Perched green-eyed flower bee.

[Phill Luckhurst]

A single frame shot handheld of a green eyed flower bee. The weather had caught this on out so it was briefly in a torpid state until the sun returned a few minutes later. Shot with a Canon 80D and EF-S60mm using a Yn24-EX twin flash and home made 3D printed diffuser.

• Canon EOS 80D
• ƒ/11
• 60mm
• 1/125s
• ISO 250
• Flash fired
• Wed, 14 July 2021 12:22 PM

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hey Phill, thanks for posting, I really like the image, I see you went for f11, perhaps f16 may have been a little more advantageous, (sounds a bit like a smart --- I know) the lighting looks good - though there is an area on the eye that is not so good - maybe a little manipulation in ACR would have fixed that. Not too sure how easy focus stacking is or isn't in Canon, I switched a few years ago to Olympus but if practicable focus stacking would have been good.
Sorry if this sounds a little negative - it's not intended to be, I think this is a pretty decent image. The subject is sharp and well delineated, I am looking forward to seeing more!

 

[Phill Luckhurst]

Thanks. The highlight in the eye was the sun. I have in the past manipulated this kind of thing but I tend not to anymore.

Stacking on Canon works really well these days. But for some reason I don not like the lack of sense of depth that stacking often gives. I feel the technique is great for recording a subject, but prefer the aesthetic of single frame shots. This is probably my own bias after viewing hundreds of thousands of single frame images and taking plenty too. My head sees the depth information and when it doesn’t exist so much gets turned off.

 

[Steve Kaluski]

• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 13.5.1 (Macintosh)

Hi Phill, its a nice capture again, but overall it looks dark and the colours a little off with quite a presence of contrast.

I just think with a few simple teweaks and exposure control you can bring a lot more to the table. yes this may require in parts some simple Layers & Masks to target key areas, but I think its worth it.

The attached is just a possible direction, but limited to the OP>

Steve

 

[Phill Luckhurst]

Thanks Steve. Always very useful to see how others treat an image and am always happy for people to play with anything I post. It is a great learning tool for me.

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Phill, I think you said you were in the realms of looking at getting a desktop monitor, or update which is paramount, but no need to go to 4k it really is not worth the expense.

By using Layers & Luminosity masks you can really hone areas and avoid using basic adjustments like saturation/vibrance which on its own can just flood areas of particular colour and just blocks the detail. By having a monitor that you can monthly calibrate or when it tells you and if possible work away from any additional light, would be preferable, as all you see is the subject on screen with no additional light skewing the image.

 

[Phill Luckhurst]

Yeah, will be buying in a couple of weeks when I get back. My current screens are getting quite tired and were not the best to start with. Blagged them from work during lockdown and definitely office monitors rather than anything else. Great for what they are designed for, 7 years ago.

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Just make sure you can calibrate the monitor and use the correct kit, and or using the correct software. I moved from Apple monitors having used them when the first came out in a previous life, but around 20 years now Eizo.