Dragonfly

[Connie Mier]

I'm new to macro photography and recently purchased a macro lens. All critiques are welcomed. Also, if you can help me identify this dragonfly I would appreciate that as well.
Sony a700, Sigma 180mm, external flash
1/400, f9, ISO640, handheld
postprocessing: minor crop from bottom and right, some sharpening mask
Connie

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Beautiful image to begin with. Congrats on your new lens. Pretty sharp image and a lovely uniform BG.
Might only tone down the brightness on the perch which seems a bit over powering. That said, the perch is a very interesting one with those thorns.
Nice image overall Connie.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Connie, welcome to the great world of macro, and you're starting with a good lens. You did a nice job on the d-fly focus, and as Kaushik points out the perch is to hot and pulls your eye away from the main subject. You may or may not have been able to use a diffusser over top off the subject which would have cut the light on the perch (but might have scared off the critter). BG looks good.

[Steve Maxson]

Welcome to macro, Connie, where the photo subjects are almost endless. Good sharpness and a nice background. My initial reaction to your image is that it has too much flash. The perch, as noted above, looks too bright as does the back of the dragonfly - especially between the wings. You might be able to tone those areas down in post-processing. Sorry, I can't help with the ID on Florida dragonflies. Keep them coming.

[Anita Bower]

The orange of the dragonfly stand out nicely against the blurred green BG. Others have commented on the light colored perch. I especially like the transluscence of the wings. The world of macro photography is so much fun. Welcome!

[Connie Mier]

Thank you everyone, great suggestions. Now I'm really excited about the macro lens! The light perch was a issue for me, will try to work on it some more and see what happens.
Connie

[Fabs Forns]

Connie, that's the lens Al and I use and are very happy with.
I may go darker on this, especially the perch, that seems to be very light and distracts a lot.

[Don Lacy]

Hi Connie, Nice image of either a female Golden Wing Skimmer or Needham's Skimmer they are very hard to tell apart and with out pulling out my ID book I would guess a Golden Wing.