The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Bee or wasp collecting pollen from flowering Hosta plant. I’ve been dabbling with Macro photography and trying to achieve 1:1 magnification of subjects. This is most successful capture so far. This photograph was created using the Laowa 90mm f/2.8 Macro lens.
Specific Feedback
I’m would appreciate any feedback on technical aspects as well as composition and lighting.
John, I would say you were very successful in this macro shot. What a position you caught him in! Wonderful details of the bee/wasp (I’m thinking wasp) and the pollen he has collected on him. Great shot. Keep on with your macro photography. Sounds like that Laowa 90mm lens does the job. I haven’t tried that one. Right now all of my macro lenses are Canon.
This looks really great John! I really like the soft colour palette here and the bee is so beautifully sharp. The image feels a bit unbalanced to me and maybe a slightly different crop would help with that.
Nice shot, John. That Laowa lens is liked by many, and you show us why. I definitely prefer the vertical crop, not too tight to my eye. Maybe try f13 for a shot like this to get more DOF (e.g. on the wings)? I love all the pollen piling up!
Thank you Mike. I kinda like both crops, but my initial instinct was the vertical crop. I will definitely be working to increase my depth of field going forward.
WOW!! This is very cool and grabbed my attention right away! I think it is awesome both technically and aesthetically! The composition is unusual, with so much visual weight on the right but that’s not necessarily a negative. The gesture of the head and antenna curves the line of sight back into the frame. I prefer the original composition, but maybe there is a chance for a compromise – crop the vertical to just before the top of the dark leaf, and possibly add a bit of canvas on the right – just a bit.
Very nice photo John. I have the Laowa 65mm macro and it is no small feat manually focusing and getting a moving target in crisp focus. I also see the balance slightly off.
Working the crop might be an improvement. And another possibility might be to photoshop out the curved part of the flower on the left (that reaches into the background) creating more emphasis on the bee? Just thoughts.
I really love the details you captured in the wasp and in the pollen! That’s so neat to see the individual grains. I love the soft background colors it really makes the wasp stand out. Nice work, John!
Vertical crop works the best and go with at least f16 or higher for these small insects like this small bee. A good portion of the head is out of focus so you need more DOF. Remember that in macro-photography, DOF is reduced and you have to compensate for this by using small apertures. Sharpening algorithms in software used for processing images can practically reduce or eliminate issues with diffraction. Great photo and using smaller apertures will improve DOF in future endeavors.
