Nikon Z6iii - The Story Behind The Photos (and lots of field techniques)

[Steve]

In my last video, we covered a complete first-look review of the new Nikon Z6iii for wildlife and bird photography. In this video, we’ll examine how I leveraged the Z6iii in the field to help me get the shots for the review video and a ton of wildlife field techniques that apply to any camera. (This thing turned into a goldmine of field techniques for any camera!)

So, think of this as part 2 of my Nikon Z6iii review along with a TON of helpful wildlife and bird photography tips! Enjoy!

 

[joe43]

Steve, this is a great video. Lots of good tips for any camera and nature situation.

 

[DRwyoming]

Nice! Not bad for a morning of shooting with a camera you've never seen before.

Great tips as always.

 

[John Navitsky]

i’m always amazed at how you can get a camera for a short period of time and return with such nice work

 

[Steelhant]

Another great video, I was waiting for a low light camera after selling my D6, I have the Z9 and same glass that you captured those awesome shots....time to order the Z6 lll !

 

[DavidT]

I always enjoy these videos! Did you get an airstream? Which one and what are you towing it with?

 

[Steve]

I always enjoy these videos! Did you get an airstream? Which one and what are you towing it with?

Yes
We got a better-than-used price on a 2023 International 23 FBT in December last year. I've been looking for this exact model and a dealer in Wisconsin had one on sale. We've wanted one forever and couldn't resist. We're towing with a 1500 series GMC AT4 with a 3.0 Diesel - it's been really good. We're getting about 14/15 MPG on the highway while towing and we push 25-30 without the camper attached.

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

So in the post linked we Hooligans suggested that dedicated wildlife shooters shouldn't buy a Z6iii.

Z6iii capability

Now that the Z6iii is a reality, it looks like Nikon is already overwhelmed with pre/orders! So if you’re not in early it may be a while before you get one. But my concern with the camera is whether it will have a “Recall Shooting” function. This has been such a valuable capability on my Z8. I...

bcgforums.com

But now we heard @Steve say that it provides an unlimited Buffet and look at all those birds. With tack sharp eyes and big bellies to munch. We respectfully retract our prior statements.

@Steve, great tips in the video and really appreciate your insights, especially on leaving it at 20FPS with unlimited buffer.

 

[DavidT]

Yes
We got a better-than-used price on a 2023 International 23 FBT in December last year. I've been looking for this exact model and a dealer in Wisconsin had one on sale. We've wanted one forever and couldn't resist. We're towing with a 1500 series GMC AT4 with a 3.0 Diesel - it's been really good. We're getting about 14/15 MPG on the highway while towing and we push 25-30 without the camper attached.

That’s awesome!!!

 

[Micky]

Great video, Steve.

 

[DavidT]

Yes
We got a better-than-used price on a 2023 International 23 FBT in December last year. I've been looking for this exact model and a dealer in Wisconsin had one on sale. We've wanted one forever and couldn't resist. We're towing with a 1500 series GMC AT4 with a 3.0 Diesel - it's been really good. We're getting about 14/15 MPG on the highway while towing and we push 25-30 without the camper attached.

That’s awesome! Did you do the twins or queen?

 

[Larry S.]

Steve, you’ve put together another great video! And as you stated, many great tips and suggestions were included not specific to the new Nikon Z6iii. The “how I got the shot” stories were likely more informative than the Z6iii review. Case in point was your yellow crowned night heron image shown here. The tack sharp detail is amazing! The 1/5000 shutter w/iso 4500 and noise reduction techniques make this a winner.

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

I got a similar image a couple years ago of the same species and was fighting the fading light. I dialed down my shutter to 1/640 and iso to 320. This was with the D850 and 500PF wide open at f/5.6. At the time I thought my shot was pretty solid.…. Until I saw your image. If I had shot a higher shutter speed I would have captured greater detail as evident in your heron. I was concerned with noise degrading the shot beyond salvage. Your video on noise reduction is a “must view “ for me. Additionally, a lower shooting angle, as you suggested, would have eliminated the muddy bank and given me a soft green background. Thanks for putting this video togethe!

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

 

[Rookie Roy]

Steve, awesome tips and photos! When watching your Z6iii review I was thinking some of the photos would work great for a “how I got the shot” video (especially the throat lighted cormorant). Now I know! I was wondering if you were using a tripod when you had the stacked spoonbills in different focal planes?

