip back if you need a refresher.)
Overview. Marking this enables the Overview screen shown in Chapter 2.
Image Review
Options: On (default), Off
My preference: N/A
While instant review is useful, sometimes it’s a better idea to not automatically review your shots in order to conserve battery power, speed up, or simplify operations. This menu operation allows you to choose which mode to use:
On. Image review is automatic after every shot is taken.
Off. Images are displayed only when you press the Playback button.
Auto Image Rotation
Options: On (default), Off
My preference: On
Turning this setting On tells the Nikon D5500 to include camera orientation information in the image file. The orientation can be read by many software applications, including Adobe Photoshop, Nikon ViewNX, and Capture NX, as well as the Rotate Tall setting in the Playback menu. Turn this feature Off, and none of the software applications or Playback’s Rotate Tall will be able to determine the correct orientation for the image. Nikon notes that only the first image’s orientation is used when shooting continuous bursts; subsequent photos will be assigned the same orientation, even if you rotate the camera during the sequence (which is something I have been known to do myself when shooting sports like basketball).
Rotate Tall
Options: On (default), Off
My preference: On
The D5500’s internal directional sensor can detect whether the camera was rotated when the photo was taken and embed this information in the image file itself. It can be used by the D5500 to automatically rotate images when they are displayed on the camera’s LCD monitor (providing a smaller image), or you can ignore the data and let the images display in non-rotated fashion (so you have to rotate the camera to view them in their larger, full-screen orientation). Your image-editing application can also use the embedded file data to automatically rotate images on your computer screen.
This works only if you’ve told the D5500 to place orientation information in the image file so it can be retrieved when the image is displayed. You must set Auto Image Rotation to On in the Setup menu, as described in Chapter 4. Then, both your D5500 and your image editor can rotate the images for you as the files are displayed.
This menu choice deals only with whether the image should be rotated when displayed on the camera LCD monitor. When Rotate Tall is turned off, the Nikon D5500 does not rotate pictures taken in vertical orientation. The image is large on your LCD monitor screen, but you must rotate the camera to view it upright. When Rotate Tall is turned on, the D5500 rotates pictures taken in vertical orientation on the LCD monitor screen so you don’t have to turn the camera to view them comfortably. However, this orientation also means that the longest dimension of the image is shown using the shortest dimension of the LCD monitor, so the picture is reduced in size. (See Figure 3.3.)
Slide Show
Options: Start, Frame Interval (default 2 seconds)
My preference: N/A
The D5500’s Slide Show feature is a convenient way to review images in the current playback folder one after another, without the need to manually switch between them. To activate, just choose Start from this entry in the Playback menu. If you like, you can choose Frame Interval before commencing the show in order to select an interval of 2, 3, 5, or 10 seconds between “slides.”
During playback, you can press the OK button to pause the “slide show” (in case you want to examine an image more closely). When the show is paused, a menu pops up, as shown in Figure 3.4, with choices to restart the show (by pressing the OK button again); change the interval between frames; or to exit the show entirely.
As the images are displayed, press the up/down multi selector buttons to change the amount of information presented on the screen with each image. For example, you might want to review a set of images and the settings used to shoot them. At any time during the show, press the up/down buttons until the informational screen you want is overlaid on the images.
As the slide show progresses, you can press the left/right multi selector buttons to move back to a previous frame or jump ahead to the next one. The slide show will then proceed as before. Press the MENU button to exit the slide show and return to the menu, or the Playback button to exit the menu system totally. As always, while reviewing images you can tap the MENU button to exit the show and return to the menus, or tap the shutter release button if you want to remove everything from the screen and return to shooting mode.
At the end of the slide show, as when you’ve paused it, you’ll be offered the choice of restarting the sequence, changing the frame interval, or exiting the slide show feature completely.
DPOF Print Order
Options: Select/Set, Deselect All
My preference: N/A
You can print directly from your camera to a printer compatible with a specification called PictBridge. You can mark images in the camera, and then remove your memory card and hand it to your retailer for printing in their lab or in-store printing machine, or insert the card into a stand-alone picture kiosk and make prints yourself. This menu lets you specify which photos you want printed, and how many copies you’d like of each picture. If you’re taking photos in PSAM modes with the expectation of printing them through a direct USB connection, set Color Space to sRGB for best results, in the Shooting menu, described next.
When you choose this menu item, you’re presented with a set of screens that look very much like the Delete Photos screens described earlier, only you’re selecting pictures for printing rather than deleting them. The first screen you see when you choose Print Set (DPOF) asks if you’d like to Select/Set pictures for printing, or Deselect All? images that have already been marked. Choose Select/Set to choose photos and specify how many prints of each you’d like (see Figure 3.5). Choose Deselect All? to cancel any existing print order and start over.
1. Scroll. Use the multi selector cursor keys to scroll among the available images. You can also scroll by sliding a finger up or down the touch screen and tapping on an image to highlight it.
