NEF Mode.. Yikes.. how do I undo that?!!

TammyCampbell

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I did something weird yesterday and shot a bunch of photos in NEF mode. So Im not quite sure how to undo that or if I can undo that. I was taking pictures of the moon and Orions belt last night.. undownloadable.. as far as I can see. So changed my mode back to fine.after I realized what Id done.
Some good news. I shot a HAWK this morning.. So EXCITED!! and some ducks, and other birds and some cool ice formations... one looks like knuckle bones. A good photo morning if not a little cold.. 20 degrees. We are suppose to get a snow storm starting tonight.. we will see. Our area seems to only get skirted most of the time. Flickr: tam_and_john's Photostream
 
I did something weird yesterday and shot a bunch of photos in NEF mode. So Im not quite sure how to undo that or if I can undo that. I was taking pictures of the moon and Orions belt last night.. undownloadable.. as far as I can see. So changed my mode back to fine.after I realized what Id done.
Some good news. I shot a HAWK this morning.. So EXCITED!! and some ducks, and other birds and some cool ice formations... one looks like knuckle bones. A good photo morning if not a little cold.. 20 degrees. We are suppose to get a snow storm starting tonight.. we will see. Our area seems to only get skirted most of the time. Flickr: tam_and_john's Photostream

NEF is how your Nikon stores RAW files. Shooting in RAW mode saves all of the information the camera has for the image, whereas in JPG mode the camera discards a lot of information - that makes RAW mode (the NEF files) better for post processing, the drawback being of course that the files are larger and take up more space on your memory card. You can use a variety of image processing software (The Gimp, Photoshop, Lightroom, etc) to process the RAW files and then save them in JPG format.

If you'd like change this setting it's easy to do, if you hit your info button once to bring up the info screen and then again to activate the menu, as I recall it's the very first menu option on the right hand side that will allow you to select between storing the images in RAW format only, JPEG only or RAW and JPG both. Going from memory here since I'm not at home and don't have the camera in front of me but as I recall that is one way to change that option.
 
NEF is Nikon's RAW format. You can use the ViewNX2 software that came with the camera or download it from Nikon's web site Here.
 
Im bumbling with the Nikon software.. I dont understand it seems to want to queue up and re download everything that is on the memory card each time. So I tend to shut it down and go the old fashioned way of picking and choosing .. a file.
 
I took a look at your photostream. By any chance are you shooting with auto ISO? You have a lot of shots set at ISO 5000. Many are shot at f22, ISO 5000, and a shutter speed of 1/4000 of a second in direct sunlight.

Just a recommendation: Widen the aperture a bit (f22 is overdoing it & you'll end up with worse detail as a result of such a narrow aperture. Somewhere between f7 and f11 will usually look better, especially on a crop sensor with less depth of field everything will be in focus anyway), bring the ISO down significantly (you'll get better color & contrast that way), and don't be afraid to slow your shutter (1/200 of a second at 18mm, for example, is more than fine).
 
Im bumbling with the Nikon software.. I dont understand it seems to want to queue up and re download everything that is on the memory card each time. So I tend to shut it down and go the old fashioned way of picking and choosing .. a file.

You should NOT be leaving your photos on the memory card in the camera. Copy them to your computer and then make a backup copy to CD or DVD or another disk drive or something. If you don't sooner or later you're going to reformat that SD card or lose it or corrupt it or something and then everything on it is going to be gone. One of my co-workers took a trip to Europe this summer and his wife lost the single SD card that had every single one of their photographs on it.

When I get home from shooting the very first thing I do is copy EVERYTHING from my camera to a working directory on my computer. The very next thing I do is make a copy of them to my primary storage directory. The third thing I do is make yet another copy to a secondary disk drive. You can never have too many backup copies but you can most assuredly have too few.
 
I took a look at your photostream. By any chance are you shooting with auto ISO? You have a lot of shots set at ISO 5000. Many are shot at f22, ISO 5000, and a shutter speed of 1/4000 of a second in direct sunlight.

Just a recommendation: Widen the aperture a bit (f22 is overdoing it & you'll end up with worse detail as a result of such a narrow aperture. Somewhere between f7 and f11 will usually look better, especially on a crop sensor with less depth of field everything will be in focus anyway), bring the ISO down significantly (you'll get better color & contrast that way), and don't be afraid to slow your shutter (1/200 of a second at 18mm, for example, is more than fine).

I was in agreement with you, up until this point. And actually, yeah, 1/200 sec at 18mm probably IS fine if you're just shooting a landscape or something like that.
But since the OP mentions birds, and I see there are some birds on their photo stream, I'd add a caveat to that statement--I wouldn't try shooting things that move at 1/200 second! For perched birds, you can get away with slower speeds--but of course, if they move, you'll miss the shot. For birds in flight, I shoot at a minimum of 1/1000 sec. However, the point is STILL well taken--1/4000 is likely overkill.

