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Mirror mirror on the...erm...door.

KrisCarnmarker

New member
Lets see how this works. Here's a picture I like quite a bit myself. I was following this wasp with the camera and eventually he settled on the three-pane glass door. The double reflections where not intentional but I think it gave the picture an interesting aspect. What do you think?

20050906_1407-c-w.jpg


Canon 20D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro @ f/11 and 1/100
 
I like it a lot Kris - it adds an extra dimension that you don't normally see in this type of photography. And I have more than one shot which came about better than expected, because of fortuitous circumstances, not necessarily noticed when I snapped the shutter!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The image Kris has interest.

The use of f11 has given you a great depth of field sufficent at least to define most of the wasp.

What was your working distance if you remember it?

Did you hand hold? The camera, not the wasp.

I like the shot because their is sense of community as the wasp engages its reflection. It looks as if there is some communication going on.

The fact that there is no light outside of the area of interest adds importance and helps to set the tone.

One small point: did you crop? I'd like to see more of the left legs so that side in the light is defined. Hiding one side is dramatic. Showing the other side might sometimes be more effective.

Have you sharpened the pictures and was this processed as RAW or jpg from the onset?

Are you going to print this?

Asher
 

KrisCarnmarker

New member
Thanks for the comments guys.

Asher, I took this shot last September so I may not remember correctly, but using the uncropped image and memory as guides, I would say the wasp was maybe 10-15 cm from the front of the lens. I am not all that comfortable around wasps so I don't think I got very much closer than that :) Also, he was not still for long so I do remember setting the mag. ratio to something that was manageable when I was following him around. The camera was handheld but I usually do try to find something to lean against at least.

The image is slightly cropped. I too would have liked to see more of the left legs, but that is not what I cropped. Here is a small proof of the image in its untouched state (except RAW processing and color correction)

20050906_1407-w.jpg


As you can see (maybe), the image has been retouched as well. I darkened the lower left corner a bit and removed all the little dust specks and dirt from the window. The picture was taken in RAW format (almost all my pictures are), then processed through RSP. Default sharpening was applied at this stage, but I also ran the PhotoKit web output sharpener after I re-sized it for the web.

Oh, and the image was taken at ISO 100, with a 580EX flash on a Wimberly ShapeShifter flash bracket. I have since bought a 220EX because the 580EX is way too heavy for me when I shoot macro hand held.

Edit: Forgot to answer you question about printing. I have printed it, but I have a calibration issue so the print is far too contrasty for some reason. I'll post a question in the relevant section soon, I think.

Asher Kelman said:
I'd like to see more of the left legs so that side in the light is defined. Hiding one side is dramatic. Showing the other side might sometimes be more effective.

Could you elaborate on that a bit more? I'm not sure I understand what you mean.
 
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