With the cold winter in southern Arizona the bees look hard finding what flowers they can. The temperature was 53 degrees and there was a strong wind blowing moving this flower everywhere. But she hung on to the flower focusing on her job getting that pollen.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
Today I shifted gears and used manual mode to control the shutter and aperture settings while ISO was set to auto. I was concern about the sunlight with the yellow flower so under exposed 2/3rds of a stop.
Technical Details
R7 RF 100-400 with 1.4x extender. 1/2000 f/13 ISO was at 1600. with this lens and 1.4x f/11 is wide open. I found with bees in this position f/13 or 14 seems to work well. There was a lot of brush in the background so this is why I wanted to keep the lens wide open even though DOF is still tight here.
That worked out well!
Using the exposure compensation wheel is quick and easy on the R7.
Another tip is to use a slower shutter speed, I’m fairly certain that 1/2000s isn’t really needed even for bees but I could be wrong, have you tried 1/1000s just for the heck of it? That would have lowered the ISO from 1600 down to 800 but as you say, that camera handles high ISO values pretty well. Maybe try experimenting with 1/1000s shutter speed just to see how it works out for you.
I completely agree with using the widest aperture with that lens and TC combination for the purpose of controlling the degree of OOF BG.
The amount of DOF worked out really well in this image and the exposure is really good as well.
I like the framing or composition and the details.
The pose is really nice and I really like the build-up of pollen on its legs, I have always thought that pollen beads on their legs is a plus because it shows how active they are at cross pollinating and it just looks cool.
Beautiful shot, Dean. You seem to like hanging out with the ladies!
I pulled this into Adobe Camera Raw to basically raise the lighter areas of the photo, reduce yellow saturation & orange luminosity and increase the exposure a tad.
Thank you for the feedback, @Merv and @Kris_Smith. I used a fast shutter on this because of the wind but also use a higher setting to catch them in flight. Iso 1600 is pretty clean and Photo AI takes care of any noise. Kris, I like what you did and welcome edits anytime. I am far from perfect so it is really nice to see someone else make changes.
Dean, this is right on. I do like what @Kris_Smith did that seems to improve it even more. I’m glad the manual setting and auto ISO with EV adjustment worked for you. I know what you mean with using the shutter speed, I tend to lean a bit high with the fast-moving subjects and the wind. After getting a few shots at the higher shutter speed, maybe try lowering it and see how it does. If it doesn’t work you still have a sharp image, and if the lower one works it maybe keep from the possibility of noise. I am so glad that you are able to get out and shoot. Will be awhile before we have bees here. Nice shot in every way.
Dean: A fine capture and I like Kris’ refinements. Good decision making on your settings which is one of the challenges that makes single capture so enjoyable for me. Top notch shot. >=))>
