Little Green Grasshopper

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Sony A850~Sony Macro 2.8/100~ISO 1000~F11~1/320 sec~HH~natural light~10-10-2010~Quintana, Texas~CS5
Comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill

my website (http://avianimagesource.com)

[Julie Kenward]

William, what a nice looking grasshopper! He feels a tiny bit dark to me but then I'm on my work monitor so take that with a grain of salt. I would clone out the little OOF area in the ULC. Good clarity and angle on this. I like the perch as well!

[Ken Childs]

Hey Bill, you've captured a good looking subject here and that BG looks great! I would like to see a bit more DOF since the antenna and the back of the abdomen look a little soft so maybe moving to f16 would have helped. The lighting looks somewhat harsh and the face is dark so dialing up the SS and using some fill flash might have helped get more even lighting. I think this would look stronger if you cropped a small slice from the top and enough from the left to remove most of the OOF stick which is distracting. This crop would also get the head of the 'hopper closer to a ROT position. You might be able to use SH or a curves adjustment on the just the bug to soften that light. All in all it looks good but I think some simple editing tweaks could easily take this one up a few notches! :)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Bill,
Agree with Ken and Jules here..... a few tweaks will take this up a few notches. It does appear your focus locked on the leg......and given f11.....I would expect it to be sharper through the body too.....so you have to be really careful with the angle to subject when working that close and at that f-stop. Just something to keep in mind in the field.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

I have been shooting macro a bit longer than 1 week, and although photography, whether avian, landscape, or macro, the same principles apply, macro seems the most demanding, and I don't think it is because I've haven't done it for long. First about the high contrast light; here on the Texas coast we had 2 solid weeks of cloudless skies, and for me this makes avian photography pretty much out of the question. I hate high contrast, and I was working under the assumption that macro was a bit more forgiving about light quality. It is, but not by much. It is generally much easier to postion the light angle in relation to the subject, for example, but the same high contrast problems exist. However, the bright sunlight has distinct advantages in macro, mainly it allows a greater DOF while maintaining a sufficient shutter-speed and a reasonable ISO.
About shutter-speed. The usual advice is a minimum shutter-speed = 1/focal legnth for hand holding. I would surmise that with macro the SS needs to be higher than this.
Focusing is much more difficult when a mere 12 inches from the subject, especially when hand holding, and focus lock is maintained for a split second at a time, not only due to camera shake, but wind. It might appear that in this image there was a sturdy limb the critter was sitting on, but it was actually maybe 1/3 inch in diameter and oscilating with the wind. With this image focus was locked, as far as I know, on the head and greater DOF was certainly needed, but with a profile shot I thought I could get by with F11. Apparently not.
I have a few questions about depth of field in relation to insects. Mainly with a some insects, especially with long legs and antenna, getting the entire subject in focus is virtually impossible, requiring F stops un- achievable by lenses, and even if they could it would require light so bright as to set the subject on fire! Of course Helicon Focus could be used for a stationary subject, but what if it was moving? It seems the best we can do is get the most important elements in sharp focus (eyes/head for example).
Again, I appeciate the quidance. regards~Bill

[Steve Maxson]

Hi William. This is a clear improvement over your previous post especially with regard to comp and background. Jules and Ken have offered some good suggestions for you to consider. I see you have lots of questions - welcome to our world! These are issues we deal with constantly and I expect we each have our own preferred methods of dealing with them - I'll offer some thoughts from my perspective. With your expertise in avian photography, you should be ahead of the game in terms of comp and light angle. I would argue that high contrast light is just as bad for macro as it is for birds and this is compounded if you are shooting insects with shiny or reflective bodies. Many macro photographers use one or two flashes, with diffusers, as the main light to produce a bright, but not necessarily high contrast, light. This also takes care of the shutter speed and f-stop issues you run into when hand holding in natural light. Flash can also be used as fill light to soften contrast. Are you using auto focus? I think most macro folks are using manual focus - and focusing by moving the entire camera slightly back and forth. Of course, if you are using a tripod and have a cooperative subject, the standard method of focusing will work well. The focusing issues you describe above are typical - we all are challenged by subject movement, wind, and shallow DOF. If you are unsure about how much DOF is needed for a particular subject (this is difficult to judge in the field) you can try bracketing f-stops. It often becomes a choice of DOF on the subject vs too much detail in the background. I agree with your frustration with getting the whole insect in focus - sometimes the laws of physics decree that this is not possible and we have to focus on the most important parts (eyes/head - just as with birds). Sometimes a shallow DOF with just the head in focus can make an appealing image - some folks shoot this way a lot - it depends on your personal style.
Anyway, these are just my thoughts and others can chime in if they have some different views - I'm eager to learn, too. :)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey William,
Great advice by Steve above. Yes i too shoot manual focus.....even when HH. I use flash a lot......usually because the wind is too strong.....when I venture inside do I go for more natural light images but I have been playing around with more shallow dof's after seeing the success many have here! Keep in mind that there are many shallow DOF instances that are succesful.....personally for me.....they are much more difficult because the focus point is soooooo critical. So your avian BG with HA (yes.....HAP here too:2eyes2:)....will allow you to figure that out much more quickly as well as the BG's......which in macro are often just as important as the subject! I often look at BG's first.....then decide of the subject is worth photographing! In the field I often spend more time policing the area than actually taking the picture too! Some ideas to keep in mind and after just one week.....seems you are on the right track!