Large red damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Taken on my garden pond, this little guy spent all last year as a nymph, came out of his exuvia only to get tangled in the plants, unfortunately his wings never unfolded and he was doomed as he emerged.
I do have images with a more uniform background but I preferred the lighting on the damselfly in this particular one, I more or less managed to get the image without any specular highlights which is what I wanted.
Hand held
Olympus : E-M1X
Lens focal length : 300 mm
Focal Length (35 mm conversion) : 601.0mm
Metering mode : Pattern
Exposure mode : Manual exposure
ISO Sensitivity : 500
Exposure compensation : +0.3 EV
Shutter speed : 1/320 sec
Aperture : F8
Flash : OFF

ACR & PSCC

[Randy Stout]

John:

Very uniform lighting on the damselfly. Good dof on subject. I do wish the subject was just a bit brighter in relationship to the brighter green background.

Cheers

Randy

[Jonathan Ashton]

John:

Very uniform lighting on the damselfly. Good dof on subject. I do wish the subject was just a bit brighter in relationship to the brighter green background.

Cheers

Randy

Thanks Randy I see what you mean, the colours are like they are because I deliberately cast a shadow on the subject, I am guessing it did not reach the green leaf. When I left it in the bright light it was rather glistening in appearance. I bought one of the clear white umbrellas a few years back to filter the sunlight - could I find it could I ..
Here's the one in direct light

[Randy Stout]

Jon:

I do prefer the lighting on the damsel fly in the first version, but find the #2 a bit better overall because of the softer background.

I really like to use a large white diffuser at times when taking my frog pictures when the sun is bright, cuts contrast and specular reflections significantly, so keep looking for your umbrella!!

Cheers

Randy

[Paul Burdett]

Yes, I prefer #2 as well...like the contrast, the smooth BG and overall sharpness. TFS

[John Mack]

Interesting about the wings. Never have seen that. I would take either image.