Dragon Portait

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Erythrodiplax umbrata. Loiza, Puerto Rico. Canon 30D, Canon 180 macro w/extender and 580X flash. ISO 200, f/11 @ 1/250 sec.

[Chris Starbuck]

I like dragonflies, and this is a nice one, well-photographed. Great color, lighting, BG, and the important parts of dfly are sharp. My tendency (I have a 20D) is to use ISO 400 (and deal with the noise in PP) so I can get every fraction of a mm of DOF possible, but you've done an excellent job of picking your focus point to optimize use of the DOF here. And really, at this magnification, f/16 probably would only have brought a couple more leg spines into focus. So nothing technical to critique. From an art perspective, I would darken the light yellow spot on the stem at upper left. I might have placed the dfly's body on more of a diagonal, but that's a real nit, and a matter of taste. You already have nice diagonal lines in the plant stem and the wings.

Chris

[Ed Cordes]

Wow! This is outstanding. I like the detail and with this much mag the DOF is pretty good. the eye detail is especially good. What is the round glob just forward of its left eye? It looks like a glob of some type of secretion??? Only nit is the large white area on the top of the near eye. Is it flash back? I would consider cloning it out if it is.

[adcolon]

Thanks for your comments. The little "glob" is part of its "face". Don't know its scientific name or what it does, but all Dragons have them as far as I have seen. The white a area is indeed flash produced "glint".

[Chris Starbuck]

I'll bet the full-resolution image clearly shows the cell structure of the eye in that glint area. I have several natural light dfly images in which the sun produced the same kind of glint, so to me it isn't distracting and looks perfectly natural. I'd leave it in.

[Julie Kenward]

Really nice, Adcolon! I agree that the ULC is a bit distracting - I'd try to tone it down to take the eye from wandering away from the Dragonfly. Also, might try to clone that lighter area beneath him as well. Other than that, I think it's a fantastic image and one of the better dragonfly photos we've had this season.

[Robert O'Toole]

Very nice AD, that is the common name?

Colors, details and sharpness are all great. I really like it, good work!

Robert

[Robert O'Toole]

Wow! This is outstanding. I like the detail and with this much mag the DOF is pretty good. the eye detail is especially good. What is the round glob just forward of its left eye? It looks like a glob of some type of secretion??? Only nit is the large white area on the top of the near eye. Is it flash back? I would consider cloning it out if it is.

Hi Ed,

Dragonflies have 2 large compound eyes AND 3 simple eyes, the 'ocelli' or Jewel eyes (this is the secretion blob). The small bristles on the front of all DF front legs are used as brushes to clean the eyes!!!

:eek:

Robert

[Mike Moats]

Hey Ad, very cool and colorful image. Good details where it counts.

[adcolon]

Again thanks for your comments. The Dragon is a young Band-winged Dragonlet (Erythrodiplax umbrata).

[Joanna Trescott]

The best dragonfly shot I have seen here. Great job!