 

[Steve]

That’s awesome! Did you do the twins or queen?

Twins - you get more storage and we don't bump into each other all night. I think the queen in that one may be just a bit smaller than a normal queen.

 

[Patrick M]

BRILLIANT @Steve thank you so much!

 

[Steve]

Steve, you’ve put together another great video! And as you stated, many great tips and suggestions were included not specific to the new Nikon Z6iii. The “how I got the shot” stories were likely more informative than the Z6iii review. Case in point was your yellow crowned night heron image shown here. The tack sharp detail is amazing! The 1/5000 shutter w/iso 4500 and noise reduction techniques make this a winner.

View attachment 91742
I got a similar image a couple years ago of the same species and was fighting the fading light. I dialed down my shutter to 1/640 and iso to 320. This was with the D850 and 500PF wide open at f/5.6. At the time I thought my shot was pretty solid.…. Until I saw your image. If I had shot a higher shutter speed I would have captured greater detail as evident in your heron. I was concerned with noise degrading the shot beyond salvage. Your video on noise reduction is a “must view “ for me. Additionally, a lower shooting angle, as you suggested, would have eliminated the muddy bank and given me a soft green background. Thanks for putting this video togethe!

View attachment 91743

Thanks for the kind words

It's always such a balance - what you say about noise isn't wrong. Although the internet at large would have you believe that noise reduction software allows you to shoot at any speed, there's an obvious difference and loss of detail between a noisy shot and one that's cleaner. Although I always prefer a sharp noisy image to a soft clean one, my favorite is a sharp, clean image and I too usually make that attempt

 

[Steve]

Steve, awesome tips and photos! When watching your Z6iii review I was thinking some of the photos would work great for a “how I got the shot” video (especially the throat lighted cormorant). Now I know! I was wondering if you were using a tripod when you had the stacked spoonbills in different focal planes?

Thanks!

The spoonies were hand held - I had a monopod but it wasn't attached at the time and I didn't want to miss it. You can be a bit sloppy (a bit) with in the field when combining the images using the technique I mention in the video. Still, the closer the better.

 

[Steve]

So in the post linked we Hooligans suggested that dedicated wildlife shooters shouldn't buy a Z6iii.

Z6iii capability

Now that the Z6iii is a reality, it looks like Nikon is already overwhelmed with pre/orders! So if you’re not in early it may be a while before you get one. But my concern with the camera is whether it will have a “Recall Shooting” function. This has been such a valuable capability on my Z8. I...

bcgforums.com

But now we heard @Steve say that it provides an unlimited Buffet and look at all those birds. With tack sharp eyes and big bellies to munch. We respectfully retract our prior statements.

View attachment 91738


@Steve, great tips in the video and really appreciate your insights, especially on leaving it at 20FPS with unlimited buffer.

Just wanted to say I love the cats in this one

 

[Activert]

Thank you Steve! Your shots are really amazing! You and Vincent Munier are my two favorite wildlife photographer!

 

[Activert]

So in the post linked we Hooligans suggested that dedicated wildlife shooters shouldn't buy a Z6iii.

Z6iii capability

Now that the Z6iii is a reality, it looks like Nikon is already overwhelmed with pre/orders! So if you’re not in early it may be a while before you get one. But my concern with the camera is whether it will have a “Recall Shooting” function. This has been such a valuable capability on my Z8. I...

bcgforums.com

But now we heard @Steve say that it provides an unlimited Buffet and look at all those birds. With tack sharp eyes and big bellies to munch. We respectfully retract our prior statements.

View attachment 91738


@Steve, great tips in the video and really appreciate your insights, especially on leaving it at 20FPS with unlimited buffer.

These two cats are soooooo cute! Are they yours?

 

[ajrmd]

Great video which made a great case not only for your techniques but the 600 f/4!

 

[JAJohnson]

Beautiful images, Steve! And lots of good reminders for fieldcraft that enables getting better photos. As you shared each image I was thinking about my last trip to Orlando Wetlands in March. I saw several gators sunning themselves but I wasn't brave enough to get down low near them. I didn't want to be an easy meal. Kudos to you for getting the shot!

