Lacewing

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
1/250 sec f/10 ISO 400
Canon 430EX off-camera with Lumiquest Softbox

[Julie Kenward]

Ian, lovely lacewing portrait! The image feels a little bit dark on my monitor - I think a slight curves adjustment might brighten it up a bit. If this were mine, I would probably clone the leaves at the bottom right out of the image and maybe that leaf on the left side of the stem at the very top. The rest of the plant seems to add a nice balance to the image and gives a lot of good environment to the photo.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Julie! Yes, I think you're right -- I'm going to get rid of those excess leaves. I thought the lighting on the bug balanced the dark BG, but I'll try lightening the whole thing up and see how it plays. Thanks again for the critique.

Ian

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Ian, very nice details on this lacewing. I love that colorfull eye. I feel that there is a lot of room around the bug, so instead of cloning, I would start with a crop from the bottom right and see how that works.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Jerry. I'll try that when I get home from work.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Ian,
I like Julie's suggestions on the lightening and leaves......but I am also partial to Jerry's idea of a crop.....from the right to get the insect away from the center comp. I think the tweaks will take this up a notch.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Roman. Didn't get a chance yet to play with it, but will work on both of those later. A screen-crop here convinces me.