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I did a shoot with this girl back in July, it was a rather impromptu TFP meet up with one other photog... anyways, she did that (semi) duck-lips in every pose which gave her a moustache-like shadow in every picture I was too lazy to deal with it
So I would appreciate some advice on some shots. I received my D500 late last week. The weather and conditions have been terrible for the most part since then. Either raining or overcast for most of the days since I have had it and had time to do any shooting just in the back yard.
So far I have only been viewing these images on my android tablet with a 2k screen and maybe that is my issue rather than viewing them on my desktop but to me they all seem soft. I figure this is cause I am shooting a subject now that does not stay completely still and in the past most of what I would shoot was cars and landscapes. I did shoot some sports and drifting in the past and never felt my images were this soft.
So I am looking for some input on these. I have included the images straight out of the camera as well as some minor edits that have been resized. Nothing has been sharpened at all. These are the best I have been happy without out of about 150 shots I have taken so far. The only idea I have as to why might be it has been a while since I shot things that are moving and also I am shooting at a much smaller aperature than I normally did for cars and landscapes.
I would suggest doubling your shutter speed. To rule out camera shake and and others, see what you get from there. Also The D500 has auto AF fine tuning. You may need to do it. What lens?
OK I will give that a shot. Will have to up my ISO then I'd we stay with the same overcast whether we have been having.
The first one was taken with the kit 16-80 F/2.8-4 VR. The rest were all taken with Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR. It's a rather old lens. Have had it since back when I had a D70.
General rule of thumb is stick to 1/focal length for steady shots of a still subject. If you have a moving subject, I'd do no slower than 1/500 depending on how fast the subject is moving and if you want to have a motion blurred background or not. VR does not help for subject motion, it only helps for camera shake. Are these all RAW exports or shot in jpeg?
I also noticed you're shooting your lens wide open which generally (especially for zooms) does not yield the best sharpness. Try stopping down one or two notches and try again. I know this is backwards of what you want to do but that camera should be able to cleanly shoot ISO1600 all day without any issues. If you need to go higher than that, give it a shot. It's far easier to remove noise in post than it is to add sharpness.
I would suggest doubling your shutter speed. To rule out camera shake and and others, see what you get from there. Also The D500 has auto AF fine tuning. You may need to do it. What lens?
Was reading up on this today and I might try to do this with the 70-200. Taking some pictures of my shed for straight lines to compare the 16-80 lens seems much sharper than my 70-200.
Originally Posted by SamDoe1
General rule of thumb is stick to 1/focal length for steady shots of a still subject. If you have a moving subject, I'd do no slower than 1/500 depending on how fast the subject is moving and if you want to have a motion blurred background or not. VR does not help for subject motion, it only helps for camera shake. Are these all RAW exports or shot in jpeg?
I also noticed you're shooting your lens wide open which generally (especially for zooms) does not yield the best sharpness. Try stopping down one or two notches and try again. I know this is backwards of what you want to do but that camera should be able to cleanly shoot ISO1600 all day without any issues. If you need to go higher than that, give it a shot. It's far easier to remove noise in post than it is to add sharpness.
They were all shot in JPEG. Hopefully some of this is like riding a bike its been 4-5 years since I seriously was shooting and hopefully some of it starts to come back to me. I definitely will move up to 1/500. I thought I was already two stops down being at f/4 on a f/2.8 lens? I assume you are saying go further for the time being? I definitely have no issue with the noise in the photos even at 1600. I am absolutely amazed at that performance compared to my D300.
Originally Posted by srika
solid advice from Jupes and SamDoe, try those changes out - let's see how it goes.
Appreciate all the advice and I will post some more shots up later this week.
Was reading up on this today and I might try to do this with the 70-200. Taking some pictures of my shed for straight lines to compare the 16-80 lens seems much sharper than my 70-200.
They were all shot in JPEG. Hopefully some of this is like riding a bike its been 4-5 years since I seriously was shooting and hopefully some of it starts to come back to me. I definitely will move up to 1/500. I thought I was already two stops down being at f/4 on a f/2.8 lens? I assume you are saying go further for the time being? I definitely have no issue with the noise in the photos even at 1600. I am absolutely amazed at that performance compared to my D300.
Appreciate all the advice and I will post some more shots up later this week.
I'd start doing RAW if you can. You are losing tons of data in jpeg conversion in camera. I don't care what anyone says, my Core i7 computer has a lot more processing power to properly compress and convert to jpeg than any camera body.
A great way to check lens focus is lay a ruler out on a table perpendicular to the camera and put your camera on a tripod facing it. Focus on a mark (center focus point only) with a wide open aperture and the narrowest DOF you can get and see what part of the ruler is in focus. If the mark you targeted is in focus, your lens is fine. If it misses, you'll see where and by how much.
Most zooms will be at their peak between f/5.6 and f/11. f/4 on a high end Nikon lens should still be ok as should f/2.8 but I'm not sure on Nikon products. I know my Canon 70-200 2.8 was tack sharp at f/4, yours could be and probably is different.
Excuse the watermark in the picture. I am trying out a couple different image editors capable of editing raw on my android tablet to see if I can get by with it instead of always needing to use my desktop and photoshop.
Last Thursday I got a chance to take some more shots. I think in the end I might just need to work on being able to focus exactly where I want on a moving target better. These turned out a bit better but I shot 400+ pictures to come out with about 15-20 that I liked to keep. Would love to get that ratio down better.
Not sure how well this new app works so hopefully it isn't reducing the quality when I resize at all. Link below each image for just a conversion of the raw file to jpg.
Holy crap how old is that last picture? @ACCURATEin it has my buddies site logo on my 17-55 hood but whose is that last legs lens cause I don't have two? I can name most of it. My D300 with grip and 17-55 f2.8. my 70-200, 18-200, and 12-24. The last lens almost looks like a 24-70 with a teleconverter attached.
Aww man I'm jealous! Drones are awesome because it gives you a lot of unique perspective. I've particular love the top down look on photography with drones.
Wife got me a drone for Christmas. I love this thing
Which drone? I bought one (DJI Phantom 3 Advanced) a few months ago and have literally flown it once because turns out they are super strict around here with bylaws on drones
Which drone? I bought one (DJI Phantom 3 Advanced) a few months ago and have literally flown it once because turns out they are super strict around here with bylaws on drones
Phantom 3 Standard. Its an amazing piece of technology for only $400. There are definitely regulations and safety practices you must abide by, but they are well worth it
Aww man I'm jealous! Drones are awesome because it gives you a lot of unique perspective. I've particular love the top down look on photography with drones.
Doooo ittt. im sure the wifey won't mind.
Just tell her its better than watching Kevin at a keyboard meet.
11-28-2016, 12:53 PM
I was too lazy to deal with it 
