The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
When I come home in the evening after work I will take a quick pass through the garden to see if anything interesting is happening. Spotted this blue dasher perching on a late blooming day lily and she was cooperative enough to hang around for about 15 minutes letting me get a number of shots. The light was failing and there was a little breeze but I thought I would try a stack to get the tips of the buds sharp. I couldn’t concentrate on stacking the dragon because she was just a bit too active but I like how this turned out. All comments welcome. >=))>
Specific Feedback
Could not get the entire dragon sharp but made sure the eye was properly rendered. Too little DOF?
Technical Details
Sony A7rIII
Sony FE 70-200 f2.8 GM-II, 2xTC @ 388 mm
ISO 1600, 1/30 @ f11, 5 shot stack in Helicon Focus
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Looks fine to me, Bill, especially with any kind of breeze. Eye is sharp, and the flower buds add great colour.
Not positive, but I think this is a a blue-eyed darner. Dashers don’t have stripes along the sides and the eye is more greenish. Lots of very similar dragonflies!
Nice catch Bill with the eye nice and sharp as you said. Grand of it to choose a colorful perch like this which I find usually not to be the case. Pleasing BG. This looks like a Blue Dasher female to me.
Allen: You’re right about the ID. I got lazy and trusted my memory instead of my ID app. Thanks for the comment and correction. I’ve changed her pronouns
Bill, the combination of flowers and Blue Dasher are great. The visual shift from vertical along the flowers to horizontal for the df works well also. Lacking the time to get the full df sharp isn’t important here, since the “subject” is the combination. I do see some mottling in the background that’s probably from the stacking. If you used the B method (depth map) and the light was changing or the background moving, you can get such artifacts. Either of the other two methods gives a smoother background under such circumstances.
