Back in the garden for the lockdown and I have been chasing these little hoverflies…are they fast!
I eventually caught this one landing that I am quite pleased with, particularly because of the shadow. But the leaf is so burnt out at the bottom and I’m looking for suggestions of how I could possibly fix it.
The original file is a Panasonic RAW I have put it through Adobe Camera Raw and pushed the highlights slider all the way.
Any thoughts welcome.
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Hi Ryan, the shadow is quite cool as you mention. Nice capture. I imagine the highlights on the leaf are flashing as blown out - not sure what you could do about it at time of capture or in post. The fly seems a bit soft to me but with the shadow this is still a fine keeper.
Ryan, you are right, these little guys are very fast. I am doing good if I get a good shot of them staying relatively still, so in flight you did quite well. I haven’t used Adobe Camera Raw in years, so not sure what the options are there. You might can take it over into PS, if you have that, and work with and selectively paint in to darken it. There are folks on the site that are pretty good at that sort of thing.
If, when shooting, you could have used a diffuser to shadow the leaf, that would have saved the highlight burning out. Even a polarizer filter would have helped keep the glare down. But that info is just good for the next time.
I do love the shadow of the hoverfly. It really makes the shot.
Thanks for the ideas, yes a polariser might have worked, it was a static set-up and the shutter speed was pretty high.
I have much to learn about the finer points of PS, and I’m aware that there are some truly skilled technicians in the groups.
Thanks again.
Ryan, this is a fine macro action shot, with the fly and it’s shadow nicely sharp. A polarizer would reduce the glare, but the 2 stop speed loss might not catch the action sharply (you don’t indicate your ss). If you have Photoshop, you can clone in some green from the surroundings using a low (say 15%) opacity. You may be able to get a similar effect in Lightroom using the Spot Removal brush at a low opacity. I think that glare is only a minor distraction.
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Thanks Mark I will try that.
Ryan: Great flight shot with a really high degree of difficulty. In theory a polarizer might help but the SS loss for a flight shot like this would probably be a killer. For a static subject it would be a good choice. I don’t think ACR or Lightroom could easily fix this excessive dynamic range but as others have mentioned painting in some color is pretty easy. I used a 30% opacity and a 30% flow to get here. Great to have you posting again and looking forward to more. >=))>
Bill, thanks for this, it looks a lot better to me, I will try it.