EDIT: Now that I've looked a little more at your photo stream, you really ARE kind of all over the place with your settings. Seems like the vast majority of them have a very high shutter speed and/or aperture and consequently, also a high ISO--and it shows in the noise you're getting. I'd guess you may not have a good understanding of how shutter speed, aperture and ISO work together to get a well-exposed image with the best possible image quality. There are lots of tutorials on the web and books that can really help with that. I'd suggest reading something like Understanding Exposure and really practicing what they talk about until you can apply it.
 
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.........When I get home from shooting the very first thing I do is copy EVERYTHING from my camera to a working directory on my computer. The very next thing I do is make a copy of them to my primary storage directory.......... .


View NX2's Transfer function will do that automatically. You can specify a primary and a secondary location to copy the images to.
 
I was in agreement with you, up until this point. And actually, yeah, 1/200 sec at 18mm probably IS fine if you're just shooting a landscape or something like that.
But since the OP mentions birds, and I see there are some birds on their photo stream, I'd add a caveat to that statement--I wouldn't try shooting things that move at 1/200 second! For perched birds, you can get away with slower speeds--but of course, if they move, you'll miss the shot. For birds in flight, I shoot at a minimum of 1/1000 sec. However, the point is STILL well taken--1/4000 is likely overkill.

Ah, poor communication on my part. I was referring to the landscape shots at 18mm. I didn't notice any bird shots at 18mm, but what you say definitely applies :)
 
I did something weird yesterday and shot a bunch of photos in NEF mode. So Im not quite sure how to undo that or if I can undo that. I was taking pictures of the moon and Orions belt last night.. undownloadable.. as far as I can see. So changed my mode back to fine.after I realized what Id done.
Some good news. I shot a HAWK this morning.. So EXCITED!! and some ducks, and other birds and some cool ice formations... one looks like knuckle bones. A good photo morning if not a little cold.. 20 degrees. We are suppose to get a snow storm starting tonight.. we will see. Our area seems to only get skirted most of the time. Flickr: tam_and_john's Photostream

NEF is how your Nikon stores RAW files. Shooting in RAW mode saves all of the information the camera has for the image, whereas in JPG mode the camera discards a lot of information - that makes RAW mode (the NEF files) better for post processing, the drawback being of course that the files are larger and take up more space on your memory card. You can use a variety of image processing software (The Gimp, Photoshop, Lightroom, etc) to process the RAW files and then save them in JPG format.

If you'd like change this setting it's easy to do, if you hit your info button once to bring up the info screen and then again to activate the menu, as I recall it's the very first menu option on the right hand side that will allow you to select between storing the images in RAW format only, JPEG only or RAW and JPG both. Going from memory here since I'm not at home and don't have the camera in front of me but as I recall that is one way to change that option.

Worth noting that GIMP is free (I think?)

NEF is more advanced but will give you more control with your editing. If you're not ready for it now, keep it in mind down the road
 
I was in agreement with you, up until this point. And actually, yeah, 1/200 sec at 18mm probably IS fine if you're just shooting a landscape or something like that.
But since the OP mentions birds, and I see there are some birds on their photo stream, I'd add a caveat to that statement--I wouldn't try shooting things that move at 1/200 second! For perched birds, you can get away with slower speeds--but of course, if they move, you'll miss the shot. For birds in flight, I shoot at a minimum of 1/1000 sec. However, the point is STILL well taken--1/4000 is likely overkill.

Ah, poor communication on my part. I was referring to the landscape shots at 18mm. I didn't notice any bird shots at 18mm, but what you say definitely applies :)

No, not really poor communication. It's just that I get the sense the OP doesn't have a very firm grasp of exposure and how all the settings work together, and I was afraid your statement would be read by the OP (or someone else who doesn't understand exposure) as a blanket statement that shooting at 1/200 is ample, and they'd miss that "AT 18mm" part completely.
 
Worth noting that GIMP is free (I think?)........


GIMP, while free, won't do raw files straight out of the box. You need to couple it with UFRaw, and it's not a download-and-run-the-install-file simple.
 
Go to page 239 of your D5100 Reference Manual in the N section - NEF, NEF Raw, NEF processing.

There it refers you to page 47 - Image Quality - and page 183, which is where NEF Processing is described.
You might also want to look over pages 48 and 49 too.

The entire D5100 Refeerence Manual is a PDF file on the software disc that is included with the D5100.
Or you can download the entire D5100 Reference Manual at https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13948

You might also note on page 227 in the Specifications the Storage - File Types your D5100 has for your use.
Image Files


 
Yes Im a Noob.. and yes I still not understanding everything. So Im unfortunately.. probably wont learn everything .. well it wont stick anyways. unless I just repeat repeat repeat. Learning.. My camera is less than a month old. Im sorry if Im trying the patience.. lol.
 

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