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Thread: Honey Bee

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    Default Honey Bee

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    One from the summer which seems very far away now.

    Canon 7D2 Canon 100-400 L Mk2 at 400mm Hand Held

    1/160th @ f 16 ISO 500

  2. #2
    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Optimal timing - pin sharp lovely shot. Initially I thought include the petals at the base ..but then the bee would be a little small and then beg the question is it a shot of the bee or the flower?

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    Thanks Jonathan. Your thoughts are the same as mine on the composition. I am really staggered by the quality of this lens, both for distant and close up subjects.

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    Good choice of crop, as I suspect the bottom petals would have been OOF. But you got wonderful DOF. Wonder about a subtle gradient burn at the bottom, with a lowering of contrast.

    Agreement from me on that lens!

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    Hi Diane. Thanks for your comments. I would love to try a subtle gradient burn if I knew how!! Do you mean to darken the bottom of the image a little?

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    Yes -- in PS choose the Gradient tool (halfway down the toolbar). Hit Q to go into quick mask mode, and drag the cursor from the bottom up maybe 1/5 of the way into the canvas. (Hold Shift to make the transition level.) Let go and hit Q again to make the mask a selection. Then choose Curves or Levels and darken slightly. The layer will be fully editable at any time. As I add other local adjustments I often want to tweak previous ones a little.

    If you want irregular shapes you can use a large brush to paint the mask.

    You can also do it in ACR/LR but if I'm going to PS with an image I like waiting on things like this so they are editable.

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    Thank you very much for that information Diane. Another nugget to be stored away for when I need it. Here is a RP using your suggestion.Name:  _Z5A4130.jpg
Views: 40
Size:  387.3 KB

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    You're welcome! It looks like you have darkened the midtones here, thus bringing up saturation a little. Another option is to darken from the lighter tones. Make a Curves and pull the right end straight down, instead of pulling down the middle or darkening in a Levels.

    And of course the shape of the darkened area (the mask) can be altered with the black and white brushes. More details here:

    http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...uick-Mask-Mode

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    BPN Member Steve Maxson's Avatar
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    You captured a very nice pose - and with excellent sharpness for hand holding at 1/160! Helpful suggestions by Diane, above. Very well done!

  10. Thanks David Cowling thanked for this post
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    A real stunner with great techs and sharpness. Try a crop from the bottom to tighten up the composition. From just above the black mark on the leaf on the left, the one that intersects the frame edge. I am telling you that that would improve it 100%. a
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

    BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.

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