Gargoyle

[shane shacaluga]

No sure what this actually is but it really reminded me of a gargoyle or even of those bulls in the original Ghostbusters movie :bg3:

From the proboscis i would say this also belongs to the Reduviidae family

The grey background is actually my friends sweater that was on the ground close to where i saw this small critter

D800e
70-300mm plus Raynox DCR 250 @ 110mm
f29
1/250
ISO 64
SB200 remotely triggered flash placed close by

Cropped for composition and selectively sharpened the insect. Darkened the eye and toned down wood and light coloured legs

Comment and critiques welcome

[Jonathan Ashton]

Wow that's a really interesting shot I haven't a clue what it is but is it some kind of mantis as opposed to an assassin bug? I don't know why but I think the background works well, it emphasises the mini monster appearance of this creature. I wonder if f29 was a bit small - perhaps detail would have been better at say f16??

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Shane. This is an Ambush Bug (Family Reduviidae, subfamily Phymatinae). These small predators typically sit motionless on flowers waiting to grab prey with their mantis-like front legs. They are capable of taking flies and bees larger than themselves. This little guy gave you a great pose and the gray background works well (although there is some posterization going on there - see the horizontal lines in the gray). Most of the bug seems to be within your DOF, but I would wish that the details were a bit crisper. I think Jon hits the nail on the head - at f/29 you will be losing detail even though DOF increases. Other things being equal, the details would be sharper at, say, f/16. To get the same DOF you would need to back a bit farther away from your subject (and then crop more in post to get the same comp). For what it's worth - I very seldom shoot macro at f/stops higher than 16 because I usually don't like the results at f/22 or higher. :S3:

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks a lot both of you for the info on the species and comments on the photograph. I will try and keep to f16 and move back the problem is some insects are so small i would have to crop far too much

Will keep you posted how that goes



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[John Robinson]

Hi Shane
I didn't post acomment as I was still trying to ID it ! Got beaten to it !
Cheers
John
PS good points raised about f29. Quality will always drop off on any lens at that aperture. Thats why stacking on still subjects at a wide aperture is so good.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Very cool creature Shane! I've never seen one in real life, but have seen some posts of them here quite some time ago. The image indeed suffers from the diffraction due to the use of f/29. If f/16 isn't giving you enough DOF you could go for a focus stack like John suggests. With a static creature like this, that should be possible. I'm preparing a simple tutorial for my website on how to do this in Photoshop, but haven't found the time to finish it yet. But there's very good instructions on the net already.
Another remark is that I find the light from the flash a bit harsh. You might want to use diffusers a next time.

[shane shacaluga]

Hi Jerry

Thanks for the comments, the tutorial would be great because sometimes i need the magnification but the DOF becomes so small it is unusable on a one shot image

I am also trying to find a good diffuser setup for my flash but so far have not achieved the desired results. On some insects it works well and on other is just brings out all sorts of highlights

Will keep working at it ;)

Thanks and regards