Bug man is back.

[Messiah Khan]

I want out again today. I got sooo wet! Teaches me not to listen to the weather forcast. But once it had decided to soak me to the bone, the weather brightened a bit, allowing me to get a few shots. No award winners, but I wasn't going to get that wet with nothing to show for it;

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[MookJong]

I love your macro shots so much and never get bored of seeing them.

I dunno if you have answered this before but your shots always have a certain look and feel about them which I'm guessing is from the post processing you do. Can I ask how you achieve that look...unless of course it is a secret?

 

[Jaap74]

they look awesome..... how much money's worth or kit do you need to get shots like that ?

 

[Messiah Khan]

I love your macro shots so much and never get bored of seeing them.

I dunno if you have answered this before but your shots always have a certain look and feel about them which I'm guessing is from the post processing you do. Can I ask how you achieve that look...unless of course it is a secret?

Cheers. I appreciate the support. I do PP all of my shots, and I have a routine, but im not sure if it varies that much from what most other people do. I do most of the basic post processing in Adobe Lightroom, then finish off in Photoshop CS3 for selective editing, sharpening and adding the border.

I tend to up the black level a tiny bit, I also up the contrast and saturation a tiny bit. then I go on to tweaking the hightlight/light/dark and shadow levels. Quite a few of my shot also have a bit of vignetting applied. One thing I do, that might vary from what other people do, is to darken or lightne the green channel depending on if the subject is light or dark. So for a dark insect, the green background is lightened, and the saturation is lowered. If its a light insect, then the background is darkened and the saturation increased. Once ive done that, I open them up in CS3, do a bit of dodging and burning if it need it, then use high pass sharpening and finish it off with a border. Thats about it really.

they look awesome..... how much money's worth or kit do you need to get shots like that ?

Thanks. Well these were taken with my Nikon D40x and a Sigma 150mm f2.8 lens. So your looking at about £600-£700 worths of kit, but having said that, one of my favourite shots ive taken was shot with my Konica Minolta Z3 which I got for £50;

 

[MookJong]

Thanks for sharing the PP info that makes a lot of sense especially the black and green adjustment, much appreciated.

 

[Jaap74]

as well as the equipment I suppose a certain amoint of patience is required ?

for all these great shots you keep and show, what percentage of shots you take actually get deleted ?

 

[NorthstaNder]

fantastic shots as always mr khan!

 

[Messiah Khan]

Thanks for sharing the PP info that makes a lot of sense especially the black and green adjustment, much appreciated.

No problem.

as well as the equipment I suppose a certain amoint of patience is required ?

for all these great shots you keep and show, what percentage of shots you take actually get deleted ?

Yup, patience and determination are more important than the equipment imo. When working at 1:1 magnification, the depth of field can be extremely shallow, which means getting the focus right can be a battle in itself. This often means that i'll take loads of shots of the same thing in the knowledge that I might only get 1 or 2 keepers. Out of all the ones I shoot, I would say I only post 2%-5%, and those are the ones that go in my 'keepers' folder. The rest are ok, but nothing special or worth the time to process.

fantastic shots as always mr khan!

Cheers.

 

[G-MAN2004]

Wow, really nice shots!