I found this praying mantis warming him/herself on a very small succulent (approx. 1" long) leaf in the morning sun. It was one of the smallest ones (body was only 2" +/-) I’ve seen so far. At first the plant was totally in the morning sun and the highlights were way blown out. While I moved the plant to a slightly shaded area, this little guy didn’t move a bit. Great model.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
I did burn some of the highlights on the leaf tips and also the background in an attempt to pop the praying mantis a bit more. In addition, I did sharpen and lighten the little fellow in LR. Cropped a bit from the top and bottom. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Does the horizontal composition work? Other thoughts?
Linda, I am so glad that you had a willing model. His pose and position on the succulent is very nice. He looks more like a Walking Stick than a Mantis, I think. I can’t see his eyes and face as well as I would like on here, but somehow his face doesn’t look like a Mantis. I could be wrong. I think you could have pushed the ISO up some and had a higher shutter speed. When ever I work with a living critter I try to make sure my shutter speed will be adequate for their movement, should they decide to move. Might could have lowered the f-stop as well, because he is so thin that you didn’t need quite that much DOF. I also enjoy getting out into the yard and flower garden and see what would love to pose for me. Keep having fun!
Thanks Shirley for your thoughts. Yes, it could very well be a walking stick, hadn’t thought of that. He was so small and hard to see. I can see your point about uping the ISO, but didn’t because he wasn’t moving at all and I was trying to keep the noise down. So, if I had lower the f-stop to say f/14 and increased the iso to around 320, I could have increased the shutter speed and come up with a detailed insect but slightly out focus background and the proper lighting? Does that sound about right?
That sound about right, depending on how far away the background was from the subject. I believe it would have helped in this image. It is all a learning curve, and I am still learning, but thoroughly enjoy trying to shoot and improve my photography. With macro, we need a fairly high number in the f-stop to get as much of the subject in focus as we can, but we also like the background to not be distracting, so we just have to experiment, especially if our subject allows for it.
Great job with the post processing. Really makes the Mantis pop. The portrait orientation is perfect to me, since the Mantis is vertical. I suspect a landscape orientation would be too much negative space that wouldn’t contribute anything.
Linda, finding a walking stick is always a treat because they are hard to spot and they do “lurk”. It sounds like this one was an outstanding subject. My suggestion would be to raise the pot so that you could get the camera back more parallel to its body, that gives you the best change to get it’s whole body reasonably sharp. I do like how clear the head and front legs are and how it stands out nicely from the surroundings.
Thanks Mark. Can’t believe I thought this was a praying mantis. When I took a closer look at its eyes they are not praying mantis eyes. Feeling a bit dumb here. . .Wish I had thought of raising the pot, that’s a perfect solution for this situation. Thanks for sharing it.
Linda: Great find and a solid capture. With a compliant subject like this you could even do a stack if you have that skill set (I don’t!). I think if you’re doing single capture the real key isn’t just the amount of DOF but rather the plane of focus. Allen Sparks’ Widow Skimmer image is a great example. I also do a lot of DOF preview work when shooting a stationary subject to really fine tune my point of focus. I do think you got the right parts sharp so this still works well as is. >=))>
Thanks Bill. Yes, I have done some “stacking” photos - some worked out better than others, still trying to get as good as Mark. . . .someday. And yes, Mark was also suggesting I could have raised the pot to create a level plane of focus. I’m anxious to get out and give this a shot, but with the current wave of heat (looks like you’re getting the same heat wave we are) I’ve only got a hour or two first thing in the am to work outside. Also, I did check out Allen’s Widow Skimmer again and can see what your referring to . . … all great thoughts and suggestions, thanks again for sharing them with me.
Hi Linda, nice capture and I like seeing the head sharp. Agree with comments on trying to get more of the insect in a parallel focal plane. Still, this is a well composed image with critical focus where it should be. Nice frame.