2. Zoom in. When you highlight an image you think you might like to print, press the Zoom In button to temporarily enlarge that image so you can evaluate it further. When you release the Zoom In button, the selection screen returns. You can also zoom in by tapping the Zoom icon at the bottom of the screen; however, to zoom back out you must either tap the Return icon in the upper-right corner, or press the OK button. I find it’s much easier to simply press and release the Zoom In button rather than resort to the touch screen.
3. Mark images. To mark an image for printing, press the multi selector up button to choose the number of prints you want, up to 99 per image. To deselect or decrease the number of prints, press the multi selector down button. You can also increment the number of prints by tapping a thumbnail on the touch screen or the Set icon, but you still must use the down button to decrement.
4. Confirm. When you’ve finished marking images to print, press OK or tap the OK icon at the bottom of the screen. A final screen will appear in which you can request a data imprint (shutter speed and aperture) or imprint date (the date the photos were taken). Select one or both of these options, if desired, and press the left/right buttons to mark or tap the box or unmark the check boxes. When a box is marked, the imprint information for that option will be included on all prints in the print order.
Rating
Options: Set one to five stars, plus delete marker
My preference: N/A
Allows applying a star rating from one to five stars for individual images. Choose this menu item and the image selection window will appear. You can use the left/right directional buttons to scroll among your images to highlight one you want to rate. To view a highlighted image full frame, press and hold the Zoom In button. Rate a highlighted image using the up/down buttons to apply a rating from zero to five stars, or tap the thumbnail one to five times. Press the down button to decrement stars, or to select the Trash icon to mark the picture for later deletion. Ratings cannot be applied to protected images. Press OK or tap Return to confirm and exit.
Images can also be rated during playback. When an image is shown on the screen as you review it, press the i button to show playback options (Rating, Retouch, Select to Send to Smart Device/Deselect). Choose Rating, and then use the controls to apply a rating as described above. Press OK to confirm and exit.
This capability is much more versatile than you might think. The stars don’t have to relate to relative image quality. You can invent any other “code” you might like to apply. For example, if you like, one star can represent photos containing animals; two stars pictures with family members; three stars photos of landscapes; and so forth. Then, with the ratings applied, you can quickly access particular types of pictures.
Select To Send to Smart Device
Options: Choose images to transfer
My preference: N/A
Allows selected photos (but not movies) to be uploaded to a smart device. Choose this menu item and the familiar image selection window will appear. You can use the left/right directional buttons to scroll among your images to highlight one you want to select. To view a highlighted image full frame, press and hold the Zoom In button. Select a highlighted image by pressing the Zoom Out button. Selected photos are marked with a double-headed arrow icon. You can select multiple images. When finished, press OK to confirm and exit.
Images can also be selected during playback. When an image is shown on the screen as you review it, press the i button to show playback options (Rating, Retouch, Select to Send to Smart Device/Deselect). Choose Select to Send to Smart Device/Deselect, and press OK or tap Return to confirm.
Shooting Menu Options
These settings are likely to be the most common settings changes you make. The first eight choices are shown in Figure 3.6.
Reset Shooting Menu
Storage Folder
File Naming
Image Quality
Image Size
NEF (RAW) Recording
ISO Sensitivity Settings
White Balance
Set Picture Control
Manage Picture Control
Color Space
Active D-Lighting
HDR (High Dynamic Range)
Release Mode
Long Exp. NR
High ISO NR
Vignette Control
Auto Distortion Control
Interval Timer Shooting
Movie Settings
Reset Shooting Menu
Options: None
My preference: N/A
If you select Yes, the Shooting menu settings shown in Table 3.1 will be set to their default values. It has no effect on the settings in other menus, or any of the other camera settings. You’d want to use this Reset option when you’ve made a bunch of changes (say, while playing around with them as you read this chapter), and now want to put them back to the factory defaults.
Storage Folder
Options: Select Folder by Number, Select Folder from List
My preference: N/A
If you want to store images in a folder other than the one created and selected by the Nikon D5500, you can switch among available folders on your memory card, or create your own folder. Any folders you create will be deleted when you reformat your memory card.
To change the currently active folder:
1. Access active folder entry. Choose Storage Folder in the Shooting menu, and press the right multi selector button.
2. Choose selection method. Highlight either Select Folder by Number or Select Folder from List (to choose a folder that you know already exists). Press the right directional button or tap the touch screen to confirm your choice. One of two screens appears. Perform the tasks in either Step 3 or Step 4.
3. Select Folder by Number. If you’ve chosen this option, a screen appears with three digits representing the possible folder numbers from 100 to 999. Use the left/right multi selector buttons or touch controls to move between the digits, and the up/down controls to increase or decrease the value of the digit. If a folder already exists with the number you dial in, an icon appears showing the folder is empty, partially full, or it has 999 images or a picture numbered 9999 (and can contain no more images). Press OK to create the new folder and make it the active folder. You’d want to use this option to create a new folder or when you don’t know whether a folder by a particular number already exists. If a folder with that number already resides on the memory card, you can use it (if it is not full); if it doesn’t exist, you can create it.
