The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This dragonfly landed on a garden seat yesterday. I thought it showed a good sense of color.
Specific Feedback
At first I made a lightened version of the black empty spaces in the horizontal part of the seat where the insect was resting; this to show the complete wings. But then I thought it would look more interesting with these spaces darkened as much as possible. Do you agree?
Technical Details
OM1 + 60mm macro 1/160 f6.3 ISO 200 flash with AK diffuser
After cropping and Basic processing in Lightroom, applied Topaz Sharpener. Then in Photoshop selected the black bars and darkened them with Levels and Shadows. Cleaned up with the Spot Healing Brush.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Very cool and striking! I love fresh dragonflies for their perfection. A few big darners are out up here already. I do kind of wish the wings in the black parts were visible, but I think that would be really hard to do and bring the blacks down for the rest as far as you’ve done here. Maybe some kind of masking in Photoshop could do it (TK9 panel maybe?), but it’s up to you if you want to try. I like the bold colors and shapes and how calm the 'fly seems. Looks to be a kind of clubtail. Great crispy focus.
This is downright awesome, Mike. The color of the Dragonfly is wild enough to start with , but to have it land and be able to photograph it on something matching is just crazy beautiful. When I let my eyes adjust a bit I can make out the veins in three of the four wings where they intersect the black lines-you might play with the right forward wing to see if you can achieve the same effect there without making the blacks underneath look too muddy, but that’s an incredibly tiny nit on and outstanding image.
P.S. It’s too bad the black stripes were there. This would make an awesome logo for some sports team: “The Golden Dragonflies”.
I agree with the other comments except I think you could blacken the dark areas even more (if possible) so there is no evidence of the wings giving the dragonfly the appearance of being strapped in. Love the color, composition and processing . Congratulations on the EP.
However, I’m with @Jim_Gavin on this occasion and think completely blacked out wings could look very interesting. I’ll just leave it as is for now.
Yes, I think you made the right call taking the strips to black. The image showing the background and wings much lighter, seems like just another dragonfly photo. With the black strips, wow, it really makes a statement. Nice timing and a little luck with the colors.
This is excellent Mike. I agree with your choice to make the strips black. What an amazing color scheme with this dragonfly and its choice of furniture to sit on. Congrats on the EP!
