Eencie weencie bug

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Canon 430EX with Lumiquest Softbox
1/1600 @ f/13 ISO 400 HH
Crop and S/H in CS5
Sharpening in GF6.0/CS5

This guy is all of a couple of millimeters in length.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Ian,
I like the pose you got and the perch......the URC is a bit distracting but you could fix that with a patch if you so choose. At that angle I do have to ask why you chose only f13 and a SS of 1/1600 and given the flash.....perhaps a typo? In any case the sharpness is pretty good...falloff towards the wings.....but being this small I wonder if you just missed the focus point? Doesn't look as sharp at f13 as i would expect.Being this tiny....HH is sometimes an issue there.....so just keep that in mind and switch to the tripod if possible. The smaller the subject......the more likely I will reach for the tripod and abandon the HH'ing! Just something to keep in mind. It is a cool looking insect so perhaps another round of sharpening will do the trick.

[Jonathan Ashton]

The image looks good compositionally but it appears to be a little soft and grainy, was it perhaps a large crop? Suggest reduce crop slightly apply noise reduction and do selective sharpening on the insect.??

[Mike Moats]

Hey Ian, good point by Roman, and also agree with Jon, that is looks soft on the subject, but I think some extra sharpening would help.

[Ian Cassell]

This was the first time I tried shooting something quite so small. This guy was literally a couple of millimeters in length and I think Roman is right that I should have gone with the tripod. He really didn't move very much and I could have gotten away with a longer exposure and a smaller aperture. It would also have allowed me to use live-view and blow it up to confirm focus. Thanks for the comments, as always.