4. Select Folder from List. From among the available folders shown, scroll to the one that you want to become active for image storage and playback. This feature is handy when you want to display a slide show located in a particular folder. Use this option if you know that the folder you want to use already resides on the memory card. Press OK to confirm your choice and make the folder active.
Entering Text on the Nikon D5500
Now is a good time to master text entry, because you can use it to enter comments, rename folders, and perform other functions. The Nikon D5500 uses a fairly standardized text entry screen to name files and Picture Controls, create new folder names, and enter image comments and other text. You’ll be using text entry with other functions that I’ll describe later in this book. The screen looks like the one shown in Figure 3.7, with some variations (for example, some functions have a less diverse character set, or offer more or fewer spaces for your entries). To select your file name prefix, first select File Naming, then use the right multi selector button or touch controls to reveal the text entry screen. After that, you can use the multi selector navigational buttons or touch controls to scroll around within the array of alphanumerics, and enter your text. This is one function that really takes advantage of the touch screen, because you can “type” the characters you want to use rather than tediously scroll among the rows and columns with the directional buttons.
Highlight a character. Tap the character you want to enter on the touch screen (or, if you’re wearing gloves, use the multi selector keys to scroll around within the array of characters).
Insert highlighted character. Press the multi selector center OK button (or tap the OK Input icon) to insert the highlighted character. The cursor will move one place to the right to accept the next character.
Non-destructively backspace. Use the command dial or the left/right arrows in the upper-left corner of the display to move the cursor within the naming field. This allows you to backspace and replace a character without disturbing the others you’ve entered.
Confirm your entry. When you’re finished entering text, press the Zoom In button or tap Return to confirm your entry, then tap the shutter release to exit the menu system.
File Naming
Options: DSC (default), Three characters
My preference: 550
The D5500, like other cameras in the Nikon product line, automatically applies a name like _DSC0001.jpg or DSC_0001.nef to your image files as they are created. You can use this menu option to change the names applied to your photos, but only within certain strict limitations. In practice, you can change only three of the eight characters, the DSC portion of the file name. The other five are mandated either by the Design Rule for Camera File System (DCF) specification that all digital camera makers adhere to or to industry conventions.
Image Quality
Options: NEF (RAW) + JPEG Fine, NEF (RAW) + JPEG Normal, NEF (RAW) + JPEG Basic, NEF (RAW), JPEG Fine, JPEG Normal (Default), JPEG Basic
My preference: NEF (RAW) + JPEG Fine. I use 64GB and 128GB memory cards and have multiple 3TB hard drives on my computer, so saving storage space is not a concern.
You can choose the image quality settings used by the D5500 to store its files. Just use the information edit screen. You can also use this menu option (see Figure 3.8) and the next one, if you prefer. You have two choices to make:
Level of JPEG compression. Compacting images reduces the quality a little, so you’re offered your choice of Fine (a 1:4 reduction), Normal (1:8 reduction), and Basic (1:16 reduction) compression.
JPEG, RAW, or both. You can elect to store only Fine, Normal, or Basic JPEG versions of the images you shoot, or you can save your photos as RAW images, which Nikon calls NEF, for Nikon Electronic Format files. RAW images consume more than twice as much space on your memory card. Or, you can store both RAW and a JPEG Fine, Normal, or Basic file at once as you shoot.
Image Size
Options: Large (default), Medium, Small
My preference: Large
The next menu command in the Shooting menu lets you select the resolution, or number of pixels, captured as you shoot with your Nikon D5500. Your choices range from Large (L—6000 × 4000 pixels, 24 megapixels), Medium (M—4496 × 3000 pixels, 13 megapixels), and Small (S—2992 × 2000 pixels, 6.0 megapixels). There are no additional options available from the Image Size menu screen.
NEF (RAW) Recording
Options: 12 bit, 14 bit (default)
My preference: 14 bit. I like all the information I can get for my RAW files.
Here you can choose whether your images are stored using 12-bit or 14-bit depth. The default value for color depth (14 bit) works best for most situations, but there are times when you might want to use 12-bit RAW storage, perhaps to save a little memory card space. You should probably leave your D5500 set for 14-bit color, which will give you a possible 4,398,046,391,104 (4.4 trillion) different colors in your captured image. By comparison, 12-bit color offers a total of 68,719,476,736 (68.7 billion) colors.
The bottom line is that the 14-bit setting improves your chances that the colors available for storing your image will correspond to the actual colors in your scene, but with a slight penalty in file size. It’s especially useful when you’re exposing images that will be combined using HDR (high dynamic range) software later on. In that case, you can definitely gain some extra exposure “headroom” using 14-bit processing. In either case, an image editor will reduce the actual number of colors in your file from billions and trillions down to mere millions—16.8 million in the final 8-bit image file produced by Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or other editors.
