The Emperor

[carlos58]

Hello everyone
Anax imperator

and an Episyrphus balteatus in flight

 

[Dracaena]

Wow, you've got some crazy in flight shots! And sharp as hell, especially that hoover fly is amazing!

 

[sleist]

Yup. Your shots of bugs in flight make me want to throw my camera away. Your images are inspiring. I've seen you say elsewhere that you use manual focus and burst mode. Is that true for these as well? Also, do you shoot hand held, tripod, monopod? Looks like you're shooting @ 180mm - what lens are you using?. Are you cropping at all. One more question - noise reduction/sharpening in in post? Your backgrounds are always very complimentary.

Sorry for all the questions, but I've just started shooting bugs and would love to hear some of your process.

Anyway - great shots.

Steve

 

[carlos58]

thank you very much
yes : manual focus and burst
for shots in flight hand held, for other macro tripod but light
I use 70/180 macro nikon
For crop : depends on the shoot : for these there is a crop of 25% on hoverfly and 10/15 % on dragonflies. For macro no in flight the crop is almost always less than 10%
In PP I use neatimage for reduction/sharpening. In virtually all my shots there is a passage neatimage
Almost always one is sufficient
I hope you understand, my english is bad and it's very difficult for me in english

 

[groan]

That Episyrphus balteatus is crazy amazing.

Thank you for showing me that I know nothing

Your English explanations are very good.
As you know by your own photography, it will get better with practice.

 

[sleist]

thank you very much
yes : manual focus and burst
for shots in flight hand held, for other macro tripod but light
I use 70/180 macro nikon
For crop : depends on the shoot : for these there is a crop of 25% on hoverfly and 10/15 % on dragonflies. For macro no in flight the crop is almost always less than 10%
In PP I use neatimage for reduction/sharpening. In virtually all my shots there is a passage neatimage
Almost always one is sufficient
I hope you understand, my english is bad and it's very difficult for me in english

Thanks so much Carlo! I wondered if it was the Nikon 70-180mm. I used to use Neat Image so I'm familiar with it. I liked the older versions better - the updates left me a bit less impressed. I switched to Topaz DeNoise 5 and I've been pleased with the results. I asked because my D90 has the same sensor as the D300 and I find the noise at base ISO to be more noticable in macro shots with green backgrounds (typical for bugs). Maybe I'm just getting picky ...

Thanks again.