Texas Banded Gecko

[Trey Barron]

I have tried to photograph these guys several times and think this is the best so far. I wished for a little more depth of field, but I am fairly pleased. Any suggestions would be great!
Canon XTi
100mm macro
f20 @ 1/100
dual flash on manual

[Gus Cobos]

Nice composition and colors on your little friend, love the background...:D

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Trey,
I'd crop at least half the top BG to accentuate the pose of the Gecko.....pano gecko! What ISO were you using. I've had fairly reasonable results with 400 ISO on the Rebel. Another option is to put a 1.4 tele on............this would get you a little further back........softens the flash a bit and in effect.........improves DOF somewhat.Nicely done,
Roman

[Trey Barron]

I was at iso 200. I will give the pano crop a try.
Thanks

[John Cooper]

Reptiles always present a compositioal problem with their long tails - whether to include the whole subject or move in for a head and shoulder shot (assuming its not a snake) :)

The all important head and foreleg are very sharp here, but I agree with cropping some off the top to strengthen the composition.

[Robert O'Toole]

Pano crop is a good idea for sure. The subject is very cool.

Was this image made at night?
No one has mentioned this, I may be wrong, the image looks like it was taken in a dark terrarium in someones basement, or outdoors at either 4:45 AM or 10:10 PM.
F20 in manual mode is going to make the camera set the flash as the main light. You need to set the manual exposure for the ambient light, then use the flash in Manual power. Otherwise you will get an image that looks like it was taken at night, well maybe it is accurate if this is the case. If this is a night time shot the image is just too dark and needs some work in PS to lighten the image.

Robert

[Trey Barron]

This was taken in a shaded area due to the very harsh light. The camera was in manual mode and the flash was adjusted while after checking the histogram. I will try the crop and lighten it up a tad a see how it turns out.

Thanks to all.

[Bob Reimer]

Lately I've been finding I'm happier with my macros when I stick to something nearer the optimum for my lens like f/8 or f/11. At f/20 you are likely getting diffraction problems showing up so the image loses acuity in the in focus areas and makes the OOF areas worse. The diffraction issue gets worse as the pixel density of the sensor increases it seems. Next time you're out doing macros of a subject that sits still enough, try to run a series of different f/ stops to see what the optimum stop is for your camera/lens combination. You might be surprised that you get more apparent depth of field wider open.