Cicada

[Nancy Bell]

At least around my place we are having a mini-explosion of cicadas. I hear them every morning. I caught this cicada and placed it on a pine branch that I could move around for a simple bkgd. Mostly the cicada was quite cooperative as I adjusted my camera & tripod and tried various flash directions & strengths. Eventually the cicada walked down the branch and flew away, maybe with a good story to tell!

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 100 f2.8 macro, tripod, 1/100, f8, ISO 800, flash +1, hand held

c & c most appreciated.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nancy the cicada is well focused and pin sharp. I guess you set the flash to +1 because the body is dark? I think I would have set the camera to a slightly higher exposure setting and used the flash a little more sparingly by doing this I think the use of flash would have been a little less obvious. If you can forsee opportunities like this I would try to have your perch ready and placed in an ideal situation, here for example the background is featureless and perhaps not ideal. Maybe some OOF bushes or grass or some vegetation may have been better. I think I would trim a little off the base, say about an inch.
I would also recommend a tripod in situations such as this.

[Nancy Bell]

Thank you Jonathan for the good suggestions. Some sort of diffused color in the bkgd would have added interest and softened the look. BTW, the camera was on a tripod, I meant I hand-held the flash. I did use +1 just as you said, since the body is so dark.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Nancy, I'm just wondering whether you used a diffuser on the flash? The light seems very harsh. I'd crop in a little closer on the subject. Usually, off-centered is better, but I found that a centered position can work very well with these oblong positions. Cicadas are amazing creatures, I hope you'll find some more!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Nancy. This is a cool-looking cicada - I haven't seen any black species like this around here - though in northern Minnesota we don't get many cicadas of any kind. You have some good suggestions above from Jon and Jerry and I would echo their thoughts. If you don't have a portable flash diffuser, a very good one (though more expensive than some others) is the Lastolite EZYBOX Speed-lite. You could also try firing your flash through a diffusion screen. Either method should yield markedly softer light on your subject. :S3:

[Nancy Bell]

Great idea on using a diffuser for the flash. I am just a neophyte with flash and appreciate the advice.