Portraiture

Folks,
I have done three experiments here. One is obvious with the minimalist composition. The other is about the lens combination

I used a 1.4 x tc along with my 180 macro, and did not get to change as I found this subject, and continued working with it. Now since my 180 tamron does not take the 1.4 extender, I had a12mm ext tube on that.

With low light , I also experimented the auto ISO. which did give me some noise…how ever just tried it out.

May be i will have to process this better.

6DII, 180 Tamron, 1.4X, 12 MM ext, F16, Av -2/3, 1/160, ISO 12800

Balan Vinod

I am enjoying your experiments, Balan. You are thinking outside the box, for sure. I am curious as to what the insect is? I like that you kept it to this so minimal. The background is nicely out of focus. There is a good bit of noise, but certainly to be expected at the ISO used. That face and eyes, with those long antennas is really cool. I’m hoping one of the noise reduction software can make this even better.

Shirley, that’s a praying Mantis, and is a Grass Mantis, and found mostly on grass. Have seen this particular species may be thrice in the past 5 years.
Well mantises are a mystery for me., I don’t know a bit as to how they look like the plant on which they are born,

This image is just an urgent processed and from the initial files. I had about a good hour with this particular individual. Will share in due course.

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Balan, your minimalist view looks great, especially with the background matching the head and neck of the mantis. I really like how you’ve got the tops of the antennae almost touching the top of the frame. The “expert” advise when you use an extension tube and a teleconverter is to do exactly what you did, lens + ext. + tc + camera. That way you get the extra magnification of the extension magnified again by the TC, when you do lens/tc/ext. you are only getting closer focus on a longer lens. In addition some extra noise reduction (which can be done reasonably well in Lightroom, if you’re using it) you might want to add a some extra micro contrast (Adobe calls that clarity) to let the eyes pop a bit more. Micro contrast is Sharpen with a large radius (say 50) and a small amount (10-20).

Balan: Great concept and a fine comp. The POF seems to be on the antennae which you may have intended but I think this would work better for me with the eyes being the primary POF. >=))>