Common blue damselfly (teneral)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Tripod, Canon 1DX Canon 180mm macro ISO 100 1/125 sec f11
ACR + PSCC

At last I have some activity in the back garden pond, this teneral emerged this morning, butterflies are in very short supply so far.

[John Mack]

Like the composition and the green background. The body looks sharp but the eye looks soft. I just started seeing some butterflies and dragonflies within the last couple weeks.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jon, so this was the wee 'beauty' you were working on, AHHA.

Nice, 'simple' clean backdrop for the subject and it isolates it well. I find the petal, highlights and 'stamen?' slightly distracting so I wonder if there is another option going tighter in on that LHS, WDYT? I would like to see it bigger maybe 1200 high to appreciate more of the finer detail of the damselfly. Perhaps add some clarity and or some more selective USM. Did you use LV or not?

TFS
Steve

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks John, I think the head is sharp, the DOF is I agree a little limited on the left eye.
Steve I could post bigger but they don't fit on my 23" screen above 100px, I may reconsider getting a larger screen. The marshmarigold is not ideal but that's what it was, I have another on a forgtmenot and some different compositions. I didn't use LV I manually focused for some AF on others, I did play with clarity and curves and dehaze, the trouble is it also enhances the background you can see through the wings, the other thing is it has to be done sparingly because at this stage (15 -20 mins post emergence) there is very little contrast/colour or blacks in the subject. This image I think afforded the clearest view of the legs.

[Steve Kaluski]

That's fine Jon, just interested as Macro is not an area I venture into, a bit of the 'Dark' magic for me.


I may reconsider getting a larger screen.

Work with what you have, it's good and I would always go for Eizo.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Nice Image. I also feel that eye looks soft to me.

I do like the clean out of focus back ground and nice Yellow colors.

Thanks for sharing.