Predatory fly with flying ant

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rjlittlefield
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Predatory fly with flying ant

Post by rjlittlefield »

Image

This fly was around 1/2" long. It seems to have caught a prince or princess flying ant.

This image has been processed through Noise Ninja. I was not completely happy with what it did at first -- part of the long skinny seed pod that the fly is sitting on seemed to have been converted to "plastic", and some of the subtle venation of the ant's wings disappeared. It's probably nothing that you'd notice without seeing the original, but of course I have the original. :( So I masked back original pixels in the subject, leaving the background as the Noise Ninja'd version.

Here is the original, non-noise-reduced version.

Image


And here's the raw Noise Ninja'd version.
Image

--Rik

Technical: Canon SD700 IS, auto-everything. JPEG file reports 1/500 @ f/2.8, 5.8mm. Cropped and resized to 70% of actual pixels. Manual stack of 2 images.

Edit: to show three versions of noise reduction.
Last edited by rjlittlefield on Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:22 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Mike B in OKlahoma
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Post by Mike B in OKlahoma »

This is an extremely cool shot, something I'd love to have photographed! I think the auto-everything lost some detail on the dark fly, alas. :cry:
Mike Broderick
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rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Actually I'm pretty happy with the exposure, considering that my eye was reporting the fly as a featureless black blob. There is some additional detail that I can make visible with a curves adjustment, but that'll have to wail til tomorrow, 'cuz I've used up my three images for today. :wink:

--Rik
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Gordon C. Snelling
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Post by Gordon C. Snelling »

Nice shot. The ant is near as I can tell a Solenopsis species.
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Mike B in OKlahoma
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Post by Mike B in OKlahoma »

rjlittlefield wrote:Actually I'm pretty happy with the exposure, considering that my eye was reporting the fly as a featureless black blob. There is some additional detail that I can make visible with a curves adjustment, but that'll have to wail til tomorrow, 'cuz I've used up my three images for today. :wink:
In fairness, there is a heck of a lot of dynamic range in this shot! A lot for the sensor to handle.

I still wish I had the shot! :)
Mike Broderick
Oklahoma City, OK, USA

Constructive critiques of my pictures, and reposts in this forum for purposes of critique are welcome

"I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul....My mandate includes weird bugs."
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Bruce Williams
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Post by Bruce Williams »

Nice action shot and interesting comparisons with Noise Ninja. I have NN2 but haven't really got to grips with it as yet so tend to use Neat Image.

Would be interested to see how much detail can be brought out on the fly's body.

Bruce :D
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beetleman
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Post by beetleman »

A great photo Rik. Predator-prey photos are always very interesting. The softer BG is better.
Take Nothing but Pictures--Leave Nothing but Footprints.
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Danny
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Post by Danny »

Nice shot and work here Rik. A Robber fly by the looks of that antenna jutting out like that. Black subjects are hard Rik, bumble bees for one, in this I think its bang on. The background and what looks like a winged ant are spot on. I like it as is. I just use the noise control in PhotoImpact now days and many of my shots don't have anything done to them Rik. mind you, many of them need it IMO. I should sit down one day and go through them.

All the best Rik, nice m8t, very nice. :D

Danny.
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rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Here's what popped out with a bit of Photoshop's "Shadow/Highlight" tool.

Image

This is with 30% shadows, 0% highlights.

I have not played with this Shadow/Highlight tool before. It shows a lot of promise! :D

I like the result a lot better than what I could get with Curves, and it was much easier to use.

--Rik
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DaveW
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Post by DaveW »

OK Rik now you are getting so good at Photoshop can you turn it round so we can look at it's other side! :lol:

DaveW :)
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puzzledpaul
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Post by puzzledpaul »

<< turn it round so we can look at it's other side >>

Gets quite amusing when ppl used to using 3D modelling software try doing this with 2D images :)

Image has certainly improved for the extra bit of attention, Rik.

pp
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