Just a couple of bugs

[lesno1]

1

2

3

4

[JohnRostron]

Your bugs (and fly) are nice and sharp, but the image sare all rather contrasty because of the strong sunshine. Some sort of diffuser or a reflector would have been useful.

John

[Geoff F]

That is why my default position is to use flash. It will equalise the harsh contrast by lightening the shadows.

The shieldbug is a Green Shieldbug juvenile and the fly is a Greenbottle; these are always very difficult to photograph due to the extra shiny surface. Even in dull light they will cause some over exposure areas.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Les,

Good series, but I note they are all shot at 1/160s.

While #1 is pretty darn sharp, the others all (at 100%), show some signs of camera shake and/or subject movement.

I also note that you are (probably) uploading full size images to TinyPic, which is reducing them to 1599 on the longest edge, this also diminishes their sharpness when viewed by us.

"Best practice" is to save a reduced size and sharpened copy jpg yourself, specifically for uploading to TinyPic. Yes, it is a few more steps, but worth it. Here's how ...

When you have finished your normal processing, save the image at full size.
Now Downsize it using "Bicubic" or "Bicubic smoother" so that the height is no more than say 950px (because most screens will fit that OK). The width can be up to 1600px, or less if the height causes it to be so (depends upon orientation and aspect ratio of crop).
Now sharpen the smaller image using UnSharp Mask with the following values; Amount 100%, Radius 0.3px (yes, that is zero point 3) and Threshold as low as noise will allow; 0 ideally, but low single digits is good.
Now Save As with a different file name to the full size jpg, then upload it to TinyPic.

This procedure brings small benefits to our perception of DoF, image noise and sharpness over what you have been doing.

Cheers, Dave

PS I would have shot #3 and #4 with at least one stop less exposure (gaining shutter speed or DoF), since over exposing also spoils sharpness.

[Shadowman]

Very nice series.