Dragonflies and backlighting

[Juan Aragonés]

I am sure that several of you would know that I am a big fan of birds and that most of the images that I made are birds. For bird photography I use a 500mm f4 lens that is great for birds but not the best lens for landscapes or macro but I am always trying to made something different with such a focal lenght. Yesterday I spent a bunch of hours photographing birds. the marshlands were full of dragonflies, hundreds of them, millions I should say. When the sun was close to the horizon I decided to lokk for a spot with good conditions to make images of dragonflies in backlighting. With such amount of insects it was easy to find the adecuate place and wait for the nice light. The dark, black BG are just reeds. The image is right out of the camera, photoshop was used just to adjust saturation, sharpness, a slight selective color adjustment to increase the differences between the cold rim light in the bottom of the grasses and the golden rim in the top of the frame due to the sun, and a touch of noise reduction filter.

Your comment and suggestions are highly appreciated :)

Nikon D300 AFS Nikkor 500VR supported on the window of my car, 95% full frame, f10 1/640s ISO640 manual exposure

[Juan Aragonés]

I think that backlight images are really fantastic in digital. It is just AMAZING the amount of details that a digital sensor can resolve on a backlight situation. Here is a detail of the dragonflies at 100% :-)

[Desmond Chan]

Although I am torn between whether I would like to see the dragonfly lower down to the right clear and sharp, this is a wonderful image as far as I am concerned. Big congrats, Juan !!

[Randy Stout]

Juan:

Another striking image with creative use of light.

I had the same thought as Desmond re:far right dragonfly.

My first thought was to clone it out, and recrop from the right and bottom a bit, but it is nice as is

Thanks again. I find doing 'macro' photography helps my birds too, broadens our horizons, so to speak.

Randy

[Julie Kenward]

I really like that you have a Dragonfly in the lower area but the OOF one is bugging me a bit (no pun intended!) If you weren't against doing so, I'd consider cloning him out and copying another one into his place...but only if you were comfortable with something like that.

Excellent use of lighting, Juan. The dragonflies absolutely glow!

[Juan Aragonés]

Thanks for the imput guys and gal:). Like you, I considered the possibility of cloning out the out of focus dragonfly and to go for a more tight version but I think that the out of focus dragonfly adds some balance to the composition. Croping a bit more would work but I have some images from the same series with less empty room and I prefer this one. In fact I made a lot of different images in the same place, with one dragonfly, with 3, 5 dragonflies, with all in focus, with part of them in focus and part of then out of focus... you know, when you find a cooperative subject with good shooting conditions you burn out compact flash cards without considering that you have to invest a lot of time processing :D

Yesterday dragonflyes were by far more cooperatives than birds and I am considering the possibility of driving one and a half hour and return to the same place for more dragonflies because the light is just outstanding.

Julie, I didn´t read your post because I was writing a comment. No problem with cloning out the dragonfly :-)

[Markus Jais]

I like it as presented. The black BG here is great in combination with the light. The out of focus dragonfly doesn't bother me. It would have been better if it were sharp but I think it is a great addition to the image, even out of focus.

Markus

[Thomas Herou]

I like the original best,too.
The feeling in the backlight is almost surreal.
Very good image,Juan!

[Steve Maxson]

An image well seen and captured, Juan! I like the image as presented, but if it were mine, I would be tempted (as an alternative) to crop from both left and right (removing the lower dragonfly and reed) for a vertical pano look - but then, I like extreme comps on occasion. :)

[Ed Vatza]

Excellent concept; excellent execution. I really like everything about it EXCEPT for that OOF dragonfly in the LR. I would definitely clone him out and re-crop. Or as JUles said, clone in another in-focus d-fly. Other than that, I absolutely love it!

[Jay Gould]

Juan, everything else has been said; no need to repeat - lovely as presented.

Do you also use extension tubes with your 500? I am now experimenting with tubes and my 300; I haven't graduated high school to a 500.

[Connie Mier]

Simply beautiful, Juan. I might try a tighter vertical crop with just the three infocus dragonflies and see what happens. But as is, it's very pleasing.
Connie

[Mike Moats]

Hey Juan, I love this image, wish it were mine, and if it was I'd clone out the OOF d-fly. It really pulls my eye away that great comp with the three. Congrats!

[BillTyler]

Beautifully done. I love the backlighting and the black background. I wonder if it would balance just a bit better if you added some black on the right and cropped just a tiny bit on the left.

Bill

[Juan Aragonés]

Hi all and thanks a lot for your comments and sugestions :-)
Not sure what to do with the out of focus dragonfly. I would prefer a sharp insect but an out of focus one adds deep to the image and I like that. This evening I would try to return to the same place to get more images of this guys, let´s see what I bring back home ;-)

Jay, I didn´t use extension tubes with the 500 or the 300 so I cannot help with that... by the moment (I am thinking to try extensions tubes soon).

[Bob Allen]

You're thinking out of the box, my friend. An unusual image that grows on me the more I study it. And isn't that something we all strive for?

I like both versions you posted. If pushed, I'd have to say that I'd prefer to crop the original version in (with same photo dimensions) so that the OOF d'fly was out and to the tighten up the left-side, leaving only 3 d'flies. Or perhaps crop 3 cm from the bottom, and proportionally from the left side, thus keeping the fourth d'fly in the image. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is too much black vastness on the left side, for me.

I've attached a cropped version, see what you think.

[Bob Allen]

Looking at my crop, perhaps I took too much black from the left side. But I like the rest of the cropped version.

[Juan Aragonés]

Hey Bob, I like your croping a lot and I have several frames of the group of dragonflies that are almost exactly the same composition that the one you choosed. I am very happy with this series of images because they allows a lot of croping and compositional options :)