Not doing so well new D700 and old lenses. Help!

<p>Hi,<br>

As I posted a few weeks ago, I have a new D700 that I'm trying to learn. Right now I'm using a 28-105 and some old AI/AIS primes - 24, 35 and a 50 1.8 AF. The 28-105 is very soft, and the two primes, while quite sharp, quite frankly the color is very flat and lacking any pop. Jpegs from the camera aren't too good, and I'm not having much luck processing in ACR using D2X curves. My D80, when shot in NEF, and using either the 35 mm 1.8 and 50 mm 1.8 had very good color definition when using the D2X curves. Any idea on what I'm doing wrong? For a trip I'm taking north in May for deep forest photography, I'm renting a 16-35, hoping that the new nano-coatings or designed for digital may help. I'm going to try and post two images from this morning from my back yard. We've been having a heat-wave combined with a horrible drought - that combined with a hazy sky may somewhat be affecting the images.</p>

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<p>And here's the same tree, RAW file, processed using D2X landscape curves, some adjustment to white balance which seems to be way off in ACR.</p><div></div>

<p>Forgot to mention, the above shots are Nikon D700, 35 mm f 2.0 AI lens, ISO 400, 1/200, f 8. Thanks for any comments and suggestions.<br>

Gene, Brownsville, Texas</p>

 

<p>Id say dont shoot in Jpeg format, looks to me like you took one image, then enhanced it, claiming one was Jpeg and the other was shot in RAW , I have the D700 and the D2x pic control, ive never even come close to this kind of difference.<br>

If it is in fact two seperate images then you must have a magic ability to make time stand still.</p>

<p>Steven, I assume Gene was shooting in RAW+JPEG mode so he could compare the D700's JPEG to manual RAW processing.</p>

<p>It seems like the real complaint here is that the D700 is producing rather washed-out JPEGs, rather than anything to do with the AI lens that was used. I'd be inclined to set the picture style to "Vivid" and try again.</p>

<p>Craig,<br>

You are correct - I shot in RAW + JPEG to compare the two. The JPEG is in neutral Picture Control so I'll try the Vivid tomorrow. FWIW, even with a windy day, the images are very sharp. It seems to me that there is a learning curve with the D700 that I didn't have with the D80. <br /><br />Gene</p>

<p>Suggestion: shoot one frame in NEF. Then shoot one frame in Large, Fine .jpg.</p>

<p>(I think) Nikon has the NEF file down good, but using the .jpg image taken at the same time is not going to quite what you are expecting for editing later.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I know this was a quick shot and I know the D700 is recommended as a good high ISO camera, but you could easily shoot something like this scene at ISO 100, f8, and 1/50. My DSLRs sit at ISO 100 until I need to boost it, which is rare. Shooting at the lowest ISO possible will impact the overall impression of an image significantly. </p>

<p>I shoot "raw" RAW from my D2X and make all colour, sharpness, and contrast adjustments myself, and yes the RAW files are of course flat.</p>

Indeed, shoot raw if at all possible. In Lightroom, it's not even any more difficult to process. Paying all that money for a D700 and then shooting JPEG doesn't make a lot of sense to me, unless you're a sports photographer or photojournalist working on a very tight deadline.

<p>Jerry, do you think that the jpg file taken alone is different to the jpg file taken with the NEF+jpg setting (obviously with jpg settings the same)?</p>

<p>Why do you have the camera set to "soft(1) for in-camera sharpening? Why not shoot in both RAW and JPEG? Have you tied using NX2 or maybe even ViewNX2 to do the processing of the NEF to jPEG?</p>

<p>Lorne,<br>

I think that's the next step - NK2 or View, I'm going to give it a try. The reason for RAW + JPEG is that I want something processed in case something goes wrong in working the RAW file, like in the past when I scanned a slide, I'd have the original there for comparison in post-processing. I do think that from here on it will be NEF files only. ACR seems to be missing the white balance a lot, giving me 4300 K when in daylight when it should be somewhere between 5000-5500 K. so I will look at Nikon software.<br>

Gene</p>

 

<p>Gene, I shoot in RAW + Fine JPEG all the time. Most of the time I can use the jpeg as is, but I use the NEF file as input to NX2 for anything I need to play around with. I have the CNX2 software and the ViewNX2 software (its free, why not) as well. I've never had an issue with the white balance processing in NX.</p>

<p>I don't find the 28-105 to be soft with the D700. I only have a couple of images from mine online. One is a handheld macro which unsurprisingly I'd only call acceptable, the other is this image taken at f/16:<br>

<a title="DSC_7361.jpg by James Youngman, on Flickr" href=" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5300/5520007207_6edf68eee5.jpg" alt="DSC_7361.jpg" width="333" height="500" /></a></p>

 

<p>For comparison, here's the handheld macro (this is a crop from a slightly larger photo):<br>

<a title="DSC_7732.jpg by James Youngman, on Flickr" href=" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5108/5586734702_d7408d250a.jpg" alt="DSC_7732.jpg" width="500" height="500" /></a></p>

 

