Bumble bee on plant

[Jim A]

I have had very little experience in photographing bees, just the occasional grab shot, none of which came out well. Nevertheless, as there is a bed of yellow and orange flowers not far from our villa, on which many bees were feasting, I decided to learn a bit and give a more concerted effort. Here is one of the two best. Initially I am just trying to get them settled on the plant, not flying. Flying is next. I took this at f5.6 (the best for this 17-70 lens with cropped sensor), Shutter 1/800sec, ISO 320. Bright sunlight and a VG histogram. Probably would have been better at f8-f11 to cut down highlights on the wings?

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[Chataignier]

You seem to have the focus right on the bee, but the image is a bit soft - not due to shake at 1/800, was it cropped in a lot ?
F5.6 at that distance has a very shallow dof, f11 would give you more latitude, but would need higher ISO to maintain the right exposure at 1/800s.

[DanK]

Jim,

I'm hesitant to write this because it may seem like I'm trying to discourage you. Exactly the opposite. I like photographing bugs and hope you keep at it. However, it's a specialized and demanding form of photography, so you need to know some of the tricks if you want to pursue it.

Like David, I assume this is severely cropped. One clue is the lack of sharpness. The other is the DOF. You can't get that much DOF at f/5.6 unless you are a fair distance from the subject.

There are two ways around this. For large bugs, like damselflies, you can make do with a long lens that is relatively close-focusing. For smaller critters, you have to get very close, which requires a macro lens, a screw-on macro lens filter, or extension tubes.

The lens isn't the big barrier. It's obtaining good focus at very short distances. This is very tough because of the distance and the very small depth of field. If you're interested, I can explain techniques. But I've been doing this for a long time, and I assume that on each outing, the large majority of my images will be discards because of focus issues.

At close distances, I typically shoot around f/13 (with a crop sensor camera) because I am not steady enough to do focus stacking at that distance.

On the positive side, crop sensor cameras are generally better for this than FF cameras. I keep an old 7D (first generation) for bug macros. The reason is that in most cases, crop sensor cameras have a higher pixel density, which means that at maximum magnification, you have more pixels on the subject.

Dan

PS: Even at f/13, DOF is so small that some of the bug will go out of focus, particularly if it's not parallel to the sensor. Here's an example. This flower was blowing in the wind, and I didn't have the luxury of getting things lined up. My recollection is that I shot about 40 images, almost all of which are discards. Look at the right-hand wing and the rear of the bee's abdomen, both of which are out of focus. This image is cropped, but not severely.








https://photos.smugmug.com/Bugs/Bees...MG_1543-XL.jpg

[Geoff F]

Bees are very difficult to photograph, Jim. While I spend a lot of time photographing insects I have only a few good bumblebee photographs.

Was this auto focus? With a shallow range of sharp focus the camera will auto focus on the closest point which leaves everything else out of focus. I prefer to use manual focus so I am sure the relevant areas are well focused. But getting any area in focus is challenging for hand held shots so I prefer to use a tripod. However, getting a tripod in place for photography of moving and wary subjects can be difficult.

A few hot spot over exposed areas are a common problem with shiny insects in sunshine and there isn't any simple answer.

[DanK]

I guess I should throw in something about techniques.

I agree with Geoff: autofocus is rarely a good approach with insects. If your camera has a very small spot focus and you can manage to hold that over the near eye, then it could work. I usually put the camera on a monopod, set the camera on MF, set the lens for the distance I want, and then slightly rock the monopod until I get focus. It requires a lot of coordination and luck to trip the shutter at the right time, at least if you are as much of a klutz as I am, so you have to count on missing a lot of the time. Even when it looks good on the LCD, you can often see that it's out of focus when you get it to a reasonable size on the computer.

Bumblebees are hard because they dip their faces into the flowers, and their eyes are the same color as their heads. However, on the positive side, they will stay put for a while if the flower offers enough nectar, and they are neither particularly skittish nor aggressive.

If you want access to AF, perhaps to get an approximate setting before you resort to moving the camera, move AF onto the AF on button and off the shutter. Then you can use it when you want, but it won't mess up your manual focusing.

[billtils]

I've never been too sure about the macro -v- long lens for bugs.

Here's a bee shot with a 105mm macro lens (Nikon Z) at 1/1000s and f/8:





and a fly shot with a 420mm telephoto (Nikon 300mm +1.4TC at 1/640s and f/11)





After several years I've come to the conclusion it doesn't matter all that much. I think the macro lens has a slight edge in image quality and a larger one in weight but the long lens is more versatile - nearly all my insect shots with it were taken when out birding.

[DanK]

For shots like Bill's, I think it's more or less a wash in terms of image quality, but there are other pros and cons. A long lens doesn't require you to creep up on the bug and has a bigger DOF because you are farther away. On the other hand, it gives you less control over lighting. I do most of my bug shots with a highly diffused flash, and that requires being close.

Another issue is how much magnification you want. Once you are using a macro lens, you can get much closer than that, particularly if you stick an extension tube on. Most often, when I go out bug hunting, I add a 36mm tube to a 100 mm macro. That can get you things like this:



But even without a tube, if you work at close to 1:1, a macro lens can get you closer. Unfortunately, I can't tell which of mine were shot with no tubes, but I think this one, was shot with a 60mm macro and no tube at minimum focusing distance:

[Jim A]

Many thanks for all of these invaluable comments, folks! I feel very humble and honoured that you have taken so much trouble to give me such well thought out feedback and ideas. However, I have just returned from a lengthy session at the dentist (feels like it was a marathon!), so I will respond to each of you separately tomorrow (in one overall post).