Dragonfly and a spider....

[PaulRJennings]

[Wavelength]

#1: have some focus problem, i am afraid
#2: i think a 90 degree rotation clockwise will be soothing to watch

Regards

[PaulRJennings]

#1: have some focus problem, i am afraid
#2: i think a 90 degree rotation clockwise will be soothing to watch

Regards

Thanks for looking and commenting Nandakumar......I thought the dragon fly had pretty good focus. It is handheld 100mm canon lens which has a very narrow plane of focus at that magnification taken in the late afternoon with a slight breeze. I find with rotating the spider my eye is more drawn to the out of focus back of the spider rather then it's head.

Paul

[DanK]

Paul,

#1 is a nice composition and a nice capture, but I have to agree with Nandakumar--focus is a problem. Most of the eyes are OOF. I think the main issue is aperture. My exif-reading software says f/5.6. That is very wide for that lens at that distance if you are not going to focus-stack. I normally shoot around f/13 with that lens because I am not even remotely close to stable enough to focus-stack bug shots. That often requires adding a flash.

Dan

[bnnrcn]

Hi Paul, I like #1, very nice colors and posture , I would rotate it just a little bit for a better look

[Geoff F]

With your first image, Paul. The face and outer wing veins look fine to me. But at F5.6 you have a very shallow depth of sharp focus.

I would have been looking at double that aperture, at least. But of course, if you did that something else would also need changing. Simply one of those occasions where you can't have everything.

[PaulRJennings]

Paul,

#1 is a nice composition and a nice capture, but I have to agree with Nandakumar--focus is a problem. Most of the eyes are OOF. I think the main issue is aperture. My exif-reading software says f/5.6. That is very wide for that lens at that distance if you are not going to focus-stack. I normally shoot around f/13 with that lens because I am not even remotely close to stable enough to focus-stack bug shots. That often requires adding a flash.

Dan

Thanks Dan....one day I will try focus stacking. And I really should carry a tripod with me. I had the fstop there in an attempt to keep a reasonable SS. I shall keep trying. Even though this camera has great high ISO ability I still hesitate to go to high. I owned to many Fujis I guess

Paul

[PaulRJennings]

Thanks bnnrcn...in shots with no horizon I like to keep it natural if that makes any sense.

[PaulRJennings]

Thanks Geoff. I didn't have my external flash handy and the pop-up one would not have lit the subject up very well as I was so close to the subject.
Thanks all for your advice.

[Geoff F]

Just a quick note about using a pop-up flash. I have used this quite successfully simply by removing my lens hood so as to reduce the flash shadow area.

But that still won't help if you are very close.

My current macro lens has a long hood so I always shoot without it to reduce any scare factor on my subjects.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Paul,

This was shot with a 105mm macro lens, minus the hood, on a Nikon D5000 with the pop up flash, allowing me to use f/16 - and it still isn't all as sharp as I'd have liked.

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However, it does result in rather 'flat' lighting, off camera flash, or asymmetric 'ring'/dual flash would be better to give some modelling to the subject.

That said, on camera can also achieve a dramatic effect in the right circumstances - I deliberately shot this one 'upside down', placing the flash below the subject to get the shadow in the background, it took a few attempts to get it right (where it was, I couldn't see through the V/F).

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I like the colours of your dragonfly shot.

You got the focus on the eyes right on the (f/9) spider though, well done. It's a nice 'pose' too.

Cheers, Dave

[PaulRJennings]

Thanks Dave.......The spider one was taken in my back yard using an external flash on the hot shoe.
That is a neat perspective on your flying bug. It's looks similar to a bug I took in July.

[Geoff F]

These strange looking 'bugs' are actually Plume Moths. There are quite a few species and they tend to be tricky to fully identify.