ISO Sensitivity Settings
Options: ISO Sensitivity (default, Off), Auto ISO Sensitivity Control, Maximum Sensitivity, and Minimum Shutter Speed
My preference: I leave Auto ISO off most of the time, and prefer to set my own ISO values so there are no noise-filled “surprises” later on.
This menu entry has four parts: ISO Sensitivity, Auto ISO Sensitivity Control, Maximum Sensitivity, and Minimum Shutter Speed. You can select a specific ISO setting, or control how the D5500 chooses an ISO setting automatically. The Auto ISO Sensitivity Control menu entry lets you specify how and when the D5500 will adjust the ISO value for you automatically under certain conditions.
When Auto ISO is activated, the camera can bump up the ISO sensitivity, if necessary, whenever an optimal exposure cannot be achieved at the current ISO setting. Here are the important considerations to keep in mind when using the options available for this feature:
ISO Sensitivity. This option allows you to choose specific ISO settings in one-third stop increments, from ISO 100 (the default) though ISO 25600.
Auto ISO Sensitivity. Set ISO Sensitivity Auto Control to Off (the default), and the ISO setting will not budge from whatever value you have specified.
Maximum Sensitivity. Use this parameter, available only when Auto ISO Sensitivity is on, to indicate the highest ISO setting you’re comfortable having the D5500 set on its own. You can choose from ISO 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800, and 25600 as the max ISO setting the camera will use. Use a low number if you’d rather not take any photos at a high ISO without manually setting that value yourself. Dial in a higher ISO number if getting the photo at any sensitivity setting is more important than worrying about noise.
Minimum Shutter Speed. This setting, accessible when Auto ISO Sensitivity is on, allows you to tell the D5500 how slow the shutter speed must be before the ISO boost kicks in, within the range 1 second to 1/2,000th second, plus Auto. The default value is 1/30th second, because for most shooters in most situations, any shutter speed longer than 1/30th second is to be avoided, unless you’re using a tripod, monopod, or looking for a special effect. When the shutter speed is faster than the minimum you enter, Auto ISO will not take effect.
White Balance
Options: Auto (default), Incandescent, Fluorescent (Sodium Vapor, Warm-White, White, Cool-White, Day White, Daylight, High Temp. Mercury-Vapor), Direct Sunlight, Flash, Cloudy, Shade, Preset Manual
My preference: Auto
When you select the White Balance entry on the Shooting menu, you’ll see an array of choices like those shown at left in Figure 3.9. (One additional choice, Preset Manual, is not visible until you scroll down to it.) If you choose Fluorescent, you’ll be taken to another screen that presents seven different types of lamps, from sodium-vapor through warm-white fluorescent down to high-temperature mercury-vapor. If you know the exact type of non-incandescent lighting being used, you can select it, or settle on a likely compromise.
For all other settings (Auto, Incandescent, Direct Sunlight, Flash, Cloudy, or Shade), highlight the white balance option you want, then press the multi selector right button (or press OK) to view the fine-tuning screen shown at right in Figure 3.9 (and which uses the Incandescent setting as an example). The screen shows a grid with two axes, a blue/amber axis extending left/right, and a green/magenta axis extending up and down the grid. By default, the grid’s cursor is positioned in the middle, and a readout to the right of the grid shows the cursor’s coordinates on the A-B axis (yes, I know the display has the end points reversed) and G-M axis at 0,0.
You can use the multi selector’s up/down and right/left buttons to move the cursor to any coordinate in the grid, thereby biasing the white balance in the direction(s) you choose. The amber-blue axis makes the image warmer or colder (but not actually yellow or blue). Similarly, the green-magenta axis preserves all the colors in the original image, but gives them a tinge biased toward green or magenta. Each increment equals about five mired units, but you should know that mired values aren’t linear; five mireds at 2,500K produces a much stronger effect than five mireds at 6,000K. If you really want to fine-tune your color balance, you’re better off experimenting and evaluating the results of a particular change.
Using Preset Manual White Balance
If automatic white balance or one of the predefined settings available aren’t suitable, you can set a custom white balance using the Preset Manual menu option. You can apply the white balance from a scene, either by shooting a new picture on the spot and using the resulting white balance (Measure) or using an image you have already shot (Use Photo). To perform direct measurement from your current scene using a reference object (preferably a neutral gray or white object), follow these steps:
1. Position reference subject. Place the neutral reference under the lighting you want to measure.
2. Change to Preset Manual white balance. Access the White Balance menu entry, scroll down to Preset Manual, and press the right multi selector button. There, you’ll see a screen with a choice of Measure or Use Photo.
3. Highlight Measure. Press OK to confirm.
4. Overwrite existing data. A screen appears asking whether you want to overwrite the existing Preset Manual value. Highlight Yes and press OK to proceed.
