Photoshop Insider

Scott’s School of Hard Knocks

By Scott on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 1:46 am | updates.

The day before my seminar in Honolulu a couple weeks back, I got to spend some time shooting with just a great guy and photographer; Steve Dantzig (who wrote the book, Softbox Lighting Techniques for the Professional Photographer).

Steve and I wound up as guests on the same radio show a few months back, and as our interviews crossed paths, the host introduced us to each other, and as luck would have it, I had just bought his book (which is great by the way). Anyway, Steve lives in Honoulu (lucky dog); one thing led to another, and before you knew it, Steve had invited me to go shooting with him, at a beautiful cove about 30 minutes away (he even picked me up from the airport). Long story short; we got rained out, so we wound up shooting in his studio instead, and he quickly arranged to have a local up-and-coming model (and her entourage) meet us at the studio.

Anyway, once we got the lighting set up, Steve invited me to shoot as well. I was shooting my new Nikon D300. I was swapping cards during the shoot (using one for shooting, while the other was downloading into Lightroom; I couldn’t shoot tethered because I couldn’t get Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 to work with Mac OS X Leopard, but thankfully, it now does —no problem). So, here’s the “School of Hard Knocks” lesson. When the D300 ships, by default when you take a shot, it shows up on the camera’s LCD monitor (here’s the stinger:) even if you DON’T have a memory card in the camera.

So, as you might expect, I did an entire series of shots which vanished into thin air, because I forgot to put a card in the camera (On my D200 and D2Xs, I had turned that “go ahead and shoot without a memory card” feature OFF long ago, so I couldn’t accidentally take shots without there being a card in the camera. To do this on your D300, go to the Custom Settings menu, under Controls, and change control f9 [No memory card] to Release Locked [as shown above]. This locks your shutter release if no memory card is in the camera).

Luckily, this wasn’t a paid client gig, but had it been, this could have been a really serious situation. I have no idea why Nikon choose to set up the D300 so by defaul it shoots without a memory card, but it does, so all you new D300 owners be forewarned, and learn from another one of Scott’s famous “School of Hard Knocks” lessons from the field learned the hard way.

NOTE: Don’t forget to scroll down to the next post for some tasty Tuesday News Nuggets.

Comment form for this post

^#1

Hey Scott, I ran in the same issue with my Canon, but I caught in time before the real shooting had to begin. Since then I’ve never turned on that shoot without card feature on my Canon camera. In fact, I wish I could delete the feature all together. Anyway, I’m looking forward to the second volume of your Digital Photography Book. I hope you’re thinking about doing a similar book on flash and studio lighting.

Bakari on December 18th, 2007 at 3:00 am

^#2

Typo alert - (delete this comment) - just a heads up

“*ever* if you DON’T have…”

Marcus on December 18th, 2007 at 4:40 am

^#3

Good old RTFM

adam on December 18th, 2007 at 5:08 am

^#4

Scott,

Great title for the last chapter in your next book.

steve on December 18th, 2007 at 8:26 am

^#5

Scott, this is not a new problem with Nikon cameras. 35 years ago I was in Nikko, Japan, taking pictures with a Nikon EL. I took a whole role of 36 without the film advancing. At least in my old German cameras the shutter would not cock unless the film advanced.

Monte Whitham on December 18th, 2007 at 8:31 am

^#6

Great “heads up”…unusual for me to learn any lesson without falling into the trap myself!

Hey, any idea why my D300 displays 190 evposures available with a fresh 4GB card and when I go to LR it downloads 300? I’ve checked and I’m not shooting Raw + Jpeg …just Raw. Probably a simple/obvious answer…

Thx

Ned Leary on December 18th, 2007 at 9:02 am

^#7

I can tell you why they do it (at least in my experience). It’s not to play with our minds (even though that makes the most sense, especially right after you have that problem). I spent the last 7 years selling cameras and playing with cameras in competitor’s camera displays, and it’s easier to shove a 5d body on a locked battery stick thing (like the big box stores do) and let the general public get instant gratification by taking pictures without a card in it (cuts down on the ‘walking’ cards) than to train someone to know how to use the camera, which camera in the line it is, and where to put the card. (My husband just got in an arguement with someone at a big box store. My daughter picked up a 30D while they were window shopping and said “This is almost like Mommy’s”. Clerk took this opportunity to extol the virtues of buying me the 30D for Christmas. “It’s the top of the line, brand new, yada yada yada.” Husband almost got head chewed off when he pointed out that the clerk was wrong, it’s not the top of the line, in fact, it’s a lower model and it’s old.)

Liz Elllingwood on December 18th, 2007 at 9:26 am

^#8

Do you have compression turned on for the NEF (RAW) files?

Shooting Menu>NEF (RAW) recording>Type>select between Lossless compressed, Compressed, or Uncompressed.

Carol Parker on December 18th, 2007 at 9:29 am

^#9

Thanks Carol…yeah I’ve got lossless compressed on…but unclear why that would give two readings…is it storing one uncompressed and one compressed?

