The Mantis Series

[chrisk]

look elsewhere if you want a traditional, national geographic, accurate representation of a preying mantis; others do that far better than i can. this series was about creating something different from this guy, giving him an E.T look and some personality. got some quite different lighting and some colour effects with gels and all sorts of props to add some interest and "drama" to the frame.

all crops and composition are intentional. ie: i know i've cut half his body off, so if you don't like the way thats done, thats some of the feedback i'm after.

all images are done with in cam lighting effects. there is no PP for lighting/ colour on these shots EXCEPT the first one.

with this first shot i was really inspired by a shot/ PP i saw by a friend of mine which i just loved so i tried to replicate that with lighting and overexposure but i couldn;t do it. lol i put him on a white background outside and absolutely smashed this guy with flash on either end to blow the white out but wanted a really hi-key look on him aswell. no matter how hard i tried, (close to 50 shots), i couldn;t get the effect wanted. so this was done in PP.
**sorry, had to just add a watermark to the first













thanks for looking. Honesty is a virtue and i don't have a thin skin.

[Marvin]

Ooh, I love the second one - he actually looks quite cheeky! The first just seems too bright to me and the colours look a bit weird. I think he blends into the background a little too much in the fourth. Other than that, they are quite sharp and an interesting series. Thanks for sharing.

[xerubus]

#2 and #5 are excellent. Good to see a different take on the subject.

[Willy wombat]

Like the series.

Were you using off camera flash in #1?

[adame]

3 and 5 for me but all are fantastic captures. I think 1 could have done with a touch less saturation, and could benifit fom the orangey spots cleaned up in photoshop.

Cheers
Adam

[dawesy]

I like them all but #2 and to an extent #3 stand out to me. He really does have personality in the shots, seems to be poking his head in and saying 'you hooo!'. Great and creative shots!

[chrisk]

thanks for the feedback and appreciating something a bit different, i know they dont work for everyone.
all shots are with R1 kit so no, not technically off cam. i think i'll reduce the green saturation of the first as suggested.

[Ladybird]

I quite like the first one. Makes it appear more computer animated although that may not be what you were after there.

I absolutely love number 3. It's fantastic!

All in all a great series.

[Geoff]

Awesome series Rooz!
Love the first one the most...keep em coming!!

[colin_12]

#'s 2 and 5 for me Rooz.
This is an interesting set.
Regards Colin

[Manta]

5 for me, Rooz, but great results overall, I reckon.