5. Take photo. Take a picture of your neutral reference subject.
6. Confirm successful capture of white balance. If the camera successfully measured white balance, “Gd” will appear in the bottom line of the viewfinder, and “Data Acquired” will appear on the shooting information screen on the LCD monitor. Otherwise, you’ll see “no Gd” on the view-finder. White balance measurement can fail when the reference object is too brightly or poorly illuminated. In that case, repeat steps 2 to 5 until the measurement is successful.
7. Use captured white balance. You can immediately begin taking pictures using the captured white balance, until you switch to one of the other white balance settings, such as Tungsten or Fluorescent. The next time you switch to Preset Manual, the white balance you just captured will be used again.
Storing and Retrieving White Balance Settings
If you want to use an existing photo, choose Use Photo, and a screen will appear offering to use the most recently taken image, or you can Select Image from a folder of your choice, accessing the standard D5500 selection screen similar to the ones shown previously.
Set Picture Control
Options: Standard (default), Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait, Landscape, Flat, plus 9 user-definable controls
My preference: Standard for general shooting; Flat when I want JPEGs with maximum dynamic range. However, I’ll always have my RAW files for serious tweaking.
This is the first entry in the second page of the Shooting menu (see Figure 3.10). Nikon provides seven predefined styles (Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait, Landscape, and Flat). However, you can edit the settings of any of those styles (but not rename them) so they better suit your taste. The D5500 also offers nine user-definable Picture Control styles (described next) that you can edit to your heart’s content and assign descriptive names. You can copy these styles to a memory card, edit them on your computer, and reload them into your camera at any time. So, effectively, you can have a lot more than nine custom Picture Control styles available: the nine in your camera, as well as a virtually unlimited library of user-defined styles that you have stored on memory cards. These Picture Controls are available when you’re using PSAM exposure modes. In other modes, the camera selects a Picture Control automatically.
The Flat control is a relatively new Picture Control in the Nikon world, and ideal for images and video clips that will be retouched, as it provides a much greater dynamic range with detailed shadows and highlights, so you can tweak the images extensively if necessary. Flat is especially popular among video shooters because of this deeper range.
Nikon insists that these styles have been standardized to the extent that if you re-use a style created for one camera (say, your D5500) and load it into a different compatible camera (such as a Nikon D4s), you’ll get substantially the same rendition, so you can use a style created by anyone else that you have Googled and downloaded from the Internet.
Using and managing Picture Control styles is accomplished using two different menu entries, Set Picture Control, which allows you to choose an existing style and to edit the predefined styles that Nikon provides, and Manage Picture Control, which gives you the capability of creating and editing user-defined styles.
Choosing a Picture Control Style
To choose from one of the predefined styles or select a user-defined style (numbered C-1 to C-9), follow these steps:
1. Choose Set Picture Control. This option is located in the Shooting menu. The screen shown in Figure 3.11 appears. Note that Picture Controls that have been modified from their standard settings have an asterisk next to their name.
2. Select style. Scroll down to the Picture Control you’d like to use.
3. Activate Picture Control. Press OK to activate the highlighted style. (Although you can usually select a menu item by pressing the multi selector right button, in this case, that button activates editing instead.)
4. Exit menu. Press the MENU button or tap the shutter release to exit the menu system.
Editing a Picture Control Style
You can change the parameters of any of Nikon’s predefined Picture Controls. You are given the choice of using the quick adjust/fine-tune facility to modify a Picture Control with a few sliders, or to view the relationship of your Picture Controls on a grid. To make quick adjustments to any Picture Control except the Monochrome style, follow these steps:
1. Access menu. Choose Set Picture Control from the Shooting menu.
2. Select style. Scroll down to the Picture Control you’d like to edit.
3. Access adjustment screen. Press the multi selector right button to produce the adjustment screen shown in Figure 3.12.
4. Make fast changes. Use the Quick Adjust slider to exaggerate the attributes of the Standard or Vivid styles (Quick Adjustments are not available with other styles).
5. Change other attributes. Scroll down to the Sharpening, Clarity, Contrast, Brightness, Saturation, and Hue sliders, then use the left/right buttons to decrease or increase the effects, or tap an adjustment to produce a screen with more detailed sliders. A line will appear under the original setting in the slider whenever you’ve made a change from the defaults. Note: You can’t adjust contrast and brightness when Active D-Lighting (discussed later in this chapter) is active. Turn it off to make those Picture Control adjustments. An icon at the upper right of the screen shows whether Active D-Lighting is on or off.
6. Or use auto adjustments. Instead of making changes with the slider’s scale, you can move the cursor to the far left and choose A (for auto) instead when working with the Sharpening, Contrast, and Saturation sliders. The D5500 will adjust these parameters automatically, depending on the type of scene it detects.
