Blue Dasher + Repost to Address Critiques

Perched on the tip of an Aster in my yard.

Specific Feedback Requested

I used a layer technique in an effort to blur the background even more than it was in the photo out of the camera. I think it worked reasonably well for my first try, though I wouldn’t mind if the background had even a bit more blur. Thoughts or comments?

Technical Details

Canon 60D, Canon 70-300mm IS USM Zoom @ 200mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec., ISO 1000. Processed in ACR and PSE 2020 for exposure, cropping, and applying a Gaussian Blur to the background. Topaz De-noise applied.

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The background looks good to me, Terry. It is just blurred enough to allow the Dasher to take center stage. . . at least for me. Wonderful detail in the face and body. Great capture.

Nice look at a really impressive specimen. The bg looks nicely blurred and hints at more of the environment besides the perch. Tons of spider silk there. You could have a go at opening the shadows in the face and shoulders if you wanted to. The eye color looks marvelous, too, if you wanted to try to boost that a bit.

Hi Terry,
Great shot! I love the detail and colors. I agree the BG is just blurred enough that it doesn’t distract from the subject but still hints at environment.
I do think the dark area in bottom left is a bit distracting, so maybe crop in a little bit more to remove that.

@linda_mellor @_Kris @dan_beaudreau Thanks for the feedback on the bg.

@linda_mellor Thanks for your comments and critique.

@_Kris I thought I got a terrific pose from him, but the one nit is that, because of the way he’s facing, his body blocked the light from his face. I did have a go at trying to lighten it a bit.

Thanks @dan_beaudreau I did a little content aware fill to eliminate that dark spot.

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Yeah, they just don’t take direction do they?! :rofl: Nice job on the rework. What a gorgeous little bug.

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Terry, this is a fine look at this Dasher. The background blurring looks good although you might do more on the bits along the bottom edge (and the bright dot). While I rarely do it, one approach is to create a new lawer of the original, then apply a gaussian blur. I’d get the lower edge bits blurred to how I want it. The you add a black mask and paint in white at say 20 - 25 % opacity. This lets you adjust how much blur you put into particular areas by adjusting how much white you paint in. To my eyes this looks a bit oversaturated, although that may be the color of what looks like early/late light. There’s also a dark “splash” around the abdomen’s tip that looks like a processing artifact.

Terry, I’m late to the party. Looks like others have given you some good tips though. I really like how the spider silk is all over his perch.

Thanks for the tips, @Mark_Seaver. I’m not seeing the artifact but I trust it’s there if you’re seeing it. Perhaps I used too large a brush, or perhaps because I performed several edits to the jpeg itself. I normally wouldn’t do so but, now that I have a roadmap of what needs to be done to improve this image, I think I’ll go back and reprocess the RAW file and try to avoid the potholes along the way. I think it’s worth spending some time on this photo.

Thanks @Shirley_Freeman. All comments and/or critiques, whether timely or late, are very much appreciated.

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The repost looks good with more light on the face. The background blur looks about right to highlight the dasher, but still give a sense of the environment. Nicely captured.

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