13 replies to this topic

[Rnaval]

So I’ve been shooting for years with the D5100, I’m not an expert but I have reasonable knowledge of aperture, shutter speeds, lenses, etc. Recently bought the D850 with a couple of lenses to try and up my photography skills but after spending a few days field testing, I’m disappointed with the amount of blurred photos. Most of the shots are at night, indoors and portraits. I’m using an AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1.8G lens without a flash. I am using P mode.

I have come away with the notion that either this camera is too sensitive or it requires a tripod for most shots. I also have the AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm ED VR lens f/3.5-5.6 but expect even worse results for indoor night time portrait shots.

What advice would you give to resolve the blurred photos issue? What don’t I know about using a pro series camera? Do I need to shoot in shutter priority mode? If so, what shutter speed should I select to avoid the blurring?

Looking forward to hearing your valuable feedback.

Thanks
Rohit

[Merco_61]

We can't help you without examples and information on what shutter speed, aperture and ISO you have used. As the Picture control used can affect the percieved sharpness if you shoot in jpg or use Capture NX-D to process your raw file, this information would also be appreciated.

[Jerry_]

As Peter (Merco61) said: to give you good advice we need to know what settings you used and what was the result.

However, as you describe the results I would expect that your time of exposure is to long. The one parameter to check is what setting you have for ISO - and controls here are different from the D5100.

When you press the ISO button you will see either “ISO” or “Auto ISO” followed by a number, i.e. the ISO value (f.i. 100 or 200 or something different). While a high number in ISO might help, it will also create noise. But more important for this moment is whether “Auto ISO” is ON (and I suspect it is not). For activating the Auto ISO, press the ISO button while turning the front-wheel, for changing the min ISO value, press the ISO button while turning the rear wheel.

If this confirms and you switch Auto ISO on it may happen that the camera chooses high ISO values causing noise; there is a setting to cap the max ISO in the menus and we can also help you with this, but please first confirm whether this helped, or provide an example picture with all the EXIF data, so that we can better analyse the problem.

[dem]

I think you are talking about camera shake. Motion blur is due to the subject movement. 

 

There also might be some problem with focusing:

 

https://digital-phot...poor-focussing/

 

EDIT: The second half of my post just disappeared. What the hell?

 

In the nutshell, for 50 mm lens you need 1/50 sec shutter speed or above to minimise camera shake.

I'd use 1/100. Test your camera on a tripod to eliminate a possibility of front/back focusing problem.

[Rnaval]

Thanks for replying. Yes, I’m referring to camera shake. I’m using the jpeg fine image setting and I confirmed the camera is set to ISO 100, auto iso is not turned on.

The photo info shows 4128 x 2752 - 1/4 sec, f1.4 and ISO 100 using the 50mm f1.4 lens.

[Merco_61]

For available dark work with that body, I would use Aperture priority with the 50/1.4 closed down to f/1.8 to get that little extra crispness without losing too much speed. I would set up AutoISO with a shutter speed limit of 1/50 and a capping ISO of 3200 to start with. You might want to tweak these parameters to suit your own taste but it is a good starting point. The D850 is excellent up to ~6400 ISO, so there is still some margin.

 

As you shoot in jpg, what picture control do you use? Flat, Neutral and Standard are all quite bland and lifeless SOOC and best suited for raw shooters who use Capture NX-D. Standard is better than the other two, but I feel that going to Portrait for available dark or developing your own starting from Portrait will work best.

[Merco_61]

By the way, it seems like you have the quality set to Small Fine, which uses the rather rudimentary resizer in the camera. You will probably get better both DR and S/N if you change to Large Fine and resize for your intended output in post as most processing software uses better algorithms that bin the pixels together rather than discarding information and then averaging what's left.

[Rnaval]

The ISO setting change to Auto ISO alone I think resolved the issues. Is that something I could have changed inadvertently or is ISO 100 set as default? Anyway, it’s fixed everything.

Then based on your suggestions, I set the picture control to Portrait. I also set the image size to large - NEF raw + JPEG Fine. Then I tried testing under the same lighting conditions and the results are amazing. I’m blown away by the quality of the shots.

Thank you so much for your guidance, I’ve now fallen in love with this camera.

[dem]

1/4 sec, f1.4 and ISO 100 using the 50mm f1.4 lens.

 

1/4 sec!? That's your problem.

 

There is an old rule of thumb that you need a shutter speed of about 1/f to shoot a full frame camera handheld at a focal length f (that is without any VR). For 50 mm that's 1/50 sec. This will give you about 50% keepers provided your camera holding technique is good. I would not expect any keepers at 1/4 sec unless you have a lens with VR.

[Jerry_]

The ISO setting change to Auto ISO alone I think resolved the issues. Is that something I could have changed inadvertently or is ISO 100 set as default? Anyway, it’s fixed everything.

Then based on your suggestions, I set the picture control to Portrait. I also set the image size to large - NEF raw + JPEG Fine. Then I tried testing under the same lighting conditions and the results are amazing. I’m blown away by the quality of the shots.

Thank you so much for your guidance, I’ve now fallen in love with this camera.

Nice that we could help you.

Setting ISO to 100 and not activating Auto ISO, made the algorithms of the camera use that value as a constant and try to get the best result with the two other parameters (shutter speed and aperture).

Now that you have (re)activated (I don’t know whether with factory settings this is activated or not, so it is not sure whether it was you who inadvertently changed that setting) the Auto ISO, the camera algorithms can use all three parameters to get the best result.

Enjoy your camera.

[Rnaval]

By the way, it seems like you have the quality set to Small Fine, which uses the rather rudimentary resizer in the camera. You will probably get better both DR and S/N if you change to Large Fine and resize for your intended output in post as most processing software uses better algorithms that bin the pixels together rather than discarding information and then averaging what's left.

What is DR and S/N? I’m using The Large Raw + Fine setting but it is taking up too much space. Is it really worth using the large setting?

[Merco_61]

DR = dynamic range

S/N = signal to noise ratio.

 

The earlier in the process you reduce the quality, the more quality you lose because the edits are applied to the already reduced file.

 

Using the hi-res cameras will always make lots of disk space a necessity as the high resolution and large files are the main reasons to go with one of them.

[jbell]

I agree, shutter speed is your problem....increase the ISO, or turn on auto ISO to give yourself some breathing room. On a 50mm lens, you should not be shooting slower then 1/50 sec. You need even faster speeds on longer a longer lens....If you really need the ISO at 100, and 1/4 sec shutter speed you are going to have to use a tripod or stabilize your camera some how...

This isn't specific to your camera, as anyone shooting at 1/4sec will find it nearly impossible to take a picture without introducing camera shake.

 

I don't know about the D5100 but on my camera I can set a min ISO (100) and a max (1600) even though my camera will go all the way up to 24,000 and auto ISO will keep it between those two points, allowing me to get very usable pictures despite using auto ISO.

[Hendriximages]

Hello, I´m new here (after switching from several years with mirrorless back to Nikon with the D850 ;-)

 

agree to what was said above, but with high res sensors my experience is that I need a shutter speed at least of 1/focal length x 2, i.e. for 50mm that would be 1/100sec (maybe I got the shakes ;-)

 

luckily that can be set in the D850´s auto ISO, Go to Menu > Photo Shooting Menu > ISO Sensitivity Settings > Min. shutter speed, select Auto and click on the arrow on the right > move the cursor from the middle one position to the right (faster)

 

Hope this helps, all the best & kind regards

 

Hendrik