7. To Reset Values. Press the Trash button to reset the values to their defaults.
8. Confirm changes. Press/tap OK when you’re finished making adjustments.
Editing the Monochrome style is similar, except that the parameters are Sharpening, Contrast, Brightness, Filter Effects (Yellow, Orange, Red, Green, or None), as well as toning effects (black-and-white, plus seven levels of Sepia, Cyanotype, Red, Yellow, Green, Blue Green, Blue, Purple Blue, and Red Purple). (Keep in mind that once you’ve taken a JPEG photo using a Monochrome style, you can’t convert the image back to full color. Shoot using RAW+JPEG, and you’ll get a monochrome JPEG, plus the RAW file that retains all the color information.) Filter Effects produce a grayscale image that looks as if it were shot with black-and-white film using a color filter on the lens (no color tone is produced). (See Figure 3.13.) Toning Effects give you a tinted monochrome filter in various colors. (See Figure 3.14.)
Manage Picture Control
Options: Save/Edit, Rename, Delete, Load/Save
My preference: N/A
The Manage Picture Control menu entry can be used to create new styles, edit existing styles, rename or delete styles, and store/retrieve styles from the memory card.
Make a copy. Choose Save/Edit, select from the list of available Picture Controls, and press OK to store that style in one of the user-defined slots C-1 to C-9.
Save an edited copy. Choose Save/Edit, select from the list of available Picture Controls, and then press the multi selector right button to edit the style, as described in the previous section. Press OK when finished editing, and then save the modified style in one of the user-defined slots C-1 to C-9.
Rename a style. Choose Rename, select from the list of user-defined Picture Controls (you cannot rename the default styles), and then enter the text used as the new label for the style, using the standard D5500 text entry screen like those shown earlier in this chapter.
Remove a style. Select Delete, choose from the list of user-defined Picture Controls (you can’t remove one of the default styles), press the multi selector right button, then highlight Yes in the screen that follows, and press OK to remove that Picture Control.
Store/retrieve style on card. Choose Load/Save, then select Copy to Camera to locate a Picture Control on your memory card and copy it to the D5500; Delete from Card to select a Picture Control on your memory card and remove it; or Copy to Card to duplicate a style currently in your camera onto the memory card.
Color Space
Options: sRGB (default), Adobe RGB
My preference: sRGB
The Nikon D5500’s Color Space option gives you two different color spaces: Adobe RGB (because it was developed by Adobe Systems in 1998), and sRGB (supposedly because it is the standard RGB color space). Regardless of which color space is used by the D5500, you end up with some combination of 16.8 million different colors that can be seen in your photograph.
Adobe RGB is an expanded color space useful for commercial and professional printing, and it can reproduce a wider range of colors. However, as an advanced user, you don’t need to automatically “upgrade” your D5500 to Adobe RGB, because images tend to look less saturated on your monitor and, it is likely, significantly different from what you will get if you output the photo to your personal inkjet. (You can profile your monitor for the Adobe RGB color space to improve your on-screen rendition.) While both Adobe RGB and sRGB can reproduce the exact same 16.8 million absolute colors, Adobe RGB spreads those colors over a larger portion of the visible spectrum.
The sRGB space is recommended for images that will be output locally on the user’s own printer, as it matches that of the typical inkjet printer fairly closely. It is well suited for the range of colors that can be displayed on a computer screen and viewed over the Internet. If you plan to take your image file to a retailer’s kiosk for printing, sRGB is your best choice, because those automated output devices are calibrated for the sRGB color space that consumers use. If you shoot RAW or RAW+JPEG, with the camera set to one color space, you can extract the other from the RAW file at any time.
Active D-Lighting
Options: Auto (default), Extra High, High, Normal, Low, Off
My preference: Off. I save this feature for high-contrast scenes that really need it; Auto sometimes kicks in when I don’t really want to use it.
D-Lighting is a feature that improves the rendition of detail in highlights and shadows when you’re photographing high-contrast scenes (those that have dramatic differences between the brightest areas and the darkest areas that hold detail). Unlike the post-shot D-Lighting feature found in the Retouch menu, Active D-Lighting can be applied to your pictures while you are actually taking the photo.
For best results, use your D5500’s Matrix metering mode, so the Active D-Lighting feature can work with a full range of exposure information from multiple points in the image. Active D-Lighting works its magic by subtly underexposing your image so that details in the highlights (which would normally be overexposed and become featureless white pixels) are not lost. At the same time, it adjusts the values of pixels located in midtone and shadow areas so they don’t become too dark because of the underexposure. Highlight tones will be preserved, while shadows will eventually be allowed to go dark more readily. Bright beach or snow scenes, especially those with few shadows (think high noon, when the shadows are smaller), can benefit from using Active D-Lighting. You have six choices: Auto, Extra High, High, Normal, Low, and Off. You may need to experiment with the feature a little to discover how much D-Lighting you can apply to a high-contrast image before the shadows start to darken objectionably. Note that when this feature is activated, brightness and contrast Picture Control settings cannot be changed.
HDR (High Dynamic Range)
Options: Auto, Extra High, High, Normal, Low, Off (default)
My preference: Off. Most of my HDR work is done using bracketed exposures.
