Taken a while back. Had never processed the RAW image.
Would rather not add tech info as I'd like critique on the image alone.
Thanks.
Comments
6 comments
Comment posted by Kathy Barnhart on May 14, 2014 at 2:12 AM
Love the comp and colors here, plus the iridescense on the wings. I'm not sure if it's my monitor, but the fly itself looks a little soft.
Registered on November 11, 2011, 404 Posts, 1639 Comments
Comment posted by Ian Wolfenden on May 15, 2014 at 6:59 AM
Lovely colour and iridescence on the insect, Alan, and a good sharp capture of the body, if a bit less so of the wings. Wonder if the flower could come up a little in brightness ? Very nicely composed - I like the way the subject is off centre in the frame.
Registered on May 18, 2007, 1108 Posts, 7647 Comments
Comment posted by Carolyn Derstine on May 15, 2014 at 4:16 PM
Very nice comp of the flower and bee in this shot, Alan! I also like your DOF choice to have parts of the flower and the background be more soft. Yes, the wings of the bee are just a bit soft, but the body and head are sharp, which is important. Those fast moving critters are hard to get lined up in a straight focal plane to get all of the bee sharp. Ian has a good idea to try regarding the flower, but it is tricky to brighten yellows without overexposing. My suggestion would be to just try just a bit of warming up of the image to see if it gives it a bit more punch.
Registered on February 16, 2011, 610 Posts, 3684 Comments
Comment posted by Rick Diffley on May 16, 2014 at 12:22 AM
Thanks for sharing this image. Here's a couple of thoughts...
My preference for shooting macro floral images is that the flower be pristine. Two way to achieve this, find a flower without brown spots, tiny insects, or minor defects [Rather hard most of the time.]. You can use a small hand blower to remove such items or blow them away yourself. Or, you can PS them out of the image in post processing.
I would have loved to see the center of the flower in focus as well as the insect. However, without knowing what lens and f/stop you used, it's hard to know.
Registered on April 8, 2012, 52 Posts, 279 Comments
Comment posted by Jim Lockhart on May 18, 2014 at 12:31 PM
A really nice catch, Alan. Like the sharpness of this guy against the out-of-focus flower. Would probably like to see him positioned more to the bottom left, but I know how that goes trying to catch flying insects.
Registered on February 19, 2013, 91 Posts, 500 Comments
Comment posted by Alan LaFaver on May 23, 2014 at 4:31 AM
So, this was taken in 2010 when I had just started getting into photography as an adult.
Original NEF converted to JPG.
Nikon D5000, Nikon 55-200mm VR, Canon 500D close-up filter, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 640, hand held
Would have done a few things differently these days. For one, tripod with smaller f/stop, however, couldn't have pushed that ISO up much more without a bunch of noise. Maybe just needed more light as well, or fill flash.
Anyway, I was pretty pleased with this. I did some adjusting in Aperture to get a look I was half-happy with, as you can see from the original......
Registered on February 28, 2014, 18 Posts, 147 Comments
Comments
6 commentsMy preference for shooting macro floral images is that the flower be pristine. Two way to achieve this, find a flower without brown spots, tiny insects, or minor defects [Rather hard most of the time.]. You can use a small hand blower to remove such items or blow them away yourself. Or, you can PS them out of the image in post processing.
I would have loved to see the center of the flower in focus as well as the insect. However, without knowing what lens and f/stop you used, it's hard to know.
Original NEF converted to JPG.
Nikon D5000, Nikon 55-200mm VR, Canon 500D close-up filter, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 640, hand held
Would have done a few things differently these days. For one, tripod with smaller f/stop, however, couldn't have pushed that ISO up much more without a bunch of noise. Maybe just needed more light as well, or fill flash.
Anyway, I was pretty pleased with this. I did some adjusting in Aperture to get a look I was half-happy with, as you can see from the original......