First time shooting digital coming from a full analog process

[TheoLeakas2005]

Early in my career I was heavily involved with designing and deploying electrooptical devices including telescopes on spacecraft. Some of my later work include designing and programming Voyager I & II Jupiter Approach movies which show the Jovian satellites orbiting Jupiter and the Red Spot movies. So much earlier than most of the rest of the people in photography I was using digital photography, hence the comment: Ignoring digital photography from spacecraft

Incredible!! I'm taking a Light & Color / Optics course at university and the professor mentioned the camera system on Voyager II, notably the filters. I remember sitting and class last week and wondering if there were physical lens filters operated mechanically (like on an SLR lens), or differently calibrated sensors somehow being interchanged

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Hey folks!
I've only ever owned two cameras, a Canon AE-1 and a Nikon F5. I've been hired by a family friend to take some senior portraits of their daughter, and I'm planning on renting a Nikon D850 for a day (this way I can use my 28-70mm G ED). It comes out to be much more than the cost of a couple rolls of film, but the speed and flexibility is worth it to me for this project. What things should I be aware of coming from film? Underexpose rather than overexpose? Shoot RAW? Does this produce a LOG image, and then the colors are entirely up to me in Lightroom via a LUT? Should I be using fill flash? How much exposure latitude does the sensor have? Dynamic range? Should I be using exposure compensation for normal scenes, (e.g I'll shoot Portra 160 at +0.3 for a little more shadow detail and slightly finer grain)? Are there ways I can accidentally damage the sensor that I should be aware of? All your help is appreciated! Thank you so much!

Digital technology has a learning curve just like analog technology, but you won't have enough time for that. Rent the camera at least a few days before your shoot, and at the shoot, set most settings to 'auto'. Digital camera manufacturers have done a darn good job of handling most situations in audio modes well. If you shoot RAW, you will have maximum flexibility in post-processing using tools such as Photoshop and Lightroom to make adjustments. Still, it's better to fix things in the camera than in post. Therefore, fill flash: Yes.

 

[wiltw]

This is really good to know, thank you! If I may indulge, is there a preferred method (unsharp vs regular -PS user) and optimal amount that's calculable in any real way? Or do you just eyeball it?

There is a Sharpening tool in Lightroom, and I merely use it (without deliberately choosing a sharpening algorithm) and do it by eye...be sure to zoom in to a level which approximates the size of the final print desired, to ensure that the level of Sharpen chose has in introduced artifacts.
And keep in mind that when postprocessing RAW files you can ALWAYS undo every setting applied to the photo...nothing is permanent until the output JPG/TIFF/CYMK file is created (and even then, you can undo settings in the RAW file and output a different JPG/TIFF/CYMK instead!)

 

[Eric Rose]

If you value the friendship with the person requesting you do this shoot, practice with the camera and post processing for at least a week ahead of time.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Incredible!! I'm taking a Light & Color / Optics course at university and the professor mentioned the camera system on Voyager II, notably the filters. I remember sitting and class last week and wondering if there were physical lens filters operated mechanically (like on an SLR lens), or differently calibrated sensors somehow being interchanged

Look at JPL's website. Filters were rotated in and out.