This is a great capture with the simple dragonfly effectively captured on a single interesting bloom against a colorful but clean background. The colors are captivating and your composition with the brighter areas behind the dragonfly adds to the presentation. You made a lot of good choices here. Now, let's get a bit more into the detail here (since this is a detail-oriented study group). To my eye the body of the dragonfly is a bit hot (bright) and could be toned a bit. Also, the wings are a bit soft as well, perhaps due to the aperture you used (f/6). A larger depth of field with a smaller aperture (f/16 or so) would increase the area of sharpness in this example. This might require that you chose a much higher ISO setting (800-2,000), but with today's cameras and sensors this is an acceptable trade-off (the days of "low as you can go" ISO, are past). Luckily, one can sharpen the wings a tad using applications like Topaz Sharpen AI. One can also clone away some of the wing blur present as well to make it appear a bit sharper. Finally, I don't think that you need as much space at the top and cropping down from the top might help to emphasize the subject a bit more. I have included a version here which illustrates my thoughts. I will say that these suggestions are minor and should only be taken as more advanced and finishing touches. The image as collected was quite impressive and you should be proud of your effort.   Posted: 03/06/2025 17:50:28

Hi Xiao: This picture commands the viewers attention as it comes up on the monitor, commanding the viewers attention is very important and you have achieved this with this picture.

Charlie has provided you with a lot of good advise regarding how to improve this picture. To me the lack of wing sharpness is the most noticeable flaw in the picture, all else is mostly quite good.
With many macro type images using f/6 aperture will not provide enough depth of field, the next time out experiment using smaller F stops like f/11 and even f/16 and see what you think. That being said you will need to pay closer attention to background distractions f/16 may cause due to greater depth of field.

Really nice picture... cheers   Posted: 03/07/2025 04:44:04