Dung flies

GardenersHelper

In Memoriam
Messages
6,344
Name
Nick
Edit My Images
Yes
These were captured hand-held at a local wood using my FZ330 bridge camera with a Raynox 150 and KX800 twin flash. The raw files were batch processed in DXO Optics Pro and Silkypix, with image-specific adjustments in Lightroom. There are 1300 pixel high versions in this album at Flickr.

#1

12011 01 2017_07_09 P1360260_DxO 0100RAW01cP SP7 LR6 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#2

12011 04 2017_07_09 P1360258_DxO 0100RAW01cP SP7 LR6 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#3

12011 19 2017_07_09 P1360332_DxO 0100RAW01cP SP7 LR6 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#4

12011 21 2017_07_09 P1360339_DxO 0100RAW01cP SP7 LR6 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#5

12011 23 2017_07_09 P1360356_DxO 0100RAW01cP SP7 LR6 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#6

12011 25 2017_07_09 P1360355_DxO 0100RAW01cP SP7 LR6 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
 
I am so jealous of your quality! :)

I think #4 and '#6 are totally outstanding

Is 6 a blowup of 5? - either way it is excellent.

Thanks Peter.

#5 and #6 are different captures. I like to do sequences ranging from the subject in its environment to a close-up of just the subject, or occasionally on in to a part of the subject, usually the head. For example, #1 and #2 are the first and fourth in this sequence.


Dung fly sequence 1
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#3 and #4 are the second and fourth in this sequence.


Dung fly sequence 2
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#5 and #6 are the second and fourth in this sequence, which is the same subject as for #3 and #4. I moved to a different angle and got the first of these four, and then noticed that there was a light area I could use in the background so I did a sequence from that angle.


Dung fly sequence 3
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

I generally shoot such sequences starting with a middle range shot. These are safer than the close in shots in terms of getting nice DoF coverage. When I have a few of these so I have a reasonable chance of one of them being ok I may move in and fill more of the frame with the subject so as to be able to get a better look at the detail. If the subject is still there after than I'll zoom out and go for environmental shots. If, as in this case, the subject still hasn't gone away I'll look around for different angles that produce a pleasing effect to my eye, often to do with the way the background looks, but also sometimes by getting a slightly unusual angle on the subject, for example showing some of its underside. That can be quite good with shield bugs for example which have rather interesting undersides.

Most of my images have at least a modest crop for compositional reasons. Sometimes if I have a "zooming in" sequence I may fill a gap in the sequence with a more aggressive crop. That was the case in the last of these three sequences, where the third image is a more aggressive crop from the same capture as the second. I don't crop the closer-in image from the other one. I make a virtual copy of the image and work on that. This lets me apply different/additional processing, for example adding some extra clarity or noise reduction to the more cropped version.
 
Last edited:
Nice work Nick
 
Back
Top