Sunset Flight
by Wayne Jones
<div>Click on the image above or the expansion symbol under it to see a larger view.
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<div>I shot this over two years ago, but could not decide what gallery to post it in. It's not really a macro shot, and besides, I am not comfortable posting it in a realistic nature gallery because it's a composite of two images. I ran across it tonight and realized it belongs in Photo Art.
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<div>I was using my 150-600 mm. Sigma lens to try for flight shots of dragonflies. The only practical place for this is over open water, where the flying insect is virtually the only detail that autofocus will find. My best detailed shots had dragonflies in open shade, but overexposed, almost colorless backgrounds. (This one is a chalk-fronted corporal.) I just had to turn and shoot toward a sunny part of the lake with colorful reflections, and expose properly for the background. Then I combined one of those shots this shot with dragonfly and lily pads. I used a combination of layers in the "Color" blend mode and added some out of focus tones using the "blend-if" function of Photoshop layers. This kept all the details of the dragonfly shot, but added the color and some of the texture of the properly-exposed background.
Canon 7D Mark II; Sigma 150-600 C
1/4000 sec. @ f/8; ISO 1250
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Comments
2 commentsThis looks great, the background is beautifully warm and inviting and the df is nice an sharp. it also stands out well due to it's placement. A fine bit of sophisticated processing.