Tiny Dragon Fly
Jul 18, 2021 10:59:11 #
Jack B
Loc: Mount Pleasant, SC
Out for the walk this morning with a different lens: Sigma 105mm Macro. Saw this tiny dragon fly. It moves to fast to get a close photo. The two attached photos are highly cropped. As always, any comments are always welcome.
Jul 18, 2021 11:08:32 #
Jul 18, 2021 11:24:10 #
Jul 18, 2021 11:30:14 #
Jul 18, 2021 11:55:18 #
Amberwings are next to impossible to get close to. Nice work from 105mm.
Have you considered 'why' you're using center-weighted metering? The first image seems 'perfect' for the exposure of the sun-lit cement in the center of the frame. Alas, the details of the Amberwing are too dark. You might consider Canon's Evaluative Metering as well as Exposure Compensation in your Aperture Priority mode. If shooting in RAW as input to DPP, consider letting the meter fall +0.7 to +1 to the right of the 0-mark with 'EC' used to push the meter to the right. In DPP too, see what you can recover by adjusting the shadows slider to brighten the dark sections of the image.
Have you considered 'why' you're using center-weighted metering? The first image seems 'perfect' for the exposure of the sun-lit cement in the center of the frame. Alas, the details of the Amberwing are too dark. You might consider Canon's Evaluative Metering as well as Exposure Compensation in your Aperture Priority mode. If shooting in RAW as input to DPP, consider letting the meter fall +0.7 to +1 to the right of the 0-mark with 'EC' used to push the meter to the right. In DPP too, see what you can recover by adjusting the shadows slider to brighten the dark sections of the image.
Jul 18, 2021 16:11:34 #
Jack B
Loc: Mount Pleasant, SC
CHG_CANON wrote:
Amberwings are next to impossible to get close to.... (show quote)
CHG:
I did as you suggested. It did indeed bring out more of the Amberwing. The new version is attached. Why do I shot with center-weighted metering? My interest, as I frame the shot, is usually the entire frame with the center the main interest. Given your suggestion of Evaluative Metering with slight over exposure, I will certainly give it a try. The Amberwing is not in the center of the original frame. Thank you for your comments. Anything you may suggest in the future will be considered.
Jack B
Jul 18, 2021 16:45:10 #
Jul 18, 2021 20:33:59 #
Jack B wrote:
CHG: br I did as you suggested. It did indeed brin... (show quote)
Glad to help. In DDP v4 (I have v4.14 at the moment) there are a few sliders that come into play:
1. Highlight
2. Shadow
3. Brightness
There are things you can do to the Gamma adjustment too. Consider the following ideas:
A. For the Gamma adjustment graph, "grab" left side line with your mouse and drag to the right until it just touches the left 'tail' of the histogram distribution. First, uncheck the box "Move midpoint to match" before adjusting the Gamma.
B. Move the Highlight slider to the left, anywhere from -1 to -3, until the bright concrete come back to natural looking.
C. Play with the Shadow slider, if still needed, to darken the dragon a bit. You may / may not need to work on the shadows after the Gamma adjustment.
C2. You might also 'grab' the midpoint line in the Gamma graph and move it right to darken the image slightly, again making sure you've uncheck the box "Move midpoint to match".
Jul 19, 2021 19:26:00 #
Jul 19, 2021 20:12:15 #
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