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Very fine details. It looks like a portrait of the insect.

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Thank you for your comment. Much appreciated!

Excellent! Place to learn macro imaging technique!

wonderful detail

Thank you both for your comments!

Sincerly

Line

Always excellent details captured and an expert presentation Line! You make even a fly look 'handsome'!

Great sharpness and detail of the entire insect. Could you please lift the veil a little as to aperture number, lighting or what did the trick to get such a fine result. We are many who admire your work and would like to learn a little more from you.

High quality pic.extremely sharp detais.best of the best!!

Meny regards!Hanan.

Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to comment

Sincerly, Line

Thank you for your kind comment! There is no trick... My setup is really basic: 100mm macro lens, a manfrotto tripod that can go all the way down to the ground.  I use just natural light. As for aperture I shoot anywhere from f/4 to f/8 depending on the circumstances. I tend to shoot more toward f/8 to get more DOF. I probably do focus stacking at least half of the time. I just use CS5 to do the stack. I do not use a rail as I find I cannot get adjusted fast enough for me. I use a pistol grip action ballhead which suits me very well. I have also taken several shots handheld, so just find what works best for you... what feels the more comfortable. Windy days are not good as you want as little movement as possible. I shoot on cloudy days or in the shade to avoid harsh shadows and highlights. It's all about practice. Once you understand their behavior and can get very close to them you can start paying attention to the background and position yourself to avoid any distracting branches and such. Shoot raw, so you can extract details when needed. So, in brief, the only trick is to be able to get very close to them... Practice!

Thank you so much for your details, I really appreciate it. I guess it was in particular the focus-stacking that I had not thought of. I wonder how many stacks/photos it is possible to fine tune/adjust and get before the insect has moved/flown away. Or do you blast away in burst mode maybe?

Thanks again,

Philip

You can't go in burst since you have to refocus manually. the wider the aperture the greater number of shot you will need as your plane of focus will get to almost nothing at f/4 at macro distance. I usually shoot f/8 for stacks to make sure I have an overlap. I have done stacks of as little as 2 images and up to a dozen. Once again, practice is the key as you need to do it as fast as possible.

Fabulous (7)

Thank you for the comment and rating!

I would love to see it larger!  Great shot!  Cheers!