Outdoor Ontario

Wildlife Reports => Toronto Wildlife => Topic started by: Anonymous on September 22, 2009, 06:28:08 AM

Title: Winged Wonder - Blue Dragonfly
Post by: Anonymous on September 22, 2009, 06:28:08 AM

From the backyard on Sunday.

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq326/WingsofFuryPhotography/Insects/BlueDragonfly.jpg)

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Post by: Bird Brain on September 22, 2009, 08:38:09 AM

Wow, what a spectacular photo!   8)  :D

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Post by: Moira on September 22, 2009, 07:12:25 PM

Incredible Attila.

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Post by: Anonymous on September 26, 2009, 07:10:22 AM

Thanks ladies, glad you enjoyed it. :)

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Post by: JTF on September 26, 2009, 07:32:28 AM

Beauty shot indeed.

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Post by: Anonymous on September 27, 2009, 05:16:23 AM

Thanks Paul, glad you enjoyed it.

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Post by: egret on September 27, 2009, 02:19:41 PM

oh, my

How elegant is this dragonfly!

tks for sharing


Egret :)

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Post by: Photoman on September 27, 2009, 07:00:58 PM

Holy Moly!!!!

   That is one cool photo, love the detail.
Great work.

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Post by: Anonymous on September 28, 2009, 08:29:39 AM

Thanks Egret, I always appreciate your comments.

Thanks Photoman - I was pretty surprised I got as much detail as I did as well!

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Post by: Moira on October 03, 2009, 12:59:55 PM

Attila:  From a relative beginner at photography, can I ask probably a silly question?  When I have taken photos such as this, I find it hard to have everything sharply in focus.  e.g.  I was taking a pic of a red dragonfly (not as pretty as this one!) and the body was not nearly as sharp as the head, wings and tail.  I am on auto focus, centre focus????  Any help appreciated.  Thank you.

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Post by: Brian Bailey on October 03, 2009, 11:20:21 PM

Moira,

When you get into the macro range (close-up), your depth of field with a telephoto lens becomes extremely shallow.  It's a function of the focal length, distance to subject and the aperture, but when you're filling the frame with something the size of a dragonfly, you will probably only have a few millimetres depth of field when your lens is wide open.

Stopping down a bit will help, but you'll have best success if you can position yourself so that the body (or whichever parts you want to keep in focus) are parallel to the plane of your sensor.

It looks like Attila's photo was taken at about F11, but that's still not enough to get the wingtips in focus.  At that angle, it's probably not possible at any aperture.  The only way you're ever likely to get the whole dragonfly in focus is a top view like this:
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3066/2858592274_b580365552.jpg)
But it would get a bit boring if that's the only view you ever took.

BB

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Post by: Anonymous on October 04, 2009, 01:17:28 AM

Moira,

What BB said. :)

With one little note - it was shot at F5.6.  :wink:

Distance to subject - 7 feet.
Angle to subject - approximately 35 degrees downward cant.
Lens - 75-300mm "POS" lens from Canon.

For what it's worth, I didn't expect it to turn out as well as it did, and was thoroughly shocked and awed when I saw it appear on my screen.

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Post by: Moira on October 04, 2009, 04:03:20 PM

Brian & Attila:  Thank you for your words of advice.  Depth of field is a challenge for me!