Blue Tailed Damselfly Ischnura elegans

[Jonathan Ashton]

Camera Model Canon EOS 20D
Firmware Firmware 2.0.3
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/10
Av( Aperture Value ) 16.0
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 100
Lens 180.0mm
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode AI Servo AF
Color Space sRGB

This was taken fairly early in the morning before it became too active. All comments welcome.

[Julie Kenward]

Wow, Jonathon, that df looks like he's about to take off on a bobsled! Amazing diagonal image and so clean and sharp! I am afraid to say it looks a little dark because I'm on my work monitor so I'll wait and see what the others say but this is a beautiful DF portrait!

[Markus Jais]

Great short. Amazing sharpness and detail. Great DOF.
The diagonal line is great!
I only with for a little more room on the right.

Markus

[Charles Wesley]

Jonathan,

Great capture and oh what color. It looks possibly a little dark to me but I really like it. If its made brighter the effect may be lost.

Thanks for sharing...
____________________
Charlie Wesley
St. Augustine Beach, FL

[Julie Brown]

Jonathan, the detail in the bug is so sharp. I like how you can see those little hairs. Nice diagonal perch and BG. Looks a little dark to me as well.

[Don Lacy]

HI Jonathan, Wonderful damsel image love the comp and detail. The image also looks a tad dark to me so I brought it into PS and Looking at the histogram their was hardly any data towards the right side so I reset the white point and added a small amount light to the midtones with a curves adjustment.

[Jonathan Ashton]

HI Jonathan, Wonderful damsel image love the comp and detail. The image also looks a tad dark to me so I brought it into PS and Looking at the histogram their was hardly any data towards the right side so I reset the white point and added a small amount light to the midtones with a curves adjustment.

Don, thanks for taking the time, I like your rework.The original RAW file was a little hot on the blues so I used a lot of Recovery and I also used curves in RAW, I suspect I overdid it a bit and should have left some small areas slightly hot because once I got rid of the hot spots the image did look relatively flat. I have a tendency to look at the histogram and tend to forget to look enough at the image - I do this time and time again - one day I will remember to actually look more at the image.

[Peter Farrell]

Great detail and sharpness. I really like the diagonal line of the perch. The re-post improves the overall lighting.

[Allen Sparks]

Wonderful image with great detail. Love it! Did you use mirror lock up on this shot? Like the repost too.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Wonderful image with great detail. Love it! Did you use mirror lock up on this shot? Like the repost too.

To be perfectly honest I cannot remember, Allen, but it is more than likely I used lockup with an electronic release or Live view with electronic release.

[Anita Bower]

Wonderful details! Great compositon and color. Thanks! :)

[Vida van der Walt]

Stunning detail and beautiful image Jonathan. Repost is even better.:)

[Don Lacy]

Don, thanks for taking the time, I like your rework.The original RAW file was a little hot on the blues so I used a lot of Recovery and I also used curves in RAW, I suspect I overdid it a bit and should have left some small areas slightly hot because once I got rid of the hot spots the image did look relatively flat. I have a tendency to look at the histogram and tend to forget to look enough at the image - I do this time and time again - one day I will remember to actually look more at the image.
Jonathan you can always repair hot spots in PS using curves and masks or process the raw twice in ACR and combine both files in PS.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I like Don's repost. Also find the OP a little dark. Still an excellent comp, nice colors and killer angle. :)