And another Bumble Bee!

[Warren Spreng]

Canon T3i, EF-S60mm, f/8, ISO 800, 1/1600 Late afternoon light, tripod, remote release, AF. Shadows increased in LR, sharpening and crop in PS CC. I went with a vertical crop with the spike flower. Thanks for any CC.

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[Diane Miller]

Must be bee season! Very nice detail here, both in the bee and flower, and a lovely BG. Might not be easy but I'd try to get rid of the bright vee above the bee. The bright LR corner could be burned down a bit, too, to add emphasis to the bee.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Well done - you've got the bug now - no stopping you! Good focus, ideally the bee would be separated from the flower. I ngeneral with the exception of the blond furry bit the image looks a tad underexposed to me. Regarding the bright green patches Diane referred to I agree with her, simply remedied with a bit of judicious brushing or if you wish to be strictly true you could just lower the brightness there.
BTW love the pollen sac!

[Mike Hitchen]

Another excellent shot, Warren and he framing again is ideal. It is not often you see a bee flying with its proboscis extended so I guess it had just stopped feeding on the flower just behind it

[Warren Spreng]

Thanks for all the comments. See what you think of these changes based upon your input. I did quite a bit of cutting and pasting to get rid of the V, reduced the brightness in the LR corner and masked off the brightest part of the yellow area on the bee and then increased the overall exposure. I think it makes the bee and the flower pop just a little bit more.

Mike, his proboscis was out almost the entire time I was following him, I have some OOF shots where you can tell it is almost held straight out!

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[Diane Miller]

Good work! I'll usually go for about 50% opacity cloning to get rid of things like that vee.

Not sure why but the head lloooks like there is something intervening to soften it. OH -- the blurred wing. A soft-edged quick mask selection and a Curves to increase contrast there might look good.

[Warren Spreng]

Good work! I'll usually go for about 50% opacity cloning to get rid of things like that vee.

Not sure why but the head lloooks like there is something intervening to soften it. OH -- the blurred wing. A soft-edged quick mask selection and a Curves to increase contrast there might look good.

interesting you caught that about the wing in front of the head, a good example of how the wings move, not so much up and down but rather in a fairly complicated movement!

[MiroslavMaric]

Hi Warren,

Like the composition, natural colors, details and blur of wings. The wings covers the head. I noticed you use PS CC. Before cloning I would apply NR of BG including flower because it's more easy to create a mask of Bumble Bee only. In this case selective sharpening could be more efficient too. I would add some vibrance to the Bumble Bee too. TFS.

Cheers,
Miro

[Warren Spreng]

Hi Warren,

Like the composition, natural colors, details and blur of wings. The wings covers the head. I noticed you use PS CC. Before cloning I would apply NR of BG including flower because it's more easy to create a mask of Bumble Bee only. In this case selective sharpening could be more efficient too. I would add some vibrance to the Bumble Bee too. TFS.

Cheers,
Miro

Thanks Miro, I hadn't thought of that technique, thanks for the suggestion!

[Ron Conlon]

Not much to add to what has been said, great shot, love the colors.

[Warren Spreng]

Not much to add to what has been said, great shot, love the colors.

Thanks Ron!