Damselfly

[Christopher Miller]

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m244/CAMiller290/BPN/P6300773ResizeWeb.jpg

Last year I tried photographing damselflies for the first time. I frequently had trouble getting them entirely in focus; the eyes and back end almost always seemed to end up OOF. This is one of my better shots, but the DOF still isn't quite perfect. I also think the angle could have been better. What do you think?

Olympus SP-550 UZ
f3.5 @ 1/40, ISO 100, -0.7 EV
Program mode, pattern metering, auto WB
Processed in PS CS2; cropped, curves adjustment to remove color cast, saturation increase, noise reduction, and selective sharpened eye and back end of damselfly

[Julie Kenward]

Chris, aren't they a bear to get right? I think you did a pretty darn good job on this one - the focal point is definitely up at his head and legs which is where it should be. You've got a nice composition as well - you've got the stem in the ROT's and the body going diagonally through the image...very nice!

One suggestion might be to select the BG and try a slight gaussian blur to help diffuse it a little more. Another small suggestion would be to clone over the dark area in the ULC using clone set to lighten and maybe 30% so it would be in the same tonal range as the rest of the BG.

[Christopher Miller]

Thanks Julie! I've posted a repost following your suggestions here (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?p=227903#post227903).