Pierre Williot
December 2024 - Busy Western Honey Bee (with pollen sac)
About the Image(s)
Equipment: Olympus E-M1X camera, Olympus M Zuiko 50 - 150 f/2.8 lens, 2X teleconverter, Hand held
Setup: Single image, ISO 1600, 1/400 sec, 300 mm (600 mm equivalent full frame), f/10, EV -0.30
Slight cropping and light adjustments using ON1 Photo Raw 2024.
10 comments posted
Hi Pierre: Thanks for sharing this very close in honey bee picture with us. What makes this picture unique is the pollen sac on the side of the bee, do not see that very often.
I shoot with a good friend that uses this same Olympus lens used in your bee picture, his resulting pictures are as good as it gets sharpness wise. In your shared picture I kind of wonder if the 2X teleconverter has degraded your sharpness somewhat. Then I notice some digital noise in the green background, this could be eliminated with some noise reduction in post processing. cheers... Posted: 12/12/2024 05:45:02
I shoot with a good friend that uses this same Olympus lens used in your bee picture, his resulting pictures are as good as it gets sharpness wise. In your shared picture I kind of wonder if the 2X teleconverter has degraded your sharpness somewhat. Then I notice some digital noise in the green background, this could be eliminated with some noise reduction in post processing. cheers... Posted: 12/12/2024 05:45:02
Thanks for these observations Murphy. I agree with you.
Although I have an Olympus 300 mm prime lens, I did not carry it with me that particular day. The 50-150 lens is very nice and allows much more flexibility, especially when combined with a 1.4 or a 2X teleconverter.
I used the maximum power at my disposition to frame the bee as tight as I could. Not always easy to decide what is the best option: having to do a tight crop or accepting the limitations caused by the teleconverter.
Food for thought.
Posted: 12/13/2024 15:16:41
Although I have an Olympus 300 mm prime lens, I did not carry it with me that particular day. The 50-150 lens is very nice and allows much more flexibility, especially when combined with a 1.4 or a 2X teleconverter.
I used the maximum power at my disposition to frame the bee as tight as I could. Not always easy to decide what is the best option: having to do a tight crop or accepting the limitations caused by the teleconverter.
Food for thought.
Posted: 12/13/2024 15:16:41
Great image of this bee, and kudos for showing us the filled pollen sac. Good composition, clarity and color. I do find that the yellow flowers are a bit bright and compete significantly with the bee for our attention. Here I might suggest knocking down the brightness and intensity of this element to allow the bee to appear more predominate. Also, I agree that this image is a bit soft, but this was easily addressed (along with the native noise noted earlier) in Topaz Denoise AI. I have included a version of this image to illustrate my thoughts. Let me know what you all think. Posted: 12/12/2024 18:39:54
Hi Charles,
Thanks for these observations and demonstration. Points well taken. Posted: 12/13/2024 15:24:28
Thanks for these observations and demonstration. Points well taken. Posted: 12/13/2024 15:24:28
Pierre...Not too many people capture a bee with a pollen sac attached to it. This is a wonderful capture! From the looks of the bee's eye, I'm glad he was more interested in flowers than focusing on you! I might add that the overall picture is a tad soft and noticed you used a teleconverter. That is a lot of power. My experience with closeups is that if I am too close to an image and the lens can't completely focus, the result is slightly soft. Also, I use Photoshop's dodge and burn tools on photos and I would have applied a small amount of burn to the flowers and greenery to reduce their brightness. The bee and sac is the focus point of the picture. You were definitely in the right place at the right time to capture a picture like this! Posted: 12/14/2024 00:51:13
Hi Pierre: Both Barbara and Charlie have made some very valid points on the bee image.
All I can add regarding the softness of the image as you presented is this, I can use my 1.4X converter on a couple of my zoom lenses and attain sharp results, however not with my 2x as it softens the resulting image. I would do some testing with both your 1.4X and 2X attached to your 50-150 lens and see what conclusions you arrive at. You will need to use use your tripod to get a valid test. Just my thoughts!! Posted: 12/14/2024 01:21:38
All I can add regarding the softness of the image as you presented is this, I can use my 1.4X converter on a couple of my zoom lenses and attain sharp results, however not with my 2x as it softens the resulting image. I would do some testing with both your 1.4X and 2X attached to your 50-150 lens and see what conclusions you arrive at. You will need to use use your tripod to get a valid test. Just my thoughts!! Posted: 12/14/2024 01:21:38
The phenomenon you described (getting so close that the lens will not focus) is called "the minimum focusing distance". All lenses have one. Adding an extension tube (a hollow tube that fits between the camera and lens) to your lens will allow one to get closer to the subject by reducing the minimum focusing distance, thus making the subject larger in the image. It's an optics thing. One of the downsides is that when you do this, the depth-of-field also drops, so more focus slices may be required when extension tubes are used. I guess "there is no such thing as a free lunch". Posted: 12/14/2024 16:08:40
Charlie: You are absolutely correct in "there is no such thing as a free lunch". I have found at times if you fix one problem you can mess up something else in the process. cheers... Posted: 12/14/2024 18:27:39
Nice capture. I certainly agree with the comments by Charles and Murphy. I feel overwhelmed with yellow flower. I"m not sure how to tone it down. I'd lighten the yellow on the bee some. Posted: 12/15/2024 19:53:17
Thank you all for these constructive comments and discussion. Much appreciated.
Posted: 12/16/2024 23:09:51
Posted: 12/16/2024 23:09:51