Looking for advice on 4 pics

[jcdeboever]

Thanks in advance. I have uploaded 4 pictures using my Nikon D3300 with a 18-55mm Kit lens. Photo's produced in Detroit today. I decided to play around with program mode which narrows my adjustment to shutter speed while the camera decides on ISO and aperture. I am not sure if I like this, I think I prefer manual but using this as a slower learning tool for my camera. If I had to change anything, it would have been backing off on the vivid setting (+3) as I forgot to set it back when I took a picture of the taco man (good learning experience). Additionally, I think I should keep VR off or what is a good rule of thumb? I think photo's are sharper and cleaner with it off but not certain. I did very little post operations, just a little straightening on #3 and a minor crop on #2.

#1 - 46mm, ISO 125, 1/80s, f/5 built in flash


#2 - 45mm, ISO 150, 1/250s, f/8



#3 - 38mm, ISO100, 1/200s, f/7.1



#4 - 34mm, ISO100, 1/200s, f/6.3

 

[Derrel]

Yeah, Nikon's Vivid Setting at + 3 realllllly "juices" the JPEG images the camera creates. I shot a set about a year ago on Vivid, and wow, it was, uh....peppy, let's just say that. Overall, these aren't bad, and I think the church shot and the semi-truck with tires shots both show good compositional sensibilities. The reds are really popping in that shot, no doubt thanks to the Vivid setting. The sky in the one with the tires is starting to burn out, which is understandable.I like that there are shadows on the ground.. The shot of the church has been executed pretty well for the kind of photo it is. Good time of the day, camera's set up pretty well, balance is formal, which makes total sense on such a formally balanced architectural work as that.

I personally think that the flash used in the taco truck guy's shot is what makes the image--it's a fascinating mixed lighting set-up, actually! The odd blue cast from the skylight or indoor lighting he has, then the flash, plus a tiny bit of what looks like natural sunlight.ALl together, the flash and the ambient light convey an interesting feeling to the shot.

VR should be set to off much of the time--unless you think it is needed. It is very good for panning, and I also like it for slow-speed + flash shots, like in dim, dim light where I decide to go with a slow shutter speed, like 1/6 to 1/20 second, to allow the background to "burn in" a bit.

 

[Dave442]

In Program mode the camera should give you a "normal" exposure and then you can adjust the shutter and/or aperture and camera will adjust the other value to stay at the same EV as the camera originally gave and then can do some +/- on the EV to adjust exposure as you want from what the camera meter gave. And then ISO is dependent on how you have your auto ISO set up.
Thanks for posting the shots, I like #3.

 

[jcdeboever]

Yeah, Nikon's Vivid Setting at + 3 realllllly "juices" the JPEG images the camera creates. I shot a set about a year ago on Vivid, and wow, it was, uh....peppy, let's just say that. Overall, these aren't bad, and I think the church shot and the semi-truck with tires shots both show good compositional sensibilities. The reds are really popping in that shot, no doubt thanks to the Vivid setting. The sky in the one with the tires is starting to burn out, which is understandable.I like that there are shadows on the ground.. The shot of the church has been executed pretty well for the kind of photo it is. Good time of the day, camera's set up pretty well, balance is formal, which makes total sense on such a formally balanced architectural work as that.

I personally think that the flash used in the taco truck guy's shot is what makes the image--it's a fascinating mixed lighting set-up, actually! The odd blue cast from the skylight or indoor lighting he has, then the flash, plus a tiny bit of what looks like natural sunlight.ALl together, the flash and the ambient light convey an interesting feeling to the shot.

VR should be set to off much of the time--unless you think it is needed. It is very good for panning, and I also like it for slow-speed + flash shots, like in dim, dim light where I decide to go with a slow shutter speed, like 1/6 to 1/20 second, to allow the background to "burn in" a bit.

Thank you Derrelfor the encouraging words, I didn't expect that! The article you linked has me practicing that and you noticed it in taco man, very cool. I learned a lot today about my camera. I still don't get the focus system, baffles me a little I am so used to seeing it focus in the view finder, I may try the range finder mode this weekend. I really want to control the red dots and frustrated by random ness. Maybe single point? I want to be certain and confident with it.

In Program mode the camera should give you a "normal" exposure and then you can adjust the shutter and/or aperture and camera will adjust the other value to stay at the same EV as the camera originally gave and then can do some +/- on the EV to adjust exposure as you want from what the camera meter gave. And then ISO is dependent on how you have your auto ISO set up.
Thanks for posting the shots, I like #3.

Thank you Dave! Part of my dislike with program mode is I have not figured out how to adjust those on the fly. I think I set up the function button incorrectly, have to go back and look. I thought I set it up to change ISO by pressing it and control dial but was not doing it, time to look at the manual again, I think I need to read about program shift again. I want to use that mode on the street and I have to have it down working the inner city of Detroit as quick entry/exits are sometimes needed. I will focus on the that this weekend. Apeture mode and focus practice next week, and then Shutter mode with ISO / flash experiments. By then, hopefully, manual mode will be like a jewel.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[jcdeboever]

Yeah, Nikon's Vivid Setting at + 3 realllllly "juices" the JPEG images the camera creates. I shot a set about a year ago on Vivid, and wow, it was, uh....peppy, let's just say that. Overall, these aren't bad, and I think the church shot and the semi-truck with tires shots both show good compositional sensibilities. The reds are really popping in that shot, no doubt thanks to the Vivid setting. The sky in the one with the tires is starting to burn out, which is understandable.I like that there are shadows on the ground.. The shot of the church has been executed pretty well for the kind of photo it is. Good time of the day, camera's set up pretty well, balance is formal, which makes total sense on such a formally balanced architectural work as that.

I personally think that the flash used in the taco truck guy's shot is what makes the image--it's a fascinating mixed lighting set-up, actually! The odd blue cast from the skylight or indoor lighting he has, then the flash, plus a tiny bit of what looks like natural sunlight.ALl together, the flash and the ambient light convey an interesting feeling to the shot.

VR should be set to off much of the time--unless you think it is needed. It is very good for panning, and I also like it for slow-speed + flash shots, like in dim, dim light where I decide to go with a slow shutter speed, like 1/6 to 1/20 second, to allow the background to "burn in" a bit.

In the blown out sky, should I try a negative EV adjustment, like -1.0 in that scenario? Thanks.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[Derrel]

The new, modern Nikon d-slrs have a lot of options...focusing system set-up options, using Auto ISO, or not using AUto ISO, allowing the camera to choose the focus points that are active, using single point AF, using multi-point AF, shooting in multiple modes, or in the scene modes, various Picture Styles as Nikon calls them...and there are different people, with different ideas about how much of that technology to either accept, embrace, and use, or to disregard and belittle.

Modern autofocusing systems, and Nikon's SRS or Scene Recognition System, as well as Nikon's automatic dynamic range optimization (called Active D-Lighting these days) when writing camera-created JPEG files, as well as Nikon's RGB-aware light metering and Nikon's RGB-aware and its distance-aware flash metering...all of this stuff comes together when the user is shooting in-camera JPEG mode, or RAW+JPEG.

One of the biggest problems you'll likely find on photo forums comes from people who insist on 1)shooting only in RAW mode and 2)dumbing the camera and its subsystems down, so that you have the equivalent of a 1960's era SLR camera that can focus only in the middle of the screen, and which has zero automation.

You have a new 21st century Nikon d-slr camera, with incredibly sophisticated technologies for metering, focusing, flash metering, combining flash + ambient, recognizing subjects and scenes, as well as for in-camera JPEG creating AND also, the ability to use the camera to process RAW file captures into JPEG images after the fact. I'm not going to tell you to ignore every, single thing the camera can do, in order to move backward in time to the 1960's or 1970's type of camera use.

 

[Derrel]

In the blown-out sky scenario, if you have a RAW file that you shot, you can process that yourself in software, or using the camera, use the Active D-Lighting on its maximum setting to try and bridge the total dynamic range of the scene. Nikon has the Active D-Lighting system, described here: Balancing Photo Exposures with Nikon's Active D-Lighting from Nikon

 

[jcdeboever]

In the blown-out sky scenario, if you have a RAW file that you shot, you can process that yourself in software, or using the camera, use the Active D-Lighting on its maximum setting to try and bridge the total dynamic range of the scene. Nikon has the Active D-Lighting system, described here: Balancing Photo Exposures with Nikon's Active D-Lighting from Nikon

Does the picture have to saved in RAW to be able to use the retouch. It was saved as a .jpeg.

I dont know what happened. I play with it some more.