Don't worry Bee happy

kgarrett11

This is the first time that I have posted on this forum. I usually stay on the wildlife or sports forum but this weekend I thought that I would try something new for me. I have a bottlebrush tree in the back yard and on Friday I tried my hand at some of the bees that were all over it. I was hand holding a Nikon D3 with my 28-300mm lens. Then on Saturday we had a heavy rain storm and after the rain I took my tripod with a 60mm macro lens. Here are a few of my results. Please let me know where I can improve.
More can be seen at http://www.prideinphotography.com/Nature/20120331-Bottle-Brush-Tree


#1


#2


#3


#4 Another Steelers fan


#5


#6 These are with the macro


#7

Overfocused

They're all either a little blurry, or a bit grainy, which are both signs of not enough light. You should look into using a flash for macro since it seems you had trouble getting enough light.

I like #6 the best for composition and the points in focus.

kgarrett11

Overfocused wrote: »

They're all either a little blurry, or a bit grainy, which are both signs of not enough light. You should look into using a flash for macro since it seems you had trouble getting enough light.

I like #6 the best for composition and the points in focus.

Thanks, I can try again and use a flash. The bees should be no problem with a flash. For the water I guess that I'll have to use a sprinkler on the tree. Rain here in Florida has been very limited. Thanks again. This is what these forums are for and unfortunately all I usually get is "nice pic".

Overfocused

Yeah nicepic-itis annoys me occasionally, wherever it may be. I'm usually the critic, but someone has got to be. Lol.


I think #6 is still usable though. It could be cleaned up with noise reduction software, and then it just needs a bit of a bump in exposure or contrast after that. All in all I'd say that is a keeper once its polished up. Maybe a lightly applied wide radius unsharp mask (if you use photoshop... you have a d3 so I assume you could afford PS, lol) Like, a 100-150 pixel radius at %10-25 tops would bring it out better. Always sharpen after noise reduction though, using unsharp mask beforehand will amplify current noise :nah

Lord Vetinari

Seem to get a good selection of wasps and bees on the bottlebrush. As already commented, using flash with the camera in manual will allow lower ISO plus give you high apparent shutter speeds from the flash duration.
Brian v.

kgarrett11

Overfocused wrote: »

Yeah nicepic-itis annoys me occasionally, wherever it may be. I'm usually the critic, but someone has got to be. Lol.


I think #6 is still usable though. It could be cleaned up with noise reduction software, and then it just needs a bit of a bump in exposure or contrast after that. All in all I'd say that is a keeper once its polished up. Maybe a lightly applied wide radius unsharp mask (if you use photoshop... you have a d3 so I assume you could afford PS, lol) Like, a 100-150 pixel radius at %10-25 tops would bring it out better. Always sharpen after noise reduction though, using unsharp mask beforehand will amplify current noise :nah

Actually these I didn't use PS on I only ran them through LR. I'll go back and try it in PS and see what I can do. Thanks very much for the input.

kgarrett11

Lord Vetinari wrote: »

Seem to get a good selection of wasps and bees on the bottlebrush. As already commented, using flash with the camera in manual will allow lower ISO plus give you high apparent shutter speeds from the flash duration.
Brian v.

Thanks, as far as the flash is concerned, I only have an SB700 and SB800 I don't have a macro flash. Would it be better with the flash mounted on the camera or off to the side?