Insects are now in their winter dormancy. I’d like to post some pictures I took this year, showing insects in their natural habitat, as summer draws to a close.
On this particular day in May, I was photographing wild bees and butterflies on the beautiful barberry bush when I heard a deep buzzing sound. It was a hornet. Hornet queens emerge from hibernation in May. Then they build their nests. The first worker hornets hatch in June.
Feedback Requests
Any feedback appreciated.
Pertinent Technical Details
Nikon D850
Focal length 250 mm
Aperture 9
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/1000
A lovely shot of the hornet getting refueled, Kathrin. I could see a tighter crop as the image is fairly empty in areas and the hornet is rather centered in the image. Perhaps something like the following assuming you have the pixels to make it a reasonable size:
You don’t mention the aperture you used, but with today’s software, you probably could have stopped down a bit more and raised your iso to retain the same shutter speed and get a bit more depth of field.
It is a fine image, Kathrin, and I do like what @Dennis_Plank did in cropping the image. His suggest about using a smaller aperture (higher numbers) is a good idea too since it looks like the background is fairly far away from the subject. I like the lighting on the hornet and his perch, to me that really makes the image even better.
@Shirley_Freeman, @Dennis_Plank, many thanks for the good ideas! I did a bit of painting and composing as I wanted some reflections to be in the image and cropped it.
Regarding the aperture: It’s quite possible the image quality would have been better if I had chosen a higher aperture than 9. I’ll take that point into consideration.
Nice job on the edit, Kathrin. When you’re in the edit mode, you also have the ability to edit the title of the post. It usually helps to add something like “and Repost” to the title so people are aware that you’ve revised it and will know to go back to it.
Repost looks good. The D850 has an excellent noise profile at higher ISO’s. Noise reduction available in Lightroom and in other photo-editing software result in excellent noise suppression. I usually shoot macros at around 1/200th of a second or faster for perched insects. As you know DOF is inversely related to the subject size in the frame so you can use smaller apertures and still get some fairly smooth BG elements. Another comment about your photo is that the lighting is very nice and the hornet’s head shows up well. Very nice photo and the crop works for me…Jim
I agree with all the positives above, and would only add that I find the interesting reflection which you moved to the left side a bit of a distraction. The closer crop definitely shows up the hornet’s handsome head, and the flowers are beautiful.
Kathrin: I’m pretty late to this party but this is a fine effort. I do agree with @Mike_Friel regarding the reflection on the left edge. I don’t think it adds anything to the shot and its position and relative brightness does pull the eye. I actually like the DOF you have here. The head and eye is what really matters so I don’t mind if some of the body is a little OOF. The soft rendering of the BG is really nice and I would not want more detail there. Overall this is a fine image. >=))>
The forum is moving so quickly these days. I missed this one altogether.
It’s a great image. Like @Bill_Fach, I like the DOF you have here. The eye is sharp..and other parts are sharp where it needs to be. I love the soft background.
I’ll throw in another suggestion about the crop. I like your original with breathing room, but perhaps there is another version with a good deal sliced off the bottom to just above the reflection and a slice off the left to the yellow flower (leaving plenty of space to the border) and a smaller slice off the right to the gorgeous OOF flower. Maybe a bit of cloning to prune off the top right diagonal leaf.
A very nice image – an interesting subject with a nice setting and lovely light! I think the RP is just right except the odd shape on the left. I think you could crop from the left to remove it. There is so much visual weight on the right that a crop would give better balance. The rule of thirds idea would work best here if there was some interesting OOF detail on the left for balance. This may be one where centering the subject is best for a pleasing BG. And I think this is one where you shouldn’t be wedded to any standard aspect ratio. Here are two possibilities:
