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Thread: Patrolling the territory

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    Default Patrolling the territory

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    This handsome tiger is simply called T-57. I had very productive trip last month to Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in India. This was my maiden tiger photography trip which has got me hooked -- I will be back!

    This is a full frame image of tiger walking on the trail. The feeling and experience of tiger walking towards you and grwoing bigger and bigger in the frame is hard to describe. It was rather late in the day, so quality of light was good (diffused), but quantity was not enough to render each hair.

    Nikon D850, Nikon 600 mm f4
    1/500, f/5.0, ISO 2800.

    Comments appreciated.

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    Jay I do like the stalking pose and showing it's open mouth cooling from the heat,I cannot say much on colour having never seen one in the wild but it does look like you had some sunshine to deal with,sure others will have a better input but I do like this as posted.

    Keith.

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Dear Jay,

    Thank you so much for sharing this with us in the Wildlife Forum! Good choice of title for this frame and I so enjoyed reading the intro - I can just imagine your excitement as the subject was approaching!

    Good composition here and point of view is superb. Nice eye contact and I agree with Keith, that mouth open and raised paw make this image. Great to see some environment too:)

    Looking at your techs I feel the shutter speed was too low, given the movement of the subject. In the future try to achieve at least 1/1500s (in a situation like this I would aim for 1/2000s, to be safe). I am currently still busy experimenting with my D850 so not quite sure how much ISO it can take. It is a fantastic camera by the way

    A few observations, I notice a blue cast on the whites of the fur which you can remove quite easily in Photoshop. I also feel the image is a tad too "warm", or rather saturated ( coat too orange and tongue too red). I admit I have never seen this species in real life so my observations are based purely on previous tiger images - so I am looking forward to what the other members have to say.

    ...as well as hoping to see more from you Should you feel at any stage that you need some help with PP work I am happy to try, just drop me a message and I shall forward you my email address.

    Once again thank you so much for sharing, tigers are so special and Mr. T-57 is no exception

    Kind regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Hi Jay -- What a magnificent looking Tiger ! A good specimen in prime it seems. I liked the low POV and the eye contact . As far as colours are concerned it appears very saturated especially the coat of the animal. Considering there is no cropping, it seems the details are a bit lacking in the fur, yes definitely low light as you mentioned but low ss and too much saturation might also be affecting the same, the blacks look heavy as well. Did you applied Noise reduction (NR) or have blurred the surroundings ? the vegetation appears very smooth and especially the leaves look like having the sketch effect. Also there appears some noise on the interior of the tiger's raised leg. I think it is worth visiting the RAW file in order to get the very best out of this frame.

    Would love to see more from your trip. A nice image to start with . TFS !

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    Gabriel, thanks a ton for such detailed comments. Now I too readily see that image is too warm. But tiger tongue does look very red particularly in such diffused light cases. I checked with raw file. I am planning to reprocess the image from scratch and your comments will help.

    I am mainly bird photgrapher. This was my maiden tiger safari. I found getting sharp images of the animals( was lucky that sloth bear also came be to say hello!) was far easier than birds. But I too find out while reviewing the image that though tiger movement seems slow there are many independently moving body parts and higher SS would be preferred.I know how shall DOF of 600 mm on a full frame is, so I am hesitant to shoot wide open at f4.0. And I try to limit ISO to 3200, but I did take some shots at ISO 6400 and found noise much more manageable compared to bird images. So next time will let ISO go higher.

    Generally tiger sightings are rare but best during summer. I was lucky to have lot of good sightings. So will be happy to share some more images in the coming days.

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    Hi Keith, thanks for your comments. Yes image is a bit too warm. Will be fixing that soon.

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    Hi Haseeb, many thanks for insightful comments. I plan to reprocess the image from scratch which should address these issues easily. I did respon on SS to Gabriela. Even when I was shooting and I knew there is not enough light, I wanted to know what is the minimum ss needed to eliminate motion blur. I now know 1/500 is not enough. Best is yet to come !

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Jay, welcome to the Wildlife section.

    The image works well, good space for the subject to walk into and the POV is great, I assume you were in a dip in the road to get the perspective? Colours do look saturated even on the laptop, but an easy fix. F/4, well I would keep to f/5,6 it just works, but also you have to think distance too, so you may need more DoF. I'm surprised to hear about the 850, it's an awesome body, but if you get the exposure right, ie rely on the Histogram dealing with noise should be all good.

    T57 is the male partner to T39 (Noor) who is absolutely gorgeous, just thought I would add that in if you were not aware, as I do have a big interest with these guys and Ranthambore, as Haseeb knows. Look forward to many more.

    TFS
    Steve

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Thank you kindly for reply, Jay

    You have some fantastic opportunities and I sincerely hope to see more from you. Always exciting to have a new member in this Forum and it would be wonderful if you showed us more from your safari, as well as shared your thoughts on our images.

    Mmmm...I cannot wait for that sloth image

    Kind regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Hi Steve, I am so happy to hear about your interest in tigers and Ranthambore. For me, as I stated, was a maiden trip ( I want to forget about failed trip in 2000 when I was not into photography anyway). So you will be happy to know in addition to multiple meetings with T-57, we had a close session with Kumbha, Ladli, Krishna, Laila and some of their cubs. We were also lucky thay sloth bear decided to drop by for a photo shoot as well ! We had a nice look on a gorgeous perch in the rock opening of the leopard but not even a record shot. Will be posting a few more images in the coming days. I did three days of 'full day' which worked out quite well as you have no zone restrictions as you know.

    For this shot, from memory, tiger at this point was at least 100 ft or more away that is why it could fit in the frame as it did with 600 mm. Unlike some bird photos with vary wide DR, where noise becomes too much at high ISO, I could have pushed ISO on D850. I also try to practice ETTR whenever I can which too helps with noise. But I am still discovering D850 true capabilities as I had this body just a few weeks before this trip. But now I know, I need more than 1/500 ss for tiger walking down.

    You will be intrigued to know that we found T-57 for this shot less than a mile away from where Kumbha was having a bath and a drink (Zone 6). If we were luckier, their paths would have crossed, and we do not know what we might would have witnessed. But then, what we do need some goals for the next trip.

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    Gabriel,

    Thanks for your kind words. What I admire about BPN members is their critical eye and how generously they share their experience and insights.

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    Jay, with a big tele like 600mm and a tiger approaching in low light , it is always better to have 1/2000 of ss minimum for a tack sharp image and to be on the safer side , don't worry abt the noise that can be sorted out in the PP. You seldom see a Tiger and that too a male tiger approaching you, better to have a sharp and a bit of noisy image rather than a noiseless image but not a sharp one.

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    Well said Haseeb. And well noted.

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    Jay that is a fantastic shot, I love the low angle and the open mouth and raised paw. He looks pretty impressive and very much at ease in his surroundings. Processing covered...but would love to see a repost.

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    IT is a very beautiful image with the tiger bearing down on you.
    The sense of anticipation is incredible here. I, too, am surprised about your hesitation to push ISO higher.
    Should be a relatively easy task to manage noise if it is bad. I would think the D850 at ISO6400 is still fine for image making.
    TFS

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