When activated, the D5500’s in-camera HDR will capture two exposures, which can be separated by no more than three stops’ worth of exposure. The HDR entry has one set of options: you can choose Auto to allow the camera to decide how much HDR correction to apply; Off, to disable the feature; or select a level, using Low, Normal, High, or Extra High. This feature is not available if NEF or NEF+JPEG settings are selected.
Release Mode
Options: Single Frame, Continuous L, Continuous H, Self-Timer, Quiet Shutter Release, 2s Delayed Remote, Quick Response Remote
My preference: N/A
This entry duplicates the release mode settings available when the release mode/drive button is pressed. You can choose:
Single frame. In single-shot mode, the D5500 takes one picture each time you press the shutter release button down all the way.
Continuous L/Continuous H. These modes fire off shots at up to 3 and 5 frames per second, respectively.
Self-timer. You can use the self-timer as a replacement for a remote release, to reduce the effects of camera/user shake when the D5500 is mounted on a tripod or, say, set on a firm surface, or when you want to get in the picture yourself. Use Custom Setting c3 to specify delays of 2, 5, 10, or 20 seconds. You can also specify the number of shots taken at the end of the elapsed period, and the interval between those shots.
Quiet shutter release. This setting, marked with a Q symbol, activates the D5500’s “quiet mode,” which silences the camera’s beep noise during autofocus, reduces the sound the mirror makes when it flips back down, and delays that “noise” until you release the shutter button.
2s Delayed Remote/Quick Response Remote (ML-L3). If you use the ML-L3 infrared remote, you’ll need to change the release mode to either of these two settings: Delayed Remote (shutter releases two seconds after you press the button on the ML-L3 IR remote) or Quick Response Remote (the shutter trips immediately when the button is pressed). Once you’ve selected either of these two release modes, the camera then “looks” for the remote signal for a period of time you specify using Custom Setting c4 (select from 1, 5, 10, or 15 minutes).
Long Exp. NR
Options: Off (default), On
My preference: Off. The process takes extra time, and I find that noise reduction can be better applied in an image editor or RAW converter, which allow you to fine-tune the amount of reduction.
Visual noise is that awful graininess caused by long exposures and high ISO settings, and which shows up as multicolored specks in images. This setting helps you manage the kind of noise caused by lengthy exposure times of eight seconds or more.
Off. This default setting disables long exposure noise reduction. Use it when you want the maximum amount of detail present in your photograph, even though higher noise levels will result.
On. When exposures are eight seconds or longer, the Nikon D5500 takes a second, blank exposure to compare with the first image. (While the second image is taken, the warning “Job nr” appears on the monochrome LCD monitor panel and in the viewfinder.) Noise is subtracted from your original picture, and only the noise-corrected image is saved to your memory card.
High ISO NR
Options: High, Normal (default), Low, Off
My preference: Low or Off. The D5500 does a decent job of suppressing high ISO noise, but Normal and High settings can cost you some detail. I prefer to do heavy-duty noise reduction with software, such as Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.
Noise can also be caused by higher ISO sensitivity settings. You can choose Off when you want to preserve detail at the cost of some noise graininess, and the D5500 will apply high ISO NR only at the highest ISO settings. Or, you can select High, Normal, or Low noise reduction, which is applied when ISO sensitivity has been set to ISO 800 or higher. The three variations reflect how aggressive the noise processing is (and, proportionately, how much image detail you may lose due to noise reduction).
Vignette Control
Options: High, Normal (default), Low, Off
My preference: Normal
This is the first entry in the last page of the Shooting menu. (See Figure 3.15.) Some lenses may not be up to the challenge of covering the entire frame evenly, producing darkening in the corners of your images at certain focal lengths. It’s a rare defect, which is why this is the first appearance of this feature in the D5xxx product line.
If you consistently encounter vignetting, this option may help. It reduces darkening at the periphery of images when using lenses of the G and D type. You can choose from High, Normal, Low, and Off. It’s difficult to quantify exactly how much corner-brightening each setting provides. Your best bet is to shoot some blank walls of a single color with lenses that seem to have this problem, and try a few at each of the settings. Then select the value that best seems to counter vignetting with your particular lenses.
Auto Distortion Control
Options: On, Off (default)
My preference: Off. I’d rather make these adjustments with software, such as the tools available in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.
This option can correct barrel distortion (outward bowing of lines that should be straight) that sometimes occurs with telephoto lenses and pincushion distortion (lines that curve inward, toward the center of the frame) that can appear when using wide-angle lenses. When turned on, the D5500 uses information about your Nikon-brand lens that is stored in the (L) firmware module (and which can be updated with new firmware releases as lenses are introduced). Because this correction can result in cropping out part of your image, you may want to turn it off and use it only if you find the distortion produced by your lens is particularly bad.
