Soldier Fly

crotermund · Post by **crotermund** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 8:42 pm

I found him recently on a thistle.

Mike B in OKlahoma · Post by **Mike B in OKlahoma** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:56 am

I've never seen the like of this. Very interesting.

karl-m · Post by **karl-m** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:23 am

Fantastic....how do you get them so clear like this....are these a couple of stacked images....??

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 2:53 am

I like the compostion of the first one the best. These are quite sharp. Great shots Craig.

crotermund · Post by **crotermund** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:29 am

Thanks a lot guys.

Karl, I have never done stacking, but hope to experiment with it at some point. I do all my processing in photoshop / lightroom at this point. Ken, I like the composition of the first one too. I think there is something kind of neat about those thistle spikes.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:01 am

Craig,

You do such a great job shooting! Can you share with Karl and the rest of us technical info like what camera settings & lighting were used for this, whether these are full frame or crop, how much (if at all) they've been sharpened in post-processing, etc etc?

--Rik

crotermund · Post by **crotermund** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:40 pm

Hey there Rik - Thanks a lot.

You asked:

Can you share with Karl and the rest of us technical info like what camera settings & lighting were used for this, whether these are full frame or crop, how much (if at all) they've been sharpened in post-processing, etc etc?

I would be happy to.

I used my Canon 30D / Sigma 150mm with a Canon 580ex Flash. The Flash is covered by a Lumiquest flash diffuser. I was shooting F11, Exposure 1/160, ISO 200. I was shooting with a tripod.

I used Lightroom to make my selection as there were various combinations of proboscis length and leg movement. After selecting I sent it to photoshop for minor adjustment with Shadows & Highlights, noise removal with Noise Ninja, and maybe a .7 pixel Smart sharpening, but I can't remember for sure on this one. It is about a 30% crop. I hope this helps, but feel free to ask more if I missed anything.

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:59 pm

What a great green color on the fly. You also did a great job on the metallic thorax sections. He looks like he is cleaning his tongue