Want critique The sleeping emperor - Dragonfly UV

Welcome to our Community
Wanting to join the rest of our members? Feel free to sign up today.
Join now!
The member has asked criticism on his/her photo(s), please leave a constructive feedback.
EXIF
Sony A7iii, Loawa 100mm x2 F2.8 macro lens, ISO 1000, f/11, 1.6 second, tripod, 2 UV flashlights.

Chavezshutter

New Member
Staff member
Legend TEAM
3 1
Aug 4, 2020
1,366
3
1,778
739
A very beautiful picture. Perhaps I was trying to place the dragonfly diagonally. But that's just my opinion. lovely colors
Good suggestion😀, thank you. I do like diagonal compositions. If I get a chance to shoot another dragonfly I will try to get some diagonal angles 👍
 
Last edited:

Hilde

New Member
Mar 12, 2022
8
18
1
Hello,

I have wanted to shoot this photo for quite some time. It is an Australian emperor dragonfly (Anax papuensis) under UV light. I have shown posts of this dragonfly before, it is the most common dragonflies I find near my home and occasionally I am lucky to find one sleeping and can get some very nice close ups. Under normal light they have a dull gold/bronze colour with black and yellow markings along its tail. One feature I really like about this species is the cat mask markings they have just before the tail 😊

The original photo I took had so much glowing dust, fluff and even spiderwebs over the dragonflies wing that I considered not using the shot and wait for another attempt, I also tried using a rocket blower over the sleeping dragonfly's wings and the plant in the background with not much success 😂, in the end I chose to clean up the photo with some photoshop, it took a lot longer than I wanted and ended up being the most time consuming part of the photo but I really wanted a UV dragonfly shot for a long time so I kept at it and managed to do a decent job with the cleanup. I also used some of the out of focus glowing bits to add bokeh light balls under the wings. I did manage to get shots where I was more squared with the wings but I chose this angle as it created more different textures in the wings, going from out of focus, soft lines to sharp cells/panels within the wings. I hope you like it....

View attachment 21438

As a comparison, here is the photo before the cleanup..

View attachment 21439
WOW <3 This is stunning :) And very beautiful :)
 
  • Smiling Face
Reactions: Chavezshutter