Post your insects

[Geoff F]

Just one very slight thing which I notice, Joe, is that on the right side there is a rather hard edged piece of background near the wing tip and going roughly towards the bottom corner.

Ideally, I would like to blur the edge a little more.

Otherwise, excellent.

[jprzybyla]

Thanks Geoff, I fixed what you noticed in the JPEG on my computer. Thats where another set of eyes helps.

[Nat]

A few of my shots of Ladybugs.....sometimes they are abundant, sometimes hard to find....but I have taken quite of few of these colorful little beetles.

[Nat]

Ronny, all three of these are absolutely amazing. I especially like the last one, how often would one get a chance at that???

I've really enjoyed all the images posted in this thread.
To comment on all wouldn't be possible. But really I like'm all.

So I thought why not put some of my stuff here to.







Hope you like'm

Ronny

[Nat]

An amazing staredown.....great detail and color.

This is my first post after joining the CIC forums. Hope you like it.


Yellowjacket Wasp by Arrowsmith_, on Flickr

Bill
aka: NightRanger

[Nat]

Not only were you lucky to get the wings open, but so sharp, too! Very nice. I agree, the time between them opening their wings and being GONE is so quick.......Good work!

Had to take several before I got the Lady bug wing-span like this:
-mike

[bhumil]

I was thinking of a less severe crop, Bhumil, which still retained most of the flower.

Something roughly like this . . .

ok...i like it...thanks Geoff...i think i should spend some more time in PP....

[bhumil]

I think that there is only so much that you can do with this photo Bhumil. You can use a program such as Photoshop or Gimp to look at the colour, contrast etc. and you might sharpen the photo a bit with these programs as well, but the crop that you show isn't that sharp to begin with.
Your Nikon D90 might give better results, depending on the lens you use it with. Or your regular camera might have a macro option, which enables you to go closer to your subject.
This is just one photo, which I would experiment on. There should be ample opportunities for you to improve on this.

Thanks Peter...as i said i think i am gonna learn PP in more depth and try different things...You guys will laugh if i say this but after reading tutorial here and working some on my own, now i know to take pictures in RAW format...i use to think man why would anyone take a picture in RAW? now i know...:-)...thanks again...

[Nat]

These were taken using the Nikon D90, Nikkor-Micro 105mm 1:4 lens (a manual lens) (and Metz 15 MS-1 ringflash if neccessary.)

Oh, and for those interested, I put some pear jam on the tree, and later came back to find Ladybugs LOVE pear jam! (or was it tapioca?)

[Letrow]

These were taken using the Nikon D90, Nikkor-Micro 105mm 1:4 lens (a manual lens) (and Metz 15 MS-1 ringflash if neccessary.)

Oh, and for those interested, I put some pear jam on the tree, and later came back to find Ladybugs LOVE pear jam!

These are great Nat, I like them all. The ladybug just flying off I like best, partly because it is the kind of photo that is hard to get. That pear jam sounds like a good tip. I am going to try that out when it is ladybug time again over here.

[Nat]

Well, I went back into my archives on this cold dreary Feb day....and reworked a couple more images of my Ladybugs,
Any of you who have tried, know it is a split second from when the Ladybug decides it will take off, and when it's gone and your quick shot is just the twig it was sitting on. I spent a lot of time with these colorful bugs....now I can't wait for spring, with hopes of getting some more shots of these beetles.

Preparing to Launch....


And almost gone...

[Geoff F]

Yes, well captured there, Nat.

I find that when it looks like an insect is about to fly, all you can really do is keep pressing that shutter and hope one works OK.

[Letrow]

Well, I went back into my archives on this cold dreary Feb day....and reworked a couple more images of my Ladybugs,
Any of you who have tried, know it is a split second from when the Ladybug decides it will take off, and when it's gone and your quick shot is just the twig it was sitting on. I spent a lot of time with these colorful bugs....now I can't wait for spring, with hopes of getting some more shots of these beetles.

Preparing to Launch....


And almost gone...

Beautiful Nat, just the right moment

[teokf]

These were taken using the Nikon D90, Nikkor-Micro 105mm 1:4 lens (a manual lens) (and Metz 15 MS-1 ringflash if neccessary.)

Oh, and for those interested, I put some pear jam on the tree, and later came back to find Ladybugs LOVE pear jam! (or was it tapioca?)

Could you share how you framed this photo? Thanks

[teokf]

Well, I went back into my archives on this cold dreary Feb day....and reworked a couple more images of my Ladybugs,
Any of you who have tried, know it is a split second from when the Ladybug decides it will take off, and when it's gone and your quick shot is just the twig it was sitting on. I spent a lot of time with these colorful bugs....now I can't wait for spring, with hopes of getting some more shots of these beetles.

Preparing to Launch....
And almost gone...

Great capture

[Nat]

Thank you for the compliments.

Steven:
I will tell you how I did it, but I'm sure there are many other ways to do it using mask layers, probably better ways, too. I use Adobe PS CS5, but other PS software is similar.
1) Open your image. Unlock it and just name it Background Layer. To make it easy to do the frames evenly, crop to a size like 8 x 10 . Leave the resolution blank.
2) Click on View: Show: Grid
3) Use the rectangular marquee tool to select a shape smaller than your background image ( like 7 x 9, using the grid for your guide. Copy and paste. Label Layer 2
4) Do it again, smaller, like 6 x 8, copy and paste, label layer 3.
5) You can now click View: Show: grid to remove the grid. Select Layer 2: Image: Adjust: Exposure: and lighten it (or you can choose brightness and brighten, or any other adjustment to this layer you want. ) You can even play with the opacity of this layer.
6) Select Background layer and play with how you want that. You can desaturate it, or darken it, or even go into filters and change it however you want. In the Ladybug one, I desaturated and used levels to darken it.
7) Have fun! You don't have to center the layers. You can select them off center to create variety.

In this one I linked here, I did the background copy with an artistic filter.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ng_0192_LG.jpg

[teokf]

Nat
Thanks for taking the time to explain the process.

[Letrow]

Came across this one from late last year. Not a real insect, but still...

[Soma Jones]

At Petroglyphs in Albuquerque, New Mexico
[IMG][/IMG]

[Geoff F]

First Eristalis pertinax hoverfly of the year. A male feeding on Mahonia.



The pale yellow Mahonia flowers posed a bit of a challenge but I eventually managed some shots where they are bright but not exactly over exposed.

7D with Sigma 180 macro lens and flash on tripod. 1/200 F14 ISO 200.

Just a thought - considering the size of this thread, is it now time to start a new 2012 Insect post for everybody to contribute?