Greetings & A Question

V

Vulture

New member
Hi guys

New to the forum. Looking for some help. Bought a D3300 camera before X-Mas, but constantly disappointed with the quality of the photos which are just not sharp enough. Which is the best section on the forum to have an in-depth discussion over this ? By way of example here is one I took today.

Thanks for your help

Ian

2016-04-17___DSC_0727.jpg
 
G

Griso

Senior Member
Hi Ian and welcome!

I'm know nothing, but here's my thoughts;

1) are you in AF-C (continuous) or AF-S (single)

generally AF-C for moving subject and AF-S for stationary. If the vehicle above was moving, I'd be in AF-C and keep the shutter button half pressed to keep it in focus. If it was stationary, I'd choose AF-S.

Don't use AF-A (Auto) as you don't know what it'll choose - you want to decide AF-C or S.

2) You can use the free Nikon software NX-D to show you where the focus point is and you can see if it's where you think it is!

3) I generally use single point focus. Sometimes for birds in flight etc I'll expand it to 9 or 21 points. However, if you use D-9 or 21 etc on the vehicle above, you may not be sure exactly where it'll focus, so I'd use single point.

4) I don't use the 3D tracking, not fast or reliable enough to be useful (to me, but then my camera isn't known for it's AF prowess!).

I hope this is of some help and sorry if I've pitched at the wrong level.
 
E

Elliot87

Senior Member
Welcome to the forum!

Are you shooting in JPEG or RAW? If you are shooting in JPEG you can adjust the settings in the menus to increase sharpening, saturation etc. If I remember rightly the default JPEG settings on my D3200 weren't very sharp.
On the other hand if you are shooting RAW you will need to edit the photos yourself in post, including sharpening etc.

Of course there could be some other reason you're not getting the images you want but that is where I would start. Without pixel peeping on that photo it doesn't look too bad to me and your settings don't look bad.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Vulture said:
Hi guys

New to the forum. Looking for some help. Bought a D3300 camera before X-Mas, but constantly disappointed with the quality of the photos which are just not sharp enough. Which is the best section on the forum to have an in-depth discussion over this ? By way of example here is one I took today.
Click to expand...
Press the Menu button on your camera and highlight the "Shooting" menu (the camera icon).
Drop down to "Picture Controls" and click right one time.
From here, highlight "Standard", or what ever Picture Control you want to use (each Picture Control has its own set of sub-menus), and then click right one time.
From this settings menu find the Sharpness setting and increase setting from the default of "2" to "6" or "7"; I don't suggest going any higher.
Drop down and increase the "Saturation" setting +1 notch on the slider. This is optional, but I think it's a good idea.
Press "OK" to exit the menus and you're done.
If you use any of the other Picture Controls, such as Landscape, Vivid, Portrait, etc. you'll need to adjust the Sharpness settings there just as you did for Standard.

This one change should improve the overall sharpness of your JPG's photos significantly.
 
M

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Welcome to the forum,as already said if you are shooting jpeg the factory default settings are useless,tweak them as per instructions above.
 
D

Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
Welcome to the forum. A lot of it depends on what mode you are shooting. If you are shooting in RAW then you will need to sharpen in Post processing. IF shooting in JPEG then follow the directions below.

If you are shooting JPG I would suggest that you use the Fine>>Large setting and also set your camera for better sharpness.



Go into your Menus and highlight the "Shooting" menu (the camera icon)

Drop down to "Picture Controls" and click right one time.

From here, highlight "Standard" and then click right one time.

From this settings menu, increase the "Sharpness" setting to "7".

Drop down and increase the "Saturation" setting +1 notch on the slider.

Press "OK" to exit the menus and you're done.


 
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