Playback and Culling in the Camera

A grey heron lifts off the far bank, and you hold the shutter-release button for two seconds in Continuous H (extended) with the electronic shutter, which runs at up to 20 frames per second, or fps (p. 153). That is $20 \times 2 = 40$ pictures of one take-off, each $1/20 = 0.05$ s after the last. Ten take-offs, an illustrative morning rather than a measured one, put 400 frames on the card.

On the camera's screen those 40 frames look the same, and whether any deserves to survive turns on one question: is the eye sharp? Culling, sorting keepers from rejects, is a decision made under uncertainty on a small screen. The job is to make that screen answer the question in as few presses as possible, without losing the frame that would have answered yes. Page numbers in parentheses point to Nikon's Z6III Reference Guide, edition 09, which matches firmware 2.00.

01.Why a Small Screen Hides the Answer

A Large picture in FX, Nikon's name for the full-frame image area, is 6,048 pixels wide and 4,032 tall (p. 119), so it holds $6048 \times 4032 = 24{,}385{,}536$ pixels. The electronic viewfinder, or EVF, has about 5,760,000 dots and is labelled UXGA (p. 999), the name for a grid 1,600 pixels wide and 1,200 tall. Since $1600 \times 1200 \times 3 = 5{,}760{,}000$, that is one red, one green and one blue dot per pixel. The monitor has about 2,100,000 dots (p. 1000). Nikon prints no grid for it, so assume, for illustration, the same three dots per pixel and a screen with the picture's 3:2 shape, which gives $2{,}100{,}000 / 3 = 700{,}000$ pixels.

The whole picture on the monitor then packs $24{,}385{,}536 / 700{,}000 \approx 34.8$ picture pixels into each screen pixel. Because the shapes match, the squeeze along each side is the square root, $\sqrt{34.8} \approx 5.9$. Suppose, again for illustration, that the heron's eye spans 30 picture pixels. In full frame it covers about $30 / 5.9 \approx 5$ screen pixels, enough to show an eye and far too few to show whether its rim is crisp. At 1:1, one picture pixel per screen pixel, it spans 30 and any blur shows. The finder is better but still short, at $6048 / 1600 \approx 3.8$ along each side. While you zoom, a bar under the small navigation window turns green at 1:1, or 100% (p. 243). Short of green, you are previewing, not judging.

The two possible mistakes are not equal either. A bad frame kept costs a little card space. A good frame deleted is gone, because deleted pictures cannot be recovered (p. 253). So delete in the camera only what is certainly useless, such as a frame with no bird, and mark the rest. A mark can be changed, and a rating travels with the file into Nikon's NX Studio software (p. 246). Choosing between near-identical frames waits for a computer screen.

02.Moving Around in Playback

The playback button shows the most recent picture in whichever display you are using (pp. 111, 221). Left and right on the multi selector, or a sideways flick, step through the card, and a half-press of the shutter-release button returns you to shooting at once (p. 111). The zoom out button, or a pinch, gives pages of 4, 9 and 72 thumbnails (pp. 70, 222). Thumbnails are for finding a burst, never for judging one.

The zoom in button, a stretch or a double tap enlarges the picture, up to about $32\times$ for a Large FX picture, and where the camera finds faces the sub-command dial steps between them (pp. 70, 243-244). The main command dial moves to the same spot in the next picture at the same magnification, so one zoom on the eye in a burst's first frame lets the dial walk the rest at 1:1 (p. 244).

A flying bird moves across the scene, though, and custom setting f3, which assigns the playback jobs of buttons and dials and is covered fully in Custom Controls, handles that.

For each command dial, Frame advance zoom position defaults to Keep current zoom position (p. 626). Prefer focus point centres each new frame on the focus point that was active when it was taken, and Prefer focus point (face priority) added in Firmware 2.00 centres on a person's face where the camera finds one (p. 729). Either makes the zoomed view follow the subject instead of the scenery.

f3 also gives the OK button its default role, Zoom on/off (p. 626). One press zooms to the area around the current focus point at a ratio you choose in advance by highlighting the role in f3 and pressing right (p. 724). Nikon prints no list of ratios, and it does not say which point counts as current when subject detection picked an eye inside a wider autofocus area, so test it on your own frames first.

