If you've seen my last few missives, I recently got out of my Fuji kit, because I'm getting booked more and more for events now on weekends.  Here in Perth it is coming into our Aussie summer now, longer daylight hours, warmer weather and more people venturing out.  I trialled a Z6ii with my Fuji kit for about a year, but recently bought another 6ii body and pensioned off the Fuji kit.  The photos on higher ISO are much better than the APSC, particularly in low light.  I had to shoot a Halloween event last night and was a bit worried. I normally steer clear of evening events - low light, horrible shadows from flash, camera struggling for AF, low shutter speeds - you guys know the deal.However, I was fairly pleasantly surprised.  The light in the venue was horrible and I had to shoot everything on ISO 3200.  That was the territory my Fuji images turned to custard, but I think these Nikon images still look OK.  I tried a different AFC box and with great results.  I usually use the 'auto-area AF, people' then grab the tracking square when needed.  However, in close fast moving, dark areas, like last night, it gets confused a lot.  I tried just the single box sometimes, but mostly the 'wide-area AF, people' (red rectangle with eye tracking).  Under the harsh light and fast moving dancers, it actually went surprisingly well.  Thanks Nikon for making great products and saving my APSC woes.Suttophilipsuttonphotography.com

Great set of shots.I like the colours and total absence of noise .You shot them with prime lenses, fully open and nailed framing & focus. KudosDid you clean them in PP?I am sure your client will be happy with those.Cheers

These photos make me happy to be a Z6II owner also!  I'm also wondering if you used any special software to clean up noise? Thanks for sharing.

rntbot wrote:These photos make me happy to be a Z6II owner also! I'm also wondering if you used any special software to clean up noise? Thanks for sharing.It helps that these are 1.3mp after post. The noise likely cleaned itself up. It's why everything looks great for instagram/etc and it's relatively easy to get good looking pictures there.

That last pic reminded me of the Joker ( Batman ).Man, with her makeup and look she could very well be casted in a sequel.....

Thanks for the interest.  I try not to over post-process, I really hate the look where people crank up the 'clarity' slider.  I used to use LR, but got out of that years ago, because Fuji RAF files used to have a perennial problem with moire and other artefacts.  Therefore, I've been using Capture one for a few years now.  However, having only swapped over fully to Nikon of late, I did not have a whole swag of self-created 'styles', like I did with Fuji.  As the months go on though, I've started building up a few really cool 'styles', that I've created, and just those few seem to suit over 90% of all my images.  I'm sure I will add more as I go along.I did apply noise reduction to these images, however, any noise that was there was not harsh and obvious, as it would have been on the APSC files.  I find the Nikon files very clean and easy to work with.  The DJ got my 'retro' style and the rest were my 'high contrast' style.  I hoped this helped in answering any questions.Sutto

Oops - I forgot to answer this query - should have included it in my other answer.  You mentioned primes.  Yes, I really love primes, and I always use them if at all possible.  I have two cameras on my body, just the 50mm and the 24mm and they cover over 90% of all the gigs I shoot.  I recently bought the 24-120 that everybody raves about, but I don't like it and barely use it.  It is extremely sharp and one cannot tell the difference between images from the primes.  However, the killer is the F4.  I often shoot in darker environments and F4 is not useable.  Also, I shoot in very close with the 24mm and I can blur the background with the 1.8 prime, but of course cannot on the zoom.  I only use the zoom outside in good light and if I need the extra reach.Sutto

These are great! What's your fill-flash situation here? Mounted on camera, straight up vertical, TTL and a bounce card? That's my guess.

Thanks for the question.  Manual flash is much more accurate, but because I move in and out of changing light and I need to be fast, I use TTL.  I underexpose the flash by 1 1/3 stop.  If you keep the flash without any negative compensation, it is too strong and overpowering, for fill.  The negative setting seems to be a general compensation that works well in most light settings.  I use the Godox V1, which has a great battery life.  I have it camera mounted and turned back facing into a bounce card that I made.   With this setup, I don't get too many harsh shadows, and the daylight fill-flash usually looks quite natural.  I hope that explains.Sutto