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A mystery frog with 'painted' eyes.
A mystery frog with 'painted' eyes.
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Mar, 2016Views
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Awards
People's Choice in Camouflaged Creatures Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Magnificent Capture
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Superior Skill
Top Choice
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
The picture was taken in the Museum of Art during the days of Tropical Frogs display.Time
It was about the noon when I have entered the display.Lighting
The natural light was almost nonexistent. The tropical frogs were placed in special terrariums with its own lights, micro climate and ventilation systems to support the fragile creatures in the artificial environment. The biggest problem was the distance caused by a massive enclosure covering each display, reflecting the light and making a focus difficult.Equipment
For this photo-shoot I have taken my Canon 5D M2 with EF 100 mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM Canon lens. I also took with me a monopod, anticipating that tripods may be prohibited. Since flash photography was not allowed, I had to dependent on the artificial light, already existing on the scene. To photograph the scene I had to manually preview, adjust and fix the focus. With the monopod extended, the front of the lens (without the hood) pressed against the glass of the cabinet and the scarf fabric surrounding the lens to block any side light, and my both hands holding to the front of the lens using the glass enclosure as a surface support, i took a picture - using a self timer.Inspiration
Prior to taking photos I went through the entire gallery to see all potential opportunities. But this frog, this 'master of camouflage' quickly stolen the show. The semi-angry eyes with its lines disfigured by a nature-added paintings, the mouth line, the miniature nostrils and the light reflecting configuration of the body was amazing. And the surrounding plants in almost exact color as a frog added to a perfect scene of camouflage.Editing
I always start with the Lightroom and then move to On1 Photo RAW for masking and finishing, and sometime use the Photoshop. Filially I use a very crude Chrome program to decrease the monstrous size of my file to be accepted by the Viewbug, which decreases a quality of the picture on website. But to extract a maximum effect of this capture, I had to carefully adjust the highlights, lights and shadows. I have also blackened a background to eliminate all unimportant details. Then I magnified lights on both side of the branch to better explain the 'operational zone' of the frog's life.In my camera bag
That day I was shooting with my old Canon 5D M2 using EF 100 mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM Canon lens. This was a perfect set for the scene. I always have with me a Graduated Filter, UV and Circular Polarizer, two sets of batteries, charger, remote timer and USB-3 card reader with a short connecting cord, and lastly the lens cleaning kit in a dust proof sealed container.Feedback
Current trend of photographing small creatures is to provide a maximum sharpness of each detail. I have decided to treat the subject with the same attention of focus as we do to a real size models. I kept the front side of the frog sharp and focused and used a depth of field of the 100 mm lens to slightly blur everything else. And it worked well.