03.Reading a Frame: Information Pages and the Histogram

The DISP button steps through information pages drawn over the picture (p. 223). Basic information is permanent. Every other page needs a tick first, and out of the box the clean view, None (picture only), is the only page ticked (pp. 223, 783).

Playback display options also holds Focus point, which draws the point used for each picture, and Mark first shot in series, which puts an icon and the frame count on the first picture of every burst (p. 787). Both start unticked (p. 783). The exposure page gives the shutter speed behind a soft frame, and a slow one points to movement rather than a focus miss. The highlight page makes areas that may be overexposed blink (p. 225).

RGB stands for red, green and blue, and the RGB histogram page draws one chart for the whole picture and one per colour (p. 226). A histogram is a bar chart of brightness: each position from left to right is a level from black to white, and the height above it counts the pixels at that level (p. 227). A white egret filling an illustrative tenth of the frame is about $24{,}385{,}536 / 10 \approx 2{,}400{,}000$ pixels, and if they pile against the right-hand edge the feathers have lost their detail. Zoomed in, the histogram describes only the visible area, and Nikon calls it a guide that may differ from editing software (p. 227). Metering uses the same pages.

04.Seeing a Picture Right After You Take It

Picture review defaults to Off, which shows pictures only when you press the playback button (pp. 784, 794). On shows each new picture in whichever display you are using, and On (monitor only) shows it only while you frame on the monitor, never in the finder (p. 794). In the continuous release modes, review waits for the burst to end and opens on its first frame (p. 222).

For action I leave it Off, since a picture in the finder after a burst hides the next bird. On a tripod I use On (monitor only).

After burst, show picks the frame the playback button opens on after a burst, and its default is Last picture in burst (pp. 784, 796). It applies only while Picture review is Off (p. 796). I choose First picture in burst, where a burst starts and its marker sits.

05.Bursts as Units: Series Playback

The camera keeps each burst as a group, a series in Nikon's word, and Series playback sets how playback treats it (pp. 155, 792).

Sub-selector displays first shot is ON by default (p. 784). Push the sub-selector, the small joystick under your right thumb, left or right, and playback jumps between the first frames of bursts, still stopping at single pictures. Push it up or down to move through the frames of the burst on screen. Turned OFF, the sub-selector acts like the multi selector (p. 792). Figure 1 shows the pattern.

Ten 40-frame bursts are 400 pictures in a row. Stepping one frame at a time from the start of the tenth burst back to the start of the first takes $9 \times 40 = 360$ presses. Jumping by burst takes 9.

Auto series playback, OFF by default, holds a burst's first frame for a few seconds and then plays the rest (pp. 784, 792). Its Auto series playback options added in Firmware 2.00 set a loop, the start delay and a speed of 5, 15 or 30 fps, with 30 the default, or At current release mode speed, about 10 fps for Continuous H (extended) (pp. 784, 793). A 40-frame burst plays in $40 / 30 \approx 1.3$ s at 30 fps and $40 / 10 = 4$ s at 10 fps. A button given Start series playback in f3 plays the burst while held, faster than the multi selector steps it, and stops on release or at the last frame (p. 724).

List series as single thumbnails, OFF by default, shows each burst as one thumbnail with an icon and the frame count, while full frame keeps every frame (pp. 784, 793). It also enables Manage series in the playback i menu, which deletes, protects or marks for upload a whole burst at once (pp. 236, 793). A page of 72 thumbnails then holds 72 bursts instead of $72 / 40 = 1.8$. A whole-burst delete is the least forgiving tool in playback, so keep it for bursts you have checked.

06.Marking Pictures

Ratings

A rating is zero to five stars, or a mark Nikon calls candidate for deletion, set from the playback i menu with the main command dial (p. 246). Quicker, give a button the Rating role in f3, then hold it and turn the main command dial (p. 246). The role can carry a preset rating instead, applied by one press and cleared by a second, though Nikon does not list the presets (p. 725), and not every control accepts every role (p. 724).

Protection

By default the release mode/protect button protects the picture on screen (pp. 245, 626). A protected picture shows an icon and refuses deletion (pp. 245, 253), and any voice memo attached is protected with it. Holding the release mode/protect and delete buttons together for about two seconds unprotects every picture in the folders chosen under Playback folder (p. 245).

