Want critique The emperor and his cat mask (Australian Emperor Dragonfly)

[Chavezshutter]

Hello Again

This photo was taken last year and for me it has both good and bad feelings.

First the good; I have never been able to get this close to a dragonfly before and it stayed there a good 10 or so minutes, another amazing thing was the pattern on its back, I will have more pictures to follow where the pattern is 100% sharp, I had to look at it twice before I could believe it. This Little guy has his own masquerade mask.

Now the bad; This picure was taken during our last big bushfire, there was a lot of smoke around even though the worst of it had passed so the reason it was so docile was because of the poor air. I tried every angle I could think of to try to find a better contrasting background but his almost clear wings made it very hard ( I bumped my contrast in post higher than usual to try to separate the subject, otherwise he very much melds into the background ).

I was not going to try to move him considering the situation so I let him rest and eventually it flew away. This image is not cropped.

Let me know your what you think...


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And another....

 

[nataliaflejszar&Photo]

Hello Chavezshutter , the pictures for me are perfect and so beautiful! beautiful dragonfly!
So sad about the bonfires from the last year , I was with my with Australia this time! , but we can never know what and when happen! In Last year was lot of forest bonfires in north Europe too, Sweden had big problem ,luckily got good and fast help from another countries! And Finland had some of too..
Hope ,the climate change will stop, the pandemic has just one good side, because of pandemic planet has been own time.

Have a good night and then day.. ans time there in far Australia!

 

[Chavezshutter]

Glad you like it. Yes the fires were very sad, we had incredible sunsets from it but yea not happy times. Sad to hear it has impacted so far north in europe too.... did you see cat mask in photo?

 

[Jack]

Hi Chavezshutter

First image:

Great composition, however , subject is not in the middle of the frame, which makes a bit the image cropped, if it’s cropped. You could have at least half of dragon fly in focus, including wings, here wings are out of frame.

Also , the photo it’s really heavy edited, too much colour, it’s over saturated, I would say to leave more natural colours , adding to much of it, will make the image quality low, unless this has been edited using PS action, and you have tried to achieve otherwise.


Second image:

A bit better composition, but same issue for me, over saturatEd. there aren’t any noise , which is good. And also, I see that the dragonfly is not really in focus, where on first photo, the dragonfly is much more in focus than second one, however not enough on both.

Hope that’s not Bad comment.

 

[Chavezshutter]

Thank you very much for your comments. Very appreciated and a VERY good comment.

I probably should have posted both those pics in reverse order. The first picture I posted was towards the end of the shoot when I had already got many shots full bodied, this particular shot was ignoring the rest of the insect in order to get a face closeup. Full image non cropped. If I remember correctly back then I had just bought my extension tubes so all my macro was extension tubes or bust, even if I didnt know how to use them well .

The colour of this particular dragonfly is a dull gold colour which is hard to edit for. But i will keep my eye on my saturation in LR. For this picture I was using vibrance at +23 and saturation at +2 (not too crazy i think?) No photoshop on this , though on second thought maybe I need it. I'ts a weird edit for me, I'ts almost like a weird colour cast, It was smokey so maybe. WB off perhaps?

Here is the file straight out of camera with no edit..


I believe you're right about the missing the focus on the second shot. Here is that file straight out of cam...
Here is another shot taking on your saturation advice onboard, let me know what you think... This was also an intended close up...



LR settings for pic above;


Thank you very much for your comments!!!

 

[Jack]

No problem Chavezshutter , i would say to keep an eye on settings when editing images. myself I like colourfully images, but I always need to keep a balance between saturation and natural colours.

I see 3rd photo, and I think that one it’s worth editing.

You can try other softwares too, like Luminar or Topaz, they seems to be ok for editing.

 

[Chavezshutter]

Thanks again Jack, your input is really appreciated. I might try to edit that last picture in PS and see what I get. I do about 80% of my photowork in LR and the rest in PS.

I've been meaning to try some LR alternatives, most of the time I am happy with the results but on some occassions it does misses the mark. Thanks for suggesting those two. I will check them out.

Cheers.

 

[Jack]

Thanks again Jack, your input is really appreciated. I might try to edit that last picture in PS and see what I get. I do about 80% of my photowork in LR and the rest in PS.

I've been meaning to try some LR alternatives, most of the time I am happy with the results but on some occassions it does misses the mark. Thanks for suggesting those two. I will check them out.

Cheers.

You are welcome Chavezshutter . I usually edit my images on LR, not much PS work, unless I need some social retouching.

Sure, check them out. You as a macroderie member can get discount on them too

here is the page

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macroderie.com

You just need 50 posts to access the page.

 

[Helix_2648]

I see a lot of potential in this pictures Chavezshutter. Would you allow me to test some edits with your raw files? If so please give me a PM so that I can send you my e-mail adress.

Unfortunately I followed the bushfire on TV and I was shocked about the stories with the burned koala bears. That brokes my heart... so many animals must die just because of that.

 

[Chavezshutter]

That would be great Helix_2648. I was trying to work out how to PM you earlier, seems the best way is to upload it to photo critic. I will do that tomorrow, got carried away editing and its 1.30AM

The fires were very sad, one thing I have told some of the other members is as bad as it was - fire is very much part of Australian natural life. Many seeds here do not release until a fire, using the rich soil left behind after a fire to grow. Within a few years most of that wildlife and nature will have recoverd. Cycle of life here. Aboriginals would use controlled burning to decrease the chances of big fires. Those practices are controversial and when left aside in our summer heat its a bad result.