Help in setting Nikon D300

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08-17-2009, 05:10 AM
Harshad Barve

Help in setting Nikon D300

Dear All
Can some one suggest in camera settings for Nikon D300 for wildlife shooting specially birds. I am shooting with following settings and not happy with results

1) White balance :- Auto
2) NEF recording :- 14 bits
3) Picture control :- Vivid
4) Sharpning :- +8
5) color space :- Adobe RGB
6) Avtive delighting :- Normal
7) Long expo. NR :- OFF
8) HIGH ISO NR :- Normal

All help is much appreciated
Harshad
08-17-2009, 06:09 AM
Lance Peters

Hi - You do not mention why you are not happy with your results?? Are you shooting raw or JPG - This will make a difference as some of your settings you list will nit affect the raw file.
Couple of things straight off the bat ---- Would change that Vivid setting back to standard and Sharpening - I do not let the camera do any sharpening would much prefer to do it afterwards were I have control over SELECTIVELY sharpening the image.
08-17-2009, 06:19 AM
Harshad Barve

Yes Lance , I get some vivid colors and most of the time feels oversaturated
Sharpneing looks good , I do shoot in RAW
Camera deivers noise at 800+ ISO which is quite unusual

Further help is much appreciated
Harshad
08-17-2009, 06:25 AM
arash_hazeghi

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harshad Barve

Yes Lance , I get some vivid colors and most of the time feels oversaturated
Sharpneing looks good , I do shoot in RAW
Camera deivers noise at 800+ ISO which is quite unusual

Further help is much appreciated
Harshad

Hi Harshad,

Are you having problem with noise? What software are you using to process the NEF files? If you want send me a NEF file and I can process it for you. You can suppress noise effectively with good post processing. One other point is that when you set D300 to 14Bit NEF it slows down to 2.5fps, set it to 12Bit mode to take advantage of 6 fps (or 8fps if you have a MB-D10)
D300 files do require careful handling at ISO 800, especially with shadows however you can get clean results, just need to do optimal processing.

One more comment, you sharpening is way too high 8 can beat the **** out of the NEF files, usually 3 is enough (Nikon Capture NX2) if you use LR/PS use the following matrix Amount/Radius/Detail (25-50),(0.5-1),(25-50). Also set ADL to OFF for ISO >400.
08-17-2009, 06:34 AM
Harshad Barve

Quote:

Originally Posted by arash_hazeghi

Hi Harshad,

Are you having problem with noise? What software are you using to process the NEF files? If you want send me a NEF file and I can process it for you. You can suppress noise effectively with good post processing. One other point is that when you set D300 to 14Bit NEF it slows down to 2.5fps, set it to 12Bit mode to take advantage of 6 fps (or 8fps if you have a MB-D10)
D300 files do require careful handling at ISO 800, especially with shadows however you can get clean results, just need to do optimal processing.

I dont have problem in PP to get rid of nosie but still I will send you one NEF. I am using CS3
So far what I have understood is
set camera at Neutral with no sharpning
D300 at 12 bit

Any further help about Active delighting, Long expo NR & High ISO NR is much aprreciated
Harshad
08-17-2009, 07:07 AM
Dan Brown

I shoot my D300 with high incamera sharpening as it doesn't effect the raw file but it does effect the jpeg. You can open a raw file in ACR and see the the sharpening is 0, even when the incamera sharpening is high. I like to have the incamera sharpening high so that my previewing in the field reveals what is sharp and what isn't. As for noise at 800+ ISO, you must expose to the right on your histogram or you will get noise.
08-17-2009, 08:55 AM
Scott Grant

Hello Harshad!

here are the settings i use on my D300 to shoot birds:
1) White balance : auto
2) NEF recording :- 12 bit (to keep the frame rate high)
3) Picture control :- neutral (helps keep the reds/yellows from getting too saturated in color)
4) Sharpening :- 4
5) color space :- Adobe RGB
6) Active d-lighting :- none (to keep the frame rate high)
7) Long expo. NR : off
8) HIGH ISO NR :- low

after coming from a d200 i thought the amount of noise from the D300 to be very minimal at higher ISO's (800+), however, i recently bought a D700 and compared to that, the D300 is very noisy! however, the D700 doesn't give such 'long reach' as the D300 does with the crop factor.
08-17-2009, 09:59 AM
Fabs Forns

D300 WILL have noise at ISO 800.
Using 14 bits will slow your frame rate a lot.
08-17-2009, 10:02 AM
Harshad Barve

Dear all thanks for feedbacks
BTW how much quality loss we have to compromise by using 12 bit recordings ?
08-17-2009, 11:22 AM
Scott Grant

very very little. i would be you that you'd be hard pressed to notice any difference. :)
08-17-2009, 12:03 PM
arash_hazeghi

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harshad Barve

I dont have problem in PP to get rid of nosie but still I will send you one NEF. I am using CS3
So far what I have understood is
set camera at Neutral with no sharpning
D300 at 12 bit

Any further help about Active delighting, Long expo NR & High ISO NR is much aprreciated
Harshad

Harshad,
Do send me the NEF files, I will send you a PM with my email address, I would set the sharpening to 0 or 3 and set both High ISO NR and ADL to off (ACR can't read these settings anyways). If you shoot in RAW High ISO NR doesn't do you much good because you can later apply it in post, it only reduces the burst depth. so set it to OFF, Long Exp. NR also doesn't matter since you are not doing long exp.

