June Bugs

[Rathbone]

I know, it's the end of July, but tell the bugs that! I shot these yesterday. I did the high contrast thing, made the plants seem luminescent, and I like the glowing around the edges quality the June bugs themselves have. Now...the question I have for you is about the "edge preserving smooth" function I applied to these photos. After I did the unsharp mask to crispen the detail, I used the edge preserving smooth to reduce the noise. However, this particular application of smooth gives the picture kind of a painterly look if you zoom in close enough. I realize that photography purists might prefer the original grain of the photo, but I also think that sometimes it's the final image you're selling to the viewer. What do you think about it?

 

[LaFoto]

The "last edited by LaFoto" means I put in spaces ... your photos were all next to each other and required quite a bit of horizontal scrolling ... I just eliminated that.

Other than that I know nothing about the "edge preserving smooth" you applied here (my PS version is one that ran out in 1999!), so all I know is what I see, and I must say that I LIKE what I see. Only are your subjects always very much in the centre of your frame, and maybe you might want to consider some "creative cropping" on some of your frames some time (if only for fun and to see what effects cropping can have on frames) to move them a bit off centre.

The bug as such is a beauty, no doubt, as is the surroundings you found him in ... and while I was just going to back to study the pics and decide on the one I like best, I find I cannot do so since they are all three so good.