Eastern Forktail Damselfly on Grasses

I was photographing Damselflies in the evening. When the sun goes down and starts getting cooler, the damselflies head to the tall grasses around the pond. Once they get used to you, they stay more in the open giving you some good photo opportunities. You need either a flash or high ISOs unless it is a very calm evening with no breeze.

Eastern Forktail Damselfly on Tall Grass in Evening. Canon EOS 7D with Sigma 150mm OS f/2.8 Macro, Gitzo 1325 Tripod, Available Light, f/8, 1/125 sec, ISO 800. Purposely underexposed a little for faster shutter speed, then open up shadows in Adobe Camera Raw & sharpen and reduce noise.

I was not using a flash on these, so I purposely underexposed the Raw image to get a higher shutter speed because there was a slight breeze and they were swaying with the breeze,. Then in Adobe Raw I lightened up the exposure, reduced the noise and sharpened the image. I was using a Canon 7D body which has a little more noise to start with, so I only underexposed by about 1 stop.

Closeup Vertical Composition of Eastern Forktail Damselfly on Tall Grass in Evening. Canon EOS 7D with Sigma 150mm OS f/2.8 Macro, Gitzo 1325 Tripod, Available Light, f/5.6, 1/250 sec, ISO 800, Purposely underexposed a little for faster shutter speed, then open up shadows in Adobe Camera Raw & sharpen and reduce noise.