Richard Matheny
September 2023 - Bee
Original
Original 3
About the Image(s)
I was visiting one of my favorite wildlife spots for some birds with no luck at all. The birds had taken the day off so I had to settle for bugs and flowers which is always fun as well. I came upon a field of yellow flowers with the common name bladderpods, rattle boxes or Rattlepods, the real name is a Cleomella Arborea. It is a perennial shrub that the bees and butterflies love. I thought I would give the Honey bees a try with the long lens setup. Using a 300mm and 1-4 teleconverter on a sand bag worked pretty well I think. Wanted to see what you guys thought. A big crop for sure. Settings were F11, 1/500 sec and ISO 2000 and the equivalent of 630mm focal length using that lens setup.
In post processing I used Topaz Photo AI to cancel any noise. Using a Lightroom mask I increased the exposure on the Bee and Plant a small amount and raised the temp. to warm them up a little. I added some Texture, clarity and dehaze to the Bee. A little sharpness to the bee as well +23. In the background I increased the exposure and warmed it up some. The last adjustment was a gradient mask on the bee to increase the exposure and used the temp. slider to warm it a little. Looking back at my settings maybe I could have used a little more shutter speed to stop the wing motion more but I kind of like the look of the motion.Like I said earlier let me know what you think.
11 comments posted
Incredible shot of the difficult subject! The lighting on the bee and the flower are spot on! After looking at the original, I'm surprised you had enought pixels to get this image! The bee's body s tack sharp! The wings are blurred indicating motion. the other way to try it is to shoot at a very high shutter speed to freeze the wings. I tried that at 1/8000 sec and it is still hard to freeze those little wings. You might run the wings of the bee through topaz denoise, otherwise I do not have much in the way of suggestions! Great image!! Posted: 09/08/2023 14:29:26
Thanks for sharing the news. Posted: 09/13/2023 17:57:29
I love the simplicity of this image, the soft colors and light. The motion of the bee's wings add, sort of like the propellers on an airplane, to the idea that it's moving. The DoF let you get both the bee and the plant sharp- something that I missed in some of my efforts this morning.
I like this simple composition as you've chosen it. I also see other options in your original to include more of the plant- it would make it less about the bee and more about the scene though.
Posted: 09/10/2023 14:23:05
