Chris C said:
I'm going to be attending a college graduation ceremony tomorrow. I want to shoot in RAW. Is there a general opinion as to whether to alter the optimization settings in the camera from normal or to handle all those choices in post processing? If some in-camera settings are recommended, what might they be? I'm shooting a D70.
Sorry, probably too late for this advice now but as a general rule of thumb here is what I have read about.
You do not really need to adjust your built in camera curves at all since that is easily done in post-processing if you shoot RAW. The issue is there is no one correct curve for every situation. If you shot JPEG, you want to use the curves to avoid lossy multiediting. Of course, if you know the correct curve to use anyway, you can save yourself a step. Many ways to skin this cat... of course as Chris101 mentioned you probably won't need to change this in the end.
Technically you do not need to adjust white balance either, but it is good to set it to something consistent so if you did mess up you can automate/batch adjust the white balance. Although sometimes I get annoyed if I use fill flash and the hard locked white balance gives a colder look. It is a trade off you wll have to make but should be fixable if your white balance option was remotely close.
As for the in-camera optimize image settings, a lot of people put sharpening and tone to either 0 or negative 1. You do not want your camera doing any major processing since that hurts your flexibility.
If you are shooting JPEG and have no intention to process RAW files at all, you might want to do some more in-camera processing.
As for color space, Adobe 1998 is probably good for dealing with high end photography companies. If you want to use it mostly for the web or print it yourself sRGB is actually a little better at times. And the normal print out places usually prefer sRBG instead of Adobe 1998. You do not have to worry about gamut changes as much and most lower end printers try to get closer to the sRGB space.
Use Color Mode I for portraits and Color Mode III for landscapes. Color mode II is Adobe 1998 space.
You can reach these settings via Menu->Green Camera->Optimize Image->Custom.
Finally, the real key is going to be your exposure. You probably 'want' to underexpose a little bit since it is way easier to recover lost data from underexposure rather than overexposure Of course if you go too far underexposing you can lead yourself into nasty noise issues, got to love digital cameras, eh?

For the key shots try bracketing your exposures to avoid that nasty conundrum.