Contented bees

[JohnGG]

I took the camera with me when we went to a local garden centre and lucked into a plant that the bees couldn't get enough of. There was strong oblique sun but I didn't have a flash with me to freeze movement so there is a little blur on a leg or two when the bee took a step as I fired the shutter

The first three of bees crawling around feeding:







This last of a bee doing an elephant impression as it sorts out its tongue. Perhaps the plant was excessively sticky



All with the E-3 + EC-20 + MF-1 + OMZ 90mm f/2.0 with sharpen and very slight crop (8 pixels off short axis to get exact 4:3 aspect ratio) in Raw Therapee and resize in the Gimp. I'm struggling to resize properly in Raw Therapee as it seems to have a mind of its own

Cheers,

JohnGG

[Guest]

Re: Contented bees

Lovely shots - great colours. Well done.

RawTherapee does have character - still it's worth every penny (+more) of its price.

Nick

[andym]

Re: Contented bees

No4 is the pick for me.

I've got Raw Therapee but have not played with it much.I'll have to have another go.

Well done

[CaptainD]

Re: Contented bees

Really nice images, you must be very pleased.

Cheers

Chris

[JohnGG]

Re: Contented bees

Thank you Nick, Andy and Chris for the kind comments

I was pleased with the way the shots turned out and the success is probably down to the leisurely way the bees were feeding on the flowers. I hope we can grow whatever plant this was (it wasn't a name I recognised but that's not saying much ) in our heavy soil. My wife is the gardener and she is going to check it out. We have some rosemary in the garden that is covered with bees but they just keep moving so fast from bloom to bloom that it is very difficult to get a picture

Raw Therapee is indeed great VFM. Like many raw converters it seems to find some extra pixels around the edge of the sensor with the result that the image it converts is no longer exactly 4:3 aspect ratio; IIRC 3712 x 2792 has to be cropped to 3712 x 2784. However, when I come to resize the application still seems to be recalling the aspect ratio of the original and arrives at something other than the 800 x 600 I'm aiming for

I'll have to read the manual some more

Cheers,

JohnGG

[davidsa]

Re: Contented bees

Great pictures! Incredible definition. Invasion of bees' privacy, in fact!

What version of RawTherapee are you using?

The lastest version crashes on trying to open an *.orf file or even a directory containing one. The website suggests using an earlier incarnation but that doesn't work for me either. Apparently one can also replace one of the files in the newer package with its ancestor in an earlier version - does that work?

Thanks

David

[EH1]

Re: Contented bees

Great set of pictures John..........Well done!

[dbutch]

Re: Contented bees

Nice detailed set of images and that last one has a fun feel to it for some reason.

I personally think they could all do with a little tweak in levels to brighten the mid tones, that said I'm on a non calibrated monitor in the office.

Thanks for sharing

Cheers

Dave

[ringneck]

Re: Contented bees

Nice detailed set of images and that last one has a fun feel to it for some reason.

I personally think they could all do with a little tweak in levels to brighten the mid tones, that said I'm on a non calibrated monitor in the office.

Thanks for sharing

Cheers

Dave

Fantastic shots......like #4 best.....I took the liberty of copying it and opening it in Levels and it showed it needed lightening from 255 > 173 then did a DUP Layer to sharpen (too Much ?) and then erased the noise created from the B/G.
All this in P/shop 7.

Keith

[Ellie]

Re: Contented bees

Lovely detail in all the pictures.

Fantastic shot

It's an incredibly hairy bee, and it looks as if it's got two proboscis (probiscises?)

Any idea what sort of bee it is?

[JohnGG]

Re: Contented bees

Great pictures! Incredible definition. Invasion of bees' privacy, in fact!

What version of RawTherapee are you using?

The lastest version crashes on trying to open an *.orf file or even a directory containing one. The website suggests using an earlier incarnation but that doesn't work for me either. Apparently one can also replace one of the files in the newer package with its ancestor in an earlier version - does that work?

Thanks

David

Hi David,

Thank you for the kind words

I recently downloaded v2.4.1 but it kept crashing so I tried v2.4 but that also wouldn't play, so I reverted to v2.4 RC2 which I had been using previously. I also have v2.3 on a laptop but I will leave that upgraded until they have sorted out v2.4.x stability. I will have a look at the web site and see if I have the earlier file you mention and give it a try inserted into 2.4.1, it only takes a few minutes to install

Cheers,

JohnGG

[JohnGG]

Re: Contented bees

Thank you all for the further comments

I agree that the images could to with a little brightening up. I tend to underexpose when shooting, being a little wary of triggering the highlight warnings on the screen. I must learn to use the histogram properly.

I will have to take some lessons on how to drive these image processing tools. All I'm able to manage at the moment is simple sharpening and altering the levels as a whole rather than tackling just the mid-tones or highlights. I keep reading terms like dup layers and layer masks but haven't a clue what they mean

Perhap I should bit the bullet and fork out for Photoshop or Lightroom since most tutorials in the magazines refer to one or the other

Cheers,

JohnGG