katydid

[pat lillich]

have become rather obsessed with trying to get a decent picture of a katydid at the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden. Havent achieved it yet - but I'm learning lots.

per recommendations from folk here on the forum, I went back with a flash. I need to figure out a diffuser. I also seem to have a finite number of things I can remember at any one time - and i always forget to check something. this time it was shutter speed. (ok, and making sure his blamed antenna was all the way in the frame....)

but at least i see a glimmer of hope - a few decades of practice and i might just get it...

nikon d300, 105 f2.8, 1/60 sec at f/22, aperture priority, iso 400 sb-900 flash.
cropped some off the top and bottom in LR, toned down some magenta roses in the background, applied some NR and selective unsharp mask in PS - and cloned out some white spots that I suspect are specular highlights?

[Ken Childs]

Hey Pat, I think you did quite well with this one, especially with the front half of the bug. The head looks good and sharp and I like the pose. There's something weird going on towards the back with the BG color bleeding on to the bug. When editing, did you do anything special to that area? Some of the lower areas of the bud are a bit bright but that should be as easy fix with the clone tool. There's a small black spot under the top antenna that needs to go away. You already mentioned the cutoff antenna but you might be able to clone away the tip and just pretend that it was shorter than it really was. :)

Your flash works looks good. My macro diffuser/softbox is half of a plastic milk jug with some white silk taped over the big end. It's pretty ugly but it works great! I do have the advantage if shooting at home when no one else is watching so I don't have to worry about what others think but it's amazing what you can come up with when you don't have the budget to buy all sorts of fancy accessories. ;)

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Pat. I like your katydid - this image has a lot of good things going for it. Your flash-generated light looks very natural and the katydid gave you a nice pose against a pleasing background. I don't mind the falloff in DOF toward the rear because the katydid is turned slightly toward us and the front portion is very sharp. The antenna extending beyond the frame doesn't really bother me. I see what Ken means about some magenta color bleeding onto the back of the katydid - there is also a magenta halo around the back rear leg - a result of some cloning work, perhaps? If you still have room at the bottom, it might be interesting to see this with the full flower bud included.

A diffuser that I use on my single-flash setup is a Micro Apollo by Westcott. It fits over the front of the flash head and attaches with velcro. There are other similar types on the market that, I expect, work just as well - or you can go with Ken's method and save some money. :)

[pat lillich]

well blast. I got so focused on one or two things that huge glaring other things just flew by without a notice. Went back and looked at the image in LR, and the area i started to try to remove magenta from was mostly around the rearend - so that strange effect is poor photoshopping. I should have just stuck to trying to desaturate it I think. There is a bit more room at the bottom and a bit more on the right - i added those back in to see how they look and tried just unsaturating the magenta. I also realized that I had done a LAB curves/lightness adjustment in PS.

I had tried having the defuser attached to the nikon flash down in front - but the flash very quickly overheated (at least I think that was what that icon meant when it stopped flashing) - so thank you both for your suggestions. I'm already getting curious looks from the joggers and dogwalkers who use the park - I've learned to stuff a plastic bag in my backpocket so i can kneel in the mud on it --- though a milk jug would be a bit harder to carry around....

So my husband, who is much more knowledgeable about photography than i am, has kept telling me that a wise thing to do while i'm learning, is to put the camera in aperture mode, and see what it meters the light at for shutterspeed and shift to manual mode if that is what i want to be in - for working with a flash, would you basically do the same thing - then decide what i want the shutterspeed to be, set it that way in manual mode, and let the flash provide the needed extra light --- then check the picture and see if i want to open up a bit, so i want less flash?

thanks for the suggestions I've attached the less modified attempt.... there isn't really the full bud at the bottom unfortunately...

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Pat. I like your repost. Regarding flash - different folks have different methods and I make no claims of authority on using flash. I have my camera set in manual mode and usually use flash as the main light. I will set SS, f-stop, ISO, and flash output where I think I want it and then try a test shot. Depending on how the test shot looks, I may vary any or all of these 4 settings. One thing I try to avoid in the field is a black background. You may want to read through this thread http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?12287-Handheld-Macro-BG-control-basics in the Tutorials and Educational Resources Forum for some additional information. :)

[pat lillich]

thank you Steve, for your help and patience. I hadn't seen that thread yet and that is definitely helpful. I have such a lot more to learn.

take care and thanks again.