Firts outing with D850

floridafan

New member
I purchased a D850 for my wife. She never uses Automatic Setting but chose to try it with this new camera for a trip on my boat down the Silver River in Ocala Florida. Most of the shots came out blurry, quite poorly. So I am just wondering what could have gone wrong. The Lens was an 80-400 Nikon Zoom. Conditions were sunny and shady depending on the side of the river she was shooting on. The boat was always moving since we were on a river. Any thoughts why this advanced camera would perform so poorly when the camera was left to its on devices to calculate all the variables to theoretically produce good images?
 

floridafan

New member
As she is going through the pictures she is noticing that the shadows are very dark and the light areas are bleached out... The Snowy Egret is Glowing White and the woods are Black as night...
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Is she shooting jpeg or RAW? If jpeg and if the camera has Active-D Lighting, then turning it on will allow more detail to show up in the shadows. Light areas that are bleached out might mean the dynamic range of the scene is beyond what the camera can capture. We humans can see very bright light as well as shadow detail all in one scene; however, a camera can only capture so many stops of light. Anything beyond those extremes (extremely bright lights and dark shadows) might get clipped. What that means is the bright areas simply record as all white and the dark areas as all black. So a camera's range isn't able to capture everything we see when it comes to dynamic range.

If you've ever heard of HDR (high dynamic range), it is a way to capture all the bright lights and dark shadows. BUT it requires multiple exposures to do so. Usually it can be done with 3, 5, 7, or even 9 exposures although 3 is widely used. One exposure is normal, one is exposed for the shadows (usually 1-2 stops underexposed), and one is exposed for the bright lights (1-2 stops overexposed). Then those images are merged in post processing software so the shadowed areas and bright areas both show more detail.

Shooting RAW allows some of the blown highlights and dark shadows to be recovered during post processing. There is a greater dynamic range in RAW files than there is in jpeg.

One other suggestion is to see what options the lens has for VR. Active VR is specifically designed to be used when on a moving vehicle. Personally I use Active VR (as opposed to Normal VR) all the time because I have forearm tendonitis and am not able to hold the camera/lens as still as most people.

Mmmm, learn the basics of photograpy first... before you buy a professional cam.
If you get your drivers license, you don't start with a 600 Hp car...

It would have been nicer if you had offered positive, helpful advice. One thing that has set this forum apart from others is they generally don't condone bashing. What setting changes can you suggest that would be beneficial for the OP? Surely with your experience you can explain setting changes or what to watch for when shooting that would be beneficial. :)
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Oops...sorry forgot to address the shutter speed. In addition to the VR suggestion above, what is the shutter speed? To capture a subject while moving would require a faster than normal shutter speed. Depending upon how fast you are moving 1/2000" shutter speed or higher would be my guess WITH Active VR​ turned on.
 

floridafan

New member
Mmmm, learn the basics of photograpy first... before you buy a professional cam.
If you get your drivers license, you don't start with a 600 Hp car...
What a rude and insulting comment! Particularly since you have no knowledge as to who you are speaking of or what her experience is!
My wife has been shooting Nikon products for more than a decade starting off with. D90 until she wore it out then purchasing a D300 until she wore that out, she has been shooting a D7200 since they first came out and stepped up to a D850 full frame this week. I can’t belive your insulting and ignorant tone. Don’t bother ever responding to any of my posts in the future please!
 
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floridafan

New member
Mmmm, learn the basics of photograpy first... before you buy a professional cam.
If you get your drivers license, you don't start with a 600 Hp car...
I will do that this evening. She actually produced some of her most beautiful work yesterday. The full frame makes a huge difference. It was just way off when the camera did not work as expected.
She never lets the camera choose settings, but tried it yesterday.


Welcome!

Please post some of her shots for us to review.
 

floridafan

New member
Is she shooting jpeg or RAW? If jpeg and if the camera has Active-D Lighting, then turning it on will allow more detail to show up in the shadows. Light areas that are bleached out might mean the dynamic range of the scene is beyond what the camera can capture. We humans can see very bright light as well as shadow detail all in one scene; however, a camera can only capture so many stops of light. Anything beyond those extremes (extremely bright lights and dark shadows) might get clipped. What that means is the bright areas simply record as all white and the dark areas as all black. So a camera's range isn't able to capture everything we see when it comes to dynamic range.

If you've ever heard of HDR (high dynamic range), it is a way to capture all the bright lights and dark shadows. BUT it requires multiple exposures to do so. Usually it can be done with 3, 5, 7, or even 9 exposures although 3 is widely used. One exposure is normal, one is exposed for the shadows (usually 1-2 stops underexposed), and one is exposed for the bright lights (1-2 stops overexposed). Then those images are merged in post processing software so the shadowed areas and bright areas both show more detail.

Shooting RAW allows some of the blown highlights and dark shadows to be recovered during post processing. There is a greater dynamic range in RAW files than there is in jpeg.

One other suggestion is to see what options the lens has for VR. Active VR is specifically designed to be used when on a moving vehicle. Personally I use Active VR (as opposed to Normal VR) all the time because I have forearm tendonitis and am not able to hold the camera/lens as still as most people.



It would have been nicer if you had offered positive, helpful advice. One thing that has set this forum apart from others is they generally don't condone bashing. What setting changes can you suggest that would be beneficial for the OP? Surely with your experience you can explain setting changes or what to watch for when shooting that would be beneficial. :)

As my wife was analyzing Tver problematic shots (she was in jpeg although she usually shoots raw) it became apparent that the issues did deal with extremes of dark and light on the river. A high sun, reflecting light, shooting from shadows across a well lit area with deep shade beyond.

She will likely not utilize the P setting again, at least not in extreme divergent settings.
 

floridafan

New member
Mmmm, learn the basics of photograpy first... before you buy a professional cam.
If you get your drivers license, you don't start with a 600 Hp car...

Oops...sorry forgot to address the shutter speed. In addition to the VR suggestion above, what is the shutter speed? To capture a subject while moving would require a faster than normal shutter speed. Depending upon how fast you are moving 1/2000" shutter speed or higher would be my guess WITH Active VR​ turned on.
Since the camera was on P I think it selected the shutter speed... I could be wrong.
But either way, when we get to a target subject I do my best to hold the boat position so there is very little movement but perhaps some drift. I will post some of her good shots along with a few of those that did not work out so they can be examined this evening.
Thank you so very much for your thoughtful response!
 

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
You mentioned that some of the shots were blurry, I assume from camera shake, especially with a 400mm lens. One area where almost all cameras disappoint in Auto or Program mode is choosing too slow a shutter speed for conditions. The only work around on my early cameras (for Auto mode) was to choose Sports mode. Now I just figure out what shutter speed I must have, then the minimum aperture I must have to get sharpness and depth of field. I set those two manually and leave the camera on Auto-ISO.
 

Texas

Senior Member
There's a long running debate about using VR with high shutter speeds.
"Nikon recommends turning VR off with shutter speeds of 1/500s or greater."
 

Chucktin

Senior Member
I wonder if side-by-side you'd see the difference. But certainly at high shutter speeds the advantage VR gives would be minimized.
 
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