For Higher ISO shots I have found that Nikon Capture NX2 produces the cleanest looking images for any Nikon camera, plus you can selectively apply NR to areas of your choice. Send me a NEF file and I will show you what it can do :)
08-18-2009, 10:53 PM
James Shadle

1) White balance :- Auto
2) NEF recording :- 12 bits
3) Picture control :- Standard with slightly reduced contrast
4) Sharpning :- Default
5) color space :- Adobe RGB
6) Avtive delighting :- OFF
7) Long expo. NR :- OFF
8) HIGH ISO NR :- Normal

I used to have no sharpening applied at all.
However, when in the field with a client, it is nice to show a sharp image on the camera lcd or laptop.
I'm shooting RAW, so if I do not like how the sharpening affected the background, I can change it.
08-18-2009, 10:57 PM
James Shadle

arash said "Nikon Capture NX2 produces the cleanest looking images for any Nikon camera, plus you can selectively apply NR to areas of your choice"

This is 100% correct!!
08-29-2009, 11:13 AM
David Fletcher

Harshad, I'm coming to this late. (Been a bad month for me). Will pm you tomorrow with my settings, but for speed, set 12 bit: set Picture control to Neutral, , NEF recording to Lossless Compressed, 12 ... trust me, sharpening to 4-6 will do. Lossless Compressed shows no difference to IQ. Don't ask me why, as not intelligent enough to answer, :), but its a trick Nikon has that works and saves some file space. I'll add AF details too, and you'll find you have a new camera... ( well, that might be political talk and over sell, :D, but they'll be enough differences to make you sit up). Wonderful thing the internet. How we can help each other. Good thing about digital, is we have total control on our images... Bad thing... we have total control on our images. :). Cheers and have a good weekend Harshad Bhai.
08-29-2009, 01:41 PM
Nancy A Elwood

Quote:

Originally Posted by James Shadle

1) White balance :- Auto
2) NEF recording :- 12 bits
3) Picture control :- Standard with slightly reduced contrast
4) Sharpning :- Default
5) color space :- Adobe RGB
6) Avtive delighting :- OFF
7) Long expo. NR :- OFF
8) HIGH ISO NR :- Normal

I used to have no sharpening applied at all.
However, when in the field with a client, it is nice to show a sharp image on the camera lcd or laptop.
I'm shooting RAW, so if I do not like how the sharpening affected the background, I can change it.

This is exactly how I set my D300 up. Also, I always post process my nef's in NX2.
08-30-2009, 11:17 AM
Juan Aragonés

Harshad, here are my settings for birds in flight with the D300. Hope it helps

<o></o> I use mainly the central sensor but not always, it depends on the shooting conditions.Manual exposure plus one stop overexposure for a better processing job and low impact of noise at high ISO<u4></u4>
AF-C <u4></u4>
a1 release
a3 it depends of the shooting situation
a4 off<u4></u4>
a5 AF-ON only
a8 variable<u4></u4>
White balance : Auto
NEF recording : 12 bits
Picture control : Standard<u4></u4><o></o>
Sharpening : 4 (just for having an idea of the jpeg at the camera screen)<u4></u4>
Color space : Adobe RGB<u4></u4>
Active d-lighting : off<u4></u4>
Long expo. NR : off<u4></u4>
HIGH ISO NR : low<u4></u4>
NEF recording: Lossless compressed
09-29-2009, 10:14 AM
Arthur Morris

Juan,

re:

Manual exposure plus one stop overexposure for a better processing job and low impact of noise at high ISO<u4></u4>

From what I know about Nikon metering that sounds like bad generic advice; it you had a white bird not too large in the frame against a dark blue sky would not the settings above toast the bird???

Respectfully.
09-29-2009, 11:54 AM
Nancy A Elwood

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arthur Morris

Juan,

re:

Manual exposure plus one stop overexposure for a better processing job and low impact of noise at high ISO<U4></U4>

From what I know about Nikon metering that sounds like bad generic advice; it you had a white bird not too large in the frame against a dark blue sky would not the settings above toast the bird???

Respectfully.

I agree with Artie. I vary the exposure compensation to suite the subject and BG, but then I am using matrix metering with all other settings as James.
10-15-2009, 02:31 PM
Van Hilliard

Harshad,
Thanks for asking this question. This discussion has been immensely helpful to me because I just got a D300s. The last Nikon I bought was the D2x and things have changed a lot since then. I took a couple of hundred pix this a.m. at Ft. Desoto, experimenting with various settings. I'll change my settings for the next outing based on the above discussion. I shot at 14 bits and certainly felt the effects of the slow frame rate. Those reddish egrets can do a lot of dancing while the camera churns along at 2.5 frames/second.
Now, if I can onlly learn how to use the movie mode.
Van
10-22-2009, 04:55 AM
Rob Curtis

I just got the D300s yesterday.
On image quality I only see the choice of RAW, not 12 bits or 14 bits.
Where is that?
10-22-2009, 05:47 AM
James Shadle

In the Menu go to the Camera Icon,scroll to NEF(RAW)recording and select 12 or 14 bit.
James
10-22-2009, 05:50 AM
James Shadle

Quote:

Originally Posted by Van Hilliard

Harshad,
Thanks for asking this question. This discussion has been immensely helpful to me because I just got a D300s. The last Nikon I bought was the D2x and things have changed a lot since then. I took a couple of hundred pix this a.m. at Ft. Desoto, experimenting with various settings. I'll change my settings for the next outing based on the above discussion. I shot at 14 bits and certainly felt the effects of the slow frame rate. Those reddish egrets can do a lot of dancing while the camera churns along at 2.5 frames/second.
Now, if I can onlly learn how to use the movie mode.
Van

Dr. Van,
With the D700 you can shoot 14bit at about 8 frames per second with the battery pack.
14 bit with the D300 is too slow for me, I shoot it on 12 bit.
James
10-22-2009, 09:55 AM
Rob Curtis

Thanks. I see that it is already on 12 bit.