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Tone Curves

The D100 out of the box renders images which to my eye seem under-exposed. You can play with them afterwards in Capture or Photoshop, but there's a simpler solution. You can upload a custom tone curve into the camera, which will instruct the camera to correct exposure for you in whatever way seems most appropriate to you.

After experimenting with several curves found on the 'net, I've settled on a very simple one which wedding photographer Neil van Niekerk has generously made available. His page linked to above includes instructions on installing the curve file which he provides, plus detailed information on what tone curves do and how to use them.

Van Niekerk stresses the importance of proper metering technique. Nota bene.

I use van Niekerk's "basic-curve_152". I'm happy enough with it that I very rarely find myself fiddling with exposure in post-processing. All of the images I've posted here to date use this curve.

Remember that shooting RAW/NEF allows you to change your mind later.

Here are some of the sites which helped me figure this out:

Nikon D100 - custom tone curves, Neil van Niekerk
How to Improve Nikon D100 and D70 Tonality Uisng Custom Tone Curves, Alex Mabini
How to set Nikon D70 D100 Custom Tone Compensation, Komin Kudo

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