A flower & a grasshopper...

[Anil Kumar Verma]

Hello Friends,

Yeoor again, A grasshopper enjoying itself near a bright maroon flower.

EXIF : Canon550D with Tamron 90mm VC, Tv : 1/60, Av : f/9, ISO 400, Full Frame,Internal Flash fired in conjunction with plastic diffuser.

Regards/ Anil Kumar Verma

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice. The dark red colour of the flower is striking. Liked the imaginary arc formed by the grasshopper and the flower. Nicely captured. Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice one. A bit more brightness around the corners would have been good. Now the central portion is bright but the shadow of the flower takes away some attention from the subject. May be turning more to the right would have helped as then the shadow would not have fallen on the leaf and become visible to us. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Anil Kumar Verma]

Thanks Dada & Mrudul for your comments. Attaching another version with vignetting removed & highlights bit more opened.

Regards/Anil Kumar Verma

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This version looks better than the previous. I think still it can be improved further. Send me the raw file if you have sufficient internet speed and I will have a go at it. My previous suggestion of moving to the right may be construed by some people as moving 90 degree but that would have resulted in the grasshopper directly in the line of sight of the flower and both the flower and grasshopper would have competed for our attention.

Any macro photography lovers reading this should note that when you sight a subject don't rush along. Think about the image design and then move. Macro photography is not as easy as some people think.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Anil Kumar Verma]

Hello Dada,

Agree , it's important to spend time with subject rather than going through a shooting frenzy. Especially, for macro photography, as I explore more & get to understand a bit of its nuances, realise a few good pictures are better than having loads of not so good pictures.

I have already sent the raw file & waiting excitedly to see your rendition of this picture.

Regards/Anil Kumar Verma

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This is my analysis of Anil’s image of grasshopper with a bright red inflorescence.

This image has two points of attractions one is the red flower/inflorescence and second is the grasshopper.

The striking red colour takes away our attention from the grasshopper. So what needs to be done for a successful image design?

We have to also keep in mind that flash was used in this image, so the flash directly lights up the grasshopper and kind of overpowers it. So parts of its body is overexposed. You can see the bright white band. So the green colour in the grasshopper hasn’t come out well.

Also, the leaves are pretty dirty. So the green colour of the leaves haven’t come out well.

Depth of field in close focusing distances is pretty less. In this case the grasshopper and flower is covered in depth of field. However, as expected all the leaves are not covered by depth of field at f9. Even at f22, it would have been a challenge. So what can the photographer do while shooting and in post processing?

The standard response of a majority of photographers to such situations in post processing is what Anil adopted in the first image, namely Higher saturation, higher contrast and vignetting in the corners. The second version is brighter, not way too dark like the previous version, and it still has higher saturation which makes the leaves and grasshopper green. However, there is still lot of yellow in this image.

When I remove all these excess saturation and colour cast, I find that our eyes goes to the leaves which are not in focus, atleast the leaves in the lower portion of the frame. If some part of these leaves at the bottom were focused then it would have looked great. Unfortunately the exif details says f9 at 1/60 at ISO 400. In the 550D, I would be loathe to increase the ISO beyond 400. If there was a chance to use a stable support like a tripod/monopod then one could have taken a chance of narrow aperture. So it is actually not easy to implement what I am asking him to do.

I have done one version in colour with his full frame image with nearly realistic muddy green leaves. I am saying nearly because completely realistic means still reducing the green slightly more. This image would have looked much better if the antennae would have been in focus and sharp as that points in the direction of the top right leaf.

I am also sharing a cropped version to explain how composition wise it can improve if one can move in a bit closer.

Also, I am posting two black and white images as well.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This is a slightly cropped version.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This is a black and white version. You can see that some portion from the bottom is cropped. Here both the flower as well as the grasshopper are in different power points. There is a contrast between the two subjects ie the flower and the grasshopper. The black and white versions remove the colour and help you compose in terms of the lines, symmetry, texture etc. The luminosity values are more important ie the brights tones help in grabbing or directing your attention. So one needs to notice those and compose accordingly. That is why one needs to think before clicking an image where the final output is going to be black and white.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Another black and white version

[Anil Kumar Verma]

Wow, what an analysis..It's a full chapter on macro photography. Anyone going through this post has so much to learn from it.

I , personally liked first B&W rendition the most.

Thanks again Dada for wonderful insights in realm of macro photography.

Regards/Anil Kumar Verma