Male Scarlet Skimmer

[Don Lacy]

Here is a male Scarlet and as you can see the reason they are named Scarlet is because of his bright red coloring.
I always struggle on post processing of the males to keep the reds as bright as they seem in the field with out blowing them and loosing detail here the reds are pushed right to the edge and are actually clipped when I converted the image to SRGB for the web.
The Scarlet Skimmer is an Old World species from Asia first found in the New World in Miami 1975 and now found only in South Florida, Cuba, And Hawaii in the New World.

40D, 500 f/4 +1.4 TC + 25MM Ext Tube, 1/920 at f/8, Manual, Evaluative Metered, Flash -1 2/3 with diffuser, Tripod, Slight Crop and cloned out a few specular highlights

[Steve Maxson]

Another beauty, Don. Very sharp, good comp, nice lighting, and a clean background. Also, thanks for the biological info. An interesting "macro" setup you used here. Well done.

[Don Lacy]

Also, thanks for the biological info
Hi Steve I read your profile and thought you would find it interesting.


An interesting "macro" setup you used here. Well done.
A little tough to get into position but the image quality is amazing I am going to get more extension tubes so i can forego the TC in The future 50MM should be enough to get these guys full frame, and thanks for the comments

[Julie Kenward]

Boy, I can see why you struggle with the reds with this DF! I have a Canon 40D also and have found that when I go out looking for bright colors (be it insect, flowers, etc.) it helps to change the camera's picture style over from 'standard' to 'neutral.' This takes the saturation down a bit - something easily added back in during pp.

Another thing you might try is to desat the reds a bit in Camera Raw and then up the luminosity - that tends to keep the reds from going flat but keeps them out of the clipped column at times.

As for this image, it's really lovely. You got a great angle from front to back and the composition is pretty much perfect. Good use of the frame's space without it feeling pinched. The exposure is very nice as well although I wouldn't mind if you toned down the spectral highlights on his head a little bit.

[Bruce Enns]

There it is! Absolutely gorgeous Don! I love the perch, BG, details, and of course the dragonfly...it looks to me like you handled the reds very well...I still see detail in all! Well done all around!]

Cheers!
Bruce

[Don Lacy]

I have a Canon 40D also and have found that when I go out looking for bright colors (be it insect, flowers, etc.) it helps to change the camera's picture style over from 'standard' to 'neutral.' This takes the saturation down a bit - something easily added back in during pp
Hi Julie I shoot RAW and convert using Adobe ACR so the picture styles do not affect my conversion they do effect the jpeg used to produce the histogram so for that reason I do use neutral with the contrast set to -1. I have used your saturation and luminosity technique and like it and now added it to my repertoire.
Thanks

[Thomas Herou]

Very nice colors and BG.
Perfect!

[Stephen Stephen]

Great image Don. This fellow really is red! The only thing that may have tried would have been to try ti increase the DOF slightly bring the wingtips in focus.

I still wish that this was mine.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Very nice image Don, I was wondering what type of flash you used. On camera, 580 EX etc...
Thanks.

[Don Lacy]

Very nice image Don, I was wondering what type of flash you used. On camera, 580 EX etc...
Thanks.
Hi Jackie, I use an older 550EX flash one of these days I am going to have to upgrade to the 580 but I have not gotten around to it yet. I also use a Lumiquest softbox that attaches to the flash to diffuse the light and help avoid that flash look.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Thanks Don, I did get my 500 set up today ( thanks for your help) so your 1.4, 25 combo intrigued me. Just wasn't sure about your flash. I hope to get a macro image as nice as this sometime. Thanks for the reply.

[Don Lacy]

Thanks Don, I did get my 500 set up today ( thanks for your help) so your 1.4, 25 combo intrigued me. Just wasn't sure about your flash. I hope to get a macro image as nice as this sometime. Thanks for the reply.
Your welcome Jackie, That combo makes a nice choice for the larger guys like dragons or butterflies that you can set up on any thing smaller and you need to go with a lot more extension or to a true marco lens. Also make sure you have the extension tube between the lens and the converter.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Thanks Don, wouldn't have known to put the extension tube between the lens and converter.