I’ve been going out in the morning looking for bugs. I find hand holding is the only way to capture them in their environment. While the success rate is quite low, I enjoy the challenge. This guy was hopping from leaf to leaf, but finally sat still long enough to snap a few frames. I like the eyes combined with the iridescent quality of his top side.
Specific Feedback Requested
Based on feedback from a previous photo, I tried to make sure the important features are bright enough and darkened the background to compensate for the lack of DoF. Any suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Technical Details
This is a single handheld shot using a 50mm enlarger lens reversed at f/11 with an extension tube to achieve 2:1. The working distance is about 2”, so I used a homemade Pringles can flash diffuser to illuminate the subject. I used subject selection in Lightroom to lighten the fly and darken the background. I also ran it through Topaz to for a bit of sharpening.
Tom, this is a really fine look of the fly. The details in the eyes are excellent. The colors both of the fly and the flowers complement each other nicely. I agree with you about handholding the camera with moving critters like bugs, flies, etc. I use a twin flash to help stop action and allow more DOF, which is what I see you did in this shot. I like everything about this shot.
Thank you for sharing your setup. I have never tried the reversed lens. You sure are getting good results. I have a 1X-5X lens (manual of course), and I haven’t been as successful in my images as I would like to be. Need more practice with it, I think.
Woah that is really close! I love it. The green is such a nice contrast to the yellow and the light is soft enough to look natural. Terrific detail, too. Who knew flies could be, uh, pretty? LOL.
But I fiddled with it in Photoshop again, mostly because it needed some brightening. Instead of going for a straight Exposure layer, I used a Mid-tones 3 mask to protect the highlights and shadows and then I put that out to a Color Grading Tool in the TK8 panel and used that to raise the highlights and midtones and lower the darks just a bit. Then I ran a Clarity action and put a black mask on the layer so I could paint the clarity onto just the fly. Next I ran a Freehand Vignette to spotlight our green buddy. Finally a little dodging and burning using a Color Mask to lighten the light yellows in the foremost flower and then a dodge layer to darken the darker yellow in that same flower. Opacities of the layers are all lower than 100% to control the strength.
Hope you like it. Nice to see your rig, too. So interesting how we come up with the images we want. I haven’t played with a reversing ring since my 35mm days!
Nothing I think I can contribute that others have not touched upon yet, but I really like that gold/green metallic body and the awesome detail in the face. Really good shot with impact!
Thanks! I like how you got a bit more detail in the eyes. I also see where you brightened up the flower in the foreground. It was bright in the RAW file, but I intentionally darkened it in LR because I thought it distracted the eye from the main subject.
