Vlog Ep. 13 - Street Photography Fail (Nikon Z6 Silent Shutter & Face AF FAIL)

(Scroll down to see vlog, or you know, read :P )

I finally got around to making this vlog, which I filmed back before Christmas. One of the things holding me back was that I hate most of these photos lol.

I haven’t shot a ton of street photography on my Nikon Z6 since I got it, preferring to use either my Olympus OM10 or a point and shoot. Anyways I recently updated my Z6 firmware so I have access to the new Face AF mode, which paired with the silent shutter option seemed like a perfect combo for street photography. I chose my stomping grounds: Old Town Alexandria, always dressed up and packed around the holidays, and I thought that it would be the perfect test site for my new street photography machine.

I was wrong :/

Turns out I ended up mixing the worst concoction you can get for photography. The low natural light meant I was depending on various fluorescent lights. These lights when mixed with a silent shutter give a banding effect that basically is irreparable.

The banding can be seen here, if you notice those horizontal stripes across the image. This is caused by the electronic silent shutter scanning the fluorescent lights.

Additionally, low light + Face AF = bad. The Nikon’s autofocus couldn’t keep up with my quick-fire approach to street photo, and a number of photos missed focus.

A good example of the Face AF being too slow to find the face, resulting in an out-of-focus image

Now I’m a pretty good photographer, but I have been depending on post-processing for YEARS. I have a sticker on the back of my computer that says ‘Fix It In Post”. I thrive in saving bad photos in Lightroom, but my disasterclass settings for this trip were way beyond even my abilities to save.

TLDR: these photos came out meh, but I’m actually really happy with the vlog so after way too much procrastinating, enjoy: