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Thread: Tasmanian Devil (Graphic)

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    Default Tasmanian Devil (Graphic)

    Name:  Tasmanian Devil_Matthew Jones_A14X3372_1200-2.jpg
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    Canon 1DX | 100-400 f4.5-5.6 @ 400 | 1/1600s f/7.1 ISO 2500 | 580 EX II on board flash

    My third attempt to photograph this species in the wild paid off, seen here finishing off a small wallaby. I crawled in deep along a run to where I could hear the cracking of bones to make this shot. Focus using a red light.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Matt, I don't think in my time we've had a Tasmanian Devil posted, so thanks for providing a new species to the Forum.

    I like the low PoV and the angle of the body, as it slopes off 'into the night' and the bonus is - it's eating. Can I assume here, this was high-speed sync based on the techs rather than E-TTL? I feel you would have been better off with the the flash off camera, because as presented the Blacks & Shadows are really heavily clipped, hiding a lot of the detail & finer sharpness. Therefore, I wonder if this has come from PP rather than the flash? How much power did it release, as I would think it was just for fill-in, but (my gut feeling, probably wrong) was full power and you were quite close to the subject, is this a crop or FF. If you check the Exif it will tell you the distance between you & the subject and hopefully the flash output too. backing off the power or adjusting the settings may also have helped reduce the highlights.

    In terms of PP I'm puzzled why you use Canon DPP & Nikon capture, what does Nikon capture bring to the table compared to both DPP & PS for a Canon file? Just very curious as I've never seen anyone use Nikon Capture apart from Nikon folk???

    Matt, this is with your OP with a whole stop of Exposure added, plus the Blacks & Shadows lifted and some Highlights/Whites dropped. It starts to bring out more within the original capture and the detail, but in doing so any noise will be emphasised in the shadow areas which is not ideal.

    TFS
    Steve

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Matt - Congratulations on achieving an image of the species. Sounds like good fieldcraft paid off. Great to see a different species. The meal looks nasty and I'm guessing the smell might not have been that great either. One can appreciate that and hear the crunching sounds you describe when viewing, so it tells a story. Steve has covered the critique in depth so nothing really to add. His rp does take it up a notch but as he said lifting an underexposed image has increased the noise. Still as a species we haven't seen posted before (as far as I too can remember), it's definitely nice to have one in the bag.

    Don't forget to share your thoughts on other's images. It's the best way for us all to get to know and learn from each other. We recommend posting comments on 3-5 other wildlife images each time you post one of your own.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Name:  Tasmanian Devil_Matthew Jones_A14X3372_1200-3.jpg
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski View Post
    Hi Matt, I don't think in my time we've had a Tasmanian Devil posted, so thanks for providing a new species to the Forum.

    Matt, this is with your OP with a whole stop of Exposure added, plus the Blacks & Shadows lifted and some Highlights/Whites dropped. It starts to bring out more within the original capture and the detail, but in doing so any noise will be emphasised in the shadow areas which is not ideal.

    TFS
    Steve
    G'day Steve. Pleasure mate, happy to introduce a potentially new species to the forum, particularly this Tasmanian icon which unfortunately is endangered and facing population collapse across its range due to a facial cancer. Anyone interested can read all about it HERE (Hope its ok to provide a link to an external website?)

    I posted the wrong image. The OP has a red cast resulting from the red light focusing torch which I dealt with in the image I intended to post (above) other than that it’s pretty similar, with maybe a tad more detail. You are correct, the RAW file is exposed correctly, nothing clipped, I processed the shadows in to the background and hind quarters of the devil deliberately so the dark black back trails off in to the night i.e. purposefully removed details as the devil looked a little flashed. The blacks are black, not silver. As mentioned this is a wild animal, doing its thing in the bush in the middle of the night not a zoo actor so all the settings must be dialled in on the go then its pray time and the rest is dealt with in post. The image was taken at around 2.43 am and is full frame at 400mm. The problem with off camera flash for this one is the devil was a long way down a run (they are small animals and the runs are basically small tunnels in the undergrowth) so a lengthy and fast leopard crawl was needed to get into position, basically I wouldn't have been able to get shots with my off-camera flash set up.

    Re: the Nikon capture reference I use that software to process Nikon images and DPP4 to process Canon Images, I shoot both brands. Sorry for any confusion here, my bad. This image was processed using DPP4 and PS CC. Hope this ramble has helped. Thank you for taking the time with this Steve and I appreciate your interest as well.
    Last edited by Matthew Jones; 11-25-2016 at 04:41 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rachel Hollander View Post
    Hi Matt - Congratulations on achieving an image of the species. Sounds like good fieldcraft paid off. Great to see a different species. The meal looks nasty and I'm guessing the smell might not have been that great either. One can appreciate that and hear the crunching sounds you describe when viewing, so it tells a story. Steve has covered the critique in depth so nothing really to add. His rp does take it up a notch but as he said lifting an underexposed image has increased the noise. Still as a species we haven't seen posted before (as far as I too can remember), it's definitely nice to have one in the bag.

    Don't forget to share your thoughts on other's images. It's the best way for us all to get to know and learn from each other. We recommend posting comments on 3-5 other wildlife images each time you post one of your own.

    TFS,
    Rachel
    Hi Rachel,

    Thanks heaps for your comments. I had intended to contribute more comments last night but was called away, all fixed now though. I am an escapee from the Avian forum and haven't spent much time here but it certainly resonates well with me so I will drop by a lot more often. Thanks again...

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    Hi Matt -- Great to see a different creature , Clearly Steve has addressed the main issue with the image and have made some very good points . Appreciate your effort in achieving the image so well done on that. Again your RP is better then the OP but still lacks those finer details and the blacks look a bit heavy in parts ( the forehead especially ) . Thanks for sharing an image of this wonderful creature .

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    A great species and as good a shot as I've ever seen of one (certainly the first one posted on this forum).
    Sad to read about the disease that is ravaging them :(
    I agree with Steve but think it can go halfway between how bright his repost is and your 2nd post, mate.
    Morkel Erasmus

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    G'day Matt,wow the fieldcraft,serious admiration for it Matt !! Great image mate, not much to say in the way of critique but such a fantastic subject and the sadness shared here over thier plight. i'm aware Matt we have had at least one documentary here (UK)on this, but still huge gratitude for sharing both image and awareness. So much wildlife struggling in the world Matt, it's great to see a subject like the Tazmanian devil being talked about !

    Utter admiration Matt, this must be an incredibly difficult subject to get to grips with in the wild, Plus a joy to view and also read the comments about how the image was made and processing

    take care

    stu

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