Fly with mouthparts

Graham46 · Post by **Graham46** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 7:52 am

Blue Bottlefly if Im not mistaken. Canon 5D MKII with canon 65mmMP-E lens at 3x. Diffused macro twin-lite. ISO 125, 1/125 @ f/5. 27 frames stacked in ZS using PMax.

Edit: Green bottlefly

lauriek · Post by **lauriek** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:15 am

Looks like a greenbottle to me, nice shot though, particularly well controlled lighting!

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 10:27 am

Very nice.

But in the spirit of continuous improvement...

The lower front of the thorax is completely black, RGB=(0,0,0) over some areas. And with the black background, I'm having trouble seeing parts of the antennae and some of the bristles.

The black background and dark shadows are dramatic -- the image has a lot of visual impact.

But if you're shooting to produce a reference illustration, I suspect it would be better with a gray background and some more fill illumination.

"Horses for courses", and all that.

--Rik

Cyclops · Post by **Cyclops** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:08 am

What a shot!

Jbailey · Post by **Jbailey** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:40 am

Very clean specimen and "tack sharp".
The colors are spectacular, too.
Jim

Graham46 · Post by **Graham46** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:57 am

Rik--

What can I say, I guess Im more of an artist. I use a curves adjustment layer on almost all my photos. Im sure youre familiar with the black eye dropper... does wonders to the tones of the image, but yes I suppose it makes blacks into pure black, making those parts hard to see

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:33 pm

Art is good! I just like to call out these issues so people can think about them. I know you have feet in both camps at the moment, and I wasn't quite sure whether this picture was destined to be hung on a wall or bound into an ID guide.

--Rik

Wayne Baker · Post by **Wayne Baker** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:40 pm

I have this argument constantly with my uni lecturers. For artistic impact the higher contrast and the blacks are best but for illustrative / scientific purposes you need the shadow detail. Depends on what you're using the image for... Nice capture. I'm gunna have to try some bugs myself I think!