A delicate balance: a fly stands on the pink petals of a rhododendron flower.

A hairy fly on the edges of pink petals. The sharpening and denoising of a photograph. So many delicate combinations. I bring it up, because I noticed late in the process of editing this photo some unwanted arcing patterns in the background. I shouldn’t have missed it, because it happened in the previous photo I posted. I think it’s a direct result of the denoising filter I’ve been using. Typically in the past I have been very conservative about denoising my images; in a choice between having some noise and a “muddy” image, I just assume keep the noise. Obviously the best medicine is to get a fittingly-lit, well-exposed shot to begin with. And maybe as obviously, that’s not always realistic when dealing with unpredictable living creatures like insects.

This current evolution of imperfection comes to me via the Nikon Capture NX-D software which I actually like fairly well. The Noise Reduction filter has given me some promising results, but more tweaking (i.e. likely less noise reduction) is necessary. As you can see I’m not quite ambitious and/or nonplussed enough to redo these photos, but I’ve got a little post-processing “memory muscle” [sic] built up now. Onward and upward and backward and downward, the photographer’s journey continues.