Green Silver Lines Invader
Jan, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken in our back garden and is one of many images of the Green-silver lines moth, that resulted from our hobby of moth trapping. The moth is a good sitter and is quite patient as you move it gently from place to place, although I tend to limit how often this is done so as not to stress the moth. I will leave it somewhere well covered or let it go at night to go on its merry way.Time
This was removed from our trap in the morning, which would have been the best time to photograph. However, as we had to rush off after identifying and recording our moths, it was photographed until later in the day ca 16.30 hrs GMT.Lighting
The light was overcast but not too dark so fine for macro photography. I placed the moth on the leaf which had been moved behind our shed to darken and simplify the foreground and background respectively.Equipment
Tripod, ball head, Pentax K3 and my sigma 70mm f2.8 macro lens, remote cable release. ISO 500 f6.3 1/50 secInspiration
I take many images of the moths that we trap for ID purposes and build up a gallery of moths trapped in our rear yard. Then if time permits I try to use certain moths posed in an aesthetically pleasing way. I have many images with different compositions for this species of moth.Editing
This was processed in LR 6/CC and finished in PS CC. The image was cropped to suit, in this case the moth sat nicely balanced on the rule of thirds, before applying lens corrections. I first darkened the fg and bg and cooled them a little at the same time whilst using a brush to warm the moth a little. The highlights and shadows were adjusted to suit, before adjusting the white/black points. I then used the HSL/Colour/B & W panel to adjust individual colour saturation and reduced colour luminance for the greens and reds and boosted the yellow luminance a little. If there is any further contrast adjustments I save these for the penultimate step before sharpening in PS.In my camera bag
Typically nowadays I have the Pentax K3, 16-50 f2.8 & 50-135 f2.8 Pentax lenses, together with my sigma 70mm f2.8 macro lens, remote cable release and L-plate, plus spare battery and memory cards.Feedback
I have suggested some general advice on macro-photography for my image Tachanid on Stem 01. Further advice would be to practice lots as this is a difficult genre to master and the success rate is often low, so patience and love for the subject is a must. All the general compositional rules apply as for general photography and perhaps the closet compositional class of genre for macro may well be portrait photography, with respect to concentration on subject, simplification and removal of distractions from the fg/bg. Light can also be limiting for macro as you get closer to your subject and for focussing this is critical as the depth of field is typically mm's or less. So getting your subject in the right plane of focus when composing is essential. Additionally consider focus fall equally 50:50 in front and behind the subject as opposed to 30:70 front to back respectively for other photography.
