Well this time we have a series of photos of the same subject (Ladybirds).
They all have different framing and cropping, and I'm interested to know which is the most interesting of the series any why is it the most interesting.
And for the photos that aren't the most interesting, what could I have done to make them more interesting themselves?
During this sequence, I tried to implement some of the previous comments. Specifically, I increased the shutter speed, and set the camera to high speed drive mode, so that I could get a few shots in while the insect was doing interesting things. This worked well, but where I was let down was that my flash batteries were not fully charged, so often the flash did not cycle fast enough for the next shot to be taken correctly. Another lesson learned then. Make sure the flash batteries are fully charged before use.
Image 1 : Throttle up!
Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/180 sec at f/9.5, Iso 400
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.
Image 2: Sunday walk.
Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/180 sec at f/9.5, Iso 400
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.
Image 3: Ok, I'm ready now. Smiling :)
Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/180 sec at f/11, Iso 400
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.
Image 4: Traveling home.
Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/180 sec at f/9.5, Iso 400
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.
Looking forward to receiving some comments.
Cheers!
Hi Craig,
ReplyDeleteTraveling Home has to be my favourite. I particularly like the camera angle and how he's walking towards the camera. Also, I find the lines on the leaf are good at drawing me to the beetle. The biggest downside that I see though is that his eyes aren't quite in focus leaving him a little soft.
In terms of the other shots, Throttle Up is nice, but the head is a little blury. The blury wings are okay to me, because they show the movement, but I'd like to see the head kept crisp.
And I guess as a general thing, I'd crop each of the shots down a bit more (except Sunday Walk) to keep the focus on the beetle.
Oh, and one more thought for Sunday Walk, I like the focus in that one, but would like to see him moving more towards the camera, rather than the profile shot.
Cheers,
Geoff.
Craig,
ReplyDeleteMy Favourite is Throttle Up. Great action shot. The blur suggests motion nicely.
However it's too small in the frame. There is way too much negative space around the ladybug. You have some nice sharp line detail in the leave coming from the lower-left of the image. I would crop so they start from the corner leading nicely to the main subject. I would also consider a vertical crop since the beetle will most likely fly up, giving it more space to move into. After cropping vertical, the subject should be around the lower left power-point.
Sunday walk looks a little soft. I'm not sure where the focus is. Perhaps on the far antenna. Angling your shallow focus plane so it cuts through 2-3 subjects on the beetle could be more interesting. For example an eye and one of it's feet closer to the camera.
I'm Smiling, needs a tighter, probably vertical crop, to more emphasise it's location high on the leaf tip.
Unlike Geoff, Travelling Home doesn't do much for me. I find the damaged leaf distracting and making it more difficult for the ladybug to separate from the background. The camera angle is nice though.
Trying to get good macro shots is incredibly fiddly. Also overall I still think you could use a faster shutter speed. Having some fully charged batteries next time might go a long way to making that easier.
Over here I still got 6 months to wait before I can start posting ladybug shots.
Brutal Enough?
steve
Thanks for your comments guys.
ReplyDeleteI'll try the crop suggestions you've come up with and see how they go.
I noticed the best shots from this mornings photos (Hoverfly) were with the 1/250 s shutter speed. I'm still experimenting with what aperture to use to get the clearest/deepest depth of field possible.
I was very envious when another friend posted ladybird photos last year at the end of summer, and I had to wait a long time before they were coming back for me to take some photos of myself, so I know how you are feeling :)
I do wish that I had the head clear in throttle up. Maybe that faster shutter speed would have helped there too.
Regarding ladybirds walking toward the camera, I was having a lot of trouble with that because they were really keen to be running the other way as soon as they saw me! LOL
Cheers guys!
Craig.
Ps: It's so frustrating that even when I zoom in on the image on the camera LCD just after taking it that I can never see compound eyes in the shots, it's only after I load them on the computer that I have any chance of seeing them. And I still don't know the secret of capturing them reliably, as I have so few photos like this have every worked out as planned.