Large red damselfly

[Jonathan Ashton]

Camera Model Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv(Shutter Speed) 1/200
Av(Aperture Value) 7.1
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation -1/3
ISO Speed 400
Auto ISO Speed OFF
Lens EF180mm f/3.5L Macro USM +1.4x
Focal Length 252.0mm
Flash Off

Image captured on my garden pond

[Nancy Bell]

Excellent details, including those fine hairs on the head and thorax! And that brilliant red color is...brilliant! The few front facing OOF petals of the flower are a bit distracting but also unavoidable. Lovely soft mottled bkgd.

[Steve Maxson]

Wow! I've never seen a red damselfly before. Very nice sharpness on your subject plus good lighting and background. The diagonal stem is a plus. I would wish that the flower wasn't clipped by the top of the frame - otherwise this is very well done!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks very much everyone. Steve yes the flower was a bit of a bummer really, I wanted to get it all in but by the time I had taken off the TC the little devil had flown off!

[Jerry van Dijk]

Well spotted Jon, those colors are really nice. I'd be inclined to crop out the flower head from the top right corner and just fill the frame with the damselfly. Should be possible with the IQ of this image. It's a pity you didn't get the tip of the tail in focus. You really have to watch your shooting angle with these long critters, their back ends tend to stick out of the plane of focus all too easy! I've had the same problem with damselfly images and found that you can fool the eye a bit by selectively applying sharpening just to the tip of the tail.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Well spotted Jon, those colors are really nice. I'd be inclined to crop out the flower head from the top right corner and just fill the frame with the damselfly. Should be possible with the IQ of this image. It's a pity you didn't get the tip of the tail in focus. You really have to watch your shooting angle with these long critters, their back ends tend to stick out of the plane of focus all too easy! I've had the same problem with damselfly images and found that you can fool the eye a bit by selectively applying sharpening just to the tip of the tail.
Thanks Jerry I do sometimes do that - also I find if you use the Burn tool on the dark tip it also helps.