Test Images

Just trying to learn focusing this morning, with a new toy.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_3895.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4106.jpg


And yes, I misspelled "catcher."

--
PeterN

On 2016-07-02 15:42:00 +0000, PeterN said:

Just trying to learn focusing this morning, with a new toy.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_3895.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4106.jpg


And

yes, I misspelled "catcher."

The focusing seems to be OK. However, the first image is oversharpened,
and the second is another example of the "PeterN severe crop".

That said, nice new toy, and it will reduce your need for the TC. It
came along 18 months too late for me in my current purchase cycle, and
I had made the decision to go lighter. However, It is a camera I might
still buy some time in the future.

--
Regards,

Savageduck

On 7/2/2016 12:27 PM, Savageduck wrote:
On 2016-07-02 15:42:00 +0000, PeterN said:

Just trying to learn focusing this morning, with a new toy.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_3895.jpg


https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4106.jpg



And

yes, I misspelled "catcher."

The focusing seems to be OK. However, the first image is oversharpened,
and the second is another example of the "PeterN severe crop".

That said, nice new toy, and it will reduce your need for the TC. It
came along 18 months too late for me in my current purchase cycle, and I
had made the decision to go lighter. However, It is a camera I might
still buy some time in the future.


If I get the Nikon 200-600 there will be less need for severe crops. I
took a few using the TC14, but was not at all happy with the results. I
still have to learn to how to use the focus tracking system for birds in
flight. It is different than on the D800 & D300. On the 2nd image the
sky was speckled, for I selected the sky, did an inverse, masked the
bird and blurred the sky, with an average blur.

--
PeterN

PeterN wrote:
Just trying to learn focusing this morning, with a new toy.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_3895.jpg


https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4106.jpg



And yes, I misspelled "catcher."

Are your images over-sharpened? They look washed out. Nice subjects.

Mort Linder

On 2016-07-02 18:32:17 +0000, PeterN said:

On 7/2/2016 12:27 PM, Savageduck wrote:
On 2016-07-02 15:42:00 +0000, PeterN said:

Just trying to learn focusing this morning, with a new toy.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_3895.jpg


https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4106.jpg



And

yes,

I misspelled "catcher."

The focusing seems to be OK. However, the first image is oversharpened,
and the second is another example of the "PeterN severe crop".

That said, nice new toy, and it will reduce your need for the TC. It
came along 18 months too late for me in my current purchase cycle, and I
had made the decision to go lighter. However, It is a camera I might
still buy some time in the future.


If I get the Nikon 200-600 there will be less need for severe crops. I
took a few using the TC14, but was not at all happy with the results.

Nor should you be.

I still have to learn to how to use the focus tracking system for birds
in flight. It is different than on the D800 & D300.

How so?

I just answered my own question by reading the appropriate part of the
D500 manual.

You should be (according to the D500 manual) in AF-F or
"Full-time-servo AF" mode rather than the old AF-C from the D300.

Then instead of the D300 51 point 3D-Tracking, you have the new D500
"Subject-tracking AF".

I have a feeling that all this new stuff is a result of the touch screen LCD.

On the 2nd image the sky was speckled,

Why? That should not be happening.

for I selected the sky, did an inverse, masked the bird and blurred the
sky, with an average blur.

Oh well, if you must.
BTW: I noticed that there was a fair amount of color noise in the bird,
but I attributed that as an artifact of your severe crop, now I am not
so sure.


--
Regards,

Savageduck

On 7/2/2016 3:24 PM, Mort wrote:
PeterN wrote:
Just trying to learn focusing this morning, with a new toy.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_3895.jpg



https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4106.jpg




And yes, I misspelled "catcher."

Are your images over-sharpened? They look washed out. Nice subjects.

Mort Linder

Thanks, When you go to a bird nesting colony, the subjects are there. At
this colony, which is one of the largest off Terns and Oyster Catchers,
we are kept at least fifty yards from the birds. Since the birds don't
want human association, they are often much further than that. With only
a 400mm lens, and a small bird, severe crops are a way of life. In the
second image I was trying for a high key effect.

Here's one from that series in low key:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4129.jpg

Here is the type of super crop that I like to do. It shows the essence
of the bird, but is a work in progress:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4192.jpg


I plan to go back there within the next week, and bring my tripod, a
chair and a remote release. That way I should not have to use such a
high ISO.


--
PeterN

On 7/2/2016 3:58 PM, Savageduck wrote:
On 2016-07-02 18:32:17 +0000, PeterN said:

On 7/2/2016 12:27 PM, Savageduck wrote:
On 2016-07-02 15:42:00 +0000, PeterN
said:

Just trying to learn focusing this morning, with a new toy.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_3895.jpg



https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4106.jpg




And

yes,

I misspelled "catcher."

The focusing seems to be OK. However, the first image is oversharpened,
and the second is another example of the "PeterN severe crop".

That said, nice new toy, and it will reduce your need for the TC. It
came along 18 months too late for me in my current purchase cycle, and I
had made the decision to go lighter. However, It is a camera I might
still buy some time in the future.


If I get the Nikon 200-600 there will be less need for severe crops. I
took a few using the TC14, but was not at all happy with the results.

Nor should you be.

I still have to learn to how to use the focus tracking system for
birds in flight. It is different than on the D800 & D300.

