A couple of days ago at my favorite dragonfly pond it was Widow Skimmer Day.
Specific Feedback Requested
All comments welcome!
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon R5, 100-500 + 2X at 1000, f/14, 1/400, ISO 800. On a sturdy tripod with Wimberley gimbal head. On about the 4th try he sat still enough for me to get a usable focus stack, racking focus visually, in tiny increments in manual focus. Minimal LR adjustments, 5 shots assembled by hand in PS. Very minor BG cloning. Topaz DeNoise, hardly needed. Slight crop from both sides.
A lovely mix of colours, Diane, with the green stalks, white bands and see-through sections of the wings. It’s almost perfectly sharp - I just wonder why you used PS for the stacking and not Zerene.A beautiful dragonfly shot, with added chrysalis (?).
Hi Diane, terrific view of a gorgeous, showy ode. nice job on the stacking - the dragonfly looks sharp throughout. The bright green reed in the background I do find distracting.
Thanks everyone! @Mike_Friel, Zerene can’t correct for the small twitches a dragonfly makes between the shots, as was the case here, so I did it by hand with masking layers. It’s easy if I got a good set. One back wingtip moved slightly as I focused on it.
@Allen_Sparks, I fell into the trap of liking a BG element and failing to recognize that it competed with the subject. Thanks for giving me a nudge! I lowered saturation on it and restored the color on the right wing. I think it’s much improved.
Lovely Diane. I really like the colors and all the details. It has a nice soft feel to the photo even tho tack sharp. Really good job getting the shadows as well.
Diane: Great use of your long lens rig and a fine processing effort. I like the original and the repost is a nice enhancement. Top notch in every way. >=))>
