Bee

Messages
33
Name
Sean
Edit My Images
Yes
Bee.jpg
 
Hi Sean,

As you've requested critique, here's my take on your image.

The positive points are that it is full of lovely colours and it actually represents a lovely view of the environment the bee would frequent so plus points there.

On the other side however, I find the image to be rather soft and very grainy. The grain would be down to the level of ISO you used. The softness, I think coming from a crop maybe as the shutter speed should be well enough to freeze action. I see you're shooting natural light but I think 1/1600th for a stationary subject is far too fast. It doesn't seem to have helped sharpen up the image.

It's a close up but not overly close and as such, although the environment side is still valid, from a Macro/Close up perspective, the background is somewhat busy. As you're shooting at quite a long focal length was it not possible to open the aperture a little more to isolate the bee from the background or was F/5.6 the widest you could go? Normally Macro/Closeups need a smaller aperture but this is only down to the fact that we're normally right up on the subject.

I would have dialled down the ISO until you could easily achieve a slower shutter speed that doesn't compromise the image clarity through movement. 1/200th would have been fine and probably have allowed an ISO 200 or so (without doing the maths.. could be higher or lower). Also, have gone for a more open aperture to help blur the background a little more. Were you on a tripod? If not then maybe a faster shutter than 1/200th and a slightly higher ISO than 200 but still enough to reduce grain.

Despite my crit, I do actually like the shot a lot. As mentioned, it fits the environment aspect a lot more and it's nice to see such shots. Perhaps a bit of unsharp mask and noise reduction to help clean up the image a touch?
 
Last edited:
Back
Top