Action fly

PablitoPablito Registered Users Posts: 12 Big grins
edited December 1, 2010 in Holy Macro
Hi, this is my first post. I've enjoyed a lot of your photos. They give me a yardstick to use to measure my own, and something to achieve.

This is a shot of a fly in Belize taken with a Nikon D700 and Nikkor 70-180 macro lens at 180. It was shot at f/8, 1/2000, ISO-800, mistakenly at -1 exposure step, so boosted it in LR3. It's been sharpened and cleaned and I cannot tell what it looks like any more! Need some objective and unbiased eyes. Thanks.

And no, the colors are not "faked" with amped-up saturation or tinting. These flies are quite colorful when they are in the full sun. Even with naked eye you can see the brilliant colors.

Comments

  • SubanuSubanu Registered Users Posts: 107 Major grins
    edited November 26, 2010
    I really like the inflight shots... Great capture!!
  • Lord VetinariLord Vetinari Registered Users Posts: 15,901 Major grins
    edited November 27, 2010
    Lovely inflight capture. Trying to work out what sort of Dipterus fly it is.
    Brian V.
    Brian V.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
    http://www.lordv.smugmug.com/
  • PablitoPablito Registered Users Posts: 12 Big grins
    edited November 27, 2010
    Lord Vetinari wrote: »
    Lovely inflight capture. Trying to work out what sort of Dipterus fly it is.
    Brian V.

    Thanks, guys, and I'd love to know what that fly is if you ever find it, Brian.

    I was hoping that I did not over sharpen, over crop, or over clean, and that the focus and DOF were acceptable. Sometimes I can't see the photo for what it is after I look at it too much.
  • GOLDENORFEGOLDENORFE Super Moderators Posts: 4,747 moderator
    edited November 30, 2010
    not too bad for natural light, bright sun has burned out the detail
    really need to fill viewfinder with composition ,so you dont need to crop . more pixels in the fly = more possible detail.
    really need flash to freeze motion for inflight shots.
    easier to learn shooting static subjects :D
    keep shooting and post more .
    Phil

    moderator - Holy Macro
    Goldenorfe’s Flickr Gallery
    Goldenorfe photography on Smugmug
    Phils Photographic Adventures Blog
  • PablitoPablito Registered Users Posts: 12 Big grins
    edited November 30, 2010
    GOLDENORFE wrote: »
    not too bad for natural light, bright sun has burned out the detail
    really need to fill viewfinder with composition ,so you dont need to crop . more pixels in the fly = more possible detail.
    really need flash to freeze motion for inflight shots.
    easier to learn shooting static subjects :D
    keep shooting and post more .
    Yes, Phil, need to fill the viewfinder. I got closer than I ever have before, but the flies seem to be easily spooked. Maybe I need a "fly blind", har.

    On the issue of flash, I haven't figured out a way to get my Nikon D700 with SB 400 flash to give me a shutter over 320. :-( I'm not too swift with this flash stuff, but I am reading that other flash units, maybe more expensive, will support fast shutter. Maybe there's a way around it but like I said, I'm not too swift when it comes to flash. I knew enough to buy the external unit, but I'm afraid it's not good enough for fast shutter.
  • Lord VetinariLord Vetinari Registered Users Posts: 15,901 Major grins
    edited December 1, 2010
    Pablito wrote: »
    On the issue of flash, I haven't figured out a way to get my Nikon D700 with SB 400 flash to give me a shutter over 320. :-( I'm not too swift with this flash stuff, but I am reading that other flash units, maybe more expensive, will support fast shutter. Maybe there's a way around it but like I said, I'm not too swift when it comes to flash. I knew enough to buy the external unit, but I'm afraid it's not good enough for fast shutter.

    You get fairly fast effective shutter speeds shooting with the camera in manual and camera shutter speed at the normal 1/200th x-sync speed. If the flash is the main source of light then the effective shutter speed is the flash duration which is normally around 1/1000th sec or faster. Still not quite fast enough to freeze the wing motion normally but fast enough to freeze the bug.
    Brian v.
    Brian V.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
    http://www.lordv.smugmug.com/
  • PablitoPablito Registered Users Posts: 12 Big grins
    edited December 1, 2010
    Lord Vetinari wrote: »
    You get fairly fast effective shutter speeds shooting with the camera in manual and camera shutter speed at the normal 1/200th x-sync speed. If the flash is the main source of light then the effective shutter speed is the flash duration which is normally around 1/1000th sec or faster. Still not quite fast enough to freeze the wing motion normally but fast enough to freeze the bug.
    Brian v.

    Brian, the flash duration becomes the de facto shutter speed??

    Yikes, I can't wait to try it out. I'm not at all worried about wing blur. Not at all. This is quite exciting as I just bought this flash (and it's definitely not on Nikon's list that allows fast sync speeds) and can't really deal with getting another one.

    Thanks ....
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