Only settings that differ from default are shown below; settings in bold, explanation in regular type:
Shooting Menu
- Quality: JPG Fine - Really more than enough quality; I find the D300’s out-of-camera JPGs are just about perfect.
- Image Size: L - Make every pixel count!
- JPEG Compression: Quality
- White Balance: Auto A2/M2 (varies by location, of course)
- Picture Control: Standard - I like this for sports, natural yet bright colors and decent skin tones.
- Sharpening +6
- Saturation +2
- Color Space: Adobe RGB
- Active D-Lighting: Normal - Active D-Lighting is the bomb!
- High ISO NR: Off - In-camera NR is better than the D200’s “cartoonish” look, but I still prefer NeatImage for high-ISO images.
- ISO auto sensitivity control: On - Thanks to a Secret D300 High-Speed Auto ISO Trick, this is a very useful setting! I allow ISO to float all the way up to 3200 depending on the lighting conditions.
Custom Settings
- a3 Dyanmic AF area: 21 points - I sometimes use 51 points. It’s kind of a toss-up for basketball; the action is fast and unpredictable enough to warrant 51 points, but the number of bodies in close proximity can make 51 points problematic at times.
- d2 Viewfinder grid display: On
- d4 CL shooting speed: 1 fps - I use 1 fps shooting for strobes, White Lightning UZ1600’s set to half power. Normally, I now use the D2h with strobes and shoot the D300’s with arena lighting.
- d10 MB-D10 battery type: FR6 - I keep a battery tray loaded with AA lithiums as a long-term backup power source.
- e1 Flash sync speed: 1/250 (Auto FP) - Gives me maximum flash flexibility.
- e2 Flash shutter speed: 1/30 - If I’m shooting flash I will likely have a VR lens mounted (18-200).
- e7 Bracketing order: under/meter/over - It only makes sense…
- f1 Multi-selector center button
- Shooting: Select center focus point - Especially with so many to choose from, I need to get back on center quickly!
- Playback: Show histograms - I like my cameras to behave consistently with one another.
- f3 Photo info/playback: On - See above.
- f4 Assign FUNC. button: FV lock (button press) - Consistently use function button for this function.
- f9 No memory card: Lock - Yes, I’ve shot games with no card (or no film) in the camera, so I always set this function!
6 responses so far ↓
1 Aqualung // Jan 16, 2008 at 10:56 am
Chuck, thanks for this info. I’m gonna give Active D-Lighting a try based on your experience. Is there an impact on FPS rate?
I recently starting using Neutral on my D300 and so far I like it, did you try it at all?
What do you do w/ Focus Lock On? Off? I’ve tried a variety of settings and haven’t been happy w/ it.
Interesting that you like 21 pt Dynamic; I dropped to 9 pt Dynamic for the very reason you mention w/ regards to 51 pt.
Finally, I stumbled onto your site today w/ regards to your Sigma 30f1.4 vs 50f1.4 comparo…I recently bought the Sigma but found the DoF was too great…I was getting the crowd in sharp focus, even at f1.4/1.6/1.8 for my liking. This while shooting under the basket. But, I still like the HSM speed, so may give it another try and just live w/ the DoF. What’s your take?
What metering are you using? Matrix? CW? Spot? I’ve been using CW almost exclusively….does it matter w/ D-Lighting?
2 The Sports Photo Guy // Jan 16, 2008 at 6:37 pm
I’ve found no real impact on FPS rate yet, at least in JPG mode, though I’m sure the potential is there for either long bursts or series of shorter bursts.
I use the Neutral setting for portraits and ‘people’ pictures (subject of a future article). I find Standard, with highest saturation, provides a good compromise between reasonable skin tones and bright colors for uniforms and the like for sports.
I leave Focus Lock at the default setting - never have found changing it to have much effect the way I shoot.
I’ve been using matrix metering with great success. I don’t think metering mode has an impact on Active D-Lighting (beyond differences in the exposure setting itself).
3 Steven // May 13, 2008 at 11:34 am
Hello, Great post. I primarily photograph football and looking to see if you happen to have your recommended custom settings for football for the D300. Thank you!
Steven
4 The Sports Photo Guy // May 13, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I’ve had a chance to shoot some spring football with the D300, and am starting to figure out its optimal settings for that sport. In particular, I’m finding 9-point AF seems to be the way to go. Football action is a bit more predictable, and with all those bodies on the field you want fairly precise AF point selection.
5 Michael // Nov 12, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I see that this article was written back in February.
Have you tested this technique with the new Firmware 1.10?
Would you change your settings in any way?
Thank you
6 The Sports Photo Guy // Nov 12, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Basketball season begins for me Friday night - November 14. I’ll be comparing the firmware upgrade vs the original firmware as well as testing out the new Sigma 50/f1.4 HSM. Stay tuned.
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