Getting Started with the Scene/Special Effects Modes

Every digital photographer I know has taken photographs using what I call the green zone, or auto zone, yours truly included. The Nikon D7200 has done an incredible job of simplifying some of the most complex camera settings and creating an excellent baseline for many shots. In this chapter, we focus on how to use the built-in scene modes and the advantages that even some of the more experienced photographers can gain from using these presets. Next, we discuss some of the fun uses, as well as the limitations, of the special effects modes. Let’s take a look at the different modes and how and when to use them.

Poring Over the Picture

The Texas Hill Country explodes with wildflowers each spring, and the bluebonnet, the state’s flower, is a favorite among many drivers, since it lines the highways. Seeing bluebonnets in a field, away from the roads, is a treat, and they add a special pop to any photograph. Even though the light wasn’t the strongest, I had to pull over to shoot a few frames, and I used the shadows of the trees to direct the eye to the blue in the meadow.

Auto Mode

Auto mode is all about thought-free photography. To shoot in Auto mode, simply press the Mode dial lock release and turn the Mode dial so that the green camera icon lines up with the white line. That’s it! There is little to nothing for you to do in this mode except point and shoot. Your biggest concern when using Auto mode is focusing. The camera will use the automatic focusing modes to achieve the best possible focus for your picture. Naturally, the camera is going to assume that the object that is closest to the camera is the one that you want to have the sharpest focus. Simply press the shutter button down halfway while looking through the viewfinder and you should see one of the focus points light up over the subject. Of course, you know that putting your subject in the middle of the picture is not usually the best way to compose your shot. So wait for the chirp to confirm that the focus has been set, and then, while still holding down the button, recompose your shot. Now just press down the shutter button the rest of the way to take the photo. It’s that easy (Figure 3.1). The camera will take care of all your exposure decisions, including when to use flash.

Flash Off Mode

Sometimes you will be in a situation where the light levels are low but you don’t want to use the flash. It could be that you are shooting in a place that restricts flash photography, such as your child’s play or a museum, or maybe you want to take advantage of the available light, as when shooting candles on a birthday cake. This is where Flash Off mode comes into play. To shoot in Flash Off mode, just turn the Mode dial to the Flash Off symbol.

Scene Modes

Most digital SLR cameras will have only seven or eight automatic modes at their disposal, but the D7200 takes things to an entirely different level, with 16 additional scene modes to choose from. Nikon has anticipated many of the typical shooting scenarios that you will encounter and created scene modes that are optimized for those situations. We’re going to focus on a few of the most popular modes in detail, but first, here’s how to find them.

Portrait Mode

As mentioned, Auto mode is accurate much of the time, but one of its problems is that it has no idea what type of subject you are photographing and, therefore, has no idea what depth of field to use. Shooting portraits is a perfect example. Typically, when you are taking a photograph of someone, you want the emphasis of the picture to be on the person, not necessarily on the stuff going on in the background.

Landscape Mode

As you might have guessed, Landscape mode has been optimized for shooting landscape images (Figure 3.5). Particular emphasis is placed on the picture control, with the camera trying to boost the greens and blues in the image (Figure 3.6). This makes sense, since the typical landscape would be outdoors where grass, trees, and skies should look more colorful. This picture control also boosts the sharpness that is applied during processing. The camera uses the lowest ISO settings possible in order to keep digital noise to a minimum.

Close Up Mode

Although most zoom lenses don’t support true “macro” settings, that doesn’t mean you can’t shoot some great close-up photos. The key is to use your camera-to-subject distance to fill the frame while still being able to achieve sharp focus. This means that you move yourself as close as possible to your subject while still being able to get a good sharp focus. Often, your lens will be marked with the minimum focusing distance. On the 18–140mm zoom, it is about 8 inches with the lens set to 75mm. To help get the best focus in the picture, Close Up mode uses the smallest aperture it can while keeping the shutter speed fast enough to get a sharp shot (Figures 3.7 and 3.8). It does this by raising the ISO or turning on the built-in flash—or a combination of the two.

