D7100 food spot - frame grab

Michael Carter

Michael Carter

Veteran
Had to shoot some emergency cut ins for a food spot. Packaging changed after edit was about locked. Here's a D7100 frame, full size 1080, no correction, no sharpening. Nikkor 50mm 1.8 AF, 1/60th @ F2.8. Flaat profile. Key light was a 400 HID through diffusion (6500k aquarium/grow bulb with 1/2 CTO). Back light was an Alzo 800 with 1/8 minus green and a 300 watt tungsten fresnel with scrims. Really impressed with the video IQ of the newer Nikon sensor. Look how sharp that text is!

tubs.jpg
 
I know, but it'll be a couple more shoots before it stops "surprising" me I think! Did my annual holiday (still) shot of the kids this weekend, and just eyeballing stills in the viewfinder, it's a big leap in sharpness. After shooting stills on everything since the D70, it does feel like a big step for DSLR IQ.

Just wish it did 60 at 1080 like the 5300... damn it.
 
Just curious to know, if you are to sharpen it, how much sharpness would you apply. I know it is a basic question but I was wondering about this since I started to use flaat on my D7100.
 
Well, when I look at the footage from the still I posted above... I don't see a need to sharpen that at all. The product name is as crisp as I think I'd want it (this wasn't sharpened).

Really, I sharpen things very rarely. The most common sharpening for me is in Neat Video, to balance noise reduction, and I just use the sharpener in Neat. Sometimes if I deliver something in 480, I may sharpen a bit since that size can make things a little mushy.

There's no one-size-fits-all answer. Depends on the shot and the look you want. Sharpening isn't going to repair an out of focus shot, for instance. I might use it in closeups to give some sparkle to eyes, but if so I'll usually mask that in.
 
I wouldn't sharpen it as well. Its perfect for me the way it is right now. Michael, I would ask what settings do you use? Do you use Flaat 11 and at what is sharpness set to? I use Flaat 11 and I set my sharpness at 2. I also have my monitor brightness at -2. It helps me a lot.
 
What I was really asking how much sharpening you apply to a footage shot with 0 sharpening. Or as with @sharry's example, do you use flaat profile with sharpening adjusted to, say, +2. Thanks,
 
I believe that was Flaat 10, sharpening 0 or -1. Nikkor 50mm 1.8 AF, 1/60th @ F2.8. No post sharpening - that's a sharp lens, even at 2.8... and the 7100 (to me anyway) is sort of a new level in DSLR image. More naturally sharp without the OLPF (I'd assume it's the filter anyway, it's a leap from the D7000 for sure).

And yes - I am finding this viewfinder to be way brighter than the D7000 and have been lowering mine - really trains you to watch the histogram!

We were iced in for a week in Texas and I went outside and shot some snow and ice to test the rolloff. Holds highlights right up to the brink - the DR at the high end is impressive. Did a quick greenscreen test and it keys far better than any DSLR and in the same league as my big AVCHD Panasonic. Just pissed it doesn't have the 1080/60 the new 5300 has - what the hell??

Note that some of these clips are intentionally blown out - and I was freezing, we really have to dig around for our winter coats in Dallas!

 
It's the better sensor and image processing, not the lack of OLPF: the D5200 gives basically the same image, just as sharp. It seems these cameras are reading a bigger proportion of the sensor's photosites, and debayering+downsampling that information in a better way. Good example for this: the 5D3 is very soft when shooting H.264, but very sharp when shooting RAW; both images start with exactly the same information, but the in-camera debayering cuts a lot of corners to get the job done fast.

An image sharpened in post starts to look videoy very fast, so if I have a picture with enough detail to begin with, I'd rather leave the sharpening slider very near to the bottom. The best example for this is the BMC.
I wouldn't add any sharpening to this particular shot either, it looks great already.
 
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