How do I work this thing?

[Natedogg]

Ive been reading a little here and there... could some of my washed out'ed ness be a result of a narrow dynamic range?? Is DR something I can change on the camera, or is it a constant 8 stops or whatever it happens to be for the 20D?

(BTW: in looking at a few of the photos I first posted [namely the Silas photo and the second river photo] look super dark on this computer screen. They looked significantly lighter on my Sony VAIO screen at home... to the point where you could see Silas finishing his name in that photo. Not sure if anyone else is having that problem...)

[MeatPuppet]

[QUOTE=Natedogg;1297180]

Ive been reading a little here and there... could some of my washed out'ed ness be a result of a narrow dynamic range??

The washed out skies with properly exposed foreground, very well could be. The tonal qualities of the properly exposed areas are more a matter of camera settings and post processing.

Is DR something I can change on the camera, or is it a constant 8 stops or whatever it happens to be for the 20D?

No changing the DR on the 20D. It's a fixed capability of the sensor. The only camera I know of with a variable DR is the Fujifilm s3 an s5 pro.

I sold my Nikon D200 a couple of months ago and bought a S5 Pro for this reason. So far it's been fantastic.

[backpack]

(BTW: in looking at a few of the photos I first posted [namely the Silas photo and the second river photo] look super dark on this computer screen. They looked significantly lighter on my Sony VAIO screen at home... to the point where you could see Silas finishing his name in that photo. Not sure if anyone else is having that problem...)

You do realize that they'll look different depending on what screen you view them on, right? Using an uncalibrated monitor to edit photos for printing is just asking for weird shit.

Note: I use shitty lab monitors for most of my photoshopping because I do it at work to kill time. I don't recommend that path if you want prints to look perfect.

Also: RAW files really do help.