Dragonfly on a Stick

Posted by tdunne on Mon Jul 04, 2005 10:53 am

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Canon 20D, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/250, ISO 200

OK you dragonfliers: what is this?

thanks,
tom.

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tdunne
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by Wil Hershberger on Mon Jul 04, 2005 12:29 pm

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Tom, this is very nice. Looks a little soft but, some USM should help that. I really like the details in the wings.
Thanks for posting,

[url=http://www.cricketman.blogspot.com][b]Wil Hershberger[/b][/url] | [b]NSN0025[/b]
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by Clive on Mon Jul 04, 2005 12:38 pm

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Hi Tom,

Looks similar to Widow Skimmer, Libellula luctuosa, but I'm in the UK so I am probably way off!

Hopefully your home grown experts will chip in!

Wish we had 'em here though....the dragonfly not the experts.

>>>Look at Id link here

'Dragonfly on a stick' sounds like a new fast food snack!

Clive
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"Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships".
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by tdunne on Mon Jul 04, 2005 3:21 pm

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Clive: Thanks for the ID link. Sure looks like it!

Wil: I've orderd CS2 and plan to get up-to-speed over the next weeks, so hopefully I'll be USMing with the best of them. If you have any suggestions on how to apply USM to this particular image (or anyone else here), please do. Feel free to grab the image, tweak it, then re-post. If you do, please include what and how you did the tweaks so that newbies like me can learn!.

Appreciate it all.

tom.

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by Christina Evans on Mon Jul 04, 2005 9:49 pm

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Though I've never seen one of these-- not in my area (I wish!), Clive's ID looks good to me. Terrific shot.

Christina Evans
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by Tom Whelan on Mon Jul 04, 2005 9:50 pm

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Nice one! It's a female widow skimmer. I'd recommend stopping down a bit more, especially when you are at an angle to the bug- that would make the far upper wing tip and the tail sharper. But not too much with dense foilage in the background, as here.

I think Tim Grey wrote an article on sharpening for NSN- you could start with that.

Tom

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by tdunne on Mon Jul 04, 2005 9:58 pm

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Tom:

Do you have a recommendation on a field guide for dragonflies? How do you know that it's a female?

tom.

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by Lisa Gimber on Mon Jul 04, 2005 11:48 pm

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Beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!

Lisa

Reposts are very welcome.

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by Clive on Tue Jul 05, 2005 3:07 am

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Hi Tom,

Still getting over the shock that my ID was correct!

I've had a play with your image! Adjusted curves to bring up the background contrast, slightly increased saturation and then sharpened : USM settings 100-0.2-0 applied three times.

This was done on a laptop with lcd screen so may not look as I intended...

What do you think?!

Clive
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"Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships".
Ansel Adams

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by tdunne on Tue Jul 05, 2005 7:31 am

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Clive asked:

What do you think?!

I think that you should bring your gear across the pond and shoot some critters with me!

Thanks for tweaking the image. I need all the help that I can get in learning these skills.

take care,
tom.

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by Clive on Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:09 pm

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Hi Tom,

tdunne wrote:Clive asked:

What do you think?!
I think that you should bring your gear across the pond and shoot some critters with me!

I need all the help that I can get in learning these skills.

Tempting - you have some great looking insects!

As for PS skills - with a program like this we're ALL still learning! NSN folks are always keen to help and there are some great articles here too.

Look forward to seeing some more of your posts.

Send us some Sunshine would you?

Clive
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"Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships".
Ansel Adams

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by Michael Brown on Wed Jul 06, 2005 7:53 am

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You have already received some very helpful and useful comments, and a wonderful reposts.
So with that, I'll just say that this is a killer shot and I love the overall boldness of this little beauty!
Nice shot Tom!!