Fly on flower

[Brendan Dozier]

This was a bit underexposed, but liked the eyes and colors. Crop, ACR, CS5, some touch up on fly and petals, cloned out some anthers on left and behind fly, NR

7D, EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, HH
1/100
16.0
ISO 800

[Julie Kenward]

Brendan, did you have any kind of extenders on the lens? This is really magnified for that lens...was thinking maybe you had one or more extension tubes in conjunction with it? Would like to see you brighten those whites up a bit more - this is a dynamic composition and has really great DOF. Any idea what kind of flower it is sitting on?

[Jason Stander]

Great shot Brendon... agree with Julie about the whites... but I love the comp and great detail... so VVWD!:w3

[Brendan Dozier]

Thanks Jules & Jason much appreciated.

Good call regarding brightening the whites Jules, I also did some more noise clean-up and added a little contrast to yellow central area of flower.
Don't currently have an extension tube, but think it would have helped in a lot of ways to get a better RAW capture, and reduce the amount of processing!:S3:
Do not have ID on flower, I always forget to write down the names or ask when I'm at the botanic garden. Maybe some else knows?

[Allen Sparks]

Really like the repost, well exposed and the details are quite nice.

[Ken Childs]

Hey Brendan, you did a great job of keeping this one sharp HH at 1/100. The fly looks good and the cool flower it's on makes this one even more interesting. It's too bad there's a stamen blocking part of the fly but there isn't much that can be done about that. The repost looks better but it seems a little soft and light to me so if this were mine, I'd bump up the contrast a bit. I also think the eyes could stand to be lightened a bit and while you're at it, maybe some extra contrast on them would help them to stand out more. Overall this one is really nice and I think a few minor tweaks will make it look even better than it already does now. :S3:

[Jerry van Dijk]

Very nice Brendan, those eyes really look cool! The perch is nice too! Those wings look pretty awesome as well, I would like to see a shot with more DOF someday!

[Brendan Dozier]

Thanks Allen, Ken, & Jerry.

I added some additional contrast all around and some on eyes as Ken, suggested, also cleaned up a little bit of halos around edges. Think it does look better.
Though this was close to being tack sharp, I still was pushing it with a big crop combined with being underexposed. Jerry, maybe f18 and an extension tube would have been perfect!

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hey Brendan, this brighter/contrastier version looks great! I do notice some considerable noise on the wings now, specifically in the purple reflections.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Brendan. This is a cool looking fly and those eyes are awesome! Very nice DOF for a shot like this and excellent detail around the head and mouthparts. I'm trying to decide if I like your 2nd or 3rd repost better - it's subjective and largely a matter of taste. :S3: Jerry makes a good point about picking up some noise on the wings - maybe you could try a little less sharpening in those areas. Overall, this is very well done!

I like the iridescence you captured on the wings and I wanked to pass on a point of information about that - it has recently been discovered that those are not just random reflections on the wings, but that they occur in patterns that are specific to each species and can be used for taxonomic purposes.

[Brendan Dozier]

Thanks Jerry & Steve, I do see the noise in the wings now. This has been a lot more work, but I think it was worth it.

Steve, appreciate you sharing little tid bits of info about insects and the macro world. Very cool new discovery - so the patterns on the wings are kind of like a species fingerprint. That should take some of the confusion out of getting ID's between similar looking species.