The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Yesterday I had a little fun with my new lens (@Merv: Many thanks for the competent purchase advice) in the garden. Everything is blooming beautifully at the moment, a paradise for bees.
I attached my flash and a diffuser to the camera and pointed it at anything that flew and buzzed.
Specific Feedback
I took almost 500 shots, of which I deleted 400 the first time I reviewed them.
This shot I liked the most. I didn’t crop it at all, the bee is nice and sharp and I quite liked the overall composition.
What do the macro professionals say? Is there anything I can improve in terms of shooting technique, composition, or post-processing?
Any feedback is welcome.
Technical Details
Flash set to 1/8, with a diffuser mounted directly on the camera.
Although the overall exposure in the RAW file is quite dark, there were some blown-out highlights on the bee. The area at the top arrow also has colorful artifacts:
Amazing shot, Jens. IMHO, the composition and detail are spot on. As for the blow out highlights, I only see them when I zoom way close, so they don’t bother me. I suppose you could try burning them down or perhaps you already have? I am curious what kind of lens you used?
Looks like you’re really excited about the new macro lens!
That lens works really well for many other genres as well, I use it for street photography, architecture, small scene landscape (as long as I’m not trying to include something close in the FG), family portraits, etc, etc, the only issue for portraits is that it’s too sharp (at least on seasoned family members ), great for the young ones though and it’s easy to soften those wrinkles in post.
Great DOF here and the composition looks good but I recommend going for a square crop to eliminate the non-supporting stuff on the right and to place the bee slightly right of center, the purple flower it’s feeding on is a very nice element for context IMHO.
It also looks a bit too dark. I almost always underexpose macro shots to prevent having to deal with blown highlights and it’s easy enough to bring up shadow and darker details in post (it’s a lot easier to bring up the dark areas than it is to fix blown highlights, of course you already know that!).
For this one though, it seems like the flash isn’t being diffused enough, it just seems like maybe the diffuser is a little too small and maybe a little too close to the flash?
The power output of the flash looks good because it looks like you’ve just added fill light (since it appears to have some nice natural light in the BG).
I’ve found that I need a rather large diffuser so the light is spread out over a larger area and I like to have about 3 inches or so (75mm) between the flash and the diffuser so the light isn’t concentrated in the center of the diffuser.
You mentioned that the flash and diffuser was camera mounted, may I ask what your flash and diffuser setup looks like?
Of course you could use one of these: Link>>>Diffuser that fits on lens I’ve had good results with this, too! And there are almost countless other gadgets that work just as good or better.
You may already be using similar setups but I wanted to throw it all out there just for the sake of being a helpful fellow member
I’ve been using an old side handle mounted to a cage, the side handle has a cold shoe on top so that’s where I mount the flash, the diffuser is a 6x9 soft box on a Godox TT685S but I just ordered a Godox TT350S Mini flash and a 5x6 soft box to reduce size and weight. I also ordered a rotating SmallRig handle for the cage since it can tilt fore and aft.
Link>>>5x6 Softbox on Amazon
Link>>>SmallRig Push-Button Rotating NATO Handle
Not saying that you should buy these, it’s just for reference.
I like the light coming from the side rather that from straight on as it is when the flash is mounted on the camera hot shoe.
The A7M3 is a good camera!
I hope you have as much fun with the 90mm macro lens as I have!
And I hope this information helps!
BTW, the image might benefit from darkening the angled flowers to the right of the bee but that’s just my opinion.
Jens, first of all, congratulations on your new macro lens! I do hope that it works well for you and you enjoy it immensely. Looking forward to seeing more of your macro shots with it.
I think Merv has given you very sound advice. I don’t know how to add to that, really. My KX-800 twin flash that I use, I have attached a plastic container lid that is 9 1/2 X 13 1/2 inches onto my lens and keep it about 7 inches in front of my moveable flash heads. That spreads the light out nicely. I struggled with the diffuser setup until back in the winter, I was always trying something different for years and one day just looked in one of my kitchen cabinets, there was the container with the lid! Boom! Perfect, so I cut holes where I needed it and used twist ties and it stays in place good, the wind doesn’t seem to bother it. Of course, when it is too windy macro photography isn’t a good genre to try to work in. Just think outside the box, you will find what works for you whether store bought or DIY, just know that as @Merv has said, the diffuser needs to be fairly good sized and away from the flash a few inches at least. Looking forward to more of you images soon!
