A Japanese Beetle from my cheery tree (grrr...) placed on a leaf after a morning thunderstorm.
I learned a lot on this challenge: 1. You really need a wide angle lens when coupling two together- this was taken with a 18-55 kit lens coupled to a 50mm f/1.8mm. 2. A tripod is an absolute necessity for serious macros. 3. A few minutes in the freezer will kill a Japanese Beetle.
Cloud-filtered sunlight, plus my 420ex flash and a white plastic DVD case to bounce a little light onto the front of the beetle. Crop/rotate, USM, levels, assorted dodging/burning/saturation adjustment, and I cloned out some minor "sparkles" on the leaf. Added a 1 pixel border, then use the History brush to "erase" it over the beetle.
Statistics
Place: 17 out of 248 Avg (all users): 6.4637 Avg (commenters): 7.3636 Avg (participants): 6.2696 Avg (non-participants): 6.8125 Views since voting: 2014 Views during voting: 251 Votes: 179 Comments: 14 Favorites: 1 (view)
NNNNNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is very nice indeed. I like it and I like it too much. I think you deserve a higher place though!
Wayyy close-up. Perfect exposure on the beetle brings out those great colors. Black background is the exact one to make this work so well. Get rid of the funky border - this image does not need it.
Yet another bug, but a good one! Good image well focused and exposed. Nice reflections. Contract with black background is striking. I probably shouldn't be, but I'm bothered just a little because the light border line seems to go under the bug. And yet, just as I say I'm bothered, it does work pretty well. Never mind about the border comment.
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