Tiger Dragonfly

During birding, I got chance to shot this.

F 4.5 | ISO 100 | 1/400 s

One may please reveal its actual identity as Tiger Dragonfly is just a common name.

Earlier pic was with F 4.5, now please consider this one with F 8.0.
Details of right hand side wings are clear here.

Hi Sagar,

The f8 shot is better but has completely lost its colours. In any event, stopping down aperture will not help overmuch as Depth of Field (DOF) is very limited in macro. The trick is to have the bits of the critter that you want in sharp focus, parallel to the film, in this case, plane of the sensor.

So, over here, you would try to position the camera, above and parallel, to the top of the dragonfly.

apana

Hi Sagar,

You could have tried a different angle, to get the dragon fly to face you for a better composition. The second post is more sharp but there is noise in the BG in both the posts. Have you cropped them?

I am reading the Exif details and thinking would a higher shutter speed at the lower Aperture (F4) on the first picture have helped ? Maybe bump the ISO up to say 400 ? Would this have resulted in a sharper picture ?

Apana, thanks for the tip on the aligning parallely ? One question i have is, though you mention stopping down the aperture may not help, there is a stark difference in sharpness between the two different aperture settings on the image (of course at the cost of the colors). Any views you can share with us on this ?

regards
Rajan

Macro lenses and long lenses have limited DOF. Stopping down will not help beyond a point. I stop my MPE 65 lens down to f16, but even then DOF is very limited. Having said that, with a normal macro lens you should try at least f8 or f11. Another tactic gaining increasing popularity with very still subjects, is to take different photos of the same subject, with different points of focus, and them composit the images so the entire subject seems sharp. This is possible in cold countries, as insects are cold blooded, but highly unlikely in Southern India.

Apana

Hi Apna,

Actually I have not taken this shot in MACRO mode. I have zoomed it upto 85-90% of my camera capability, i.e. Focal length = 70 mm (Max : 78 mm).

So, I tried shots in different DOF. But my mistake, I forgot to increase exposure stop, which would enhance colors more naturalistic.

At the other hand, one can look at my another shot of dragonfly here, which is purely in MACRO mode with focal length of 5.2 mm.

Funny thing is, this guy didn't allow me to get close even for 1 foot. I took this shot, say around 2.5 feet distance.

But, really your guidance on alignment is helpful.

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Hi Mrudul, Yes I agree with grains at background. I need to learn more on editing photos. I always fall in pit :(

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Hi Rajan Ji, Yes bumping ISO upto 200 or 400 could help but light was good enough. Will surely try your idea.

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Thanx & Regards
Sagar Patil

Agree that you have lost colours in the f8 composition. Would suggest taking a larger aperture and clicking from top so that it is parallel to the lens plane and the whole body is in focus....