Hi everyone, I am new to this board and recently started photographing on a regular basis. I would appreciate any feedback that you are willing to share. I'm also concentrating on macros, especially water droplets on flowers and plants so any tips that you could share with me would be great. Thanks so much!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/8739390@N03/

Hey you seem to be in my general area, I live in Va, and these loaded fast for me!
Ok here goes, and remember these are just IMO.
Page 1
1.Nice DOF, but the composition is off a tad for my taste, maybe alil less stem.
2.Lovely flower, but the background is alil distracting.
3.Nice Macro, but the picture just seems to dark to me.
4,5,6. I really like these 3, and it shows you have a natural eye.
7. I like the shot.
8.IMO I always think you should have a animal walking into the photograph, and not the backside of the critter.
9.Gorgeous shot, wouldnt change a thing, and again it shows you have a natural eye.
10.Again walking into, not away from.
11.Nice composition.
12.To dark for my taste, but again this is IMO.
13.Nice shot, but I just dont care for it from the back.
14.Nice shot.
15.I like the framing, but the bench is very distracting to me. I think the bridge is the focal point, so maybe try another vantage point.
16.I like the composition again, but for me the bench is just on the wrong side.
17.I like it.
18.I like everything about this, but the branch at the top is alil distracting.

Page 2
1-6 I have already commented on, on your other thread.
7.Very cool
8.Very cool again
9.I like it, and I doubt youll ever hear me say this much...But I would have liked to have seen it in color.
10.I like it alot
11. I love it!
12. The flower just seems to bright to me, but its still a good shot.
13.Good composition
15.Cool shot

Page 3

1-5.Im not a huge flower fan, but they are all interesting.
6. I really like this one
7.The best one of your animal shots, IMO. Hes off center, its well framed, and the grass really adds to it
8.Alil dark for my taste, but well composed.
9.Its ok but again im not a huge flower fan.
10.I really like this, because of the colors.
11.I like this.
12.Well composed.

 

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Thanks kashani for all of your feedback. I really appreciate the time you took to comment on all of my photos. I just started working on macros and was really happy with the way the water droplets and fly turned out so I'm glad you liked them. I also agree with what you said about changing the vantage point on some of the photos and photographing the animals from the front. I will keep that in mind next time. Thanks again.

Your very welcome, and more will comment, but this board always moves slow. You'll find this is one of the most helpful boards around for beginning photographers.

 

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I'd give you some feedback if you came here and posted just a few pics. This many in one go is a bit overwhelming.

 

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Hehe, just what I was thinking, I have the attention span of a goldfish

It would be awesome if you would pick out a few you felt needed some help or some of your favourites

 

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Thanks Raiztlin and ShalisR. I realized that after I made my initial post...sorry about that.


How about these three? I just started playing around with macros and would like to know what you think and how I can improve. Thanks!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/8739390@N03/3476943717/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/8739390@N03/3477751144/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/8739390@N03/3477751002/

I think all 3 are nice, if a bit boring. The composition is very centered, I think you'd manage to put a bit more life into them if you learned some basic composition.


Read up on this site, which at first glance looks good: http://www.colorpilot.com/comp_rules.html


Also, keep in mind with macro shots are there 2 very important things to consider, in addition to the composition. The Depth of Field (DoF, how much of the image is sharp) and where your focus lies.


Your focus is dead on as far as I can tell, but the DoF on the fly is a bit too shallow, blurring the ends of the wings.


Other then that though, very nice pictures. and grats on having the patience to photograph a fly

 

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I like the foreground on the first one the most, it's lovely and clear and detailed, but I have to ask, are you photoshopping out your backgrounds? While the plain backgrounds are nice, I prefer to see DoF used to good effect by having a heavily blurred out background but with variances in shape, shade and colour still visible.

Unfortunately, because you are using a point and shoot, you won't have much control over DoF, so I can see why photoshopping would be needed. The background on the second two complements the foreground nicely, but on the first one it doesn't really work for me, almost like a piece of lush wet grass was photographed in a desert. If it was a real desert, it would look awesome, but just the dry sandy colour doesn't work.

Other than that, I agree with what Raiz said Fantastic start, just needs a little more thought to composition and detail

 

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Raiztlin - The link you provided is great and offers a lot of great tips on composition. Very useful!


ShalisR - I definitely agree on the backgrounds. Capturing the proper DoF is definitely a bit tricky with the camera that I currently have. I am hoping to upgrade to a digital SLR soon.


All of the feedback has been great. It has me thinking about a lot of ways I can make my photos better. Thanks so much!