question about a fly....

[pat lillich]

took some pictures of this guy at the rose garden last month. love his bright colors and iridescent torso --- but I was wondering - I didn't get a good picture of his proboscis - but in this one - it seems to have what look like spores on filaments - or something on filaments on it... and I'm curious. Is this a normal part of his anatomy, or has he been colonized by something?


nikon d300, 105 f/2.8, 1/400 sec at f/16 handheld iso 400

cropped with some recovery and negative exposure brushed on his torso in LR, and selective unsharp mask in PS

I didn't handle the light shining on his hard torso well - would appreciate suggestions to help me understand what I should have done differently to get a more mellow photo.

[Colin Driscoll]

A good shot but difficult to get an even focal plane when you are on such an oblique angle. Exposure looks OK.
Mouthparts look normal, I think those hairy things are the equivalent of taste buds. A pic on this link shows something similar.

http://www.insectsofwestvirginia.net/f/glossary.html

[Jay Sheinfield]

Hi Pat,

I did some post processing work........toned down the brightspots with CS clone at 25% opacity using sampled color from darker portion of fly. Toned down the pink flower as it drew my attention from the fly. With all the highlights toned down the image was a bit underexposed, so
I did and exposure adjustment (+.23) and some curve work. Also lightened the shadows a bit with shadow/highlight feature................lastly a dose of noise reduction in the BG. Let me know what you think.
I would only add......you have a challenging lighting situation with bright flower and dark fly. It will confuse most sensors..........although I'm not a flash person, this may have been a good situation to use a fill flash to balance out the heavy contrast in the light. Getting the lighting right in the camera is better than doing it in PP, at least less time consuming.

[pat lillich]

thanks Colin - I hadn't ever looked that closely at flies before - they have incredible anatomy dont they? i want to go looking for more - if I can figure out how to get better photos.

Jay - thank you - that is a great improvement! Not using flash was probably a hindrance here - the highlights on the torso were blown, and you showed that the rest was underexposed. There is so much to learn. You say that you prefer not to use flash. Can you talk a little about how you would have approached this very willing subject? It was about 9am, wispy clouds in an otherwise bright california sunny day. I got caught up in trying to get the texture in his eye.

I was worried about getting too much noise from higher iso on such a small subject (medium sized fly - but small compared to the birds that ive been learning on)

would you have tried for higher fstop for more dof, and pushed the iso up? my hands are not as steady as I wish, so needed a short shutter speed to cut down on blur - my husband is encouraging me to try using a monopod more, but its taking me awhile to learn to position it quickly to get the camera where i want it.

the next shot had better eye detail, but less filament detail on the proboscis. i'll try your processing suggestions and see how it looks.

thank you both very much!!

[Jay Sheinfield]

Ok.............I would prefer to use flash in a high contrast situation, I'm just not practiced at it :). I'm quite familiar with your gear, so another stop down to f/22-32 would have given you more DOF, and take your SS down to 200 (f/22), or 100 (f/32), both of which are do-able with 105
macro with good sharpness. I would vote for a tripod way before a monopod unless your shooting sports with big glass. As far as noise, ISO 400 on D300 is acceptable, and you can use noise reduction software later. I don't like iso 800 on the D300., but some are ok with it along with NR in PP. I sometimes will lower my shutter speed even further to get better hand held DOF and shoot at 6 frames/sec.firing off a bunch in the hope that at least one will be sharp. About 80%+ of the time this works. But, when possible a tripod is the only way to go in macro shooting. Also, always consider changing your angle of view to get the sensor plan lined up with the subject and DOF will be more even across the image.

Shooting in the sun more than 20-30 minutes after sunrise, you loose some of that magic morning light and, unfortunately, gain a bunch in contrast. Try the flash next time...........also practice good hand holding techniques, stick that elbow in your gut, support the camera with both hands, press your head firmly against the viewfinder.......... will all help when tripod is not available. Keep in mind the VR feature in he 105 is essentially useless at these close distances.

Keep 'em coming.................

On second thought, at this close distance and HH, SS of 100 maybe pushing it depending on technique. I would be ok at 200 and get f/22 and line up you plane of focus. Others may have better experience at handholding than I do..................

[Ken Childs]

Hey Pat, you got a great mix of colors here and the comp looks great! Jay seems to have pretty much covered everything and I like his repost although in terms of brightness, I think I'd like something between the OP and his version.

IMO when shooting insects the argument between monopod and tripod boils down to this: if you need to be especially mobile, the monopod is the way to go. If you have the luxury to sit in a prime location or you have room to work with, use a tripod. A tripod is much more stable than a monopod but it's not as mobile and trying to quickly setup a tripod in or near bushes can be a frustrating experience. Odds are that by the time you get it setup, you've probably scared off your intended subject.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Pat. You have a very colorful fly with good sharpness within your DOF, good comp, and an interesting background. I like the eye-level shooting angle. It has been my experience that when shooting shiny or metallic-bodied insects, it is difficult not to get at least some blown spectral highlights (even when using a flash with a diffuser) such as you experienced with this fly. As Jay has demonstrated, these can often be removed with some careful post-processing.

Thanks to Colin for the interesting link on fly anatomy. Also Jay and Ken have given you some good suggestions and advice above. Just to show that are multiple ways to get a similar result, I shoot most of my insect photos hand-held using a diffused flash. The light from the flash stops motion while hand holding gives you a lot of mobility. Nothing against tripods - I use those as well, when conditions permit. :) Keep them coming.

[Bob Miller]

Pat...You did really well for handholding at this close a range! I think the repost takes this up a notch! Well done!:cheers: