The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic + Technical
About This Image
How the heck do you show character and personality in insects? How about this heartless villain, who is looking brazenly at you, the viewer, with evidence of its murder in full view, daring you to do something about it?
Feedback Requested
I couldn’t do much with the composition, as my camera angles were limited. I guess I could have focus stacked, but that’s kind of hit and miss when I’m holding the camera, and I was afraid it would move. I’d appreciate any suggestions for post-processing and for what I can do if I come across a similar crime scene in the future.
Technical Details
Fuji X-T5
Fuji 80mm/f2.8 macro lens
Handheld with on-camera Godox flash + Cygnustech diffuser
1/250 sec; f/22; ISO 160
DxO Photolab, Nik Color Efex, slight sharpening with Topaz AI, Photoshop
Hi, wow! this is so cool! This is a great photo, the head of the bug staring up at the camera is amazing and the carcass of the other bug off to the side really gives a glimpse into their world! Great job!
I think this might be a harvestman of some sort, minus two legs so we may feel sorry for its handicap. Those eyes looking straight at you and the proprietary legs over what’s left of the prey make this an excellent composition. Next time, try and get there a bit earlier will you to catch it in flagrante? No suggestions from me - it’s super.
Canan: Great catch and a fine capture. When hand holding I almost always use a high frame rate as the simple pressure on the shutter button can produce movement. I usually find the first shot offset just a touch from where I want it and then gets better as I hold the button down. The downside is having lots of images to cull from. About the only tiny 1¢ suggestion for improvement would be to make that brown patch on the leaf above the spider’s leg go away. Overall, very nicely done. >=))>
Thanks a lot for the tips, Bill. So what’s your aperture when you shoot at high frame rates? I often use flash unless it’s very sunny or I want really shallow depth of field, and high frame rates don’t work well with flash recycle times. This scene, for example, was in a shadowy area, and I couldn’t have done f/22 without flash. What aperture would you have used with the the high frame rate here?
Canan: I don’t use flash 99.8% of the time so I’m not sure about how your refresh rate would affect your ability to shoot at a high frame rate but if you use a higher ISO you’ll need less power for the light and I would suspect you could get off a short burst before losing charge. For specific flash questions you should contact Kristen Smith or Jim Zablotny. They are both more qualified and experienced than me in that area. >=))>
Canan, this is an outstanding catch. Love how well the two spider eyes show. Lots of great details, like the small hairs on the leaf, the missing legs, the prey and the bit of bark or is that an exoskeleton???
Bill, I tried your method today, and it worked well with the flash. I usually have the flash at TTL, power -1, and it worked fine with 2-3 shots in a burst. There were a few times when I got a dark screen, but it worked far more than not, and that’s good enough for me! This image is from today, taken with the burst mode and flash. Thank you for adding to my bag of macro focusing tricks
Canan, is your flash a Godox V350? I’ve found it works very well in M mode set at 1/32 or 1/64 power. With the OM1 it fires in long bursts when I’m stacking. I also use a diffuser like yours. I haven’t used TTL as M mode seems to work more often than not.
It’s a Godox V1. It’s good to know about yours working with focus stacking. Mine works when the interval between pictures is 2 seconds, but not 1 second. Wha’t s the advantage of the M mode over TTL? Is it that you can set the power manually for bursts/stacking? Would reducing power by -1 in TTL accomplish the same thing? The vast majority of my cognitive energy goes to focusing when I’m doing macro photography, and I don’t have much brain space left over to think about the power level, so that’s why I use TTL.
Canan, I’m not too familiar with the V1, but I think it’s a bit larger than the V350 and perhaps more powerful. In any case, I’d suggest running a quick series of stacks with the same subject using TTL and then M mode and just see how the recharge delay compares in both modes. For my V350, I can get 20 or more stacking shots in M mode with virtually no delay (0.1 sec.). I prefer M mode to TTL as I like to have easier control over the power by a simple turn of the dial. You may well find TTL is better for certain subjects, but I haven’t checked that yet. Hope this helps.
Thank you for your suggestions, Mike. I do focus stacking by hand, so I tried both the TTL and M modes with about 6-8 stacked images. Both modes worked fine, even with a 1-second interval (which is the shortest possible interval on my camera). I thought the M mode involves more fiddling with the controls, and I can easily adjust the power in TTL mode, so the TTL works better for me when I’m doing macro in the wild. For me, the M mode makes more sense for still lifes, when I want more control and have the time to fiddle with it. In any case, thank you very much for your advice!
No suggestions from me - it’s super.