The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I went out to our flowers in the backyard this morning and spotted this little one hanging onto a leaf. I got down low and tried to make sure my camera was parallel to the damselfly (which wasn’t easy for an old body trying to HH and shoot manually! I love his colors and markings.
Specific Feedback
Composition work? Enough room on both ends of him? I shot at 1:1 and so there isn’t too much room to spare, but I have a little real estate to add back.
Technical Details
Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon 100 mm f2.8 L macro lens, with KX-800 twin flash, HH. Manual settings to include manual focus. 1/200, f9, ISO 320, flash at 1/8th power. Light editing in LR.
Sweet shot, Shirley. The composition works for me - great job getting into position with your rig. It isn’t always easy. A tiny bit of room on the back end would be a nice addition I think, but it isn’t super necessary. I love the colors and think it may be a female. Several of the early blue varieties have brownish ladies. Great sharpness throughout and a simple perch. That black bg is like a velvet tray for a bit of bling.
I really like the parallel perspective as well as the folded wings, the iconic spread out wings pose is overrated in my view.
The hint of green highlights in the BG is just enough to give it some depth but not too much and the perch is nice as well.
I like the lighting that your twin flash produces!
I agree with Kris that just a bit more space on the left behind the tail would improve it overall but it’s not a must at all.
Well done!
I haven’t seen any cool stuff like this yet! My wife has been ramping up her botanical garden recently so it won’t be long.
Wow, Shirley! What a beauty you have captured here in your photo. The black background enhances the beauty of the image and the metallic colors of this damselfly. I think your composition is just right, too. There is enough room where there needs to be, namely on the right side. I like the crop you chose by not leaving much empty space above the damselfly. Congratulations on such a fine image!
Shirley, this is a lovely look at this damsel. The details are very striking, with good sharpness throughout. The exclamation on it’s thorax says that it’s a Fragile Forktail. A great job of handholding and positioning.
This a lovely shot of a skittish insect and the sharpness is spot on.
I really like the unusual pose and the fact the leaf it is perched on somehow isn’t 100% sharp while the dragonfly is making it less distracting. I also like that the background is not uniformly black but has some nice patches of dark green making the image less sterile.
If this was my image I think I would try a wider crop like 16:9, cutting out a bit on top and adding some room to the left (should be a piece of cake to inpaint if there’s not enough image on the left for it), but I’m not sure if that would be an improvement or not.
A little more real estate on the LH side will help. Details are quite good and the damselfly is sharp from front to back. When I shoot small insects, I try to get the BG under-exposed by .5 to 1 stop. In this case, the black BG looks good with the damselfly perfectly exposed. Well done…Jim
One of my favorites. You have a real talent with macro photography and really capture your subjects like insects with real beauty. Just Damn Beautiful !!!
