The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Well – it seems it paid off to have been hanging out with the dragonfly shooters here. I finally got close to one! I was all the way back to 856mm here and no cropping!
Specific Feedback
All comments welcome!
Technical Details
A focus stack of 15 frames. (Canon’s Focus Bracketing at 20 fps.) Should have set 20 frames as I didn’t quite get to the tip of the rear wing. Shadows and Highlights in LR then Zerene Stacker. Then into PS for some blurring of the BG, which was closer than I like, but that’s where he perched, and it was out of the breeze, which allowed the stack. Slight crop from the left and a bit added to the right. A little crop from the top to remove stacking artifacts from the alignment – there was enough breeze to move the DF and perch in the different frames but the software handled it very well.
Wow, Diane, this is really a fine look at this beautiful DF. Up close and personal too. That 1000mm zoomed him right in. Everything looks good to me. I don’t see how you can improve on it.
I second the damn! It’s about as crisp as one can get, I’d say. You did use a tripod, didn’t you? I’ll certainly use Zerene if I’m lucky to find a dragonfly anywhere near as interesting as this. Well done!
Thanks, @Shirley_Freeman, @terryb, @Kris_Smith and @Mike_Friel – this guy was cooperative. Mike, yes, definitely a tripod. I have managed on a few occasions to do a handheld stack but that involves more luck that I want to risk using up.
So nicely done here Diane. Looks like your focus stacking technique did a great job of keeping everything sharp on the dragonfly. I’ve seen these guys flying around my local area and I am thinking of photographing them myself. Might end up trying that same focus stacking technique, provided they stay still long enough.
Wow – thanks, @Shirley_Freeman and @Bill_Fach – what a nice surprise! I never know how a Dragonfly day-trip is going to work out. This was an unusually good one.
Heh, Diane - great job! I have not yet been lucky enough to try focus stacking on a DF yet but keep hoping. Terrific job! On an aside, Do you prefer Zerene over Helicon Focus?
Hi @brenda_tharp!! Great to connect with you again! Hope you’re having a super time in your travels, and say Hi to Jed from me!
Some time back in the last century I used Helicon Focus for acquisition and processing, but it needed a laptop to run it. Somewhere over laptop upgrades and a a switch to the Mac world (and a few camera bodies later), I went to manually doing focus stacks and to Zerene Stacker for processing. I honestly don’t remember the reason for not staying with Helicon, and from what I see casually, both do a good job of stacking.
Now with my Canon R5 I have in-camera focus bracketing, which works wonderfully, firing off the set at 20 fps. That brings dragonflies and small flowers with a slight breeze into the realm of possibility. A few tabletop tests with a ruler gave me a good idea of settings for different subjects, and stacking has become a pretty routine tool. In this same session, with this fairly calm insect reasonably out of the breeze, I shot several stacks as it changed position slightly and left the perch then returned again. Several of the stacks had wing or head movement that made them not worth working on, but I saved four others that are almost as good as this one, just not quite such pleasing poses and didn’t catch the full depth of the back wing tip.
I have quite a few other stacks of other ones from earlier sessions. I think several have been posted here. So it doesn’t take that much luck – give it a try!!
Very nice and well deserving an EP. This is a very skittish species and most perch well out of range for most macro lenses. The techniques of stacking and working quickly enabled you to get the required images for this type of stacking. Marvelous and Congrats…Jim
Really gorgeous image of this dragonfly! I didn’t even know that macro lenses came in 1000mm! I just assumed they all were short. That’s so perfect though so they won’t fly away! Congratulations on editors pick too!
@Vanessa_Hill – thanks! I’m exaggerating a bit about the 1000mm macro. The thing about a macro lens is that it will magnify the subject to the same size on the sensor as it is in real life. It does that by allowing close focus to get that much magnification. The Canon RF 100-500 focuses down to 3 ft, and that distance is not changed with a 2x on, so that gives it a lot of magnification. Not truly macro but still pretty impressive. (And useful.)
