Golden-winged Skimmer in Grass

[Erik Dahl]

This is from my first day trying to capture dragonflies in my backyard (I've been doing mostly birds up to now). Great fun!

Canon 1DX, 500mm f/4 IS II + 2x III, Manual mode, ISO 400, 1/250, f/20, flash with better beamer. Camera was on a tripod. I needed the flash to get the subject clear as there was wind moving the grass around. Used Nik tools to process the image (Dfine, Viveza, ColorFX (detail extractor, pro contrast)).

I think the identification is right but I'm totally new to the insect world!

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[Steve Maxson]

Hi Erik - and welcome to the Macro forum! That's a pretty hefty "macro" lens you're using. :S3: I like the slight diagonal of the comp and the lighting from the flash worked out well. The abdomen and wings appear sharp, but the head is a little softer - you might try a little more selective sharpening there. I would suggest selectively darkening the perch a little - should be easy with Viveza. You might also consider cloning the diagonal piece of grass in the LLC - if you are OK with that. This is a very nice image and a few minor tweaks could make it even better. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work here in Macro!

[Erik Dahl]

Steve,

Thanks for the comments! Yeah the lense is a little big for this type of work. Going to try my 100-400 with the 1.4x and see how that goes. I agree I should darken the perch but I'm not sure my photoshop cloning skills are up to taking out the blade in the LLC. Maybe I'll try that. I'll see if I can get sharpening on the head... maybe with Color FX?

I'm off tomorrow for a week in Maine so not sure when I'll get back to this. Hope to get some good Puffin shots up there! :)

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image.

Regards,
Satish.