Just back from a wonderful wet season trip to the CKGR & Moremi,
the new flush of vegetation and gorgeous light is evident here as this lone Oryx runs free one sunset evening across the Central Kalahari.
D5 Nikkor 400 f/2.8 E FL VR 1/1000s f/4 ISO2200. Small crop of 15% off the RHS. Bean bag- front pax seat, Curves, levels using TK adj, ACR/Grad filter on the sky, PS CC'15 & ACR.
For those who maybe interested, my new D5 performed nicely, with noticable improvement in the AF, more consistent Auto WB, and now happy to cap my Auto ISO up from 12800 (D4s) to 25600.
Hi Marc - Glad you like your new toy. Looks like a nice scene though I wish the oryx wasn't angled slightly away from you. I'm sure you would prefer for it to be more parallel too. I'm somewhat surprised that there seems to be a grittiness to the frame particularly across the center horizontally. Not sure if it came from the processing?
Hi Marc -- Nice scene , story book stuff ! Lovely colours in the sky as well . I too feel the Oryx being angled away is a bit unfortunate . I also see some noise in the BKG .
No NR has been used, one will always see some degree of noise in all images over 1600 IMO (when light is at a premium) but normally never use any below 3200.
Agree the middle band would benefit with a small amount, but not too much of a deal breaker for me at least.
Loving the layers and soft last light here Marc.
I agree having the gemsbok (the ones in the Kalahari are of that subspecies of oryx of course) more parallel would have been great, but the angle that it's running at makes the light hit the face nicely.
I have come to detest the look of NR smoothness except at excessively high ISO settings so I am fine with the image "grittiness".
Mark I like the scene you have captured with the different foreground and background,looks good with the Oryx deciding to leave the scene.Pleased your happy with your new gear and have enjoyed reading the opinions on noise levels.
Hi Marc, congrats on your new toy, and capturing any subject with a new toy must be exciting. I like the running pose, and the sunset colours add to the overall image.
Please forgive me, I had to think about this for a while so very late with my comments. I am happy with your techs but somehow thirsty for more info, I have ordered a D5 for myself recently and my expectations of this body (for its price) are quite high. Would like to know whether you under or overexposed, is the FP on the darker or lighter parts of the subject, and what kind of metering you had (matrix, centre-weighted, highlight-weighted). Manual or aperture? In terms of autofocus, how many focus points, if I may ask? I am not so happy with the quality of this image and expect more from the D5 at this ISO value, I do like the content and the runaway "feel" here, this capture reminds me of the Kalahari and its beautiful Gemsbok dashing into the sunset. I like the framing, tension perceived from the subject running, his sense of smell might have detected a predator lurking, this is the best time to stalk and hunt. The low light contributes to the mood of the image, I am sure it was a great sighting, thank you for sharing it with us!