<p>Gene,<br>

Not always more saturated colors equal better image. Dull colors of your first image correspond well with conditions of drying vegetation photographed in hazy mid-day sun. Your image colors are close to truth - aren't they? Is it good or bad? Personally, I dislike oversaturated greens in second image.</p>

<p>Thomas K.,</p>

<p>That is exactly what I'm trying to find out - the camera/lens, my photography skills (or lack of), or just the horrible climate/sky conditions resulting in bland IQ. Here in South Texas, we haven't had any rain since basically Oct., 2010, then a freeze in mid-Feb. to dry the vegetation even further, and right now hazy/dusty skies with temps. in the 95-100 degree range. I'm hoping it's the latter and that would explain a lot, especially the 28-105 lens which was my favorite with the F100. I'm going to borrow a 24-70 tomorrow and if that returns similar colors, well, then I'll know.<br>

Thanks for the comments.</p>

<p>Gene</p>

<p>Gene,<br>

I attended recently a seminar by Art Wolfe - accomplished wildlife/travel/scenic photographer. He said that when light conditions are bad in mid-day, he simply do not photograph - hi scouts the location and plans for late in the day or next morning shoot.</p>

<p>I don't think you are shooting at a good time of day. I use a D700 in RAW and had a 28-105mm for awhile on it. I got what I saw, color wise with the combo. 28mm was a bit weak for me and a much used focal length so I purchase a lens with better performance at 28mm, miss the 105mm though. I do a bit of PP using NX2.</p>

<p><em>"...neutral Picture Control"</em> You are shooting with the neutral picture control setting and getting neutral colors. Makes sense to me.</p>

<p><em>"Nikon has the NEF file down good, but using the .jpg image taken at the same time is not going to quite what you are expecting for editing later"</em> Doing this and opening the file with Nikon's software will yield identical images. It is only when you open a RAW file with 3rd party software that you get the 'unprocessed' RAW file to work with.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I believe that is how it is, D700 images when "properly" shot will look more washed out than others. I believe that is the 14bits of contrast as opposed to only 12 bits.. kind of like a HDR before tonemapping. Also, I've noticed that white balance appears to be more important with the D700 than with my D200. Using a whibal especially with also the white and black points gets me the right contrast and color. These problems also happen with certain lighting conditions and not others... high contrast subjects look washed out while low contrast subjects are fine. The image improves with vivid, or especially landscape, mode when it does look washed out. If your camera is set to adobeRGB, the jpeg is probably adobergb too, so hopefully you're using something to view that's color managed.</p>

<p>As for sharpness, you can fine tune the auto focus for each lens. It helps a lot. Do it for the distance setting you'll be using most.</p>

<p>As mentioned, the 'Neutral' picture setting means neutral colours, and not 'Normal.' I've been extremely happy with most of the Nikon gear I've used (including the D700), but I do find their picture styles to be a bit off for my tastes. I strongly recommend taking some time with whatever subjects you like best, and keep shooting and tweaking the picture style until you like it. Then save that as user preset #1, and make that your default .jpg setting.</p>

<p>Also, your AIS lenses will very likely be lower contrast on the D700 than newer lenses, due to the older coatings. I prefer the look of the AIS lenses myself, but your mileage may vary.</p>

<p>Gene,<br>

I know exactly what you mean. When I first got my D700 I was very displeased with the colors and skin tones. Foliage and trees looked desaturated, skin looked either puke-green or magenta....very cartoon-like. My results were so varied and inconsistent that I seriously considered selling my D700. I thought "why are all these photography experts raving about the D700?!". I tried switching white balance modes but they didn't make much improvements. I found many people on photo blogs complain about this with the D700. So, I dug deeper and deeper into this matter. Some said to shoot in "Neutral" in certain situations and "Standard" in other situations (Picture Control). Some say shoot in sRGB and others in Adobe-rgb. I tried these things but I still wasn't completely satisfied. <br>

Then one day I found somebody on a particular blog who suggested something that changed my entire experience with the D700----you must manually change white balance every time you shoot with the D700 because Auto White Balance (AWB) on the D700 sucks! Even the presets like sunshine, cloudy, shade, tungsten...etc are not very good. Most professional photographers shoot in RAW and always adjusts the white balance themselves during postprocessing. But if you shoot jpeg like me, then you must manually set the white balance in your camera <em>every</em> time you take your camera out of the bag. Read the manual or check youtube on how to do this. You'll be pleasantly surprised.<br>

--Jon Park</p>

<p>Gene, a circular polarizer will increase saturation in the leaves and more likely will give you the results you're looking for. The leaves in the first two pictures show specular reflections from the sky. The polarizer will block them and show the true green surfaces on the leaves. Give it a try, you will see a nice difference. </p>

<p>I find NX2 gives the best quality raw conversions from D700/D3 files; I recently got LR 3.3 which has improved handling of noise and the color profiles allow you to imitate picture control settings to some extent, but still I think NX2 is the easiest way to get good results with these cameras. Try it at least. Nikon software tends to be crash from time to time but the algorithms are very good. Even after tweaking and playing with settings in the Adobe raw converters, I still prefer the "feel" of the images from NX2 in many cases.</p>

<p>D700 images from the 50/1.8 should be anything but drab. That lens has a lot of "pop".</p>