Ooops – wrong format – learn your Camera!

This last weekend I had a problem that I haven’t had for some time. I changed a setting on my camera without noticing it and ended up with less than optimum photographs.

View of Tucson from a viewpoint on lower Mt. Lemmon

I was up at the ski resort on Mt. Lemmon, just north of Tucson, Arizona. Who would think that there’s a ski resort there? But there is; located near the 9,159 foot summit, it claims to be the southernmost ski resort in the United States. And, there was some snow!

It was pretty chilly (by Phoenix standards anyway) with a gentle breeze. My Ford Explorer said about 37 degrees Fahrenheit. I got out of the car to reconnoiter the area for possible shots, taking my dog with me. I had him tucked inside my jacket and he was shivering. I found some shots I decided to take so I put him back in the car and grabbed the camera which was already mounted on the tripod after taking a few shots at a viewpoint on the way up the mountain.

I set up and took my first shots. I had my Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 wide angle lens mounted to my Nikon D610.

Looking at the histogram, I really wanted to move the curve to the right, brightening it up. I was using an f/9 aperature and didn’t really want to open it up any more in order to try to keep as much depth of field (DOF) as possible. And, I was already shooting at 30 seconds.

I decided to increase the ISO. I always have the camera at ISO 100 and thought I’d bump it up to 400. On the D610 you have to push a button on the back of the camera and change the main command dial.

I was working in the dark and didn’t have a flashlight with me. I thought I pushed the correct button but nothing happened when I changed the dial. So naturally I pushed other buttons and changed the dial, observing through the view finder any changes. I finally got the correct button and dial combination and bumped up the exposure. I liked what I was seeing on the histogram.

It wasn’t until the following day when I imported the images and started processing them that I found out I had changed the format to JPEB FINE / SMALL. When I saw that the images were JPEG and only 3,008 x 2,008 pixels in Adobe Lightroom, I knew immediately what I’d done and that the images were not going to be able to be adjusted as much as if they were RAW format.

I hopped up from my chair and verified the setting on the camera. I also verified my sinking feeling and disappointment. The camera was indeed set on JPEG FINE / SMALL. I switched my mode dial from my U2 setting and back again to reset everything.

I’ve learned that I need to keep my skills a bit more polished. I was pretty sure the ISO button was the bottom button on the left side of the back of the D610, and it is. I must have hit the button above it at first and then, in my confusion, just started hunting and pecking instead of taking the time to know for sure what I was adjusting.

Looking north from Ski Valley on Mt. Lemmon

One of the 3 books I’ve got on the D610, probably the Thom Hogan book, said you should learn the camera so that you can adjust it in the dark. I worked on that because I seem to gravitate towards shooting at night. I’ve been pretty good. I think that in this case I had been using Live View a bit to try to focus, zooming in and out. This requires the use of two different buttons on the back of the camera (different than the ISO button).

The zoom in button, which is the one right above the ISO button, and which I’d been using with Live View, also doubles as the QUALity button, meaning that when I changed the command dial with that button pushed in I had changed the format to JPEG. Darn darn darn.

Don’t let this happen to you! You really should learn all of your cameras controls well enough to operate them blindfolded, especially if you are going to take night shots. This means you don’t need a flashlight. Flashlights ruin your night vision and if you’re shooting with other people nearby, a flashlight can ruin their shot or their night vision as well.