Bumble bee on lavender

[David Stephens]

Canon 7D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, EF 1.4x TC and ET-25 extension tube. ISO 800, 280mm, f/11 and 1/400 sec.:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6129/5967828457_352fcbafd4_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcstep/5967828457/)
Bumble bee on lavender (http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcstep/5967828457/) by dcstep (http://www.flickr.com/people/dcstep/), on Flickr

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey David,
Looks like you had a bit of harsh light here but you manged it OK. The brighteer areas of the bee look OK but the dark areas have lost the details. The stronger bright areas on the stem draw the eye quite a bit so toning them down will help improve the overall image. They don't sit still for long.....so diffuser isn't really an option but try this with your set-up on a bright overcast day......it should yiled more balanced tones and details....although you will have a tradeoff in SS and f-stop. Popping in a bit of flash can help there. If they are very active....and they get what I call pollen drunk.....they get a bit more sluggish so lowering the SS will be a viable option. Just some thoughts to keep in mind for in the field. Given the light......I think you did pretty well!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi David. You captured the bee in a great pose, with good sharpness and against a colorful and nicely OOF background. The main issue I see with the image is that the harsh light is giving you too much contrast with most detail lost in the blacks. Roman has some good suggestions above for you to consider. Also, if you are shooting in RAW, you might be able to recover some of that detail during ACR conversion by moving the Blacks slider down to zero and then moving the Fill Light slider to the right until the blacks look acceptable to you. :S3:

[David Stephens]

Roman and Steve, thanks for looking and providing very useful feedback.