Waiting

[Mark T Helm]

This little fly was waiting for the sun to dry the dew on it.

Title Waiting

Created Friday, August 19, 2011 7:15:13 AM
Flash No
Exposure time 1/8 s
Aperture 9.5
Max. aperture 2.80
Focal length 150.00 mm
ISO 400
Digital zoom ratio 1.00
Exposure bias 0
Metering mode Pattern
Exposure mode Auto exposure
White balance Automatic
Exposure program Aperture priority
Orientation Normal
Sharpness Hard
Contrast Normal
Saturation High saturation
Gain control High gain up
Scene capture type Standard
Light source Unknown
Camera Make OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Model E-3

[Dave Leroy]

Good timing to get the little fly before it warmed up and shook off the dew. Very sharp and nice dof. It seems a bit tight all around to me but there may be reasons for this.
Dave

[John Storjohann]

Mark, a nice eye spotting this one...I like the waterdrops on the body of the fly as well as on the stem of grass...I'd be tempted to tone down the highlights on the grass a bit in the URC, and maybe give a little more room up top, but the tight composition works well for me overall. Nice job!

[Mark T Helm]

thanks Dave. I was so proud of myself for actually getting the image and the exif data into the thread I forgot to detail the process. This is a 20 image stacked shot taken in the field and processed with zerene Stacker PMap crop and sharpen in PSC5. Thanks for the crop suggestion

[Mark T Helm]

thanks John I will look at your suggestions, getting this one ready to submit to several competitions

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Mark. I should have known this would be a stacked image. :S3: The stacking worked very well to give you excellent DOF. Good title - I like the way the fly is peeking over the grass leaf facing the sun and all the water drops add a lot of interest to the image. The comp is a little tight for my tastes (and I tend to like tight comps), but that is subjective. I would agree with John about adding some room at the top, if you have it. Overall, this is very well done!

[Julie Kenward]

Mark, If I might, I'd suggest trying a shadow/highlight adjustment in this case. I'd take the default level of the shadow adjustment and then pull the highlights back a bit. This will open up the darker areas just a touch more (revealing more detail on the back of the fly) and calming down the bright white part of the plant on the UR side.

[Mark T Helm]

thanks Julie that really made an improvement and with the suggestion to open the crop I think the image is improved Thank you for the suggestions