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Colin Driscoll
10-09-2010, 10:14 PM
This little fellow about 8mm long.

Cropped from horizontal.

Tripod, focussing stage, IS off, MF, mirror set to reflect sunlight onto subject.
50D, Canon 100 macro AF IS, 1/125 f10 -2ev.

Dave Mills
10-09-2010, 10:33 PM
Hi Colin, I like the diagonal presentation. Interesting subject(I know these are tiny) along with a muted backround. The lighting looks a bit bright towards the subjects tail.If my eyes aren't playing tricks I believe parts of the insect are also a bit soft.
I recommend you going to a higher Fstop(I would use F22) so you capture more DOF. You were using a tripod so the SS wouldn't be an issue...

Colin Driscoll
10-09-2010, 10:46 PM
Thanks Dave, these little critters are quite woolly and that can give the illusion of softness.

Jay Sheinfield
10-10-2010, 09:09 AM
Hi Colin,

I have to agree with Dave. The back two leg and mid wing look soft. Your point of focus appears to be on the upper part of the stem/branch. BG looks great and colors compliment the bug. I might have toned down the bright parts of the wing and added more light to the head and eye. Pleasing comp.

Ken Childs
10-10-2010, 11:26 AM
Hey Colin, this is a cool looking critter! That head looks like it belongs on a fish!

The comp looks good and the BG looks great but the light is too strong for this light colored subject. You've lost a lot of interesting detail in those wings. Reflecting light was a good idea but you might have had better results with something less reflective than a mirror, such as white foam board. Another option would have been to use your flash at a low setting with a diffuser of some sort. As already mentioned, this looks soft in some spots so a smaller aperture would have helped get everything in focus. I'm guessing this is a pretty small subject so f16 probably would have done the trick.

If you're lucky enough to find another one, this is definitely something that's worthwhile revisiting. :)

Steve Maxson
10-10-2010, 09:31 PM
Hi Colin. The first thing I thought when I saw this was that I'd never seen a leafhopper like this before - then I noticed you were from Australia. ;) What an interesting looking insect and I like the subtle colors. There are some good suggestions above, with which I would agree, and I don't have anything new to add except that I hope to see more of your images. :)

kostas nianiopoulos
10-11-2010, 06:26 AM
good one , in the bottom looks a bit over , could you try the method linear burn , or multiply some times it brings out some details . well done !!

Chris Ober
10-11-2010, 06:23 PM
As the others stated, f22 probably would have worked but you could have reached the same outcome with the stop you chose but working on getting the hopper and perch parallel to the camera back. With subject flat like this, you don't always need the smaller apertures if you're aligned evenly. Small adjustments in angles is all it usually takes to make a big difference. Nice even clean background. Cool bug.

yeshwanth gowda
10-15-2010, 11:43 AM
its a flatid