Nikon D4—What’s My Favorite Thing about the Nikon D4?

I did not receive many comments about my Tuesday’s post on my blog, however, I received many emails asking me questions about the Nikon D4.  I welcome communication with everyone but I would like to remind you that if you make a comment on my blog, everyone sees it; if you send me an email, only you and I see it.  Regardless which way you go, I do appreciate your comments.

Probably the biggest single question I received was:  what is the best thing about the Nikon D4? 

If I had to name one thing, I think it would be the sensor—images are just crisper and contain a wider dynamic range than those taken with my Nikon D3 or Nikon D3x.  I compared photos taken of the same subject and with the same lens (Nikon 85mm f/1.4—my sharpest lens) with the D4 and the D3x (which I think has a wider dynamic range than the D3), and looked at them on my computer.  To me, the D4 just outperformed the D3x.

Next, I would say high ISO performance.  The D4 has about two f-stops better performance than my D3.  The D3x is not made for high ISO use.

But, I am not sure that I would be as happy with the D4 if that were the only changes that Nikon made.  The “little refinements” in how the how the D4 operates makes it a real joy to use and easier to get the image that you want.

Today’s photo was taken at Brazos Bend State Park.  This alligator was near one of the piers.  There was a sliver of light that hit the alligator.  Although he (?) was not very active, I did wait until he moved so his eye was in that sliver of light.  In the photo, I wanted to show the texture of the alligator.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/125^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 4—set white and black point and increased contrast.

Nikon D4—What’s with It?

At 4:17 PM on April 30, 2012, my UPS man delivered a package that I have been expecting for over three months.  Yet, no D4 photos have appeared on my blog.  What’s with that?

Well, the two of us have been getting to know each other.  Sound a little crazy.  Yep, that’s what my bride (of 45 years) thinks.  But, let me explain.

The first thing that I did (now hold your breathe) was read the manual.  I then started setting-up it the way that I thought would best fit my way of shooting.  Many people have said that the D4 is an evolution from the D3—well, that may be, but what an evolution.

So many of the D4’s controls have bee refined from the D3.  The D4 is much easier to shoot with because some critical controls have been moved from being buried within the menus to buttons on the camera.  To change image size, picture controls and autofocus mode and area-mode on the D4, you merely push a button.  No more searching menus.  Now this may not sound like much but all three of these controls were place in my menu on my D3 because I accessed them so often.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 at ISO 1600, f/5.6 at 1/350^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 4—set white and black point and increased contrast.

Taylor #5

Obviously, today’s photo is a Joel Grimes rip-off.  Unlike Joel’s photos, this photo is not a composite with the background being an HDR photo. 

The lighting is pretty straight forward as you can see by the diagram.  The only difficult part of the lighting is making sure that the two rim lights (SB800s) are pointed at the same direction and are at the same power settings.  This required some fine tune adjusting to get it just right.  The Elinchrom Beauty Dish with a diffuser was attached to a pole and held in-front and above Taylor’s face

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3x on a tripod, Nikon 85mm f/1.4 at ISO 100, f/4 at 1/60^th of a second with two Elinchrom Quadra flashes—one positioned in front of her and the other behind her as a hair light.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 4—increased clarity and vibrance and did some basic dodging and burning various parts of the photo and used adjustment brush to cool temperature of background so that it would appear bluer than it actually was.

Photoshop CS5—ran nik Color Efex Pro glamour glow filter.

Taylor #4

Today’s photo was taken at the same location as last Tuesday’s photo.  Again, I wanted the photo to have both a lot of environment and an “after the race” look for Taylor.  Here, I had Taylor look at the camera to make a better connection between her and the viewer.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3x on a tripod, Nikon 85mm f/1.4 at ISO 100, f/4 at 1/250^th of a second with two Elinchrom Quadra flashes—one positioned in front of her and the other behind her as a hair light.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 4—increased clarity and vibrance and did some basic dodging and burning various parts of the photo.

Photoshop CS5—ran nik Color Efex Pro glamour glow filter.

Taylor #3

Today’s photo was taken at the same location as Tuesday’s photo.  Here I wanted to bring more of the environment into the scene and make it appear as if Taylor had just finished a race.

I do like how the shadows in the background seem to mirror her mood.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3x on a tripod, Nikon 85mm f/1.4 at ISO 100, f/4 at 1/250^th of a second with two Elinchrom Quadra flashes—one positioned in front of her and the other behind her as a hair light.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 4—increased clarity and vibrance and did some basic dodging and burning various parts of the photo.

Photoshop CS5—ran nik Color Efex Pro glamour glow filter.

Taylor #2

Before Taylor arrived, Steve and I walked around the area for the photo shoot.  When we walked behind the stands, I immediately thought of using the shadows as background.  I felt that the shadows would give the photo an added sense of depth.

Here, Taylor is setting on a support for the stands.  I wanted this photo to look more like a grab shot than a formal portrait. 

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3x on a tripod, Nikon 85mm f/1.4 at ISO 100, f/4 at 1/250^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 4—increased clarity and vibrance and did some basic dodging and burning various parts of the photo.

Photoshop CS5—ran nik Color Efex Pro glamour glow filter only on Taylor.

Taylor #1

Meet Taylor—M.D., PhD., marathon runner and really nice lady.  I am sure there any many more things that you could say about here, but I think you get the idea—she is an accomplished young lady.

My buddy, Steve, and I had the pleasure of photographing her about a week ago.  Taylor’s only request was for us to get a good photograph of her running.  According to Taylor, a good photograph would be one in which both her feet were off the ground and she did not look like she was dreading the next step.

Steve and I had a few problems getting her good running photo—hard light, messy background and, in my case, not too much sports photography talent.

I think this photo qualifies.  But, as always, what do you think.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3 on a tripod, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/3000^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 4—increased clarity and vibrance and did some basic dodging and burning various parts of the photo.