Flicks and Voice Memos

Full-frame playback flicks, custom setting f15, turns an upward or downward flick on the monitor into a preset rating, an upload mark, protection or a voice memo, and both directions start at None (pp. 627, 742). Flicking the same way again removes the mark, though a second flick on a picture with a memo plays it, and the same item sets which sideways flick moves forward (pp. 742-743). I leave both at None, because buttons work with my eye at the finder.

A voice memo is up to 60 s of sound attached to one photo (p. 297). It is recorded from the playback i menu or from a control set in f3 or f15, takes the picture's file number, and is stored with both copies under Backup or a split option (p. 298).

Voice memo options chooses between Press and hold and Press to start/stop, and sends playback to the speaker or headphones, to HDMI, the camera's connection for an external screen, or nowhere (pp. 842-843). The defaults are Press and hold and Speaker/headphones (p. 806).

07.Showing Only What Matters: Filtered Playback

Filtered playback criteria sets the conditions and Filtered playback in the playback i menu applies them (p. 249). The criteria cover protection, picture type, rating, Date added in Firmware 2.00, upload status, voice memos and retouched copies. All but Date are unticked by default, and the defaults list leaves Date out (pp. 783-784).

A picture appears only if it meets every ticked condition, a white border shows the filter is on, and choosing Filtered playback again ends it (pp. 249-250). Tick Protect and five stars together and you see pictures that are both, not either. For culling, Rating alone, set to your keeper stars, turns a 400-frame morning into the frames you marked.

08.Deleting Without Regret

The delete button removes the picture on screen after a second press to confirm (p. 253). After delete decides what you see next: Show next, the default, Show previous, or Continue as before, which keeps the direction you were scrolling (pp. 784, 795). I use Continue as before.

Delete in the playback menu works in bulk (p. 785). Selected pictures lets you tick frames with the zoom out button. Candidates for deletion lists every picture carrying that mark, and you can untick any you now doubt before confirming (p. 255). Pictures shot on selected dates and All pictures cover the rest, and a large batch takes time (pp. 254-256). So marking beats deleting as you go: the deletion happens once, from a list you can check.

Playback folder sets which folders playback shows: a named folder, All, the default, or Current (pp. 784, 786). All pictures in the Delete menu and the two-button unprotect both act on that choice (pp. 245, 256).

When Both Cards Hold a Copy

Under Overflow each picture is on one card. Under Backup or a split option it is on both, and the delete button asks whether to remove only the copy on the card you are viewing or both (pp. 253, 460).

Delete pictures from both slots shapes that question (p. 789). Yes (confirmation required), the default, asks every time, and pressing right on it sets which answer the prompt highlights first. Yes always selects both copies, so confirming deletes both. No shows the ordinary single-picture prompt and leaves the other card alone. Card Slots and File Handling recommends keeping the default.

NEF is Nikon's raw format, and JPEG the compressed format almost every device can open. With one card in, or under Overflow or Backup, deleting the JPEG of a raw-plus-JPEG pair in the camera also deletes the NEF, and with one card in the camera shows only the JPEG (p. 117).

09.Tall Pictures and the Orientation Settings

Record camera orientation added in Firmware 2.00 stores how the camera was held, and it is ON by default (pp. 784, 797). Turned OFF, every picture plays back wide. The record can be wrong with the camera aimed steeply up or down, or while panning (p. 797), so expect the odd heron overhead lying on its side.

Auto-rotate pictures, ON by default, shows tall pictures tall while the camera is held wide and wide pictures wide while it is held tall (pp. 784, 798). It does nothing during picture review, or for pictures taken with orientation recording off (p. 798).

Auto-rotate during playback added in Firmware 2.00, also ON by default, turns the playback display to follow the camera as you rotate it, but only while Auto-rotate pictures is ON (pp. 784, 799).

Showing a tall picture upright on a camera held wide costs size. On the 3:2 screen assumed earlier, a tall 2:3 picture fitted to the screen's height is $2/3$ of that height wide, while the screen is $3/2$ of it, so the picture covers $(2/3) / (3/2) = 4/9 \approx 0.44$ of the screen, or 44 per cent. Reviewing with the camera tall should let a tall frame fill the screen's length, though Nikon describes the rotation, not the resulting size, so that step is inference.

