2024 Project 52 - Weekly photos by Geoff F

[Cantab]

Geoff, another great set of images.

I looked at the insect ones with more than usual interest. I've been trying to take photos of one or two bumble bees that regularly visit two alstroemaria plants on our deck. The darn things move around so quickly, apart from when they're buried inside a bloom! I'm using a Canon 100mm macro at 1/250 with ISO 100, f8 and with a shot gun. But see that many of your successful insect shots are at ISO 400 (but I'm using a 60D, noisier than your Canon) and a narrower aperture. My hope is to post one or two of the more successful shots in due course.

[Geoff F]

Bumblebees are tricky. As you say, they are always moving and if you find a tired bee having a rest you may encounter problems with depth of focus on something as wide as a bumblebee. So it may require focus stacking of two or three shots.

You should be OK with Iso 400 providing your exposure isn't under exposed.

When I get noise problems I often apply a selection to the problem areas and do some noise reduction or blurring to just those areas. Duplicate layers with a good amount of noise reduction can be merged with the background. There are several ways to selectively reduce noise.

Using a bit of fill flash will help to prevent shadows becoming overly dark and noisy.

[Geoff F]

Part 3 continues here

2024 Project 52 - Weekly photos by Geoff F - part 3