D70: digi-newbie needs help. . .

[christopher_platt]

Hopefully I don't accidentally double post this. . .

Just got a D70, know virtually nothing about digital photography. I held out for a LONG time on going digital because I wanted the flexibility afforded by an SLR. Lots of questions, though:

Auto white balance doesn't even seem to be close. Is that normal? Every time I've done test/comparison shots, it seems I'm always WAY better off manually setting it. Is that something that can be completely corrected post-shooting if I blow it, or is it like exposure (where if you lose some detail in the shadows or blow out your highlights you'll never get 'em back, no matter how much you mess with it)?

Color: I've got some photos of friends' kids and stuff that they took with their digital point and shoots and then e-mailed me. When I transferred my first batch from the camera to my computer I noticed that all my pictures from the D70 are bluish. Is this because I have all the color settings (hue, saturation, set at 0 or normal? Again- is this one of those things I can fool with after, or should I set them in the camera? What will offer me the most flexibility?

Imaging software: Right now all I have is the Nikon software that came with the camera (which doesn't do much. . .) and Arcsoft photoimpression (came with my scanner). Now that I spent all of my money on the camera, I won't be able to afford photoshop for a while, and it seems that Gimp doesn't work on Mac OS 10.2. Any suggestions on books, workflow etc. that might help?
Any help will be greatly appreciated,
Christopher

[ustein]

Warning this is my own e-book:

http://www.outbackphoto.com/booklets/booklets.html

You may want to have a look at images we produce and then judge from there whether we understand the topic:

http://www.outbackphoto.com/80_colorsbynature_logo.jpg
http://www.californiaplaces.com


Digital workflow is my business and I influenced more than one major digital imaging tool and use nearly every DSLR on the market:

http://www.outbackphoto.com/reviews/...Nikon_d70.html

Uwe

[christopher_platt]

Thanks, Uwe. I actually just found your website after I had posted that, and I'm planning on buying a couple of the ebooks. It's a great site with beautiful pictures.
I thought of a couple more questions for anyone that's out there:

-What is a Macbeth Colorchecker?

-Hypothetical: I really enjoy shooting long exposures of moving water (Big Sur is only a half hour away - what a place. . .) and I usually use an ISO 50 film and the smallest aperture my lens will give me, resulting in fairly long exposures. But with ISO 200 (the lowest my D70 goes) I fear that I won't be able to have long enough exposure times without overexposing. Any ideas, short of buying one of those filters (neutral density I think they're called) to reduce the amount of light coming in so I can take those long exposures?

-Can anyone point me to a resource explaining the difference in brands and speeds of compactflash cards, and how big of a difference the speed will make with a D70?
Thanks,
Christopher

[yaronsh]

-Can anyone point me to a resource explaining the difference in brands and speeds of compactflash cards, and how big of a difference the speed will make with a D70?
Thanks,
Christopher

Here's one...

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/mul...e.asp?cid=6007

Choose your favorite camera from the dropbox under the title.

- Yaron