Tangle vein fly

[Glenn Pure]

Hi all, my first post to this category! I hope it's suitable. This fly (probably Trichophthalma sp) was hovering near me over a period of 10 or 15 minutes but it wouldn't linger for too long - still managed to get a few shots. I have 4 keepers from this session. The only problem I'm having with this shot is the background which looks blotchy on my monitor. Blotchy appearance only happens after I save down to sRGB jpg so I think it might be an artefact of the limited colour space of sRGB or jpg compression? Blurring the background more doesn't help. Any tips on that (but I don't really want to replace the background)? I have a lighter background on a couple of the other shots but I don't think they are as good. This crop is just over a quarter of the frame area.

Capture details (exif data saved with file so you can see the full details there): Canon 80D with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm handheld. AI servo AF. Manual exposure 1/2000 sec, f8, ISO 1000. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser, crop, lighting adjustments, default NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin. Very light NR applied to fly and stronger NR to background. Fly only sharpened after final downsizing.

[John Mack]

Nice job get this fly pretty sharp while handholding. Really like the dark background and the contrast between the fly.

[Steve Maxson]

Welcome to the Macro forum, Glenn! A cool looking fly and a great job of capturing it in flight! Very sharp where it most needs to be - and the background looks OK on my monitor. Looking forward to seeing more of your work!

[Bob Miller]

Nice work! Bg Looks fine on my monitor!