Posted by Paul Ashton on September 10, 2008 at 3:19 PM
Further experimenting with a 180mm macro and ring flash. Reckon I've just about cracked the exposure bit but Oh the depth of field at close quarters. Maybe I need to go smaller than f11
An ID of this creature might be helpful but then again...
Further details. Black and yellow body, brown tail with small fork, wings four transparent with black markings.
Sorry I've no idea on the species but I do like the way it's peering out from the leaf.
Regarding the aperture I think even f5.6 may have been fine if you could have got reasonably parallel to the insects face. I don't think you'd have got the leaf sharp even at f16 although it obviously would have been better defined at that aperture, which, isn't necessarily desireable, depends what you wanted really.
It does look as though the insect's eye isn't critically sharp, it appears as if the 'snout' and part of the antenae are in focus, these both look slightly forward of the eye so perhaps a readjustment of focus would have been beneficial, or, as you say, a little more depth of field would have been handy (from this angle at least) to cover the whole of the insects face.
Posted by Matt Cole on September 10, 2008 at 4:47 PM
it's a Scorpion Fly Paul and, as Justin says, very tricky to get the focus right unless you're parallel to its 'snout'. It looks like the tip of the snout is in perfect focus rather than the eye. I like the way it is looking around the leaf though.
Matt
Posted by John Robinson on September 10, 2008 at 4:48 PM
Hi Paul - Nice "wot u lookin at" shot !
It would have been nice a liitle sharper but its bad enough with a 150 ! as I am finding.
The insect by the way I think is indeed one of the scorpion flies, Panorpa species.Rleated to lacewings and ant lions.
Cheers
JohnR
Posted by Paul Ashton on September 10, 2008 at 5:05 PM
Thanks to everyone for the response. I had decided that regardless of the weather I would take the camera out today. Unfortunately I forgot the tripod. At close range like this it's very difficult to stand still enough to get the image sharp at all.
When you do get to see the subject in detail it's amazing what detail there is. The mouth appears beak like but has hairs on it!
Looks like I'm talking myself into photographing creepy crawlies.
Posted by jack chapman on September 11, 2008 at 11:47 AM
very nice image, like said not tack sharp but good other than that
Posted by David Taylor on September 11, 2008 at 5:22 PM
Never even seen a scorpion fly let alone photograph one. Nice to see. Creepy crawlies deserve more exposure.
Discussion
6 repliesAn ID of this creature might be helpful but then again...
Further details. Black and yellow body, brown tail with small fork, wings four transparent with black markings.
Sorry I've no idea on the species but I do like the way it's peering out from the leaf.
Regarding the aperture I think even f5.6 may have been fine if you could have got reasonably parallel to the insects face. I don't think you'd have got the leaf sharp even at f16 although it obviously would have been better defined at that aperture, which, isn't necessarily desireable, depends what you wanted really.
It does look as though the insect's eye isn't critically sharp, it appears as if the 'snout' and part of the antenae are in focus, these both look slightly forward of the eye so perhaps a readjustment of focus would have been beneficial, or, as you say, a little more depth of field would have been handy (from this angle at least) to cover the whole of the insects face.
Matt
It would have been nice a liitle sharper but its bad enough with a 150 ! as I am finding.
The insect by the way I think is indeed one of the scorpion flies, Panorpa species.Rleated to lacewings and ant lions.
Cheers
JohnR
When you do get to see the subject in detail it's amazing what detail there is. The mouth appears beak like but has hairs on it!
Looks like I'm talking myself into photographing creepy crawlies.