How so?

I just answered my own question by reading the appropriate part of the
D500 manual.

You should be (according to the D500 manual) in AF-F or "Full-time-servo
AF" mode rather than the old AF-C from the D300.

Then instead of the D300 51 point 3D-Tracking, you have the new D500
"Subject-tracking AF".

I have a feeling that all this new stuff is a result of the touch screen
LCD.

On the 2nd image the sky was speckled,

Why? That should not be happening.

This camera does not have the same amount of pixels as the D800.
Obviously the images cannot take the same amount of cropping.


for I selected the sky, did an inverse, masked the bird and blurred
the sky, with an average blur.

Oh well, if you must.
BTW: I noticed that there was a fair amount of color noise in the bird,
but I attributed that as an artifact of your severe crop, now I am not
so sure.



The camera was scheduled to arrive on the 6th. You didn't really think I
was going to spend a lot of time RTFM, with all those chicks around.
Tonight it's time fore serious reading.

--
PeterN

On Sat, 2 Jul 2016 19:48:11 -0400, PeterN
wrote:

On 7/2/2016 3:24 PM, Mort wrote:
PeterN wrote:
Just trying to learn focusing this morning, with a new toy.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_3895.jpg



https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4106.jpg




And yes, I misspelled "catcher."

Are your images over-sharpened? They look washed out. Nice subjects.

Mort Linder

Thanks, When you go to a bird nesting colony, the subjects are there. At
this colony, which is one of the largest off Terns and Oyster Catchers,
we are kept at least fifty yards from the birds. Since the birds don't
want human association, they are often much further than that. With only
a 400mm lens, and a small bird, severe crops are a way of life. In the
second image I was trying for a high key effect.

Here's one from that series in low key:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4129.jpg

Oversharpened. Damn you. (I just wanted to beat Duck to it...)

Here is the type of super crop that I like to do. It shows the essence
of the bird, but is a work in progress:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4192.jpg


I plan to go back there within the next week, and bring my tripod, a
chair and a remote release. That way I should not have to use such a
high ISO.

I'm just curious - why go from a FF to an APS-C camera? Wouldn't the
FF be the better choice if you're going to be cropping like that? I
assume that there are some important benefits to the new camera that I
don't know about.

On 3/07/2016 9:48 @wiz, PeterN wrote:


Here is the type of super crop that I like to do. It shows the essence
of the bird, but is a work in progress:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4192.jpg

I'm surprised at the noise artifacts. That must be a super crop indeed!
No demeaning, I quite like these images. Oyster catchers are
notoriously difficult to snap. They are all over the place here but very
hard to catch in an interesting pose.

I plan to go back there within the next week, and bring my tripod, a
chair and a remote release. That way I should not have to use such a
high ISO.

I wasn't expecting 1600ISO to be that noisy in a D500. I've read it's
got amazing low-light performance.
The OlyEM5MII I'm using now is regularly pushed to 3200 in my
astro-photography and the results are nowhere as noisy.
Need to go up beyond 5000 to start getting really noisy stuff that needs
DeepSkyStacker processing.
I also have to do super crops - no "super telescope" here, just a
regular 500/8 mirror Nikkor and a CZJena180/2.8 medium format size...

On 2016-07-02 23:48:11 +0000, PeterN said:

Thanks, When you go to a bird nesting colony, the subjects are there.
At this colony, which is one of the largest off Terns and Oyster
Catchers, we are kept at least fifty yards from the birds. Since the
birds don't want human association, they are often much further than
that. With only a 400mm lens, and a small bird, severe crops are a way
of life. In the second image I was trying for a high key effect.

Here's one from that series in low key:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4129.jpg

I

have this feeling that you are doing the D500 a disservice with your
methodology both in image cature and post processing. I look at that
image and all I see is a post processing disaster There is an obvious
halo around a badly masked bird.
....and I don't buy "artistic expression" as an alibi.

Here is the type of super crop that I like to do. It shows the essence
of the bird, but is a work in progress:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97242118/20160701_nickerson%20birds%20oyster%20cathcers%20t erns_4192.jpg

It

is a mess of artifacts and noise. If anybody at Nikon sees this stuff
they would probably sue to get the D500 back as you are not doing the
camera's reputation any good. My first suggestion is to go back to
basics with your post processing. Your peculiar methodology and recipes
is not producing great images. As usual you present great captures and
opportunities which should look a lot better.

I suspect I could give you a more pleasing shot taken with my D70 and
the old 80-400mm. For example this D70 shot from 2004 with a measly 7MP
sensor.
https://db.tt/n59msTjX

I plan to go back there within the next week, and bring my tripod, a
chair and a remote release. That way I should not have to use such a
high ISO.

You are using a VR lens with very good VR. Add to that the performance
of the D500 should give you sharp results from ISO 200 - ISO 1600. With
that camera I would only anticipate noise at ISO 6400. I would have
prefered to have seen you using ISO 200-800 and a shutter speed between
1/300 and 1/1000. That would be plenty fast enough to capture those
birds in flight or running around on the sand. Any exposure issues
should be fixable given the good DR of the D500.

You have great kit. However, to my eye what you produce and present
falls way short of the capability of that kit.


--
Regards,

Savageduck