10.Photo Items and Video Items

After burst, show and series playback concern photo bursts, Nikon describes picture review for photographs only (p. 222), and voice memos cannot be added to videos at all (p. 298). Reaching a video also cancels playback zoom (p. 244). Videos have their own playback i menu, which keeps rating and filtered playback and adds trimming and Playback speed added in Firmware 2.00, slowing a clip to $1/2\times$ or $1/4\times$ (pp. 240-241). In f3 the dials take separate video roles, by default 10 frames on the main command dial and 10 s on the sub-command dial (pp. 626, 728).

11.The Bird Burst Routine

Birds in flight run on U1 with the Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR, Continuous H (extended) at 20 fps with the electronic shutter, and Overflow. The Lexar Professional SILVER CFexpress 4.0 Type B 512 GB card in slot 1 takes every frame until it fills, and only then does the Lexar Professional 2000x SDXC UHS-II 256 GB card in slot 2 take over.

Between birds the playback button opens on the first frame of the newest burst, since review is Off and After burst, show is set to the first picture. OK zooms to the focus point at the ratio set in f3, the zoom in button takes the bar to green if it is not there yet, and the main command dial, on Prefer focus point, walks the burst at 1:1. A sharp eye gets stars from Fn1, given the Rating role, and the best frame of each burst is protected too. A frame with no bird gets the deletion mark. A merely soft frame gets nothing, the cheapest verdict to change.

The sub-command dial, set to Skip to first shot in series on U1 (p. 727), or the sub-selector moves a burst at a time, and Fn2, given Start series playback, shows a wingbeat as movement. In a lull I run Delete with Candidates for deletion, untick anything I doubt and confirm, and under Overflow no prompt asks about the other card. Before leaving, Copy image(s) in the playback menu, started from Select protected pictures, duplicates the protected frames onto the SD card with their ratings and protection (pp. 801, 804).

12.The Dance Performance Routine

For stage dance I use the Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2, mostly with the camera tall, in Continuous H with the mechanical shutter or the electronic front-curtain shutter, and Backup, so every frame goes to both cards. Where the audience sits close, Silent mode on the illuminator button switches to the electronic shutter instead (p. 846), as Silent Shooting, Timers and Time-Lapse explains. During the performance I review nothing, so my attention stays on the stage.

In the interval I set Frame advance zoom position to Prefer focus point (face priority), so each zoomed frame opens on a dancer's face where the camera found one. With Playback zoom face selection added in Firmware 2.00 at its default, ON, a zoomed frame with several faces lets the sub-command dial switch faces while the main command dial changes frame (pp. 244, 626, 729). I review with the camera tall, so tall frames use the length of the monitor. Marks work as they do for birds, and the first frame of each piece gets a voice memo naming it, which Backup keeps with both copies (p. 298).

I delete nothing during a Backup show. Nikon does not say whether Candidates for deletion removes both copies of a Backup pair or follows the both-slots setting, nor whether a rating given to one copy reaches the other. After any bulk delete in the camera, I open the SD card with Choose slot and folder in the playback i menu (p. 238) to see what remains. Filtered playback by Rating then gives the keepers in one pass.

13.Recommended Settings

Birds in flight follow the bird routine. Perched wildlife uses the base map, where the sub-command dial steps one frame (p. 626). Stage dance with the 70-180mm follows the dance routine. For portraits with the Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.8 S, face priority does for a sitter what it does for a dancer. For street, where RAW primary - JPEG secondary sends the raw to the CFexpress card and the JPEG to SD, the delete button asks whether to remove only the JPEG or both, so answer with care (pp. 460, 789). For landscape on a tripod, On (monitor only) and a glance at the highlight page after each frame replace most later culling.

14.Beginner Mistakes

Judging sharpness in full frame. Zoom until the bar under the navigation window turns green before calling an eye sharp (p. 243).

Deleting in the field to save space. Deleted pictures cannot be recovered (p. 253). Mark rejects and remove them later from the Candidates for deletion list (p. 255).

Deleting a JPEG and losing its raw. With one card in, or under Overflow or Backup, deleting the JPEG of a pair in the camera deletes the NEF too (p. 117).

15.Related Chapters

• Custom Controls: every f3 playback role.
• Card Slots and File Handling: Overflow, Backup and Copy image(s).
• Release Modes, Frame Rates and the Buffer: where 20 fps bursts come from.
• The i Menu: the playback i menu and how to change it.
• Metering: the highlight and histogram pages as exposure checks.
• Settings Finder: every playback item with its path and default.