Sports Mode

Although this is called Sports mode, you can use it for any moving subject that you are photographing (Figure 3.9). The mode is built on the principles of sports photography: continuous focusing, large apertures, and fast shutter speeds (Figure 3.10). To handle these requirements, the camera sets the focus mode to Dynamic, the aperture to a very large opening, and the ISO to Auto. Overall, these are sound settings that will capture most moving subjects well. We will take an in-depth look at all of these features, like Continuous Drive mode, in Chapter 5.

Sunset Mode

Here’s a dirty secret: every photographer I know, whether professional or amateur, has taken his or her fair share of sunset photos. Sunset mode is a great way to capture a beautiful scene at dusk. Most sunsets are fairly predictable, so this setting works great (Figure 3.11). This setting increases the saturation and optimizes the colors in a sunset. If you’re on vacation or you just want to enjoy the moment, the last thing you need to worry about is fumbling around with camera settings. Just move the dial to Sunset mode, sit back, relax, and let your camera do the work (Figure 3.12). One word of advice: this mode can sometimes use a longer exposure, so to avoid blurry photos, use a tripod or steady your camera on a solid, level surface. You do have the option to change your ISO in this mode. If you’re unable to steady your camera on a tripod or solid surface, I recommend increasing your ISO so that your speed is equal to or greater than the focal length of your lens. By doing this, you reduce your chances of camera shake (blurry photos).

Child Mode

Photographing children can be tough. Those little stinkers are fast, and if you’ve ever tried to photograph a two-year-old, you know the challenge of getting him or her to sit still. Child mode tries to solve this problem by blending the Sports and Portrait modes (Figures 3.13 and 3.14). Understanding that children are seldom still, the camera will try to use a slightly faster shutter speed to freeze any movement. The picture control feature has also been optimized to render bright, vivid colors that one normally associates with pictures of children. It’s a great mode to use for kids on the go, or to capture a very brief moment that you don’t want to miss.

Dusk/Dawn

Some great photo opportunities take place before the sun rises and after it sets. The only problem is that the typical camera settings don’t truly capture the vibrancy of the colors. The Dusk/Dawn camera setting is optimized for low-light photography and helps boost colors and eliminate noise from longer exposures. This mode is very similar to Sunset, but it uses a cooler white balance (Figure 3.15).

Night Portrait

Use this setting to help expose the background of your subject. For instance, if I were taking a night portrait of a friend in front of Christmas lights, then I would use this setting. It tells your camera to use a slower than normal shutter speed so that the background has more time to be properly exposed (Figure 3.16).

Beach/Snow

Shooting in a bright environment like the beach or a ski resort can have a bad effect on your images. The problem is that beaches and snow often reflect a lot of light and can fool the camera’s light meter into underexposing. To solve this problem, you can use the Beach/Snow scene mode (Figure 3.17), which will overexpose slightly, giving you much more accurate exposure.

Party/Indoor

This mode is very much like the Night Portrait mode, except it is optimized for indoor use (Figure 3.18). The flash is automatically set to Auto-red-eye and will use the red-eye reduction lamp to help eliminate the red-eye problem that often occurs when using the flash indoors.

Night Landscape

A tripod or stable shooting surface is definitely recommended for Night Landscape mode (Figure 3.19). Because it uses low ISOs, longer shutter speeds, and noise reduction, it captures great cityscapes with more accurate colors. The flash and focus-assist functions are turned off for this mode, so focusing might be a little difficult. If so, try moving your focus point to a different location.

Food

Food photography is very popular of late, and Nikon has provided you with a scene mode that is perfect for this type of work (Figure 3.20). When you select this mode, the camera will use large apertures for fairly narrow depth of field, slightly overexposed settings to keep things bright, and a picture control that makes colors slightly more vivid.

