Mantis Fly

Keifer · Post by **Keifer** » Sat Apr 21, 2012 6:34 am

A contact of mine sent me some bugs from Florida. After a bit of a wash and a dry out on the window cill this fella cleaned up really well. This is the sort of insect i will never see alive in the UK and it is by far the weirdest looking critter i have ever seen.

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Sat Apr 21, 2012 7:51 am

A faultless rendering.

Harold

cueben · Post by **cueben** » Sat Apr 21, 2012 11:03 am

Great photo of an amazing creature! What size is it (size of the visible area and size of the entire bug)?

-Ben

crisarg · Post by **crisarg** » Sat Apr 21, 2012 3:13 pm

Very nice job!

What a strange insect... What is it?

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sat Apr 21, 2012 3:28 pm

Nice job! Very natural appearance for a dried specimen. I like the composition, background, and lighting. I see no stacking artifacts except what might be a bit of halo around the right eye.

What a strange insect... What is it?

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantispidae.

--Rik

Keifer · Post by **Keifer** » Sun Apr 22, 2012 3:18 am

Thank you Harold

Thank you Ben. The insect is 22mm in length and the visible area (the photo) is around 10mm.

Thank you crisarg.

Thank you Rik. I was surprised at it condition....it had a good bath though. I couldn't get rid of the halo. I tried retouching, cloning etc.....my PS skills are not 100% or even 50% come to think of it.

Would you happen to know what the law is concerning sending dead insects internationally?

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Apr 22, 2012 3:25 am

Keifer wrote:I couldn't get rid of the halo. I tried retouching, cloning etc.....my PS skills are not 100% or even 50% come to think of it.

Is the "halo" present in the original images? If it is, then it could be light from behind bouncing off the surface of the eye at a grazing angle, sort of like a hair light in portrait photography. In that case it's not a stacking artifact. If the halo is not present in the original images, then it also should not appear in a DMap output when the slider is adjusted so that unfocused background is ignored (goes black in preview).

--Rik

Harald · Post by **Harald** » Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:34 am

Hi there Keifer,
Great shot. Love the picture, good job!

Yousef Alhabshi · Post by **Yousef Alhabshi** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 3:44 am

Wow
What a clean stack you got there

Great job

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 4:26 am

Amazing!

Rogelio

Keifer · Post by **Keifer** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 5:31 am

Harald, Yousef & Rogelio - Thank you.

seta666 · Post by **seta666** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:30 am

Very nice, both the picture and the subject
Regards

abpho · Post by **abpho** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 7:52 am

Wow. That is one mean looking bug. Great stacking job.

Keifer · Post by **Keifer** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 12:13 pm

Seta666 & abpho - Thank you for the kind comments.

Keifer · Post by **Keifer** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 12:17 pm

rjlittlefield wrote:
Keifer wrote:I couldn't get rid of the halo. I tried retouching, cloning etc.....my PS skills are not 100% or even 50% come to think of it.
Is the "halo" present in the original images? If it is, then it could be light from behind bouncing off the surface of the eye at a grazing angle, sort of like a hair light in portrait photography. In that case it's not a stacking artifact. If the halo is not present in the original images, then it also should not appear in a DMap output when the slider is adjusted so that unfocused background is ignored (goes black in preview).

--Rik

The "halo" isn't present in any of the original images. I'm going to run the stack again and move the DMap slider around a bit....fingers crossed i can get rid of it. Thank you for the pointer.