# I can guarantee that you've seen this a thousand times...



## KristerP (May 17, 2010)

..but here's my take on one of these beatiful little creatures (from today)


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## max3k (May 17, 2010)

1001 times now....nice shot =)


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## Sep (May 17, 2010)

I'm not too fond of the bluring job you've done with photoshop


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## KristerP (May 17, 2010)

Sep said:


> I'm not too fond of the bluring job you've done with photoshop


 
The blur is real - not made in photoshop.


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## Scatterbrained (May 18, 2010)

It's a man-bug baby. yeah.


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## Overread (May 18, 2010)

Hmm I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that this is a focus stacked shot - the falloff of the sharpness to blur is very strong and in a single exposure is not at all what I would expect to occur naturally. From a stacked shot though it is a far more normal reaction of the combinging software and infact can be (as I think this case shows) a detrimental aspect as it gives the shot a fake appearance. One way to correct this is to take a wider aperture shot at each end of the focusing - say you were working at f13 or f10 for the stacked shots you'd take an f18/f22 shot at the near and at the far end and then add them into the stack. The result is that the wider aperture shots help to soften the dividing point between the blurr and the sharpness falloff - giving a more natural appearance rather than a strong line. 

edit - looking at it some more I wonder a little if it might be a single shot, but with some heavy noise reduction on the blurred areas? 

A good shot overall though, nice details on the lady and I suspect that viewed even larger those compound eyes will stand out in all their detail. 
Lighting is good as well, though you have the telltale softbox reflection on the shell and I would recomend that you read the following thread for some fantastic diffuser advice:
http://www.juzaforum.com/forum-en/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12633


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## KristerP (May 18, 2010)

Thanks you very much for your detailed suggestions and tips - I appreciate it and will look into it in depth - it is indeed a (handheld) stacked shot - the lighting however is 100% natural. 




Overread said:


> Hmm I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that this is a focus stacked shot - the falloff of the sharpness to blur is very strong and in a single exposure is not at all what I would expect to occur naturally. From a stacked shot though it is a far more normal reaction of the combinging software and infact can be (as I think this case shows) a detrimental aspect as it gives the shot a fake appearance. One way to correct this is to take a wider aperture shot at each end of the focusing - say you were working at f13 or f10 for the stacked shots you'd take an f18/f22 shot at the near and at the far end and then add them into the stack. The result is that the wider aperture shots help to soften the dividing point between the blurr and the sharpness falloff - giving a more natural appearance rather than a strong line.
> 
> edit - looking at it some more I wonder a little if it might be a single shot, but with some heavy noise reduction on the blurred areas?
> 
> ...


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## Overread (May 18, 2010)

ahh interesting about the lighting - the shape of the light on the bug as well as the black falloff into the background is all what I would expect from a flash shot - interesting to see that its a totally natural result - I take it that you added the dark boarders - or was it a spotlight type of situation?


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## KristerP (May 18, 2010)

Overread said:


> ahh interesting about the lighting - the shape of the light on the bug as well as the black falloff into the background is all what I would expect from a flash shot - interesting to see that its a totally natural result - I take it that you added the dark boarders - or was it a spotlight type of situation?


 
The upper black border was a leaf (I somehow managed to miss it  )in front of the camera - I added the lower left one for better balance in the photo.

Above and behind me were other leaves , helping to create the spotlight effect.


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