Green Tree Python C+C, and macro tips

[Tee_bird]

Hello, I'm new here. I've been slowly getting into photography for the past couple of years (seriously at least) and here's a shot I took at the St. Louis Zoo this past Saturday.


(Click the image for larger sizes)

I would really appreciate any critiques and criticism.

Also, I would like some good macro tips. The photo above was taken with a Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro, which I seem to take okay portraits with, but I just can't seem to get the hang of macros.

Thank you for any responses.

 

[dustinpedley]

great stuff

 

[Tee_bird]

Thank you, Dustin!

 

[snaggle]

Looks great very sharp. I was reading an artical about macro the other day it said that you some times have to redo the focus alot to get in the right spot with a close up shot. I have never tried to shoot with a macro lens yet though.

 

[Tee_bird]

Looks great very sharp. I was reading an artical about macro the other day it said that you some times have to redo the focus alot to get in the right spot with a close up shot. I have never tried to shoot with a macro lens yet though.

Thank you.

From my experience, it does take a while... and what looks good one the screen doesn't necessarily look good enlarged on my PC.

 

[E-jeezy]

love it...but idk if this is a personal preference, but a little deeper DOF would be better to me. regardless, it's a sick picture.

 

[Bigpopa]

I loike this shot alot very nice...............

 

[blakejd]

love it...but idk if this is a personal preference, but a little deeper DOF would be better to me. regardless, it's a sick picture.

+1 I would have liked it better if his head was completely in focus and the foreground.

 

[Tee_bird]

Thanks everyone.

I thought it made the eye pop out with the whole head not in focus, but you're right. It would look better if I had a deeper DoF. I'll definitely mess around with that next time!

 

[Phranquey]

love it...but idk if this is a personal preference, but a little deeper DOF would be better to me. regardless, it's a sick picture.

Thanks everyone.

I thought it made the eye pop out with the whole head not in focus, but you're right. It would look better if I had a deeper DoF. I'll definitely mess around with that next time!

It's difficult to do, but I agree. The head in focus with the coils foreground & background would look great. Still, that is some very good detail, and the eye is bang-on focused. Great work for starting...:thumbup:

 

[Tee_bird]

love it...but idk if this is a personal preference, but a little deeper DOF would be better to me. regardless, it's a sick picture.

Thanks everyone.

I thought it made the eye pop out with the whole head not in focus, but you're right. It would look better if I had a deeper DoF. I'll definitely mess around with that next time!

It's difficult to do, but I agree. The head in focus with the coils foreground & background would look great. Still, that is some very good detail, and the eye is bang-on focused. Great work for starting...:thumbup:

Thanks! I'm still working on focusing the macro lens on smaller things, but it's pretty hard. I'd like to go out and get some bugs before winter comes, but so far I've focused on NONE of their eyes (just the back of the head, or bodies).

 

[choudhrysaab]

focused very well and really nice framing. i love the depth of field as well.
what can i say its a Superb capture!

 

[Big Mike]

Nice shot. In this case, the very thin DOF does work well. The focus is right on the eye, and that's the most important part.

The thing with Macro, is that as you get closer, your DOF gets thinner and thinner. So if you want more DOF, you have to stop down the lens...which of course means that you need more light for the exposure. Many people use a tripod so that they can use a longer shutter speed without blur...but that only works if your subject isn't moving.

Another thing you can do, is to use flash when shooting macro. If you are shooting very close to your subjects, you may need something like a macro ring flash.

 

[Tee_bird]

Nice shot. In this case, the very thin DOF does work well. The focus is right on the eye, and that's the most important part.

The thing with Macro, is that as you get closer, your DOF gets thinner and thinner. So if you want more DOF, you have to stop down the lens...which of course means that you need more light for the exposure. Many people use a tripod so that they can use a longer shutter speed without blur...but that only works if your subject isn't moving.

Another thing you can do, is to use flash when shooting macro. If you are shooting very close to your subjects, you may need something like a macro ring flash.

I hate using a flash, because it makes everything look flat and/or washed out. I assume the flash rings wouldn't have this problem since the flash is technically not directly on the target?

 

[Overread]

edit - ahem - really liking this shot by the way

hmm reading your exif off flickr I am impressed:

Aperture f2.8
ISO 400
1/100sec

An aperture that wide is going to give you a very small depth of field to work with - especailly in macro work. In this shot you have shown very good focusing in getting the eye in focus - though looking at it larger I would have liked to see the edge scales around the eye also in the depth of field as well - tricky though certainly.
I also like the lighting that you have in this shot - its clear and soft, with no real highlight problems at all which is really great to see.

As for next time what you need is more light so that you can use a smaller aperture (typically I do my macro at f13) whilst keeping a good low ISO and fast shutter speed. There are several ways to do this - reflectors can be used to direct more lighting onto your subject, that is a cheap and quick way and can work very well if you have the light to redirect.
The other method is flash. If your getting flat flash results from normal flash you will find ringlights give even flatter lighting, though the more expensive ones can have you set the sides so that they put different powers out so that you get some shadow depth.
Out of interest what flash setup do you have - just the popup or a speedlite of some form?