I need some help figuring out what is "off" about these images.

[MJI]

I agree about the butterfly. it was shot in the shade. I tried it with a couple different exposures but It was either too soft or lacked light.

I like the edits done to the bee. I've used the clone tool with some of my art, but lately I've been shying away from adding too much alteration on my photos besides the unsharp mask and some occasional brightness, contrast or levels tweeks.

One of the things I need is a tripod, but I don't know where to find one for my particular camera. It may have helped with some of my shots, but in the place where I get many of my flower and bug shots, is a public conservatory and they don't allow tripods.

 

[icassell]

You need a bit more light. I find that I can almost always hand-hold my butterfly images (Phoenix Botanical Gardens) but use a bracket-mounted 430EX on my Canon 30D cranked back to 1/4 - 1/2 power. I soften the light with a Lumiquest soft-box on the flash.

 

[kundalini]

I like the edits done to the bee. I've used the clone tool with some of my art, but lately I've been shying away from adding too much alteration on my photos besides the unsharp mask and some occasional brightness, contrast or levels tweeks.

So..... you do enhance your photos then, correct? Then cloning, cleaning up, cropping, pops with all the usual tweeks is only trying to do that.... enhance your photo.

A purist may state that "I only use natural light and don't edit my photos". Usually they are newbies to photography and/or digital. Usually their photos suffer as well.

I did hit the sharpen filter too, forgot to mention that.

 

[MJI]

I'm not quite a purist. I find just straight from the camera usually is a little too soft (even if in "perfect" focus - I think because of it being a JPG), and may have some lighting/contrast issues. Other edits I do for online sharing such as resizing and adding a watermark with my usrname.

As far as cloning I haven't used that on my digital photos lately, except to blur out real names and streets for internet protection, but I did try it just now.

Besides the top flowers, I cloned out the blue "glow" around the leaf behind the bee.

 

[Figment]

With the lillies, I personally am more interested in the texture of the wall behind them.

I think that's dirt.....
But I agree with you.

 

[MJI]

With the lillies, I personally am more interested in the texture of the wall behind them.

I think that's dirt.....
But I agree with you.

It's a wall, being the lower part of someone's house. It was captured when taking a walk around the neighborhood. Maybe it would have helped if the lilies were a darker color than bright yellow? Personally I like the detail but wish there was more contrast.

 

[dxqcanada]

1. You needed to get closer ... lower your DoF to blur out background.
2. Crop off the top.
3. Just the butterfly alone is not strong enough.
4. Get closer. You do not need the background. Take advantage of the pattern caused by the petals ... like you shot in #2.

 

[MJI]

Sounds fair enough, except with the butterfly shot I can't tromp through the conservatory garden to reach that butterfly. Maybe I could...but you know...that may not sit well with a few people, lol.

I guess the butterfly shot really I couldn't do much considering the butterfly was in an unaccessable location. Eventually it took off and left the garden completely... Maybe I could have passed it up to shoot some flowers or something else instead. I guess you win some lose some, right? I tried to shoot it anyway. I guess I'll learn what works and what doesn't.

I had the same problem with the lilies. They are in someone's property and not mine. But our next door neighbor has lilies and I can use them.

The bee on the other hand (#1), I had my camera right up to it, just a few inches away. For some reason I notice with my sony, that there is a certain region that it will not allow me to zoom. Either I put the camera right up to the subject or walk away a distance and then zoom in (like I tried with the butterfly). Anything inbetween, it will fail to focus.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Sounds fair enough, except with the butterfly shot I can't tromp through the conservatory garden to reach that butterfly. Maybe I could...but you know...that may not sit well with a few people, lol.

I guess the butterfly shot really I couldn't do much considering the butterfly was in an unaccessable location. Eventually it took off and left the garden completely... Maybe I could have passed it up to shoot some flowers or something else instead. I guess you win some lose some, right? I tried to shoot it anyway. I guess I'll learn what works and what doesn't.

No, don't ever pass up a shot. Take more! You never know what you get by surprise, in situations like that.