Insects The Dragonflies of Spain....

[Uncle Kevriano]

As anyone who takes any notice of what I post will know, I love Dragonflies. It was very nice to see some new and some familiar species while in Spain with Dave and his wife last month. ID on each.


Red-Veined Darter (sometimes seen in the UK too, but scarce)

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/10
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 1250

Black-Tailed Skimmer. Very widespread in Europe and Asia. Loads in the UK.

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/13
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 2000

Long Skimmer

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/11
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 1000

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 576.0 mm
• ƒ/11
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 800

Red-Veined Darter

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/9
• 1/2500 sec
• ISO 320

Red-Veined Darter - aging, hence the lack of colour

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/9
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 1250

Long Skimmer

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/8
• 1/1600 sec
• ISO 800

Red-Veined Darter

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/8
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 400

Broad Scarlet

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/9
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 200

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/9
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 800

Lesser Emperor - Nationally scarce in the UK, but in numbers in small areas.

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 512.0 mm
• ƒ/9
• 1/1600 sec
• ISO 3200

Broad Scarlet

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/10
• 1/1250 sec
• ISO 800

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/9
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 640

Long Skimmer

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/7.1
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 200

Broad Scarlet

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/9
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 500

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/11
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 1250

Lesser Emperors. I've never seen a female in the UK.

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/10
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 640

Black Tailed Skimmer

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/8
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 400

Long Skimmer

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/8
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 500

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

I want to be like Uncle Kev when I grow up: The Dragonfly Master
Great shots!

 

[WeeMalky]

I looked at the photos before I looked at the heading and thought B/H where did he get them cracking set Kev well done

 

[spudhead]

Nice Kev , I have seen so few here in the UK this year and obviously the light in Spain makes for great difference

 

[Tinopener]

Great shots I know this might seem a silly question but were these finished off in photo shop the reason I ask is I've had photo shop on my computer for over a year and haven't used it yet I think I'm a bit confused on how to use it ..... Gary

 

[WeeMalky]

Great shots I know this might seem a silly question but were these finished off in photo shop the reason I ask is I've had photo shop on my computer for over a year and haven't used it yet I think I'm a bit confused on how to use it ..... Gary

Gary this is a couple of years old but will give you the basics. And it's free on YouTube might be worth a look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyR_uYsRdPs

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

Great shots I know this might seem a silly question but were these finished off in photo shop the reason I ask is I've had photo shop on my computer for over a year and haven't used it yet I think I'm a bit confused on how to use it ..... Gary

Yes they were, as I shoot in RAW, so I used Bridge for importing, camera raw for adjustments and Photoshop for cropping, Denoise via Topaz, and adding a border and signature.

 

[Tinopener]

Thank you I've made up my mind to try and shoot in raw and try and use photo shop ....Gary

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

If you ever want help give me a shout. I'm no expert but can give you some pointers RAW is the way though, shooting jpeg you lose an awful lot of data from an image. Out of the camera they can look great and you can manipulate them somewhat, but nothing like what you can with a RAW file

 

[Richard A]

Absolutely beautiful shots @Uncle Kevriano!

I have a couple of comments/questions. Has it taken a lot of practice to get such good pics of smallish insects with such a big lens? Like you, I use Bridge, ACR & Photoshop rather than Lightroom. Have you tried the denoising in ACR? Have you sharpened these pics at all? If so, how?

For @Tinopener, this is just a suggestion, learn Adobe Camera Raw first, before you get too wrapped up in Photoshop, if you want to start shooting RAW. It does so much these days & is basically the same as Lightroom so if you’re looking for tutorials on YouTube you can follow Lightroom ones. You will get plenty of help on here if you ask. There is an Editing/Post Processing forum.

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

Absolutely beautiful shots @Uncle Kevriano!

I have a couple of comments/questions. Has it taken a lot of practice to get such good pics of smallish insects with such a big lens? Like you, I use Bridge, ACR & Photoshop rather than Lightroom. Have you tried the denoising in ACR? Have you sharpened these pics at all? If so, how?

For @Tinopener, this is just a suggestion, learn Adobe Camera Raw first, before you get too wrapped up in Photoshop, if you want to start shooting RAW. It does so much these days & is basically the same as Lightroom so if you’re looking for tutorials on YouTube you can follow Lightroom ones. You will get plenty of help on here if you ask. There is an Editing/Post Processing forum.

Thanks.
Practice: Yes I guess so, though I've always been decent at it. It's really down to being very steady when shooting, which I have always been, and then using the right focus point, which for me has always been single centre. The big zoom does allow for you to keep a decent distance, so you don't disturb them too much, and I shoot in crop mode, as I am always going to be cropping these in anyway, even from 8ft, the close focus distance for the 200 600. Great light has helped with these too of course.
Denoise in ACR: No. I have it set to 0, because I didn't find it as effective as using Topaz. The version of Topaz Denoise I am using (3.7) has been revelatory, even over earlier versions, and I won't ever change it, it's just consistently amazing.
Sharpening: Yes. It's one thing that the 200 600 does need a little of. I use Topaz Denoise for this too. Part of the denoising setting is to sharpen. I tend to use Auto for Denoise/Sharpen as a starting point, but will then go back in, turn denoise to 0, and then sharpen again to what ever degree I think looks good, usually around 20 on the Topaz slider. I think that these shots show that it's possible to get prime lens levels of detail and sharpness out of the 200 600 with just a little bit of processing, I probably spend 4-5 minutes on each, and have never automated my processes as each photo is different.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I love Dragonflies.

Truly a labour of love then. It shows in the images. Magnificent! So beautiful.

 

[Richard A]

Thanks for the info. Appreciate it.