Canon 1DX Mk II, Canon 100mm macro, small RRS tripod and BH-25 ballhead. ISO 400, f/5 (to try to soften BG), 1/160 sec. Normal tonal adj’s in LR, into PS for quite a bit of partial opacity cloning on distracting elements in BG . I was on my way to my local dogwood patch with a friend who saw it as we walked by. I had too much glass to get it at a good angle as there was a sharp dropoff to the right. I held my breath while I walked back past it to the car to get the macro lens. It waited patiently – my friend thought it was newly emerged. I was so grateful to be able to capture it. I couldn’t get a straight-on angle due to the dropoff so I shot a focus stack for the body and both wingtips and composited in ZereneStacker.
If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag ‘ig’ and leave your Instagram username below.
Wow, Diane, this is an excellent image of this Skimmer. Wonderful details and color. The background allows me to see somewhat of his environment without being a distraction. I would have loved to have seen more of his eyes, but I think he might have been shy, and tilted his head in towards the blade of grass. Still a great image with excellent details. I haven’t tried focus stacking yet. I may some day.
Diane, the wingtip to wingtip sharpness looks great. You handled the df and the background well. While a fully soft background can look good, the bit of grass just to the right and the seed head tell the story of a critter hanging out in heavy grass. I do see a bit of softness just to the left of the center spot on the left rear wing that looks like a missed focus in the stack.
Thank you Mark! I obviously didn’t look at this closely enough, as I also see several stacking glitches. I cloned out the glitches (most notable, a blurred area on the grass ahead of the left front wing) and found a frame in a second stack batch that was sharper in that wing region. It was easy to just mask that area in on top of the stacked image.
Good for you. You put in the effort and got a really nice photo. I like how the habitat is included. I don’t mind the pose of the Skimmer as this pose may show off the wings and body a bit better. And good eye to pick up the little imperfections. I guess that is what you do when focus stacking.
The repost looks excellent. Good choice of aperture for stacking to get the background elements out of focus. The sharpness looks great from wing tip to wing tip and head to tail. Great work! Nice composition as well. Details on the wings also look very good.
