First post/Bee macro!

[BEphoto]

Hi there. This is my first of hopefully many posts throughout this forum. Ive been shooting macro stuff for the last couple of months and wanted to get opinions on anything im doing right/wrong.

Here is one of my favs so far.




Looking at it now, i should have cropped it just a bit to not put the bee right in the middle of the frame. I LOVE how the flower and background almost look like claymation, or rubbery. It gives the picture a very unique look in my opinion.

Thanks for any input!

-Brad

Natural Lighting, handheld.

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1600)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 100 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 2/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire
Exposure Program: Aperture priority

[wulf]

Since you cropped off the bottom of the petals, it might be worth considering a closer crop, which will make the detail captured on the bee more prominent in the frame. The danger is losing too much of the context.

Generally I think uncentered subjects work better but I'm on the fence for this one; the bee is dead centre but the colours and tones of the background seem to give more space in front of it. Were the bee facing the other way on an identical background, I think the result would be far less satisfactory (you could even do a quick bit of post processing to try it).

Wulf

ps. I think you've given an excellent example of a good critique post - the only refinement I'd suggest there is checking the FAQ for information on posting pictures from Flickr so people can link back and view it larger (if you have a larger version available)

[BEphoto]

Originally Posted by wulf

the only refinement I'd suggest there is checking the FAQ for information on posting pictures from Flickr so people can link back and view it larger (if you have a larger version available)

Cool, thanks. I hadnt seen that before. Fixed the original post to link back to flickr.

Thanks for the critique as well!

-Brad

[Badam]

nice work.

i can just imagine it now - on a billboard with some caption, like "....." never mind, forget that.

but i do really like the picture.

[Doc Holliday]

Originally Posted by BEphoto

Hi there. This is my first of hopefully many posts throughout this forum. Ive been shooting macro stuff for the last couple of months and wanted to get opinions on anything im doing right/wrong.

Here is one of my favs so far.

Looking at it now, i should have cropped it just a bit to not put the bee right in the middle of the frame. I LOVE how the flower and background almost look like claymation, or rubbery. It gives the picture a very unique look in my opinion.

Thanks for any input!

-Brad

Any particular reason why you used a f/2.8 on this shot? I would have used a little higher f, [As I said, I start at f/5.6 for macro], and gotten both wings in focus. You seem to have plenty of light, so you could handle a little smaller f without sacrificing much shutter speed. I realize it can be really difficult to get set up on things like this, they often fly away when you adjusting setting...

I like the crop... Increase the color saturation??? Nice Bokeh...

[BEphoto]

Originally Posted by Doc Holliday

Any particular reason why you used a f/2.8 on this shot? I would have used a little higher f, [As I said, I start at f/5.6 for macro], and gotten both wings in focus. You seem to have plenty of light, so you could handle a little smaller f without sacrificing much shutter speed. I realize it can be really difficult to get set up on things like this, they often fly away when you adjusting setting...

I like the crop... Increase the color saturation??? Nice Bokeh...

it was literally my first day shooting with a macro lens and i was going for the limited depth of field like all macro shots have, but i didnt realize you already get that for the most part anyway regardless of your F-stop. ive started shooting most of my macros at around f/8 now so that i can get everything in focus. I'd always pretty much just shot wide open or a stop or two down, depending on light, for most of my other stuff (non-macro). as far as saturation, i just did an auto-curves on it and was done.

everyone always talks about how nice the bokeh is with this lens. i went with the tokina 100mm macro instead of the canon and have been more than happy with it so far.

as always, thanks for the input.

Brad

[stevolivin]

Nice shot. I would have tried it from a different angle, it seems as if your almost, on top of the bee. Maybe a little lower and include the whole flower, and bee, and it should come out great!