Keisha, this is a spectacular capture! I love your camera angle and the backlight, which shows the delicate texture of the dragonfly's wings. This should definitely be printed, framed, and hung on your wall! Very well done!

I decided to play a bit with your wonderful image to see if changing the lighting would be interesting. With that in mind, I took it into Camera Raw and modified the highlights and the background. Your thoughts?

  Posted: 02/02/2025 20:02:36

Keisha, I agree with Pete.. I truly don't have any comments!   Posted: 02/03/2025 01:42:24

Hi Keisha, Super capture and love all the detail in the wings and body. I think Pete has lifted the shadows in its underside which makes more detail clearer so that is an improvement. Some would not like the very bright bokeh balls on the left. I am good with them and anyway I doubt you could get rid of them. I think in a perfect world you would move POV to position them over the subject.   Posted: 02/03/2025 02:35:15

Keisha, dragonflies are amazing animals, and this is a wonderful capture of one. I agree with Pete's remarks and modifications. However, the bokeh balls were pulling my attention away from the subject. I did some experimenting, knowing that burning in the balls doesn't work often, I first made a copy of the subject and put it on its own layer. I darkened the original layer and sampled the green BG. I made a solid-colored green layer with a black mask under the subject layer. I painted white on the mask above the bokeh balls and then reduced the opacity for the final image.   Posted: 02/04/2025 20:31:22

Keisha, very nice. I agree with Oliver's modification. It gives more detail to the head and makes the wings standout. Good capture.   Posted: 02/06/2025 15:34:41

I'm sure we all love dragonflies. I like the angle you have taken this. If it were mine I would combine both of Pete's and Richard suggestions.   Posted: 02/11/2025 11:38:44