C&C please - DIF

[Ken Curtis]

Bobo.

Q1 - Yes, Q2 - yes, Q3 - nothing is bugging me.

Looks like a helicopter. I never realized how the legs were folded up close to his body until I saw your photo.

Just a thought for you to try, not a criticism. I wonder if you think the image would be a bit more dynamic if you rotated the image counterclockwise by 10 degrees and then cropped.

[Bobobird]

Thanks Ken, excellent suggestion will look like it is going up towards the end of the "light". I am not much of a dragonfly expert but was wondering if this might make the pic look unnatural.

[shreds]

Bobo,

You worry about whether it is smiling or frowning!! You need face recognition software!! (Joke).

By lightening the tunnel to the right, you have created an area of slightly different colour which would have been better matched to the existing.

I absolutely love the wing blur which is spot on and creates just the correct amount of movement in the subject.

The tail is pin sharp, but the head detail is lost by the marginally out of focus/motion blur at this point which in my view is the one downside to this shot. (You really must ensure your subjects don't shake their head or fly too fast past at any point).

I think you are well aware of this from the above comments, but a reasonable shot, could be a great shot if that head detail were spot on.

Cheers

Ian

[Downrigger]

You got the bug so well that it would be hard to improve or detract from it with your treatment of the rest of frame. Great shot!

[Bobobird]

Thanks Mark.

Thanks Ian - when you see the redo, it will be different. The head will be in focus and not from sharpening.

[Bobobird]

Redo.

I have dropped the "light tunnel", firstly it told me my pp skills are woefully inadequate. Most of the other suggestions have been incorporated.

Head is sharper (cloned from another frame in the same sequence.

Curves adjusted for better shadow, light, somewhat more vibrant and better transition between darker and lighter parts of the background.

[Mike Buckley]

Double wow! Exceptionally well done!

[Walj]

Great shot Bobo. Btw I would rather clean the dark patches in the BG then crop a little but not too tight. Thks for sharing.

[Walj]

Probably like this - Just my 2 cts.. Hope you don't mind..

[Bobobird]

Thanks Mike.

Thanks Walad - No, I don't mind. That kind of cleanup is really hard for me and have never managed to do it properly or well. Mind telling me how you did in such a short time?

[jprzybyla]

Thanks Mike.

Thanks Walad - No, I don't mind. That kind of cleanup is really hard for me and have never managed to do it properly or well. Mind telling me how you did in such a short time?

Hi Bobo, you asked how to clean up the background in your image. Here is a quick way. Use the Clone Stamp either in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Set the Opacity to 40% and choose the area you want to use as your background color. I chose the color near the tail of the dragonfly because that seemed to be close to the color surrounding most of the area around the dragonfly. Hold down the Alt key (Windows) and left click with the mouse to set the color. Then color over the areas you want to change. Think of using a spray can, you build up the color with multiple clicks blending it as you go.

[Otavio]

A very difficult shot, Bobo. And well executed. Cheers;

[Walj]

Hi Bobo,

Yes! Joe is right. I did the same thing as Joe did.. Keep trying!

[Bobobird]

Thanks Otavio.

Thanks too Walad for bringing it up otherwise I would still be fumbling with this sort of thing.