White-faced Heron launch.

[Tony Whitehead]

Having a practice session up at one of our local lakes. Some nice evening light but a bit blustery so not a nice smooth BG.
Almost full frame - added a sliver of canvas on the right
Nikon D800
Nikon 500VR + 1.4x
ISO 800 1/4000s f5.6
Thanks for looking

[Randy Stout]

Tony:

Great to see you posting. Lovely detail here, great timing, like the reflections off the water, nice angle in frame. Well exposed.

In a perfect world, would prefer even a bit more canvas added to right.

Looks like you are enjoying the D800. Have you found the frame rate to be any issue?

Cheers

Randy

[PhilCook]

Just brilliant !...sharp as and the rippled reflections on the bird wing are a nice touch, those water droplets are extra sparkly too...agree it needs a little more canvas to the right

[Jonathan Ashton]

I agree a very good image very sharp and a great pose. i too would add a little more canvas to the right. I have slight reservations over the water droplets perhaps a little over sharpened - possibly due to the lighting conditions.

[Ofer Levy]

I like this. Excellent exposure control, sharp with great detail. I also agree it needs more canvas on the right and would not sharpen the splash as it looks over-sharpened.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Tony, well timed for the take off, excellent wing position, and captured in nice soft light. Good to see the reflection of the water on the wings, and agree, adding more canvas on the right would be ideal.

Looking forward to catching up next sunday. The whole weekend here has been overcast, so no practice from my side.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Ah, excellent light, IQ, pose and sharpness, Tony. The dripping water is cherry on top. I love this image.

[Tony Whitehead]

Thanks for the comments and advice, guys.
Randy, I haven't had much time with the D800 - this was my first trip out with it. Thoughts so far - loving the resolution and dynamic range, frame rate is an adjustment from D3s but 5fps in 1.2 crop and 6fps in Dx mode not bad - D300 passed on to the daughter now! Nice to be able to easily adjust crop size on the fly by programming the Fn button and for this venue it is useful as a lot of subjects quite far away. For a BIF venue I would probably use the D3s but have managed some decent flight shots even at 4fps and the ability to crop in significantly is useful. The resolution is quite amazing but for printing at the common sizes I do and for web is seriously overkill unless cropped a lot. Very unforgiving on slight focus errors and I have found micro calibrating lenses essential. Mainly got it as a portrait and landscape body but having a bit of fun on the birds. Looking forward to doing some portrait/landscape work with it.. Time will tell if it becomes my main bird body.

[dankearl]

The bird looks great and a nice splash.
I have found with the D800, that the IQ is much better shooting in fx mode and cropping as suited.
I started out shooting in 1.2 crop, but am much happier with the full frame image and cropping it after the fact.
I have no idea why, but shoot a dx crop and fx crop of the same scene, crop the fx to dx size and you will see the difference.

[Tony Whitehead]

Thanks for the info, Dan. I don't quite understand how this can be. What method to you use crop the Dx size image out of the larger one? Fx image is 7360x4912, 1.2x is 6144x4080 and Dx is 4800x3200. If you are cropping a 4800x3200 image out from the larger ones with no resampling I don't see how it can be any different than the camera saving the smaller image. If there is some resampling happening in the cropping process I would imagine that there could be some change in appearance. I must be missing something.

[dankearl]

Tony, just try it. You will see the difference. I don't understand why except it might have to do with the light the sensor recieves, it is better quality, try it and see for yourself.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent details and a great dynamic pose. beautiful light oo

cropping in camera vs. post makes no difference BTW.

[dankearl]

Arash, haven't you suggested in the past that full frames Images were better?
i was using 1.2 crop, and then started using fx and the images are just better.
I don't know why, but they are.

[arash_hazeghi]

Arash, haven't you suggested in the past that full frames Images were better?
i was using 1.2 crop, and then started using fx and the images are just better.
I don't know why, but they are.

Hey Dan,

No, I suggested a Full Frame sensor (not a full frame image) was better than a small sensor in some conditions, this is not equal to this case. the sensor is the same whether you crop your files in photoshop or you crop in camera.

I think you are comparing conditions that are not equal, like framing differently. Otherwise the images are the same in every bit. You can try this by taking a photo in FX mode, then cropping it in Photoshop and comparing with the same photo taken in DX mode. They are exactly the same.

[Tony Whitehead]

Hi Dan, I think the answer may be in how you are cropping. Do you mind sharing your method? Are you cropping in LR or PS? What tool are you using? If the crop tool in PS what preset do you use? I am interested in understanding how you are achieving this improved IQ.