Autumn Colors

If you live in an area that has great fall color, you will want to give this mode a try (Figure 3.21). The big advantage to this scene mode is that it is optimized for the red and yellow hues that are present in autumn, and it really makes them pop. It also turns off the flash, since the light from a flash can wash out the color in the leaves. Try using this mode when the leaves have turned and the skies are overcast. You will get some amazing color in your images.

Blossom

This mode is very similar to the Landscape setting but with a few slight adjustments. The color settings for Blossom have been optimized for use outdoors where there are many flowers in full bloom (Figure 3.22).

Candlelight

Sometimes it’s pretty easy to know when to use a particular mode. This mode is similar to the Flash Off mode, but it is tweaked for the color of candlelight and will give you much more pleasing results (Figure 3.23). If you are photographing people in candlelight, try using a tripod and have them hold fairly still to reduce image blur.

Pet Portrait

This mode is similar to the Portrait mode in that it uses larger apertures and faster shutter speeds (Figure 3.24). The difference is that Portrait mode is optimized for human skin, with adjustments to the hues and color values. Pets don’t normally have much if any skin showing, so the sharpness and hues are adjusted accordingly.

Special Effects

The D7200 takes scene modes to the next level by offering seven different special effects that can be used for creating still images or movies. Honestly, many special effects features seem a bit hokey to me, but they may come in handy when trying to create unique effects for videos or if you’re just in the mood to have a little fun.

Night Vision

This mode comes in handy when you’re trying to capture monochrome images at a high ISO. Many times you’ll need to use manual focus because autofocus will not be able to determine the focus point due to the low-light conditions. A tripod is highly recommended to avoid camera shake (Figure 3.25).

Color Sketch

The camera renders a color sketch of the framed subject. You can use this mode to create a cartoonlike effect in your still images or, in movie mode, create series of images that will be played back in a slideshow fashion (Figure 3.26). Live view can be used during this mode, but auto-focus will not be available when capturing the images (Figure 3.27).

Miniature Effect

Out of all the effects, this will probably be the most popular among photographers, because it gives the illusion of greater depth of field control via selective focus. The ability to make subjects in the distance appear as miniature is very much in vogue right now, in conjunction with time-lapse photography (Figure 3.28).

Selective Color

Use this effect to create black-and-white images with selective color turned on. Honestly, I’ve found this function to be a bit cumbersome and ineffective. If you’re serious about using selective color with your black-and-white work, then I strongly urge you to consider Silver Efex Pro (the industry standard in black-and-white conversion). Refer to page 49 of your manual to learn how to select colors in your image (Figure 3.29).

Silhouette

Using the Silhouette mode (Figure 3.30) does things like adjust the exposure for the brightest area of the scene and turn off the D-Lighting feature (see Chapter 11 for more on D-Lighting). This is necessary, since D-Lighting tries to boost exposure in shadow areas, which is the opposite of what you want when trying to get a nice silhouette.

High Key

Images that are bright throughout can present a challenge, with the bright environment tending to fool the camera into making an image that is darker than desired. Using the High Key setting (Figure 3.31) forces the camera to overexpose a little and really lighten up those bright objects in your image.

Low Key

Low-key photos are typically meant to have an overall dark look. Much like the beach or snow scenario in reverse, your camera’s light meter will usually try to add some exposure when shooting a low-key scene to make everything brighter. If you want to keep things on the dark side, use Low Key mode (Figure 3.32), which will keep the flash turned off and underexpose elements just a little bit.

When You May Not Want to Use Auto Mode

With so many easy-to-use camera modes, why would anyone ever want to use anything else? Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is control. It is the number one benefit of using a digital SLR camera. The ability to control every aspect of your photography will open up creative avenues that just aren’t always available in the automatic scene modes. Let’s face it: There is a reason that the Mode dial is split into two different categories. Let’s look at what we are giving up when we work in the scene modes.

Chapter 3 Assignments

These assignments will have you shooting in the various automatic scene modes so that you can experience the advantages and disadvantages of using them in your daily photography.