Ask a Pro

Scott Kelby is a photographer, Photoshop Guy, award-winning author of more than 50 books, and CEO of KelbyOne, an online education community dedicated to helping photographers take the kinds of images they’ve always dreamed of.

Hi everybody! Welcome to my new Q&A column here in Shutterbug—a magazine I’ve been reading, and been a fan of, for so many years—so it’s truly an honor to be here with you. I invite you to send in your questions to editorial@shutterbug.com (with “For Scott Kelby” as the subject line), and I’ll do my best to answer them in Ask a Pro. Now on to this month’s questions.

Hi everybody! Welcome to my new Q&A column here in Shutterbug—a magazine I’ve been reading, and been a fan of, for so many years—so it’s truly an honor to be here with you. I invite you to send in your questions to editorial@shutterbug.com (with “For Scott Kelby” as the subject line), and I’ll do my best to answer them in Ask a Pro. Now on to this month’s questions.

Scott Kelby is a photographer, Photoshop Guy, award-winning author of more than 50 books, and CEO of KelbyOne, an online education community dedicated to helping photographers take the kinds of images they’ve always dreamed of.

Q. What is the latest regarding the problems with the Nikon D750? I bought one of the bad ones and am getting ready to send it back for the third time in hopes they can fix the fuzzy, black, thumb image at 6 o’clock that consumes about 40% of the bottom middle of my shots. This happens intermittently but frequently enough to have ruined both wedding and vacation shots. If I purchase a very recently manufactured D750 will I be OK? Thanks! By the way, I love your column and your well-written, easy-to-understand answers.

Q. My Windows 10 computer is old. I built a modest machine a few years ago and am starting to select components for a new build. My question: Do Lightroom and Photoshop use the graphics card to assist in processing images? I convert the Canon 5D Mark IV Raw CR2 files to DNG files and then process them in Lightroom. I then make both 60 percent and 20 percent JPEGs, the former for on-screen viewing and the latter for e-mailing. Rendering DNG and JPEG files is often slow enough to make me impatient. On occasion I process large files in Photoshop and want maximum speed. Will a fast (and expensive) graphics card be a worthwhile expense? I want this new build to last at least four or five years. By the way, if you want to recommend a graphics card and a processor that would be just fine. Thanks!

Q. I recently purchased a Sony A7R II and have enjoyed the switch to Sony ever since. That said, I have discovered an “issue” with certain aspects of a mirrorless setup. There are times I would like to take shots of a subject at night using a flash. The problem arises when using the EVF to compose with settings that work for the exposure with flash. It is nearly impossible to see anything, as the EVF is just black! I am sure this is not just a problem with Sony EVFs, but other mirrorless cameras as well. Is there a button that you can map, similar to the Nikon “Preview” function? Something that will “light” the EVF so you can see what you have within your frame while composing would be perfect, but I do not recognize the function name within the menus if there is one. Is this just an inherent “problem” with mirrorless cameras with EVFs for now?