Blue-eyed Darner in flight

[Diane Miller]

These guys will sometimes pause long enough to allow a shot in flight. Canon 7D2, 300 f/2.8 IS + 1.4X, ISO 800 at f/9, 1/640 sec, handheld. I shot a burst and got two adjacent frames where the focus shifted just enough to have the front in focus on one and the abdomen on the next. Minimal adjustments in LR and brought both into PS as layers and masked by hand for the sharpest parts of both. Cropped to about 25% of the full frame. After using the 100-400, the 7 ft MFD on the 300 is a handicap, but this guy was far enough away it wasn't a factor here. If I use it again for dragonflies I'll put the 2X on.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Clever work Diane, well done I can't see the join to quote an old phrase. The positioning and composition is pleasing. I am not to sure how intense the colouration of the dragonfly is but what a linear curve adds just a little pop WDYT?
I don't want to rain on your parade but the head is sharp, the tail is sharp yet the thorax is less sharp (??)

[shane shacaluga]

Nicely done and good PP work to merge both images. Agree with Jonathan on the thorax being slightly less sharp but we can say that was "movement of flight" ;)

Good composition and i like the BG colour although it looks a slight bit grainy on my screen.

Maybe a bit more contrast or blacks to the head area to give a bit more punch?

[Warren Spreng]

Excellent capture, and great job of layering the two shots together! I agree with Jonathan that the thorax is a little softer but doesn't distract from the image for me.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks, guys! I hadn't been careful enough about setting the black point, and doing so gave it some needed pop. Jonathan, is that what you mean by a linear curve -- just moving the black end slightly to the right? That's what setting the black point did.

On closer look, I don't think the head is optimally sharp, either. The leading edges of the wings seem sharp enough, so odd that the thorax doesn't look that sharp, but I agree that it doesn't. I have another view from a few seconds earlier that is sharper except the end of the abdomen -- will post that one soon, with a more careful workup. Here's a RP with black point adjusted, Nik Dfne for slight NR and the JPEG was sharpened just on the head and thorax.

[David Cowling]

Nice work Diane. Well done for capturing the insect in flight. The re-post is certainly an improvement. Looks sharp enough to me.

[Jonathan Ashton]

The effect of what you did was more or less as I suggested, the linear curve I referred to is a preset in curves, it enhances contrast just a little, you have enhanced more than I would have, but you were there, I wasn't and your colours are probably truer than the ones I would have made.

[Warren Spreng]

RP looks great!