Om Nom Nom!
This Summer, the population of aphids boomed, which caused the ladybirds to follow suit. My camera and I were ready.
This particular image is one of the, if not the most interesting one from my recent ladybird macro photoshoot*. Not only did I capture the insect en face, nailing the focus on its segmented eyes, but it also happened to be consuming an aphid. Here's my take on editing the picture.
After basic exposure correction, the base image looks like this. A quick ogle reveals two issues the editing needs to target: image balance and colours. Given the perspective, the ladybird should be placed exactly in the centre. The leaf is somewhat symmetrical so a central composition should look much more balanced. I'll need to adjust the crop. The colours show promise but the greens don't look particularly pleasing. I'll shift and desaturate them so they are less distracting. This change will make the ladybird's carapace pop more, instantly grabbing attention. With these general ideas in mind, let's start the edit.
Let's start with the colours. I boost the oranges' and reds' saturation to give the ladybird's carapace more prominence. The greens get desaturated so they don't grab as much attention. The leaf has purple spots so I desaturate them a bit as well. Finally, I shift the greens ever so slightly towards the blues.
To make the bottom of the image less distracting, I apply a gradient mask and burn it a little. The very bottom seems a bit overdone but I will crop that out later on. I also add a gradient mask on top and dodge it. It should give the scene a sense of light directionality.
The top highlight comes from the sunlight so let's boost that by warming it up a little. I use the same mask as the dodge used and shift the colours ever so slightly towards the orange.
I apply a local contrast to the ladybird's face. This will boost the detail on the segmented eyes.
I add split toning: the shadows are tinted blue and the highlights, orange. Again, subtlety is key; I don't want this effect to be apparent.
Finally, I choose a crop. I stick with the original 3:2 ratio and put the ladybird exactly in the centre.
Original and finished images
Here's a side-by-side comparison of what I started with (again: after a basic exposure adjustment as the original was a little underexposed) versus the final edit. Granted, the adjustments are rather gentle but I consider the base image a really good one. More extreme edits were simply not necessary. I've shared the image on my social media:
* I also took a picture of two ladybirds mating on top of a yellow shrubby cinquefoil flower. Well, technically, that was a ladybird and a gentlemanbird. The picture was kind of NSFW, but I still posted it on my socials. The reception was good. Check it out along with the "Om Nom Nom" one.
