D 200 and metering

I noticed the good response for the last post on the D200, so I figure there are a few people out there that are figuring out their new camera also. I am having trouble with metering in certain situations, where frankly, I had better results with the D70. Therefore it must be me! The metering works fine in most situations when I use manual exposure and matrix metering, along with an automatic white balance setting. When I shoot on the water at loons, I am having enormous problems. Where the D70 burned out whites, the D200 comes in too dark. Many of my histograms havve clipped white information. If I compensate, the blacks aren't correct. I downloaded the correct plug in for the D 200 for photoshop, but my RAW files when opened contain some strange looking colors, when opening files that have been shot on the water. I am just learning, and am wondering if anyone out there has any strategies for better setting than what I am using. Sunshine WB, spot metering, temperature setting when opening RAW files????? I am shooting between 6-9 am.

Are you using one of the built-in exposure modes like Normal, Vivid, etc. or are you using Optimize? I use Optimize and control all the settings there. It sounds like you need to set the tone control to low contrast. Without knowing more about your specific camera settings, it is difficult to say where the problem lies.

One thing Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) does is try to guess the correct raw file corrections when you first open the image. If you see checks in the little checkboxes above each adjustment tool, it is being set automatically by ACR. Press Control-U to clear the automatic settings. Then make adjustments as needed. You may have to reduce the default contrast setting od 25 down to 0 or even a negative number depending on your shooting conditions.

Are you using a circular polarizer? If not, it could be that light reflecting off the water is causing problems for your meter.

Sorry to be so vague. The following camera settings are what I am using optimize - more vivid, adobe rgb, RAW, auto white balance, exposure comp off, fine tune exposure off, iso 400, and matrix metering.

Good suggestion on the ACR, I'll try that. I am just not using my head to meter is what it mostly is.

Thanks

Its my understanding that none of the optimization settings are used by ACR on nef files from the D200 - you need to use Nikon Capture if you want them applied to the raw file.

I shoot raw only with my D200 and use ACR in Elements 3 to convert. I never settle for the auto adjustments that ACR makes as it tends to blow the highlights.

I've also noticed a tendency for the shadows to go a bit towards cyan, but I haven't figured out if that is coming from the camera or from ACR.

I've found I do less adjusting in ACR with the D200 raw files than I did with the D70 raw files, by the way.

I have seen this in my D200 as well. I use ACR and color balance is never what I expect. Color balance in turn changes the histogram. Assuming that color balance is not set in RAW images and instead it is set by ACR using the camera data, it is ACR that is having the problem. For example, if I set my camera to "daylight" white balance, ACR displays 4950 as the color temp, not 5200. When I open my RAW files shot in "Auto" they are always on the cool side, towards cyan/green.

Best,

Jose