Flash gels

Until yesterday, I never thought of using flash gels.  All I cared was the colour temperature on my subjects and not so much the background.  When shooting indoors with incandescent lights, I never saw a problem with the background being a little orange.  It adds some warmth to the picture.  However, after chatting with a work colleague, I think I will give gels a try now.

The idea with the gels is to make the effective flash light output (which is daylight balanced, naked) similar to the ambient light and with the camera's white balance set to match the ambient light, everything (and not just the subject) would be well balanced.  The next time I do indoor shooting, I will remember to bring the gels with me.

D7000 mode dial, again and again

I complained about the shooting mode dial before and I cannot stop complaining about it.  Just yesterday, I was at a gathering and a number of shots were underexposed.  The mode dial got changed to the "M" position by accident.  I guess on my way from one location to another, I must have scraped the dial against my hip where the camera dangled to.  It was a good thing I checked the LCD from time to time or I would have walked out with dark pictures only

D7100 mode dial.  Image from Nikon's website.

Nikon has heard enough from their customers.  The Nikon D7100 was released recently with a brand new mode dial lock button!  This is absolutely one of the best designs I have seen since the days of the D80, when I started complaining about the dial.  Seven years late but at least it is available now.  I so want to upgrade just because of this button but I just cannot really justify it.  So, I will keep on complaining about the dial until my D7000 dies or until I sell it.

Maybe I could use gaffe tape around the dial to smoothe out the side.  The tape will not last but should be good enough for one setting.