Japanese Macaque

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Agee

Agee

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Took this last fall on a trip to Japan with my wife. I have my own opinions on the shot but could use some more experienced eyes. Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

Nikon D850, Nikkor 500mm pf, 1/640, f/5.6, ISO 720
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Overall, I like the shot. However, since you asked :)

I wish we saw a bit more of the chin. There's space above the head but it feels a bit cut off towards the bottom. I think a tighter crop with just a bit of the top of the head cut off would make it "feel" right IMO. It would look like you were deliberately doing a very tight close-up.

Still, it's a nice shot of a really cool animal.
 
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I would like to see below the chin. Also seems a bit flat. I have and luv my 500 PF But DOF is narrow at f5.6. It does need to be stopped down a bit. I set mine at f7.1 and go from there. I might have tried a vertical crop including some below the chin eliminating the out of focus shoulders that are not helping.

Over all though I luv this shot! Interesting critters.
 
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Agee said:
Took this last fall on a trip to Japan with my wife. I have my own opinions on the shot but could use some more experienced eyes. Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

Nikon D850, Nikkor 500mm pf, 1/640, f/5.6, ISO 720
View attachment 70
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The shot is just a little too tight of a crop for me, as mentioned above. And, I would like to see some more depth of field. The eyes look to be pretty good from what I can see here, the rest not so much.
 
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@Steve and everyone, thanks for the thoughtful comments. I have been playing with a bunch of crops and haven’t gotten it to feel quite right either. I will give that a try.

Unfortunately, there is no more chin in this shot, no matter how much I wish there were! I lost my balance slightly when taking this and the camera tilted up a bit. None of the others of this particular gentleman turned out. I was hoping there might be a way to save it through cropping as the eye contact is one of my favorites from the set of images I have from this day. It’s really one of those shots that is 95% of the way there but I am too emotionally attached to it.

Regarding depth of field, this is something I am constantly struggling with using this lens. I always feel like I am battling high ISO to get the shutter speed I want, which makes me hesitate to stop down the lens unless the light is quite good. I will have to experiment with that some the next time I am out.
 
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Agee said:
@Steve and everyone, thanks for the thoughtful comments. I have been playing with a bunch of crops and haven’t gotten it to feel quite right either. I will give that a try.

Unfortunately, there is no more chin in this shot, no matter how much I wish there were! I lost my balance slightly when taking this and the camera tilted up a bit. None of the others of this particular gentleman turned out. I was hoping there might be a way to save it through cropping as the eye contact is one of my favorites from the set of images I have from this day. It’s really one of those shots that is 95% of the way there but I am too emotionally attached to it.

Regarding depth of field, this is something I am constantly struggling with using this lens. I always feel like I am battling high ISO to get the shutter speed I want, which makes me hesitate to stop down the lens unless the light is quite good. I will have to experiment with that some the next time I am out.
Click to expand...
Check ou Topaz DeNoise and never worry about ISO noise again.
 
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@Agee - I feel Steve is right you can balance the shot somewhat by cropping a bit from the top of it's head. But you still would like to see more of the chin.
I do like the way the facial hair is visible over the eyes, that's a nice detail for me.
If it would be easy to make great shots every time, it wouldn't be much fun, so you get to shoot again and maybe a bit closer to perfection!
 
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Steve said:
Much nicer! Also, run Topaz on it - I think it'll sharpen the eyes a bit.
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Will Topaz Denoise help with sharpness (aside from being more effective than the Luminance slider in Lightroom)? I know they have an AI sharpening program, which I have not used. Wasn’t sure which you were referring to. Thanks again for the critique!
 
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Like you rework. I, find I use DeNoise AI and Clear AI ( included wide DeNoise AI ) more than Sharpen. However, both are great products,
In ToPaz DeNoise, you will also see Topaz Clear. I find most time Clear works quite well on a lot of things.
 
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