Boyd's forest dragon detail

[greg cowle]

A closer view at part of the Boyd's forest dragon I posted last week. You can't get closer than about 2m to these guys, so it is really interesting (for me) to look at the details you can't see with the naked eye. The little spurs on the neck, and particularly the scales down to the finger tips I think are really interesting.
420mm, 1/200, f13, ISO400, Light from flash.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Greg -- What a beautiful subject . I am no expert in using flashes but it has provided very nice details. But some of the hls are strong especially the protruding white spots. I have some reservations about the reflection in its eye and also the shimmering tree trunk . nicely done.
Lets see what others have to say.

TFS !

[Jonathan Ashton]

Another very detailed image Greg, I like it very much. I think I would investigate lifting the darker tones just to see if improves presentation.

[John Mack]

Very nice detail. The patterns and sharpes on ths dragon are very neat.

[greg cowle]

Thanks for the comments.
Haseeb - I think what you see in the eye is the reflection of the flash, and there was probably more than one flashlight also on. But in general this suffers because it was wet, on the trunk you see this in particular, as well as on the scales, and it it the reflections of the flash. I tried to control it in post, but with little success. I did not have the opportunity here, but in other situations I have used flash at an angle, rather than on the hotshoe, that may have helped also.
Jonathan - I used the same settings from the earlier post of the composite, but possibly because of the composition, it does not seem to work as well here. No expert on this type of processing, but will go back and look at the darker tones as you suggest.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Greg - An interesting subject that we rarely see posted. Good discussion of the use of flash. I too would bring the hls down slightly and also try lessening the sharpening and contrast on the tree trunk a bit.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Greg wow a good thing to post this .
Lovely tight portrait ... for my taste a wee bit heavy in contrast . And the flash very dominant .
Was this taken at night ? I don`t think so , maybe deep in the rain forest where it can be dark ....
Image nice and sharp with tons of detail ....:5

TFS Andreas

Where did you get him ... Queensland somewhere ?

[greg cowle]

Hi Andreas, this was taken at night in the Daintree rainforest, so the only light for the photo was the single flash. For nocturnal animals like this the general rule is that if they use their eyes to hunt you should not shine a continuous bright light at the eyes, although flash is OK since the duration is so short. I had a naturalist guide, and he confirmed for the dragon. I do want to play with multiple flash illumination, and maybe a broad-area light (like you would use camping) to try and achieve improved illumination. And maybe a night with less moisture on the tree, but with >2m rainfall in the last 2 months that may be dreaming until the dry season.
Processing I find tough with this image, but an interesting critter.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Greg for the additional info ...much appreciated .
Been to Daintree in.....1995 ....long long ago . Did not know hat these are nocturnal . Fully understand your thinking ...
Cheers Andreas

[greg cowle]

Nocturnal is probably the wrong word, they are active day and night. The rainforest is actually much more active with predators at night, mammals as well as reptiles. If this guy went to sleep there he would be easily taken by a python.