AustralianPhotography

Hi Patricia, the more I played with this photograph the more I liked it. It looked a little ordinary at first but didn't take much effort to start improving it.

The first thing that I would do to this image is to add a vignette. The simplest way to do that in Photoshop is to use the Elliptical Marquee tool and with the feather option set to 250 pixels, wrap the circle about the entire image so that it fits neatly in the square.

The next step is to inverse this selection (Select > Inverse) and then apply an adjustment layer. In this instance I would choose the Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer and pull the exposure back to about -75. As you do this you will start to see the edges getting darker and this will help us stay focused on the core of this thistle.

Now, the second thing I would do to make this photo more interesting is to add some contrast to the dark regions on each beetle's back. There are a few ways you can do this but I like the Shadows/Highlight command. Create a duplicate of the Background layer and then, in the main menu, go to Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlights. The dialogue box has a small box marked More Options – tick it. In the Shadows box make the Amount 45%, the Tonal Width 35% and the Radius 40 pixels, while near the bottom of the dialogue you will see Midtone contrast which you can set at +30. Click OK.

To restrict these changes so they only affect the beetle's backs, add a mask to the duplicated layer (in the Layers panel, click the Add layer mask icon). Now, in the main menu, go to Edit > Fill, choose Black as the fill colour and click OK. Now select the Brush Tool with a soft-edged brush tip and change the foreground colour to white. Paint over the beetles' backs to reveal the new adjustment. Hope you like it.

Good effort.

Image Doctor's edited version