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February 24, 2008

Weekly News From The Nikonians Academy

Nikonians Academy Director Mike Hagen shares his quick tip on fine tuning your Nikon D300's autofocus settings for action photography and unveils plans for more travel workshops in the American Southwest. He also provides an update the Academy's special 4-day workshops designed to take your workflow and inkjet printing to the highest level, regardless of the equipment and systems you are currently using.

Mike Hagen's quick tip this week comes from the popular Master your Nikon D300-In Depth workshops currently selling out in cities across the US.

Mike's illustrated quide shows you the settings and shares the results:

Everyone wants to know how to get the most out of their autofocus system, so I thought I'd give a quick tip on using the D300 autofocus for action photography. The AF system on the D300 is very advanced and produces some stunning results ... as long as you have it configured properly!

GoKart_AF_Example-500.jpg
Here is a series of photographs I took at a go cart track in Kissimmee, Florida two weeks ago. I wanted to give the AF system a run for its money and this was a good opportunity to do so. I set up my autofocus sensor so I could track one specific go cart. In this case, I was aimed at the driver in the red shirt. I got down low to the track and photographed the go carts as they approached. My D300 with a 28-75mm f2.8 lens was set to ISO 1250 so I could get shutter speeds around 1/500 second or so.

One-Two-450.jpg
The first tip for configuring your autofocus system is to set your AF mode selector (1) to Dynamic Area.
Next, set your Autofocus Servo switch (2) to AF-C.

Three-Four-450.jpg
Third, set your Custom Settings Menu(3) item a3 to "21 points." Finally, set your shooting mode (4)to Continuous High frame rate).

Now, hold down your shutter release button and let 'er rip!
If you give your AF system enough time to acquire focus on the subject, then I guarantee it won't let you down. The D300 AF is nothing short of phenomenal and will easily focus on demanding subjects like birds, kids, soccer players and yes, even go carts!

Workshop News

Due to the popularity of our travel workshops to the American Southwest, we have added a few more for later this year. We have scheduled a second trip to Moab, UT for September 15 - 18, 2008. Additionally, we have scheduled a new photography workshop to Monument Valley during September 22-25, 2008. Look for details to be posted this week at www.nikoniansacademy.com.

Interest has definitely increased in our 4-day Advanced Digital Workflow series of workshops. We have two big events scheduled this year in San Francisco (starts April 10) and Dallas (starts June 12).
We'll have a full compliment of high end printers and screen calibration equipment. Our days will be filled with detailed instruction and daily printing sessions.
We have scheduled a full day of Nikon Capture NX tutorials and another full day of Photoshop tutorials. Additionally, we have asked the Nikonians Image Doctors, Rick Walker and Jason Odell to come and present on best practices for digital workflow based on their extensive knowledge of Capture NX and digital technology. These four days are packed full of information that you can't afford to miss!

Posted by flashdeadline at February 24, 2008 11:49 PM