Judging from the lighting in your images, that is a very good setup!
I thought seriously about buying one of those KX-800 flash units but it’ll have to wait for the next budget cycle
Yeah, they are not cheap, @Merv I think it runs around $300. If and when you or any else gets one, do not leave alkaline batteries in it, or any other flash for that matter, while not using. It will ruin the flash. Happened to my friend that I take photos with when I am in her area. I use Duracell rechargeable batteries, and I am able to just leave them so that my setup is always ready. Cheaper going that route as well.
Yeah! I had that very thing happen to me, too! They leaked into the flash and transmitter in less than 3 weeks!
Now I use the Eneloop Pro rechargeable batteries.
I thought I had a bad batch of batteries but apparently it has something to do with flash systems, it’s rare with other battery devices so it makes me wonder what the deal is with that!
P.S. Not meaning to hi-jack your thread, Jens, but this is good info for you, too!
Jens, congratulatios on the new macro lens. I’m sure we’ll see more of your beautiful macro work in the future. Macro lenses are great for other purposes, as it was pointed out here. Just about a couple of months ago, I forced myself to use my Sigma 105mm macro for three weeks simply to open up my mind to new possibilities.
I love how sharp the bee’s hair is. The light glowing there is perfect. As you showed in the histogram you attached to the post, it is no surprise the results you got were a bit dark. I would second what was suggested in opening the shadows a little more. Also, a tighter crop will eliminate the distractions on the right side of the frame. I think that the suggestions @Merv proposed are right on target. This is a beautiful image with a striking contrast between the bee and flowers. Nicely done!
Hi Jens, very nice shot of this bee with good advice given above. The flash produced some highlights but with tweaking of the diffuser these could probably be lessened. The highlights don’t bother too much here as I’m thinking the sun would have produced some similar minimal highlights (at least) as well. In any event, a nice look of this bee and look forward to seeing more.
I have a Godox TT685S flash, that was mounted on the hotshoe of the camera. The flash was completely tilted down (90 degrees). At the head of the flash was a round rubber diffuser, the diameter of which was only 5 inches.
I also have a small softbox (8x8) that can be attached to the flash. It’s been in the closet for a few years now because it’s quite front-heavy when mounted directly on the camera. But I now realize that the larger diffuser gives better results. And a little workout for the arms isn’t bad either.
Thank you for your rework, Merv. It looks great. I’m going to work on my image some more.
That device looks interesting. It’s not cheap. Let’s see how motivated I stay in macro photography.
Never mind. It is interesting indeed. I have never worried about leaving the batteries in the devices. But good to know, better to have an eye on it.
Hey Jens, late here, but was away on a long-weekend trip so have watched this thread without commenting. I’m glad you’ve decided to give macro a go and this is a really nice start. Like with wildlife photography, shooting bugs with a macro lens produces a lot of junk. Trust me that it’s normal when they’re not in a torpor state due to cold temps. Under those conditions you have a lot more latitude for composition, framing, stacking and focus, but under the heat of the sun you sometimes have to take what you can get to some degree. I will often just wait for something to show up on a spot I like in terms of subject, light and background. Usually nothing shows, but what can you do?
I like what you’ve done here, but have an idea for you if you have the same flash rig that I have which is a Godox with a Magpul diffuser. Even if not, this might help - pull down the little onboard diffuser and leave it down when using a macro very close to the subject. Light becomes more diffuse the farther from a subject is is, but on-camera flash is very close indeed. It’s also a very small light source and that can be pretty harsh and direct. By doubling up the effect, things can be more diffuse than without.
), great for the young ones though and it’s easy to soften those wrinkles in post. 
