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Troy Straub's picture

Moody light mantis

I usually shoot macro with a flash, but there was such a nice beam of light coming through the bushes and falling right on this tiny Nymph. So I shut the flash off and reset my camera to try to catch it. First one is a single image shot at f5 and 1/200. The second is 6 shot focus stack at f6.3 1/160. Both have some dodge and burn done in Lightroom. Any CC or comments always welcome.

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9 Comments

My only CC on both is that is appears to have missed the focus on the actual mantis. The leaf has a nice clear focus, but a good portion of mantis is unclear. Especially the second. I enjoy the composition of both photos though, and the lighting is great with the shadows.

Thanks for the input Chloe. Focus is on the head and eye. When shooting at such close distance and high magnification depth of field is very shallow and I felt the eye was still the most important thing to get in focus. I know it can seem odd when the rest of the body is closer to the lens though. The leaf is only in focus because it happens to fall on the same plane as the eye, but I suppose that does bring more attention to the out of focus body.. I'll try to keep this in mind when shooting. Next time I will try to get a few shots with smaller aperture and either raise ISO or bring it up more in post.

I love these little guys - they seem to know when they are being photographed and will swivel their head and give a stern look. Maybe it's just my imagination. Great focus on the head and eye Troy.

Thanks Sandra. They definitely are aware of their surroundings and will interact with you. Some will just run and hide, but there is a fairly high percentage that do stick around for a photo shoot and even pose. Jumping spiders are very much the same. It's amazing how much thought process and personality there is in such tiny creatures.

Nice job focusing on the eye Troy. My main bug (???) about these types of images is that the actual are of subject matter is really small in the frame.

As Chloe indicates, they eye is drawn from the head of the Mantis to the larger/in focus leaf area. Other than the complex task of planning the shot so the head is isolated on a different plane I'm nit sure how you could prevent this.

Perhaps that is why I stay clear of macros - much too difficult for this simple photographer.....

An admiral effort - I'm guessing focus stacking is not an option...….

Thanks Alan. The second shot is a stack of 6 shots already, I took over a dozen and had 6 that would work. to get enough depth for the whole body I'd probably need to take 100 or more shots and use at least 50. I've seen others claiming to get that many on a live subject, but I've never came close to that. Ten is about the best I've ever pulled off. I really just need to get a better angle with the face toward the lens. I liked the idea of having it look into it's shadow, but the depth of field just isn't going to make this shot read right. Always good to have a fresh set of eyes look at a shot see what I've looked over while focusing on the fine details.

Yeah, the 2nd looks a lot sharper. I have dabbled with macro but find it too frustrating - hats off to you for what you've achieved.
Is the next step is a motorized slider?

Thank you! I like macro because I can see things I can't with just the naked eye. I also find it convenient because it can be done right in the back yard or on the kitchen table. No slider for me I really just like to shoot handheld.

Here's another shot I got today. Not as good of light, but still natural, and I think I got a better angle.