 

[Steve]

Beautiful images, Steve! And lots of good reminders for fieldcraft that enables getting better photos. As you shared each image I was thinking about my last trip to Orlando Wetlands in March. I saw several gators sunning themselves but I wasn't brave enough to get down low near them. I didn't want to be an easy meal. Kudos to you for getting the shot!

Meh, they're more afraid of you than you are of them (well, usually )

 

[SCoombs]

Steve, you’ve put together another great video! And as you stated, many great tips and suggestions were included not specific to the new Nikon Z6iii. The “how I got the shot” stories were likely more informative than the Z6iii review. Case in point was your yellow crowned night heron image shown here. The tack sharp detail is amazing! The 1/5000 shutter w/iso 4500 and noise reduction techniques make this a winner.

View attachment 91742
I got a similar image a couple years ago of the same species and was fighting the fading light. I dialed down my shutter to 1/640 and iso to 320. This was with the D850 and 500PF wide open at f/5.6. At the time I thought my shot was pretty solid.…. Until I saw your image. If I had shot a higher shutter speed I would have captured greater detail as evident in your heron. I was concerned with noise degrading the shot beyond salvage. Your video on noise reduction is a “must view “ for me. Additionally, a lower shooting angle, as you suggested, would have eliminated the muddy bank and given me a soft green background. Thanks for putting this video togethe!

View attachment 91743

Something I've wondered about shots like this: can we consider there to be a sort of inverse relationship between how much you expect to have to crop and how high an ISO you're willing to go to on a photo?

For instance, this photo has only a very small crop from 19.4 to 15.5 MP to get rid of a little of the edges, but even at ISO 10000 it looks decent:

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

A larger crop is this one, going from 45.7 MP to 18MP.

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

Even for ISO 11400 it's really pretty good after denoising.

Here's one brought from 45.7 to around 9MP:

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

This one actually took a few different tries with denoising and sharpening to get where it is. In other words, even though it was only at ISO 2200 versus the higher ISOs of the other photos, it took much more effort to get looking decent. Is the much larger crop the reason why?

Then there is one like this, which went from 45.7MP all the way down to 3.6!

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

I think from a distance it looks okayish, but it really starts to look pretty lousy if you look at all closely.

By a crop from 45.7 to 2.5 MP, even at ISO 360 what little noise exists seems to big large enough to eliminate any detail that may have otherwise been there:

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

This isn't actually half bad considering the extreme crop and may even look slightly better than the eagle in all honesty, but really there is very little detail there if you look. This isn't even a photo I'd ever try to really use or save but I just posted for the sake of the question.

Is this idea of judging the workable ISO based on the subject size in frame a good one? We'd all like to avoid cropping of course, but if we decide to do so, is it a good practice to try to keep the ISO lower to make the crop work as well as possible?

 

[Steve]

Something I've wondered about shots like this: can we consider there to be a sort of inverse relationship between how much you expect to have to crop and how high an ISO you're willing to go to on a photo?

For instance, this photo has only a very small crop from 19.4 to 15.5 MP to get rid of a little of the edges, but even at ISO 10000 it looks decent:View attachment 91756

A larger crop is this one, going from 45.7 MP to 18MP.
View attachment 91757

Even for ISO 11400 it's really pretty good after denoising.

Here's one brought from 45.7 to around 9MP:
View attachment 91760
This one actually took a few different tries with denoising and sharpening to get where it is. In other words, even though it was only at ISO 2200 versus the higher ISOs of the other photos, it took much more effort to get looking decent. Is the much larger crop the reason why?

Then there is one like this, which went from 45.7MP all the way down to 3.6!
View attachment 91758
I think from a distance it looks okayish, but it really starts to look pretty lousy if you look at all closely.

By a crop from 45.7 to 2.5 MP, even at ISO 360 what little noise exists seems to big large enough to eliminate any detail that may have otherwise been there:

View attachment 91761
This isn't actually half bad considering the extreme crop and may even look slightly better than the eagle in all honesty, but really there is very little detail there if you look. This isn't even a photo I'd ever try to really use or save but I just posted for the sake of the question.

Is this idea of judging the workable ISO based on the subject size in frame a good one? We'd all like to avoid cropping of course, but if we decide to do so, is it a good practice to try to keep the ISO lower to make the crop work as well as possible?

Yes, the size of the subject has a huge impact on the final output noise. I talk about it in this video: