First try - c&c please

[Dmitri]

Bought my camera (Canon Digital Rebel XTi) about a week ago, got a decent lens (Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS) and went on a shooting spree (so to speak). I like these the best so far. They have all had some post processing done, some cropping and saturation.

After all the great photos I see from you all, I would love any criticisms you have to improve me. Thanks.

1. Bee

2. Squirrel

3. Guy in a boat

4. Flies on a Dead Fish

5. View from a Park

6. Duck at the Lake

 

[tirediron]

Welcome. C&C per req:
1. Good macro, however it looks like your focus is just a wee bit off, his wings are sharp and the body just a little soft.
2. Nice capture, however the lighting doesn't work very well. These shots are however, 'take what you can get', and you often don't have time to do anything fancy. Cosider however upping your ISO and reducing your shutter speed to eliminate the need for flash.
3. I'm guessing this one was taken mid-day? The light is very flat, and the image is slightly hazy. Consider shooting earlier in the morning, later in the afternoon, and generally avoid the mid-day timeframe for landscape shots.
4. Nice macro.
5. No real subject here, the periphery and foreground are too dark, and there's a lack of contrast in the sky. Good composition idea with the circle of branches however.
6. Duck... duck.. GOOSE! Canada Goose to be exact. Seems a little soft to me. As well, always try and get animals (and people) coming into the picture rather than leaving it. Good positioning however.

All in all, some nice work, with a few nit-pick suggestions which I hope will help.
Just my $00.02 worth - your milage may vary.
~John

 

[Bifurcator]

1, 2, 4, and 6, don't really need any crits, very good - and difficult to make better than they already are.

 

[itsboyte]

the boat and goose don't really do much for me. I am not sure what they lack, but the others are beautiful.

 

[Dmitri]

Thanks for the replies and tips!

I have a few photos that came out like that, where part of the image isn't in focus that should be, like the bee. I'm trying to figure that out. I ordered a tripod, so maybe that will help.

Thanks again guys :hugs:

 

[darkpbstar]

yea 5 is the only "issue, and it is too dark. if you shot in RAW you would be able to adjust exposure and regain that original scene you saw.

 

[Bifurcator]

I have a few photos that came out like that, where part of the image isn't in focus that should be, like the bee. I'm trying to figure that out. I ordered a tripod, so maybe that will help.

The tripod will kill most of the blur caused from motion or shake but for the Bee one I think it's that you selected a rather flat depth of field (DOF) or let's call it a "spherical surface of focus" just for now. Remember, the DOF follows the curvature of the lens angle. Imagine an invisible ball with it's center point usually somewhere inside the lens barrel. Like the curves in this illustration of a single element converging lens:

. . . . .

​

But spherical of course. The position and angle of the camera (film plane axis) become fairly critical. Imagine your camera slightly above the subject (as in that bee) and pointed down at about a 30 degree angle or so. Now draw your imaginary ball where the surface of the ball represents the sharpest focus everywhere it intersects the subject(s). The farther inside or outside the ball the more out of focus the image will be. This ball is really quite small for macro shots and parts of the subject that our brains will at first tell us should be in focus are actually quite far from the surface of our imaginary ball - and therefor very out of focus. Or at least more than we would at first think. For your bee shot in specific I would say that the "ball" is touching the top surface of the bee's back up around his foremost shoulders but that at around the middle of his wings is already getting pretty far away.

You can increase the thickness of the ball's surface and therefore what in intersects with by using smaller apertures like F22 or something. At that point lighting becomes an issue however. Doenoe has a pretty good system worked out here:

http://thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=126794

Another tip is to focus out a little from the nearest surface. In portraiture for example the nearest part of the person's ear, or farthest cheekbone is used instead of the nearest surface (usually the nose) to obtain a proper focus. This places the thickness of the balls' walls (or center of the DOF) through the center of the parts of the subject that we want to have in focus and uses the full range of the DOF instead of just half of it.

I hope that all made sense.

 

[Dmitri]

Wow, thanks Bifurcator! That's very helpful, I just need to wrap my brain round it now. I think I'll drive to my friends house and try taking some more bee pictures with this new info.

Thanks again!
:cheers:

 

[Bifurcator]

I probably overcomplicated it. It's just DOF and subject distance really. That the distance is measured on a fixed radius from the lens's focal point is the concept I was attempting to convey.