This is a poison dart frog -- Denbrobates auratus -- native to Costa Rica. I photographed it in my semi-annual frog and reptile workshop now held in Kansas City. Because these colorful frogs are so small, and because macro lenses when used close to the tiny subjects have such shallow depth of field, I tell the participants in the workshop to use f/32 for all their shots. Yes, this aperture is not as sharp as f/8, but the latter just doesn’t have the ability to show all of the wonderful detail in the frogs. I use a ring flash because the light from the ring envelopes the subjects such that all surfaces are illuminated. If normal portable flash that sits in the hotshoe were used, only the dorsal surface would be lit and the ventral area of the animal would be in shadow. In addition the ring flash, when used just a few inches from the frogs, provides enough light so f/32 can be used with a low ISO. My settings for this shot were 1/60, f/32, and 200 ISO. In post-processing, I cloned out the reflection of the flash in the eyes.
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