Please help guide me towards achieving an acceptable degree of sharpness

HwkOwl60

New member
I am almost 2.5 years late to the party however, nonethelessI finally purchased a D-850 a few weeks ago. Surprisingly, my imageresults/output to date are considerably less than stellar and failed to meetexpectations. Please make your hands on suggestions on how to solve thefollowing in order to proceed and maximize future use.

1) Obviously, theright out of the box settings are just a starting point. What are your specificrecommendations that when applied will optimize the in-camera settings forgeneral use?

2) Is there any combination of settings that will furtherenhance low light effectiveness other than to boost ISO and lower shutterspeed? I struggle to hold the rig still as I utilize heavy birding lens without support.

3) What metering choice? Spot vs Highlight vs Matrix.Although I primarily shoot birds occasionally my subject will bescenery/landscapes. Please educate me as to when I should be using each of theabove.

4) In what type of situations would one turn electronicshutter curtain on or off?

5) Please share specific settings for birds in flight. Thisis my biggest challenge. My main lens is a 200-500mm.

6) Will switching over to back button focus be preferable toout of the box in terms of focus accuracy and sharpness? How is the cameraset-up for that?

Please be patient with me as I try to ensure with yourwisdom that my 3k investment was worth parting with very long term savings.

Thanks in advance and Happy New Year to All

 

Danno

Senior Member
Welcome to the forum. You hav an awful lot of questions. First it is not unusual to start out with less stellar shots with a new camera, especially when it is a high megapixel camera like the 850. I would recommend two things... maybe three. Get familiar with the manual. Buy a handbook like David Busch's book on the 850. His books help a lot with recommended settings. Watch a few YouTube videos on settings up the 850.

The manual and a good handbook really get familiar with the camera. It really helps. It sounds, from your questions, that you are fairly new to this type of camera. I wish you well. The handbook and videos will help yo develop more specific questions too.

I wish you well,
 

Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.
We look forward to seeing more posts and samples of your work.

The above suggestions are great. In addition, you might want to see if there is any local adult classes or a local camera club.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I'm going to echo what Dan has already pointed out: You're asking a lot of questions that cover a wide range that would require pages of explanation and most are ones we can't really can't answer anyway because the right answer would depend entirely on the very specific shooting situation you're in at any specific moment. I agree with the suggestion to start familiarizing yourself with the basic functions of your camera, either with a good book or by watching some videos. Learning when to apply specific settings to get the shot you want is a matter of experimentation and practice. Experience, in short, will be your ultimate guide.

Searching on YouTube for, D850 Settings would be a good start.

More specifically I can suggest you look for videos by Steve Perry, Matt Granger, Mark Smith and/or Andrew Marr.
 

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
I second Steve Perry of Backcountry Gallery. He goes over a lot of what you are asking and has an e-book you can purchase on the Nikon focusing system.

As far as getting light on the sensor goes, you decrease shutter speed, open up the aperture and increase ISO. You can also use Exposure Compensation to adjust while shooting.

Once you get to 10 posts, you can attach an image, and we can see what you are doing.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
You chose a camera that offers high megapixels so any slight movements on your end will exaggerate any blur from shaking. Your technique needs to be spot-on with that body.

For starters, if you are struggling to hold the weight of the camera with the heavy lens you mentioned, consider getting a monopod or tripod.

When shooting moving subjects such as birds, you want the body set to AF-C (BBF is ideal for this but AF-C can also be used with the shutter button). Below is Steve Perry's video on BBF with a Nikon body. Since I shoot both birds as well as landscape, I make use of the U1 and U2 buttons to store my BBF settings for moving subjects. Otherwise, my regular settings allow me to use the shutter button for AF.

 

STM

Senior Member
The D850 is an amazing camera, I love mine. However because the sensor is such a high resolution sensor it will reveal any flaw in your technique. Things you may not see with a lower MP camera may become glaring in the D850. For critically sharp shots I pretty much always use a tripod. And add at least two shutter speed steps to the old adage, 1/focal length for your minimum shutter speed. I will defer any autofocus questions to others because all of my lenses are manual focus and I have a microprism/split image screen in mine and I will admit I really don't know jack about autofocus.
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
I have to ask if this is a genuine help needed post or a wind up trying to knock the D850, if it was me i may ask the question on my joining date but have come back before now to discuss the answer

Cap.JPG
 

KevinT

New member
I am almost 2.5 years late to the party however, nonethelessI finally purchased a D-850 a few weeks ago. Surprisingly, my imageresults/output to date are considerably less than stellar and failed to meetexpectations. Please make your hands on suggestions on how to solve thefollowing in order to proceed and maximize future use.

1) Obviously, theright out of the box settings are just a starting point. What are your specificrecommendations that when applied will optimize the in-camera settings forgeneral use?

2) Is there any combination of settings that will furtherenhance low light effectiveness other than to boost ISO and lower shutterspeed? I struggle to hold the rig still as I utilize heavy birding lens without support.

3) What metering choice? Spot vs Highlight vs Matrix.Although I primarily shoot birds occasionally my subject will bescenery/landscapes. Please educate me as to when I should be using each of theabove.

4) In what type of situations would one turn electronicshutter curtain on or off?

5) Please share specific settings for birds in flight. Thisis my biggest challenge. My main lens is a 200-500mm.

6) Will switching over to back button focus be preferable toout of the box in terms of focus accuracy and sharpness? How is the cameraset-up for that?

Please be patient with me as I try to ensure with yourwisdom that my 3k investment was worth parting with very long term savings.

Thanks in advance and Happy New Year to All


Watch this video by Mark Smith

https://youtu.be/J-5WWfCcuv0

I bought the pdf with his recommended D850 settings instead of trying to do it with the video and set mine up exactly as he describes, and it works perfectly. With normal daylight shoot flying birds in shutter priority at 1/2000 second. If you’re using the Nikon 200-500 f5.6 lens, don’t use a teleconverter or at least not stronger than 1.4 with autofocus.
 
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