Moulted Costa Rican Cicada

[Stephen Stephen]

This is another image from our La Tirimbina Reserve night walk. This cicada has obviously recently moulted and was waiting for its wings to dry.

This version is basically a full frame image.

Canon 40 D, Sigma 100mm f 2.8 Macro, Sigma 500 Super D Flash with deflector at ISO 400. Handheld

Perhaps I should have tried to clone out the OOF branch which intersects that wings but I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to remove the portions showing through the transparent wings.

[denise ippolito]

Excellent details and I see your point about the OOF branch. The wings look so transparent !! Very nice.

[John Christian]

Stephen, I found some of the noise i the picture a little distracting. I took the photo and tried to reduce some of the noise. Not sure if I helped. The picture looks great and the comp is excellent. We had these things everywhere in Viriginia.

[Julie Kenward]

Stephen, I'd still give it a try. Chances are the area behind the wings wouldn't really have to be cloned out - I bet it would hardly be noticeable once the stick was removed.

One other suggestion would be to try to open up the shadows just a bit on the eye on the right. It would be nice to see a little more detail on that side of his eye/body directly below the eye.

Otherwise...cool image! Love the details in the cicada and the way you got both the bug and the former shell.

[Stephen Stephen]

Thank you Denise, John and Julie. I've taken all you comments into account and tried a re-work of the image. Hopefully it's an improvement.