Hiya! I wouldn't dream of eating your vegie plants!

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Canon 430EX + Lumiquest Softbox
1/125 sec f/29

Crop, S/H, sharpening in CS5

I haven't been able to get out birding for a bit, so I'm hunting backyard wildlife.

[Steve Maxson]

A nice face shot, Ian. Good sharpness and comp. A few small tweaks would make this even better. I would suggest cloning the dark spot in the background along the top of the frame and the lighter spot in the background between the grasshopper's head and the leaf as these tend to draw my eye away from your subject. You might aslo carefully clone out some of the flash-generated specular highlights in the leaves. :)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Great shot, good detail DOF and colours. I would be tempted to blend the greens a little in the background.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Ian, great subject, especially when out of birds! I like the details you've captured on the hopper. I am a bit distracted from the subject by all the hairy plant material. I can imagine the image improving by the suggestions on the BG above.

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Liked the inquisitive look in its face !
Another vote for Steve's cloning suggestion of the BG spots.

[Julie Kenward]

I like the suggestions given but would also add that by going with a vertical presentation you'd eliminate most of the distraction in the URC. What would be left could then easily be cloned away, leaving that wonderful face staring back at us!

[Norm Dulak]

That critter looks soooo pleasant! But my suggestion would be to clone out both the light green area above it and the harry leaf on the upper right side. Both arguably take some of the attention away from that most interesting face. But TFS!

[Ken Childs]

Hey Ian, suggestions on all the stuff surrounding the 'hopper have already been made so I'll offer a couple on the bug itself. I think giving this a bit of a contrast boost would make it pop more and I also think doing some work on the eyes would be a good thing. Try selecting them and upping the contrast a lot. Normally I would suggest that you sharpen them but I don't think that's really necessary on these eyes. You'll probably have to tone down the catchlights after doing this but lightly brushing over them should be easy to do.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks everyone for your critiques. I've worked on it a bit -- what do you think? Removed the offending dark and light spots, added some contrast to the eyes, and did a bit of a crop making it a bit more vertical.

[Julie Kenward]

Ian, I think it's much stronger now. You pulled out all the distractions and really centered in on the little guy! Nice pp work. ;)

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks for the feedback, Jules!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Ian,
Back from vacation and drive home......great advice given above....and way to implement it in the re-post! Works for me!!!