I'm glad flies are small animals

[John Chardine]

I haven't been to macro for an age. Must do this more often!

I have to admit to not knowing the family of fly here. I was taken by the way the wings were swept back over the body at rest. It was sunning itself in my back yard in Sackville, NB, and very still so I was able to use 1/3s. I was only able to make one image before the fly flew off.

I cropped to about 50% of original size (no tubes yet!), added a bit of fill light in ACR. Boosted sat a bit in post and used Noel Carboni's fractal sharpening action.

Date: 17 August, 2010, Time: 13:12h
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Lens: EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM @ 100 mm
Program: Aperture Priority
ISO 200, 1/3s, f/16
Exp. comp.: +1.0
Flash: off

[Norm Dulak]

John:

It's good to see you in this forum, and it is fortunate indeed that this beast is small! As with all of your postings, the subject is of first-rate interest, and the essential parts are very sharp. My only concern is that as the viewer looks downward from the middle of the fly's face, the image becomes progressively darker. As a result, some of the detail becomes somewhat more difficult to discern. In contrast, the upper parts of the eyes are more whitish, and some color seems to be lost. It might be that some post-processing work could help.

I've taken a shot at it, partly by brightening the lower part of the face with PS CS5 S&H. Then, I applied Viveza 2 to the upper part of the face, selecting that region and adjusting the brightness and saturation sliders. That caused a bluish ting in the upper hairs, which I reduced by selecting the blue channel and de-saturating a bit using the PS Hue/Saturation tool. Maybe the result shown in this re-post is better, maybe not. But it's been fun trying to approve an image that in its own right is very good!:)

Thanks for sharing!:cheers:

Norm

[John Chardine]

Thanks so much Norm. I like the repost better. You did a nice job. I like the way I can now see detail in the forelegs. The OP was a grab shot in the sense that the little guy looked like he was there to stay but he left after the first image so I had not chance to adjust the exposure etc.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi John. Nice to see you here at Macro! I like your head-on view and the excellent detail in those eyes. I also like what Norm has done with brightening the lower part of the face and the forelegs, but I wonder if now the eyes are a little too bright - you be the judge. :) I hope you have some more macro images to share.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nicely caught image John, I like the repost but my instinct tells me the eyes are just a little bright and fiery, it is a good image to play with to make different interpretations.

[Morkel Erasmus]

nice detail, I'm also glad they're not bigger :)

I like the repost but it has enhanced some apparent noise...reworking the high-res file should do the trick

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey John,
Nice to see you in this forum!......now if only I could get some more of you in the landscape forums;).....but I digress:2eyes2:.
It is sharp where it needs to be and I like the direction norm took it....but I agree that perhaps a touch less would do the trick. If you are going to get a tube.....the 20mm is the most versatile for me. I can't remember when I used the 12 and have very rarely used the 36. That alone will open up the whole new world of macro.......which is super cool! You will be amazed at all the critters you will find once you start looking for them!
Nicely done overall and looking forward to your other explorations!:cheers:

[John Chardine]

Thanks to all. I will reprocess the original RAW image and see what I come up with .

[Anita Bower]

Your title says it all! I like the lightening done by Norm. You will have a great image when you finish your pp.

[Art Kornienko]

Supberb lighting and focus, I like he original the way it is. Pretty stunning for 1/3 of a second. Maybe some CW rotation?