Inquisitive Chinese Mantis

[Asif Khan]

Hello All, Am a new member of BPN. Based in Shanghai, China, am into macro and bird photography. Glad to find this forum where I can share and learn from various great photographers.

This is the first image that I would like to share with you all. I took this Chinese Mantis at Dongping National Park near Shanghai China last year. Creature is in wild, no artificial setup of location or adjustments done. I did enhance the contrast in lightroom. Shot using Nikon D200 using Nikon 105mm macro in Vivid mode, hence the brilliant jpg color. Appreciate your comments and look forward to make friends with all of ya. Cheers. Asif

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Asif. I really like the head position of the mantis in this shot and the shadow of him that you caught. The cut off antennae at top bothers me some and there are some hot spots on the front legs of the mantis. Please post your camera setting (apterture,etc) as that will help with critiquing the image.

[Asif Khan]

Hi Allen, Thank you so much for your feedback. Unfortunately, this is a full frame as shot and hence lost the antenna at the top. I shot this in Aperture priority using D200, 105mm lens. Shot at f/10 , 1/160 sec @ ISO 100. I agree, the spots on the front leg is disturbing. Hope this helps. Cheers. Asif

[Mike Moats]

Hey Asif, welcome to the site. I really like the comp with the mantis peaking over the edge and the shadow of the body on the leaf. I would crop off the top and cut more into the antenna and would like a little more sharpening on the edge of the eyes. Keep em coming.

[Don Lacy]

Hi Asif, I toned down the hot spots on the leg and did some selective sharpening on the head. I really like the shadow on the leaf and while it's always nice to get all of the antenna it I am ok with clipping them.

[Asif Khan]

Hello Don, thank you so much for taking time to redo the mantis. It looks awesome now...I agree, i love the shadow which completes the entire mantis ...i have one another when this mantis hanged upside down ..will post it later. If i may ask..what do you use for your digital processing..i would like to know what tool you used for selective sharpening and how you did it...(or if you can point me to some thread, it would be great).

Thanks again for commenting and showing me the results..i am learning something new every day.

Cheers

[Asif Khan]

Hey Asif, welcome to the site. I really like the comp with the mantis peaking over the edge and the shadow of the body on the leaf. I would crop off the top and cut more into the antenna and would like a little more sharpening on the edge of the eyes. Keep em coming.

Thank you Mike for the warm welcome and comments on the pic. I will make appropriate changes and will repost in some time. Thanks again. Cheers

[Peter Farrell]

Very nice. I like the front view, head position and really like the shadow on the leaf.
Re-post improved on some very minor flaws.
Peter

[Julie Kenward]

Asif, one other thing that would really make this pop would be if you had managed to get a different BG color against the green of the insect. Be sure to check all your angles and see if there isn't a complimentary color in the surrounding BG next time (sometimes there is, sometimes there isn't!) Also, please read the posting rules at the top of the forum - we can't really help you improve your skills if we don't have that camera and post-processing data to help guide us!

[Don Lacy]

Hello Don, thank you so much for taking time to redo the mantis. It looks awesome now...I agree, i love the shadow which completes the entire mantis ...i have one another when this mantis hanged upside down ..will post it later. If i may ask..what do you use for your digital processing..i would like to know what tool you used for selective sharpening and how you did it...(or if you can point me to some thread, it would be great).

Thanks again for commenting and showing me the results..i am learning something new every day.

Cheers
Asif, I use both the Photo Kit sharpening plugin http://www.pixelgenius.com/sharpener/info.html for Photo Shop CS3 and the Smart Sharpen filter with layer masks. When I was learning PS I struggled with sharpening and started using Photo Kit and have never found a reason to stop using it even after I learned to do most of what it does in PS.

[Asif Khan]

Thanks much Don. I will try Photo Kit if evaluation downloads are available. I have to polish my PS skills ...i just relied on basic lightroom adjustments until now. Cheers