Elephant hawk moth caterpillar

[lesno1]

[billtils]

Interesting beastie Les - and a classic illustration of the problems of DoF in macro work. The side-on shot looks sharp all along what we can see of the body - was it too long to make a decent full-length shot?

Another thought - if it was still, or at least very slow moving, it may have been posssible to fire off a burst and focus stack.

Lastly is the body actually that dark or could you lift the shadows a tad?

[lesno1]

Dont do stacking Bill and no i did not lift the shadows

[DanK]

This is what it looks like with the shadows lifted quite a bit, just using the Lightroom/acr shadows slider. Is this unrealistic?

[billtils]

It's a better photograph, but may not be a more realistic capture. Either way it's an ugly beastie.

[DanK]

It's a better photograph, but may not be a more realistic capture. Either way it's an ugly beastie.

True. Even though I have come to view many insects as beautiful during my years of macro photography, I still find a few ugly, and this one fits the bill. I know it's a ridiculous prejudice--in many parts of the world, people cheerfully eat larvae, even raw--but I haven't yet been able to overcome it.

Equally ridiculous: I still find cockroaches repulsive. Probably a result of my time living in run-down student housing and having them scatter from food cabinets, the stove, etc.

[Geoff F]

They start out green but end up with this brown and blackish colouration at the final larval stage. Rather variable in markings but typical examples are close to Dan's edit.

Personally, I rather like them.