Beeware of The Flowers

I would appreciate any C&C. I realize that I had plenty of light to

decrease the ISO but minutes before this I was taking shots that

required 1600 and I forgot to change that setting (Arggggh!) in the

excitement of seeing this guy posing for me! Thanks for you time.

Sincerely,

Peter

Hi Peter,

A very good image.

You saved me my first point about using ISO 1600, so I will on to the more important suggests  for you to consider:

I own the Sigma 150mm F/2.8 Macro . I have tested it extensively in the optical lab and used it numerous of times in the field. It is an excellent lens that performs best at F/2.8 to F/5.6. You stopped the lens down, probably for an increase in DOF.

However, the best part of this image is the face of this bee. So, F/2.8 or F/4 would have been superb to use because of the perspective.

Also, as a fall out of using a fast f-stop, your exposure would have become much shorter. This is important for two reasons.

If you are hand holding a 150mm, you want an exposure at least 1/320 or 1/500 second. No, if a tripod is used, you still want a faster shutter speed.

The reason is that any instant, the bee could move slightly, and the highest level of definition will be lost due to that motion. The lens can resolve much finer details than you can see in the viewfinder or with live view active.

Last point, if you had taken this image from above the bee, say at a 45 degree angle, then the DOF would have become much more demanding because you would probably want the entire bee to look in focus. The use of  F/8 or F/11 would then have merit.

Best Regards,  Mike

Mike, Thanks for taking the time for the extensive comment. I appreciate very much the information and will definitely keep it in mind when using this lens and for all other macros as well. 

Sincerely,

Peter