Wind was too fierce to let me photograph this bumblebee on some asters, so I tried using the built-in flash on the GH3 to freeze some action. I goofed because it was set to either first or second curtain and I got this crazy result. I’ve always liked it for its serendipity.
Specific Feedback Requested
Too weird? I tried a few different things to improve the way the bee’s head looks, but nothing worked - not zone masks or luminosity masks. Ideas welcome.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Vintage Olympus 90mm f/2 macro - no idea of aperture, tripod - manual focus
Lr for some basic adjustments and a bit of a crop. Toned down the green channel substantially. Adjusted the white balance to something more natural, but it was still too cyan so I ran a color cast correction action using the TK8 panel in photoshop.
As you should! Why can’t we just delight in images like this instead of finding things about them that don’t work perfectly. I love this and appreciate you comment.
The bee makes it very fun – looks like it is shaking its head and that is what is moving the flowers.
Not sure what you want to improve about the head – to make it show more? How about painting on a soft-edged quick mask over the central area of the lighter, low-contrast areas and making a curve to darken and increase contrast?
Thanks Kristen. I’m ALL for improving what we do and show and have certainly learned a great deal from others, including this group, and sometimes I think we forget that we can just enjoy an image or, because photography, at least for me, is about sharing my work and having it move others, let each other know what works/doesn’t work and why. It is a fine line but I feel too often in this group we jump to saying “this or that will make it better” without giving other comments. Again, thanks for hearing me and I’m open to a longer discussion about this topic as I am by no means an expert.