Nikon recommends using this feature only with type G and D lenses (that is, lenses that have those designations as part of their names). Auto Distortion Control operates as you take the picture; you can also apply distortion control after a picture is taken using the Retouch menu (discussed in Chapter 4). Barrel and pincushion distortion can also be fully or partially corrected using an image editor like Photoshop.
Interval Timer Shooting
Options: Start, Start Options, Interval, Number of Times, Exposure Smoothing
My preference: N/A
Nikon D5500’s built-in time-lapse photography feature allows you to take pictures for up to 999 intervals in bursts of as many as nine shots, with a delay of up to 23 hours and 59 minutes between shots/bursts, and an initial start-up time of as long as 23 hours and 59 minutes from the time you activate the feature. The Interval Timer Shooting screen is shown in Figure 3.16. Before you start:
1. Set your clock. The D5500 uses its internal World Time clock to activate, so make sure the time has been set accurately in the Setup menu before you begin.
2. Select release mode. If you want to shoot bursts of images each time an interval elapses, set release mode to continuous shooting. If you prefer to take one picture per interval, set the release mode dial to S. However, you can still specify multiple shots per interval when using S.
3. Bracket, if desired. If you’d like to bracket exposures during interval shooting, set up bracketing prior to beginning. (You’ll learn how to bracket in Chapter 4.)
4. Secure camera. Mount the camera on a tripod or other secure support.
5. Fully charge the battery. Although the camera more or less goes to sleep between intervals, some power is drawn, and long sequences with bursts of shots can drain power even when you’re not using the interval timer feature.
6. Protect your camera. Make sure the camera is shielded from the elements, accidents, and theft, and that the viewfinder is covered (using the DK-5 eyepiece cap if necessary) if you need to keep strong ambient light from entering the viewfinder and affecting exposure.
When you’re ready to go, set up the D5500 for interval shooting:
1. Select timer. Choose Interval Timer Shooting from the Shooting menu.
2. Specify a starting time. Highlight either Now or Start Time and press the multi selector right button. If you choose Now, the interval shooting will begin approximately three seconds after you’ve finished setting the parameters beginning with Step 5. If you select Start Time, you’ll be able to enter a specific time, as described in Steps 3 and 4.
3. Choose start time. When the Start Time sub-screen appears, use the multi selector left/right buttons to highlight the hours or minutes, and the up/down buttons to increase or decrease the hours/minutes entry. The 24-hour clock is used, so you can specify a time from 00:00 (midnight) to 23:59 (one minute to midnight). When both hours and minutes have been set, press the multi selector right button to move the highlighting to the Interval section of the subscreen.
4. Set the interval between exposures. You can use the left/right buttons to move among hours, minutes, and seconds, and use the up/down buttons to choose an interval from one second to 24 hours, but not less than the shutter speed. Press the right button when finished to move down to the number of intervals/shots per interval subscreen.
5. Set number of intervals and shots per interval. Use the left/right buttons to highlight the number of intervals, the number of shots taken after each interval has elapsed, and the total number of shots to be exposed overall.
6. Start. When all the parameters have been entered, press the multi selector right button once more, and the Start subscreen appears, with the choices On or Off. Choose either one and press OK. If you activate interval shooting, a message is displayed on the monitor one minute before each series of shots begins.
Movie Settings
Options: Frame Size/Rate, Movie Quality, Microphone, Manual Movie Settings
My preference: 1920 × 1080, 60p; High quality; Auto sensitivity
This menu entry allows you to choose four movie-making parameters. To begin shooting, rotate the Live View switch, and then push the red Movie button.
Frame Size/Rate. Choose your resolution. Use the Movie Settings entry in the Shooting menu. Or, when live view is activated, and before you start shooting your video clip, you can select the resolution/frame rate of your movie. All settings use progressive scan, in which all the lines are captured one after another in order. Your choices are as follows:
1920 × 1080 at 60 fps, progressive scan (60p)
1920 × 1080 at 30 fps, progressive scan (30p)
1920 × 1080 at 24 fps, progressive scan (24p)
1280 × 720 at 60 fps, progressive scan (60p)
640 × 424 at 30 fps, progressive scan (30p)
Movie Quality. Choose High quality (to capture up to 20 minutes of action) or Normal quality (for up to 29 minutes, 59 seconds of video per clip). The High setting has a maximum bit rate requirement of 24 Mbps; if your memory card won’t handle that, the Normal setting reduces the demand to 12 Mbps, at the cost of some additional compression that reduces the size of the file and cuts resolution/image quality slightly.
Microphone. Here you can set audio sensitivity for the built-in stereo microphones or an optional external mic like the Nikon ME-1. Choose from Auto, High Sensitivity, Medium Sensitivity, Low Sensitivity, or Off. With the Manual Sensitivity setting, a set of volume unit (VU) meter bars appears on the menu screen showing the current sound levels. Press the right directional button to access a screen where you can select a manual sensitivity level from 1 to 20.
Manual Movie Settings. Select On or Off.