Description: I’m pretty sure this is the same bee that comes to visit every day now since the sunflowers have been out! She was chasing off another bee and then looked at me as she went for some more pollen!
Specific Feedback Requested: @Shirley_Freeman and @terryb saw the first one and saw it wasn’t too sharp, does this look any better? Anything else….anybody!
Pertinent technical details or techniques: Nikon D3400, 70mm, ISO 800, 1/1600, f/4.5, cropped and slight adjustments in exposure and sharpened
Is this a composite? (focus stacks or exposure blends are not considered composites)
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Looks sharp to me, Vanessa. What if anything did you do differently? Did you consider cropping in a bit? Might help get more focus on the bee. Nicely seen.
@linda_mellor thanks for looking, I did a higher shutter speed and ISO. My camera wouldn’t focus zoomed in any closer and whenever I try to use my short lens on this girl she gets really agitated! I don’t want to get stung and I want her to keep living!
A nice capture of the bee. Interesting that it might be the same one that keeps coming back!? I like @linda_mellor’s crop. The image feels overexposed which weakens colors, and the highlights are blown out. If that’s the look you are after, fine, but if not you might work on exposure. We see things nicely in full sun but the high dynamic range is rarely good for captures. It can work on landscapes where the atmosphere is softening things.
Vanessa, I’m sorry, I have been pretty busy this afternoon. Yes, the 1/1600 shutter speed seems to have worked well to catch him sharp in flight. The overall image is a bit bright, but as @Diane_Miller mentioned, that might be your intent. As for getting close to bees, I have been with just a few inches of them, and they don’t seem to mind. Never been stung yet. Nicely done.
Thanks @terryb I’m glad you like it. I’m wondering if our monitors are set the same because you don’t seem to think it’s too bright like @Diane_Miller and @Shirley_Freeman both do . I actually looked in my settings and my brightness was turned down, but even with turning it all the way up it doesn’t seem overly bright to me, it just looks like it was shot in direct sunlight, do you have any thoughts on that/
Thanks @Diane_Miller for looking and your feedback. I did look in my settings on my device and the screen brightness was turned down, but even with it turned up I guess I’m not seeing that it’s overly bright. Even looking in the histogram everything is nicely even.
Hi Shirley, thanks for looking and your feedback! Yes, most of my up close bee shots I’m right on them, even touching the flower and they’re very mild. This is the first one I’ve met that just when you come close to the flower she just really doesn’t like it! I’ve never seen or had a bee react like this before! She does it to other insects and bees too! That’s how I know that it’s her everyday! And I can tell the difference between her and other bees who try to get their share too! It’s really funny! As far as the brightness goes, is it the whole image or the flower itself? For some reason I’m not seeing what you and @Diane_Miller mean. But, thanks and don’t worry about being busy! We all have lives outside of this!
Vanessa, I haven’t tried to use PS on an iPad but I doubt it is very accurate. From my experience with good laptops, leave the settings at a native value, if there is such, and do not go changing them. Here’s your histogram. The evenness indicates low contrast and the amount of light tones crammed to the right show excessive brightness for an image like this – especially in the very bright highlights. The petals would look better if not blown out, but they are. I have no idea how they look on your iPad but the brightest areas are white. It can be very difficult to know how an image should look from the histogram.
So how do I capture a bee and not overexpose a flower at the same time?
But is the bee blown out? How do you get something in flight and in the shadows of the flower exposed perfectly and the part of the flowers that the sun is hitting on exposed perfectly at the same time? Oh, and I don’t have PS, not that that probably makes a difference in my camera settings!
The problem, as you said, is not really that the bee is in flight but that it is in the shadow of the flower. In a difficult lighting situation like this, with a large brightness range, you have several options. You can do a middle exposure where you can bring down the blown out highlights (Highlights slider) and bring up shadow detail (Shadows slider). You can assemble an HDR capture (where the moving bee would be taken from one frame only) – is that beyond your mobile LR app?? Or you can find a way that the flower is shaded, either by a placing something to block the light on it but not on the bee, or waiting till the sun isn’t on it. The best would be when a cloud provides some softer light. If the bee is a regular visitor here you have a wonderful opportunity to control the light better.
Hi Vanessa, sorry for coming in late on the conversation. Thank you, @Diane_Miller for your guidance. It could mean more successful images and less frustration trying to edit a fix from harsh light, if you chose to only take in good lighting. Sometimes though, nature provides a bee or butterfly that we want to capture, and the light isn’t good. So, just figure that editing is going to be an issue, unless you try some of the fixes that Diane offered, like shading the bright area, or taking shots at different exposures and combining them. Photography is to be enjoyed, and sometimes I just love taking the shots at the moment, knowing that it probably is going to be an issue in post processing, and I might not keep any of the photos, but if I am enjoying myself at the time, hey, we are shooting digitally, so not a big deal. Just have fun. I think that is most important.
Thanks @Shirley_Freeman for your interest as always! Yeah, I can’t help myself from taking pictures of animals and such! And it is in harsh light more often than not. Just a continuous learning experience!
I don’t want to get stung and I want her to keep living!
