Wasp on Heather

[Gail Spitler]

Hi All - This is my first post to the Macro and Flora Forum. I feel so impressed with the quality of all the images here that I hesitate to offer one, but nothing ventured ....
Comments and suggestions are much appreciated. Also if anyone knows for sure that this is indeed a wasp and not a sweat bee or some other deceptive insect, I loved to know.

Thanks for looking
Gail
Canon 7D with 300mm f/4 plus 25mm ext. tube, 1/400 sec @ f/5.0, pattern metering, 0EV, ISO 400, HH

[Julie Kenward]

Gail, welcome to the Macro/Flora forum...and don't be intimidated - we all start somewhere, right?

You've got really nice details on the wasp - good eye contact and catchlight - and your DOF seems right on.

Your lighting seems a little harsh (probably midday or early afternoon?) so you might try toning it down a bit br bringing up the midtones a bit...see if that helps. Compositionally, it feels a little centered but the eye is close to the ROT's position so that's good. You might try shooting so there is more canvas on the left or right next time to scoot the insect a little more to one side of the frame.

Glad you made the jump in...there are some amazing insect images here - you can learn tons from some of these bug people! :D

[Gail Spitler]

Julie - Thanks for the suggestions - most helpful. I have desaturated the pink, and that improved the image. Macro is a good way to learn that less can be more when it comes to post-processing.
Thanks again
Gail

[Ken Childs]

Hi Gail,

Jules already hit on the harsh light problem and some possible solutions. I think a good dose of noise reduction on the BG would also help.

[Christopher Miller]

Hi Gail, and welcome to the Macro forum! :) I think this is a bee and not a wasp. Some excellent advice from Jules and Ken. Very nice details and I love the flower colors.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Gail,
excellent advice given above and welcome to the forum!!! Controlling the light....natural, flash or a combo is key in macro.....a bit intimidating at first.....but hang around here long enough and you will get some great ideas! Welcome aboard!

[Gail Spitler]

Thanks all - I suspect that macro is very fertile ground for me in terms of moving forward on improving my image quality. Your comments are much appreciated
Cheers
Gail