Loon gliding through the fog - D4 ISO test

[Randy Stout]

This common loon was imaged in northern lower Michigan last weekend. Foggy morning with soft, low light.

D4 600VR f/5.6 1/640s ISO 1600 SB-800 with beamer for fill Pedestal mounted in my little boat

Post: CS5, selective sharpening, tonal contrast on bird (CE PRO) Desaturated eye ( was neon red in raw file) No noise reduction

This was my first serious outing with the D4, so was trying higher ISOs than I would ever use with the D700. I would judge it to be 1-1.5 stops better than the D700, which is no slouch.

Advice and comments always appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

[jack williamson]

Really nice soft light, excellent flash work. ISO 1600 looks excellent, love the fg and bg.

Jack

[Derek Willcox]

love the creamy BG Ienjoy seeing your loon pics randy they always come alive

[Colin Driscoll]

Very smooth! Love the light and low angle.

[Troy Lim]

Randy, love the shot and everything about it. Maybe just a tad more contrast?
I can't image how lovely the D4 is ..:)

[christopher galeski]

nice one Randy,like the low angle and soft lighting.

[thijs broekkamp]

Amazing soft colours, nice low angle. Great picture!

[Randy Stout]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

Troy: I left the contrast just a little low to play up the sense of fog. I had brought it up some compared to the raw. For any other environmental condition, I would def. bring the contrast up a bit more!
For those shooting with a D3s like yourself, the improvement for still photography is modest when upgrading to the D4, according to all that I have read. The ISO performance is pretty much a draw. LIttle more resolution, probably barely visible for most folks at web size images. The autofocus if sig. better than my D700. Better initial focus, and very good prediction when objects are coming right at you. The D3s was a milestone camera and still a great image maker!

Cheers

Randy

[gail bisson]

Hi Randy,
I like the low angle and the panorama crop. I can't believe you did not use any NR at ISO of 1600! Amazing really. When you use fill flash what power setting do you use?
Gail

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice performance at this ISO. Is the performance comparable with dark backgrounds? In any case, I love the image. I almost get the feeling it may need a tiny bit of CCW rotation, but all else is beautiful, serene.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Randy, good placement of the loon in the frame, well exposed and sharp. I really like the soft foggy light and colours, and that BG is a killer.

Congrats on your new toy.

[dankearl]

A very nice image. I would not turn up the contrast, I like the soft dreamy look.
IQ looks great at 1600.

[Tim Kaufman]

Stellar image, Randy. Love it! How far North were you?

[Peter Dexter]

Great shot but I would have moved the bird a tad forward so the head didn't end up dead center.

[Arthur Morris]

Looks fine and foggy to me. How'd you get a D4?

[Randy Stout]

Thanks again everyone.

Gail: re fill flash power - I generally use -1 to -2, but it depends on the conditions

Daniel: The noise is more noticeable with darker background. Most of us are afraid to crank up the ISO enough, so we underexpose the image, which worsens the noise in the final product. I am beginning to think with the really good high ISO cameras, you are much better off to push up the ISO high enough to get a well exposed image, and not try and sneak by.

Artie: The D4 came from Hunt's Camera, courtesy of Gary Farber. He did a great job getting me one.

Peter: I cropped it this way because I liked the large ripple, and the effect of gliding along that the large amount of room to the left gave me.

Cheers

Randy

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice good low angle and details although it is tough to see fine detail in the small web presentation. I have to say ISO 1600 is not really high these days, especially for Nikon

[Jim Crosswell]

Beautiful image Randy! I like the low angle, composition, sharpness and calm feel.