Blue-tailed Damselfly - Ischnura elegans

[Jonathan Ashton]

Tripod Mongoose 3.5 head Canon 50D Canon 180mm macro 1/15 sec f16
Another shot from my garden pond. This is the adult blue tailed damselfly probably about 1-2 days old, it is almost fully coloured now.
All C & C welcome.

[John Chardine]

Hi Jonathan- Lovely subtle colours here and nice and sharp (although why is the tail-tip OOF?). Although the lighting fairly harsh I think you could up the contrast a little. I tried one run of Linear Contrast in Ps Curves and it worked a treat.

BTW, after the theft my Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro lens (non-L) I have not replaced it and notice that you are using one of my candidate replacements. How do you like it?

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Jonathan, you are really making good use of your pond! Must be nice to have one at home. I really like the details in the head and thorax. I know getting damselflies super sharp head to tail tip is difficult and the tip here seems slightly soft. I do like the habitat you captured around this beauty and the colors of this specimen. Another nice image overall.

Allen

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks very much Allen and John. I agree more contrast would look good but this is only a day or so old so the colours are natural, I have been taking images over the last week or so trying to capture the damsels at varying stages of development, before long I think I will get a fully coloured one which will look a little more dazzling. The tip of the tail is a tad out of focus, I could not position the tripod without damaging plants at the pond side.

[Ken Childs]

Hey Jon, this damsel is a stunner....those pastel colors are wonderful! I like the comp and the inclusion of the interesting plants but the light is somewhat harsh. If you have a CPL, this might have been a good time to use it. I applied a Polarizing action I have for Photoshop and it did a pretty good job of reducing the glare but it's not as good as the real thing. I think you can do some selective sharpening on the tip of the abdomen and have it look convincing. Keep the damsel shots coming....I like seeing the daily progress reports!