I observed a Portrait tutorial concerning metering (outside) for exposure using Spot (just under the eye) while in Manual. The model was metered about 6 feet away, exposure was dialed in, and model was then placed maybe 15 or 20 feet away. My question is.....I must meter in the same light as the light where my model ultimately poses?

Also....if I use Aperture Priority instead of Manual, I would move the focus point on the eye, lock focus, and the meter reads the light at the same time? What metering mode would I use?

Also....isn't manual mode the best way to go? I would set my F-Stop (using my either 85mm 1.4 or 135mm f2 lens) to, say, f5.6., ISO to 100, then spot meter to determine shutter (And change ISO until I had a fast enough shutter speed for my shaky hands).

Then I would just have to worry about focus on the eye (using the center focus point, Single focus, and recompose)?

Am I on the right track here?

I purchased Affinity Photo for $39.95 on sale hoping to be able to save money by stopping my Adobe CC subscription. (I can use On1 Raw 2018, which I also have purchased, to replace Lightroom Classic.} I have now used Affinity for a month and found it to be similar functionally to Photoshop CC. Plus the tutorials are excellent and other than sometimes different placement of the functions, applicable to Photoshop as well. At least it seems to me, as a non-expert PS user.

My question is what am I missing with Affinity Photo that is available in Photoshop CC THAT I WOULD ACTUALLY USE IN MY PHOTO EDITING? So far I have found Content Aware Move, which I can do in Affinity with an extra step, and now Select Subject, which is a shortcut for the Quick Selection Brush, not a new tool. In other words, I am asking if, for a one-time charge of $40, is Affinity Photo too good to be true?

As a follow-up to yesterdays thread "Photography & Reality" here is an interesting development from a major retailer that doesn't surprise me...and in fact, I was surprised that someone had not done it yet.

"CVS Health plans to announce Monday (1/15/2018) that it will ban manipulation in its store brand makeup marketing and promotional displays amid growing awareness of the harmful nature of touched-up images."
"...the decision reflects an acknowledgement that 'unrealistic body images' are a significant driver of health issues, 'especially among women.' "We're all consuming massive amounts of media everyday and we're not necessarily looking at imagery that is real and true," To try to hold ourselves up to be like those women is Impossible because even those women don't look like how they appear in those photographs" The retailer will place an icon with a "digitally modified" warning on any marketing materials that don't comply by 2020*

On my comments on "Photograpy & Reality" earlier yesterday I suggested that the icon's OCC (out of camera) and PP (post processing) be used on photo's to acknowledge to the viewer what they are looking at...original camera/lens shot, or photo with post processing (manipulation). This article by USA TODAY seems to suggest an awareness of misrepresentation by presenting a photo as reality, when in fact, it has been manipulated without acknowledgement, which in fact, supports my earlier position on representation/misrepresentation on the prior thread. I have been surprised that a challenge to the "truth in advertising" clause has not been applied and enforced on the visual media by consumer and product (visual) users. Interesting development. Please respond and please stay on topic!

* see USA TODAY by Nathan Bomey posted 1/15/2018.

Thank you all for taking the time and sharing your obviously extensive knowledge with me on this subject. I learned about bracketing from the dummies book for the D3400 and in that book they discussed adjusting the white balance up two steps and down two steps from the original when using bracketing for HDR photographs which was why I thought that it had to do with white balance. Now it makes more sense, although I will need to read the manual for my d5300 a bit more before I will attempt to use it myself. My biggest problem is that I got pretty good at using the functions on my d3400 and them bought my d5300 because it could do some stuff I wanted that the d3400 could not do. Then I gave the d3400 to my daughter. I guess that I really should have read the features more closely on the d3400 before I bought it, because I made the mistake of assuming that being the latest camera that it would do everything that the previous older models would do, but was wrong.

This is probably a stupid question, but that's ok because I never claimed to be a very knowledgeable photographer. If I understand correctly bracketing is taking 3 pictures with three different white balance values, one low one mid and one high of the exact same scene. However since the exposure can be adjusted after the fact then if you are shooting in raw then bracketing has no place. Since most of the professional photographers here seem to say they always shot in raw, the bracketing must not be used by professional photographers. Is that an accurate assumption?

I have a D5 for 2 weeks and I'm working as a stand alone with Photoshop CS6, so I was wondering is it best delete the camera raw nef's after I have converted them Adobe DGN converter in order for me to open them on my stand alone system. I checked both Nef & Dng images. There is only a difference of 1.5 MB between raw file and dgn file, Since the dgn file is a direct copy of the nef file does it really make sense to save double the information. Today I shot 475 images with the D5. After converting I now a total of 950 files that are duplications of each other. Just wondering!

I have LightRoom 6 and my machine crashed, so I went to reinstall it. No big deal it is a licensed registered version. I downloaded the same version from Adobe's website, I entered the key that was stored on their website and it said it was invalid. After wasting an hour on chat with them as it turns out when you purchase LightRoom, although it does not expire you can't reinstall it after a year. Naturally it is because they want to sell you their Cloud Version. As far as I am concerned this is the lowest of low. If they don't want to support it, it is one thing. But to not let you use it is just plain wrong. I don't know what to go with but it will not be an Adobe product.

It appears to me that the B&H ad contradicts itself. As shown in the copy of the ad posted by MT in the main body of the said ad (at the very bottom) B&H says "The item is in pristine condition and INCLUDES THE MANUFACTURER'S WARRANTY". One would presume from this statement it would be the Nikon company one.
However, in the area that shows what is included "in the box" B&H shows something a tad different, this being the lens comes with only a LIMITED 1 YEAR B&H WARRANTY. Doesn't add up, does it😵.
I think that possibly B&H made an error in their posting of this ad and that the last line in the main body of the ad should have been omitted. It appears this ad is for a USA-Nikon lens and not a grey market one. Remove this one line and it would fit the description of grey market.😜
However, saying all that, if the purchaser would have read all the ad the fact that 2 different warranties are shown in the ad should have raised a red flag. A further investigation by contacting B&H would have been advisable in order to clear up the problem. When making any online purchase one MUST read everything posted on the item to make sure you are getting exactly what you want. If all does not appear to be kosher, then one MUST seek further information. But, at the same time the seller has to make sure what is selling is advertised correctly, something that B&H in this case IMHO they failed to do.

LittleRed (Ron)