Nikon D850 for Portrait Photography: Colour and Metering

Auto White Balance

Grey Card

Perhaps one of the bigger surprises is just how well the Nikon D850 renders colour. The D850 uses Nikon 's latest 3D colour matrix metering III system and 180,000 pixel RGB metering sensor. We have used a grey card for colour reference in a few situations and often the suggested white balance setting is a very similar colour temperature to the camera 's AWB.

In the shade, AWB colours can be a little cool, but nothing too untoward. Our example picture shows the camera 's AWB and the temperature given from a grey card and the readings are almost the same.

For portraits we found that the Neutral picture setting makes for the most accurate skin tones - often JPEGs are good right-off-the-bat. If more vibrancy and saturation is needed, then it can be introduced in post.

Nikon D850 for Portrait Photography: Lenses

Not exclusive to the D850, but there is a great choice of Nikon-fit, fast-aperture, prime lenses ideal for portraits. We have mostly used the Nikon 58mm f/1.4 and Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lenses in our portrait shoots. The current wave of lenses being launched are designed to get the most out of high-resolution cameras like the D850.

With f/1.4 lenses, it is possible to make portraits with a shallow depth of field and smooth out-of-focus areas, even to the level of medium format lenses. You 'll have to be extra vigilant with focusing when using such a shallow depth of field.

Nikon D850 for Portrait Photography: Composition

Composing portraits with the Nikon D850 is a breeze. The camera features what is Nikon 's largest viewfinder, providing 100% coverage and 0.75x magnification. Your eye gets positively lost in the large and bright display, even in low contrast light.

For shooting at awkward angles, it 's still possible to view the scene through the vibrant 3.2in tilt-touchscreen. We made use of this screen for low-level shooting on several occasions.

That concludes our look at using the Nikon D850 for portrait photography. Next time, we'll put the D850 through its paced for shooting action photography.

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