cool summer morning with little wind provided some great macro opportunity today
any feedback is welcome
composition and color
100mm Marco near minimum focal distance - image stack x7 shots at f6.3
Sony A7RIV
Hi Mark and welcome!
Really nice macro image with superb detail. I like the diagonals in the background which match the direction of the main perch. The focus stacking seems to have worked very well. I think I might try toning down some of the bright areas on the perch. I’m fine with this composition but I also wonder how it would look with the fly less centered and more to the left of the image. Nice frame.
Hi Mark, welcome to NPN. This is a very upclose look at this robber fly. Seeing the eye facets in any insect is always a delight and a testament to getting close. The color change across the eye is also a nice extra. I think that you could tone down slightly the highlights in the body to show a bit more detail there. I do see a common problem in stacking, that is there’s a bit of softness where the right front foreleg covers the stem. This is a problem that can only be solved if you can get all of the sharp parts in that area in focus in a single exposure. That, of course, works against keeping the background soft. This can also be fixed with cloning with a very small brush at high magnification.
Thanks!
The highlights and detail look good on my IMac monitor but I see what you are pointing out. I did Selectively adjust the exposure for the perch and thorax areas about 0.5 stop with brush tool in Camera RAW. There is a significant detail loss in the compression used on this website, I may need to become more familiar with what specs people are saving jpegs for upload on this site.
The stacking is definitely an imperfect process and there usually will be some small soft areas that could be cloned. Personally unless it’s a glaring area I don’t worry about the tiny soft areas. Unless someone is intimately familiar with macro photography they won’t notice. I would prefer the detail I get with optimizing the f stop for the lens rather than stepping down to 18 or 22. As you mentioned using the larger aperture makes for a much nicer background.
Mark
Mark, welcome to NPN. I just typed a critique and it didn’t go through, so will try this again. The details are wonderful in the Robber Fly. I also love the slanted greenery and perch that seems to be going in the same direction as the subject. I agree that it seems a bit bright on my monitor too. A great first shot on NPN, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of your work.
Mark: Welcome to NPN and thanks for a fine first post and a great look at this fearsome looking critter. My thoughts pretty much echo Mark’s, especially regarding how well you captured the eye. Great to have you aboard and looking forward to more. >=))>
