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Red Dragon

Gallery: Macro & Close-upPosted February 7, 2016183 views10 comments

This is another image from some night hiking while in Costa Rica. Found this guy on a limb with good separation from other trees so I was able to have a complete black BG. For this image I used multiple off camera flash units and with the 100mm macro HH/ manual focus using Mag light to illuminate.
100mm Macro f16 ISO400 with multiple 600ex-rt flash units. No significant post editing
Thanks for your comments!

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by Jim Zablotny on February 7, 2016 at 5:08 PM

Hi Mark,

A very artistic display for this dragonfly. I would have stopped down further to get those wing tips sharper and the bright highlight in the eye could be toned down a tad if there's image data in there. The flashes used worked out well and the body has some very crisp detail........................Jim

Registered on January 17, 2004, 705 Posts, 3594 Comments

Comment posted by mark cillo on February 7, 2016 at 5:43 PM

Yeah I do wish I could have gotten the detail from the wing tips but f22 didn't make much difference and since I was using HH technique I couldn't get a focus stack.

Registered on July 27, 2008, 143 Posts, 1483 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on February 8, 2016 at 9:09 AM

Your flash work provided excellent details both in the df and it's perch, Mark. The black background shows off the subject with fine clarity. How nice to catch a sleeping red dragon.... Toning down slightly the brightest parts both in the perch and in the brighter eye highlight would be an improvement.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Barb Pflaum on February 8, 2016 at 10:31 AM

Excellent sharpness and detail in the head and body. The black bg works very well to show the color of this dragonfly. I agree with Mark's suggestion to town down the brightness in the areas that he mentioned.

Registered on January 14, 2009, 316 Posts, 2724 Comments

Comment posted by Roel Wijtmans on February 8, 2016 at 11:27 AM

Very nice with the black background, makes it look like a studio shooting. I agree about the bright areas on the twig, but this is really cool! The oof tips of the wings don't bother me at all actually.

Registered on September 30, 2012, 116 Posts, 2257 Comments

Comment posted by Balan Vinod on February 9, 2016 at 1:46 AM

Mark ..love the red/pink against the dark bg..and your multiple flashes have worked fine on the subject here.
Balan Vinod

Registered on March 20, 2006, 889 Posts, 2312 Comments

Comment posted by Albert Darmo on February 10, 2016 at 3:17 PM

Hi Mark

A very interesting pose. the detail & colors come out well against the black background

Albert Darmo
Canada

Registered on November 25, 2008, 1386 Posts, 11978 Comments

Comment posted by Yun Gao on February 10, 2016 at 11:05 PM

Hello Mark, Good detail in the head and body. I like the red against the black ground. Nice work from a night hiking.

Registered on September 11, 2012, 267 Posts, 1621 Comments

Comment posted by Graham Brown on February 11, 2016 at 6:05 AM

The flash has worked very well on showing the detail on the dragonfly and perch Mark and has given an excellent dark background to show it up. The only thing I am not so keen on is the structure within the wings. Graham

Registered on November 20, 2007, 275 Posts, 1365 Comments

Comment posted by Mike Ramy on February 21, 2016 at 10:51 AM

Hey Mark,
Amazing results under the shooting conditions you described for this image. I have quite a few night images that were taken with the camera in one hand and a flash light in the other so needless to say, I really appreciate this type of results. I also find the black background afforded by these shooting conditions to be very cool, especially in this case. I do agree with other comments however and the overall image does appear a bit bright on my monitor as presented.
Congratulations on the WP . . . laugh

Registered on June 16, 2012, 567 Posts, 2809 Comments