Thanks again!

Ned Leary on December 18th, 2007 at 9:50 am

^#10

Liz, you raise an interesting point…the big box stores have obviously adopted a strategy of “it’s not important for our clerks to be knowledable” and I think they are right. I have been there myself but it is still funny to watch the totally uninformed walk up to a clueless clerk and say “what’s a good camera?” Even if the clerk was totally knowledgeable it’s a waste of time and money to stand there and try and explain the details to someone who at the end of the day doesn’t really care. They just want a “good” camera to put under the tree.

Was in Curcuit City yesterday watching wide eyed, totally confused customers trying to glean info from clueless clerks…oh well…

Ned Leary on December 18th, 2007 at 10:02 am

^#11

Scott,
I have been waiting for Nikon’s Camera Control Pro for Leopard and according to Nikon’s website it is not released yet. Is this available somewhere?

Kevin Zdyb on December 18th, 2007 at 10:06 am

^#12

As a working photographer for over 40 years I learned early to test my cameras with film and without film. I know it seems odd, but if you did that you knew in the days of film if there was film in the camera or not just by the sound of the camera and pull of the film advance. Most cameras would shoot without film and the counter would count without film. Just by feel and sound I would know.

With digital, I shoot a new camera with and without a card. If the camera will shoot without, then I change the setting. Easier than film and a little more fool proof (a little). At least digital has a setting.

Before every job, I take my camera back to zero. Back to my standard setting to start all jobs. And during every job I check my settings: ISO, shutter speed, aperture, focusing, and flash.

I do make mistakes, but I work to catch them fast. Thankfully in over 40 years I have never missed getting the job photographed.

Billy MItchell on December 18th, 2007 at 11:20 am

^#13

I still don’t get why the default settings are what they are on most of the DSLRs that I have used.
The one that drives me crazy is that the file quality is usually set to some middle size JPG. I understand that not everyone shoots RAW, but at least set the default to the biggest JPG.

On shooting without “Film”, that happened on a shoot with good old film. Something just went wrong and the film stopped advancing about three exposures into the shoot. Get the roll back from the lab and its all blank…

Fun time explaining that to the customer.

Alan Hess on December 18th, 2007 at 11:44 am

^#14

Well they say the best way to learn is ‘the hard way’ :o) Thankfully like you said, it wasn’t a contracted job cos that would have been a nightmare.

I’m assuming the same default would be set on the D3, so thanks for the ‘heads up’ Scott.

Best wishes,
Glyn

Glyn Dewis on December 18th, 2007 at 12:16 pm

^#15

Liz Elllingwood: great point. When went to buy my cam, I tested 4 of them cos all of them had some dust on the sensor. So it was so great just to pop in the batttery and shoot few samples. On the other hand, the lady in the shop, later switched the option off and set the timmer and the timezone so I didnt had to. so IMHO its a great option and its great that is by default on, if you buy in a good shop there is no problem, else RTFM

Arkadiusz Benedykt on December 18th, 2007 at 12:31 pm

^#16

I just did the same thing with my D300 the other night. Though we were only goofing around so nothing serious lost except for a couple of goofy portraits. Sucks to have lost some nice studio model shots. But better now than later for sure.

Josh Bertrand on December 18th, 2007 at 3:15 pm

^#17

Dear Kelby,

First i like to say sorry, casue my english is poor.
I need your help… i bought your (very nice) bookAdobe Photoshop CS3 for Digital Photographers. I like to traning with your pictures, but the website www.prenhall.com/kelby-br doesn’t exists… may you mail me???

Thanks…

Alexandre - SP-Brazil

Alexandre on December 18th, 2007 at 4:17 pm

^#18

Hi Scott,

The Nikon D3 also ships the same way as the D300, with default settings it shoots without a memory card.

All the best, Eilif
Bergen, Norway

Eilif Stene on December 18th, 2007 at 5:57 pm

^#19

Hi Scott,

Thanks for that great information. I now have a sticky note to remind me to change that setting as soon as I get my new D300.

Thanks again!

Stephen

Stephen J. Zeller on December 18th, 2007 at 7:15 pm

^#20

Scott,

I don’t know how to communicate to your site except under comments.
Sorry.

I am sending you a link for a xmas video I am certain you will get a kick out of. We have extreme lighting in our front yard synchorized to music and we also have Mr. & Mrs. Claus dancing live onstage to the Evolution of Dance. Hope you enjoy. Merry Christmas to all my photoshop friends.
Vickie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_AKkAwxuo8

vickie on December 18th, 2007 at 7:53 pm

^#21

Scott, I have done the same thing (but with my Canon 40D) and I swear, it’s always the best images you ever took that you took without the memory card. Brilliant images that will never be seen by anyone else. Tough life!

OK, maybe I lied a bit. But the part about not having a card in the camera and it took a while before I realized the shooting without a card was enabled is true.

Just wanted to drop you a line and wish you a great Christmas!