Drying moth

[Linwood Ferguson]

http://www.captivephotons.com/Nature/Bird-Rookery-Swamp/i-btMx5df/0/XL/20111130DSC5620-XL.jpg

Taken with a D300 and 200-400 F4 @ 400, 1/60th at f/8, ISO 250, natural light.

The moth is not very interesting but I was very pleased with the water. I wish for a tiny bit more DOF (or maybe the far antenna moved, not sure)

I'm very happy with the 200-400 for small (not macro) items on the DX body, it lets you get fairly full frame shots of a large butterfly while staying 6' or so away.

Comments or suggestions welcomed. Trying to decide if it gets a frame.

[Ken Childs]

Hi Linwood, first let me say that this is a Skipper Butterfly, not a moth. You can tell because it has clubs at the ends on the antennae. I'm pretty sure it's an Ocola Skipper, Panoquina ocola.

I love these dew covered bug shots and you did well with this one. Normally you'd want the bug to be facing towards the camera instead of away but since this is a plain looking butterfly and the dew drops looks so nice, this pose works for me. You might try some extra sharpening on the back antenna and it looks like there is a fair amount of noise showing in the BG so a round of noise reduction might be in order. It looks like the focus is on the back of the BF so the head looks a bit soft....selective sharpening on that area might make it look better. I'm not in love with the orange in the UL so if this were mine, I'd paint or clone over it. It's a good shot and some extra pp work will definitely make it look even better. :S3:

[Linwood Ferguson]

Thank you for the identification, and suggestions. I did some noise reduction and tried a bit of selective sharpening but can't get much more out of the antenna. I'll keep working on it. I liked the orange just to have some complementary color, but I can see it as a distraction, trying to decide which "wins". I edited the shot and it synchronized to smugmug so the original got updated, which was not really my intent, but having done it will leave for now.

[Ken Childs]

I did some noise reduction and tried a bit of selective sharpening but can't get much more out of the antenna.
A trick that can sometimes help with OOF antenna is to clone or paint away the fuzzy edges and then to select the antenna and sharpen and/or boost the contrast.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Linwood. Very nice work with your telephoto "macro" lens! I love all the water droplets on your skipper and the light really makes them sparkle. Ken has given you some very good suggestions to consider. The only thing I might add is that you could decrease the saturation in the greens just in front of the skipper's head. Those greens are bright enough that they tend to draw my eye away from your subject. Overall, this is very well done and I hope to see more of your work here in Macro. :S3: