Well this is darn fabulous! Having never managed a DIF photo, I’m turning roughly the same shade as you lovely background here. I love the angles - wings, body - such an energetic frame captured. Colors look incredible as some DFs are. Not sure if it was the noise reduction that made it look a bit plastic-y, but it might be worth experimenting with that to see if you can tease up any more detail, expecially in the face. Seriously engaging and enviable.
Kristen, thank you for your enthusiastic endorsement of this photo. I want to share some things I have learned about DIF photos. Obviously, finding a pond and being there after the insects have warmed up and flying is the most important. Secondly, observing their behavior allowed me to position myself at the edge of the pond where a dragonfly was patrolling its territory. Then, making myself small and motionless seemed important. If I was standing or moving, the subject would not come close enough for a good shot. Sitting very still and waiting patiently allowed me to use the 100-400mm to frame the subject and get within 10-20 feet. One actually landed on my boot! Shooting at a high frame rate assured a keeper or two and they will hover long enough to get a good sequence of shots. Using bird subject detection and a small autofocus area seemed to work better than other combinations. I don’t know what to do about the plasticy look. I have been shooting these on days with cloud cover and the ISO always ends up very high, requiring a lot of noise removal. The RAW images are sharp so I don’t think they I am over sharpening. However, the end result is pleasing and taking these images is proving to be a lot of fun.
Very nice, Daniel. The body is super sharp and your depth of field worked very well. To my eye, the out of focus (or motion blurred?) ends of the wings look just a little odd. I’m not sure what’s going on with them. You might compare their look with the initial raw file before noise reduction to see if they look better. If so, a little layering and erasing or masking would work.
Daniel: Put me in the same camp as Kristen as being envious of your flight shot. This looks pretty darn good to me, especially that the head and body are sharp. There’s more than enough detail in the wings to suit me. Most excellent. >=))>
That feels like a high SS for a hovering DF. The wings don’t need to be stopped like a bird’s do – they do tiny rotations instead of flapping. I’m on a tripod with a loose gimbal head to minimize camera shake but about 1/1000 sec. will give me a sharp body and decent wings, within the limits of DOF. The wingtips will be partly OOF and partly moving, but not unnaturally blurred. I shoot them in full sun and don’t see the issues I hate with harsh shadows as I would with most subjects in full sun.
What software and settings are you using for NR? I find Topaz Denoise does an excellent job, usually with the “Low Light” choice, or occasionally with “Severe Noise”, both with the Model Preferences setting toggled on. Strangely, Severe Noise can give some smeared colors on a small scale, viewed at 100%.
This is a wonderful image and I think you might tweak the NR just a bit.
Diane, I agree about the SS. I shot at 1/3200 because I had the camera set for hummingbirds and forgot to change it. Also, I am not able to walk well so try to minimize the gear I carry to the pond. I have a tripod and gimbal head but usually sit down in the grass next to the pond and hand hold. I’m not sure what SS would minimize camera shake but will experiment at bit. All of my noise reduction and sharpening is now done in LRC. I think, for me, it does as well as Topaz.
