Banded Pennant

[Ken Childs]

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p193/kjchilds/BPN/IMG_0040-1.jpg

Canon EOS REBEL XT
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS @ 400mm
Manual mode
1/500"
F5.6
ISO: 200
Canon 430EX: On, Fired
Photoshop CS3

The tip of the grass was brown and almost poked into the dragon's face so I cloned it out.

My main concern is with the eyes and I'm really curious to hear what others think. I tried various things but never found anything that looked right.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hey Ken, I'm really jealous at those pennants you have over there! They just look awesome with those wingspots and you've captured wonderful details on the wings of this one. You also did a very good cloning job. The BG is very nice and clean, but I prefer a little more color. The flash highlight on the eye looks blown, but hey, what can you do. I'm not too fond of the other flash reflection in the middle of the eye.
The main problem with the eyes IMO is that they're just not in focus, just as the rest of the head and most of the body. Looks like your AF caught on the FG wings. It's my experience that it's difficult to get focus on the head when you're shooting dragonflies with wide aperture. My AF has the tendency to focus on the thorax, probably because it's just a bigger bulk. I generally let the camera focus and than move it slightly backwards until I've got focus on the eyes.
Note that dragonfly eyes do look a little hazy in general, however (thats just how they're built).

[Don Lacy]

Ken, I am really jealous I have not been able to get one of these guys up off the ground for a decent image. I tried some selective sharpening on the eyes to help make up for them being slightly OOF and I also noticed you posted this in the Pro RGB color space which can caused problems with color shifts for people who are viewing the image on a browser that does not read color spaces and will display it in sRGB. You can see the color shift in my image since I converted it to sRGB before posting that is if your using the newest version of Firefox or Safari for others both images should appear the same.

[Ken Childs]

I'm fortunate that there are 4 ponds on my property which gives me plenty of opportunity to shoot these guys.

The color space issue is really strange and I have no idea how I ended up with this one in Pro RGB. When I first uploaded the image to my Photobucket account, it looked dull and faded so I uploaded it again and that time it looked fine. I had both uploads side by side and the difference between the 2 was obvious. Today they both look exactly the same!

Your edit definitely looks better. I didn't sharpen the head as much as I should have because those flash highlights were bothering me I was thinking that extra sharpening would make them stand out even more. It does but not in a bad way. :)

[Allen Sparks]

beautiful shot Ken and I like the repost too. Great perch and background. The double highlight bothers me some but still a shot I wish was mine :).

[Julie Kenward]

Yousa, that's a nice one, Ken! Great idea to clone the grass away from his face - it looks perfectly natural. I love the repost by Don - he did get better clarity on the eyes. The rest of the DF is so nicely in focus - right down to the little hairs on his legs. :D

[Mike Moats]

Hey Ken, very nice comp, great BG and the repost help out on the face. Well done.:)

[Anita Bower]

You insect photographers are opening up a whole new world for me. This one is a beauty. I like the repost by Don which brings out the warm colors.

[Vida van der Walt]

Lovely shot Ken. All has been said and just wanted to add my well done!:)