After transplanting some apple trees, this dragon fly really liked the open space, letting me get very close to it!
General comments/critiques. I know I could get more shots to further focus stack and I need to get a diffuser together to shield off the bright afternoon glares.
Laowa 100mm 2x macro, iso400, 1/500 f/11. Lightroom for some tone corrections, 2 shot focus stack in photoshop, sharpen ai
The eye detail is excellent and my only nit is to have more DOF. With shots like this, try to get the front legs and perch focused in as well. It adds some context to those fantastic eyes. Even with that nit, still a very nice and fun to look at photo…Jim
Excellent detail! As @Jim_Zablotny points out, though, the OOF stuff in the FG blocks the eye from moving easily into the very interesting parts of the image. That area could be darkened with contrast held low. Getting it in focus would require a lot of subs but so worth it for the detail you can get in a closeup subject. The colors feel a bit saturated – at minimum I would lower the sat on the oranges at the right edge.
Daniel, this is an “in your face” look of a dragonfly. I like how the face itself is catching some reflective light. Nice details in the eyes. I agree with @Diane_Miller about the saturation. Still a fine capture of the eyes. For me, it is all about the eyes on dragonflies.
Daniel, the detailed look at this eyes, show off the facets beautifully, is great. In the largest view I can see soft areas in the middle of the sharp areas that are a known Photoshop stacking artifact. Your emphasis on the eye looks very good. The sharpness in the knees and almost sharp bit of it’s perch distract from the eye. If you had more shots in the stack and were using something besided PS for stacking you could blend soft versions of those into the final stack. Some burning-in of the bright perch will also help focus attention on the face and eye. With a 100 mm lens, you got amazingly close.
Nice detail on the eyes which make this image a winner. Really nice selective focus even though I agree that the oof perch is a distraction.
