Five Spot Burnet Moths

[Jonathan Ashton]

Camera Model Canon EOS 7D
Firmware Firmware Version 1.2.1
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/15
Av( Aperture Value ) 8.0
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 100
Lens EF180mm f/3.5L Macro USM
Flash On
Flash Type External E-TTL
E-TTL II flash metering Evaluative flash metering
Flash Exposure Compensation -2
Shutter curtain sync 1st-curtain sync
AF Mode AI Servo AF
AF area select mode Manual selection
Picture Style Standard

This, as requested is a similar shot to the previous but a slightly different background and hopefully in a slightly improved plane of focus; on this one I used a little fill in flash. The flash has reflected just a little on the wings so I used less sharpening there to reduce the effect. As ever all your comments are most welcome.

[Julie Kenward]

I do like this one even better Jonathan! I like the softness of the BG and the different colors there but wouldn't mind seeing a little more contrast or "pop" to it and the perch. Beautiful DOF on the insects - getting both sets of antenna in focus is quite a feat!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jonathan,
I too like this one better and you did very well taming the flash! Not sure if you are OK with such things....but perhaps a bit of levels layers on just the bodies.....to bring out even more detail! I also tend to blow up my images to 500%.....and clean up some of the smaller flash highlights....little tweaks go a long way!
Excellent mating image with a very nice BG too!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Jonathan, very nice comp, like the diagonal line of the stem. Good sharp details and excellent BG.

[Bob Miller]

Hey Johnathan.....Like your bg and composition. Did you try S/H on this?

[Allen Sparks]

wonderful behavioral shot. Agree with the levels adjustments suggested above.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thankyou for the feedback, I don't think I did use S/H on the first image, I remember backing off the Blacks in the Adobe RAW converter. On this repost I initially tried a Mask and levels on the body but messed it up a little so I went back to the RAW and in the Tone Curve tab I lightened the darks and Shadows. In Photoshop I added a Selective Color Layer and gave Black>Black2 and Neutral>Black 3 to put a bit of Pop back in. I used two rounds of Selective Sharpening 150, 0.2 at 2400px and 60, 0.1 at 800px.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Much better Jonathan! You opened up the details in the body very nicely....not overdone!!! Glad you could use the suggestions to make an improvement!