I was out in our backyard and saw this guy perched on a stem and I liked the flowers in the background and how they brought out the color in his eyes.
Specific Feedback Requested
I shot this last summer in my flower garden in the back yard. I wanted to get your expert advice on the shot, especially post production, is there anything I can do to improve this shot. If you have advice for a future shot like this, I am all ears too. Thank you for taking the time to critique our shots. Looking forward to reading your comments.
Technical Details
I shot this with Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon 100mm f2.8 macro L lens, handheld with twin flash. Settings 1/200, f9 ISO 200. Edited in LR.
2 Likes
Hi, Shirly thanks for posting. Another excellent close-up of the large compound eyes. Since you made the eyes the main focus point I might have cropped in a little more to draw the audience’s focus more towards them. When I look at the shot good as it is I’m slightly distracted by the large red flowers in the background. Having a tighter crop would I think create a more pleasing balance in the background. However, it’s still a nice image and thank you for sharing.
I generally shoot dragonflies with longer telephotos with an extension tube fitted to allow the lens to focus closer. The narrow angle of view would also create much more diffusion in the background.
Okay, thank you, Robert. I appreciate your valued input. It sounds like I can improve this shot, and keep these thoughts in mind for the next time.
Great focus on the head Shirley as it came out very well. I like the angle this DF was at as well.
1 Like
Amazing capture of those eyes! I like the inverted Y composition. The broken end of the perch is very interesting and the white very well-handled. There is a nice visual line from it through the head, thorax and abdomen. The red in the BG is a nice repeat of the red in the eyes. The cluster of OOF flowers around the insect is very nice but the one on the left edge pulls my eye a bit. Maybe subdue its color a bit and possibly a slight crop from the left? Nice to get this close with a 100mm lens!
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Shirley, this is a great look at this dragonfly with your emphasis on its eyes. I like the pose, with the wingtips coming in from near the corners. To further emphasize the DF and it’s eyes, you might do a local desat of the background reds.
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This is SO cool – I just had to play with it – slight desat and hue change for the color spot on the L and slight crop there. I love how the cluster of OOF flowers surround the DF. I might go even further to bend the color on the left more to green.
Thank you, Diane. I like what you did to the BG. I do want to stay with the 8X10 for a reason, so will play with the cropping some more to see what I can come up with. I appreciate you taking the time.
