Lucanus cervus

This image is quite powerful. The composition is nice in a classic sort of way. The lighting is a little fierce (is that a flash-related overexposure on the little critter's exoskeleton?).

The thing that makes me doubt my liking of this image is the fact that I don't know whether it's manipulated or not, (or at least: to which extent). Why is the background black? Why is there a tiny branch that ends in a fork? Is the black background only due to lighting and DOF or was it removed with Photoshop? I don't know, but the fact that I'm wondering might show which way my opinion is going. Perhaps this picture was staged... that's another possibility. Two insects in a studio with a black background... interesting. As you can see, I haven't really made up my mind. If anything... it's an image that's better than anything I'm capable of at the moment. Cheers!