As some may know, I've recently got a D300, and although I am thrilled with 90% of the features, I am slightly confused about a number of options, and I'm hoping someone could kindly give me insight:
Firstly, I am very pleased about high ISO levels, but I'm curious as to what the best setting (if any!) is for the in camera noise reduction?
Following this, is there anyone who can recommended any settings on the NoiseNinja plugin for CS3 that provide good results with minimal smudging?
Also, I can't find a great deal on AF fine tune, but as I'm quite satisfied with the sharpness of my 17-55, I'm worried about fiddling. That said, when you're spending £700 on glass, you want the absolute best you can. So any advice on that is appreciated.
Finally, (and this is a probably a slightly stupid question), but my D300's usually snappy shutter seems to have a sort of 'lag'. It's almost as if there's a split second delay of the shutter being pressed and the shot actually being captured. I have a feeling it may be due to low battery (I think I had only 2 bars) but I'm hoping this is normal and my shutter isn't dying.
Many thanks to anyone who can lend some help.
EDIT: Sorry for the edit, but I also wanted some advice at a friends wedding I'll be shooting next week. I shoot as much natural light as possible, but I'm worried if my 17-55 2.8 will suffice. What do most people think of as a maximum? 1/100th at 3200? I don't want to take 300 photos and then when I load them up to a 22 inch monitor I'm seeing results I know could have been 200% better if I'd gone with the nifty fifty.
Well lets take this one at a time. As for noise reduction, I'd stick to the LOW setting, as anything higher will begin to take a significant toll on the image detail. Let your Noise Ninja do the work afterwards in post processing. I don't use Noise Ninja (I prefer Noiseware Pro PlugIn for CS3) so can't help you on that setting.
If you can take an sample pic with your lens on a flat detail item (such as a brick wall or better yet download,print and take a shot of a resolution chart on a flat wall) and the image looks sharp in the center LEAVE IT ALONE. This is best done wide open assuming your lens does OK in the first place wide open. If it looks unsharp, you could have some back or front focusing issues. Then post once again and we'll go into the lengthy explaination of how to accomplish that.
A slow shutter on a D300 is most often an indication you're in 14bit mode which will slow the shutter down a bit and make it seem sluggish . Go into the menu for "Shooting" and adjust it to 12bit....you will not likely see any image quality difference and it won't slow things down this way.
ISO3200 on a D300 IMHO is servicable for small pictures but not say an 8x10 or larger so avoid them if you can. Noise reduction applied afterwards can help but WILL no doubt take some toll on overall IQ.
I just got a D300 in the last few days as well. I've never taken any shots in 14-bit, but the lag could be due to the focus being is AF priority vs Shutter priority. In AF, the composition must be in focus before it'll fire. In SP, it'll fire regardless of the focus setting. I'm liking mine so far. Quite a difference in moving from Canon. D3 is on the way next week.
For sports use I keep the NR on LOW when I'm shooting ISO1600 or higher, sometimes even LOW. I don't like sacrificing detail, and to be honest even at ISO3200 with this camera I don't feel it needs any NR in post...
I have always my noise reduction off and develop my NEFs in NX2 and sometimes, with much noise, in DxO 5.2. I don't know yet what gives the best result overall, sometimes it is NX2 and the other time DxO.
I don't use NR ever in camera. Just a bad idea. For small prints/web I just leave them "noisey" because normally its not bad at all. If its going to be viewed very critically, Photoshop or noise ninja can clean it up a little.
Here's a random (out of more than a thousand ) ISO 1600s from yesterday, no NR, I use JPG fine / medium resolution (6mp) on the d300. I have high in camera sharpening (level 6) and then add more USM in photoshop, so its about as noisey as it gets. The d300 is a champ.
BenFPhotog wrote:
And wow DJ, those are impressive. Are they pushed at all?
As in pushed in post? No... formula for noisy intrusions. These are pretty much dialed for exposure in-cam (secret for hockey is getting the histo to bang off the right edge in-cam so that in post you keep clean images)...
BenFPhotog wrote:
Does anyone have any ideas on my edit? About the 2.8 speed.
The 50 will do fine but then it won't give you 17-49mm and 51mm-55mm. The 17-55 will also do fine but obviously won't give you f/2. So bring both.
And 1/100? you should be able to do much better than that if you brace yourself properly. Plus, viewing images on a 22'' monitor at nose-distance is hardly a fair test. If a photo is good but a bit blurry nobody will care. If it is sharp but crap aesthetically lots of people will complain. And prints will mask a lot of ISO noise.
) ISO 1600s from yesterday, no NR, I use JPG fine / medium resolution (6mp) on the d300. I have high in camera sharpening (level 6) and then add more USM in photoshop, so its about as noisey as it gets. The d300 is a champ.
These are pretty much dialed for exposure in-cam (secret for hockey is getting the histo to bang off the right edge in-cam so that in post you keep clean images)...