Originally Posted by
DanK
great captures.
I think you can improve these in post. Take #3, for example. It's relatively low contrast; the background is uneven; and the critter is a bit underexposed.
As a quick illustration, I did this:
1. I selected the background and turned it black with a levels tool. There's nothing in that space anyway.
2. I inverted the selection and brightened the bug. I used a curves tool for this.
3. I added a bit of contrast.
4. I sharped the result. I used a high-pass filter because I didn't want to sharpen anything but the large edges.
It's a quick-and-dirty edit. For example, if I were going to take more time, I would do something in the process to avoid brightening the foreground. However, I think it is enough to show that you can squeeze a lot more out of these images.