Caught in the act

[Ken Childs]

Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS @ 400mm
Manual mode
1/200"
F16
ISO 200
Canon 430EX: On, Fired
HH
ACR and CS5

Last November I found this pair of Blue-faced Meadowhawks, AKA Sympetrum ambiguum, working on creating the next generation near a neighbor's pond. They flew around for awhile and then settled down on this leaf. It was a bad location for a good shot with poor lighting and things in the FG to cause distractions but I crouched down in the bushes and took the shot anyway, hoping I could get something worthwhile out of Photoshop.

CW rotation, cropped, removed second catchlights created by the flash, removed OOF leaves from the LRC and lower bottom center, cloned away and painted over numerous reflections of the flash, lightened upper 1/4 of BG, NR on the BG, SH, contrast, high-pass and smart sharpening with extra sharpening done on the wings and heads.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Ken, I think you did well given the difficult circumstances! I especially like the details you were able to capture. I do think you overdid a bit on the flash. It makes the image look a bit unnatural. Did you use a diffuser? That may solve part of the harshness the light now has. Re. sharpening: I think you should reduce the radius in your sharpening actions. Some details, e.g. the veins in the wings of the right dragonfly and in the eyes and faces look a bit coarse and smudgy, which can result from a radius that is too large. For these images, I usually do not exceed 0.8, but even go down to 0.6 if there are many fine details.
I'd add a bit of canvas to the left and maybe take some off the right.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Great capture nice and close. Grerat detail as well.

[bhavya joshi]

hi.. ken nice moment captured...and good details and BG,
I also agree with Jerry.. image is looks bit unnatural above abdomen parts of body. especially eyes. you have done more sharpening..

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Ken. This is an excellent behavioral image and you did well to find them in an uncluttered location where you could get both in focus with a clean background. Nice work in pp too - it was well worth the effort!

[Don Lacy]

Wonderful image Ken, Love the colors and details