More plant life

[CAG76]

What do you think?

-Christopher

 

[Overstanding]

I think #1 is my fav.

#2 at lower left, that stem is a bit distracting.

Good stuff tho.

 

[paulpippin29]

#1 all the way as the winning fave, the others come in right behind it. I love macro photography, and try to do a bit of it myself with the XSI and my "kit" lense, which really doesn't work out well, but, it gets the job done sometimes. What lense did you use for these shots? These really are some nice shots man.

 

[CAG76]

Well these shots I didn't take with my XSi kit lens, but you might be surprised what you can do whit that because I have taken some excellent photographs with my kit lens. To tell you the truth I love that little lens. I may be cheaply built, it may be cheap in price, but you get MORE in my opinion that you pay for!

Ok to answer your question now. I use a Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM.

Check out all of the flowers on page two. Those were all taken with the very kit lens you own!

Flickr: CAG1976's Photostream

-Christopher

 

[paulpippin29]

Wow... nice Flickr man. I looked at all images there, very impressed. You seem to have a nice range of skill, and an equally nice range of things to photograph too I don't have much like that in my small little town.

I'll post up some flower shots that I've done, but I warn you, they're nothing like yours at all

 

[CAG76]

Thats ok! It just takes practice and a vision. I knew what I wanted to achieve when taking flowers and worked to figure it out.

Post some of your flowers pics in this thread. I can find them faster.

-Christopher

 

[paulpippin29]

Ok, here we go... the first 3 are more "macro" then the other 3. I got as close as I could to the subject using AF, then zoomed in just slightly to get even closer.

#1...

#2...

#3...

Next three were in a flower garden belonging to my neighbor... couldn't get as close as I'de like... attempting to prevent damage to her flower garden.

#4...

#5...

#6...

And there we have it... just a few I've taken like this, and selected these randomly. They're nothing in comparison to yours, but, they'll do I suppose. I wanted the same look you achieved, went for it too, but, didn't achieve it. Although, I didn't have the same type of subjects to work with either, which I wish I did.

I want your lense!!!!!!!!!!! Mail it to me!!!!!

 

[CAG76]

Wow! You're almost there. Basically some photoshop work. Do you have Adobe Photoshop? If not you can use other programs. You need to adjust your sharpness. Then adjust your exposure. They are kind of over exposed. Maybe a little more contrast too. You can do most of this in photoshop or an image editing software.

I use the same lens you are using on a few of mine. The good old Canon 18-55mm kit lens. I love that lens! Also I am taking photos in raw format.

I can also give you some tips on posting or saving your photos to post on here. These look low res, but I can see that the original photos are sharper than what I am looking at.

So all in all I don't think you have too far to go to get to where I am at. I still have much to learn too.

-Christopher

 

[CAG76]

OH and my favorites are numbers 1 and 6! Love those!

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Paul, #4 is wonderful. My fave of you group.

 

[paulpippin29]

Yes sir, Photoshop is installed and in use... it's Elements 7, but, PS nonetheless

Sharpness... they were "auto sharpened" using PSE7. I do not allow the camera to sharpen, simply because it strikes me as harsh sharpening, but perhaps that's what I need?

Exposure..... man, I've had hell with this subject matter, really have, and also have an active thread going on about it at the moment. For everyone of the images above, my camera told me the exposure was perfect. The settings were proper, the needle was in the middle, if ya know what I mean? Still however, exposure is mentioned. This is something that's going to beat me for a long time to come I think. If any of them look dark, that's because of the natural lighting of the time. Some were taken with the sun completely out, some halfway, some none at all. I get REALLY confused with exposure.

The images being low res....... Well, all photo's that I post up, typically come from Myspace. Reason being is that ALL of my photo's get posted there for my "friends", who are not photographers, or wannabe's like myself. I enjoy non-photographic people looking at them, simply because they have no clue as to what technically makes a good image, they just like what they see, and I enjoy that. I really do think that's half the battle. Resolution wise, I shoot RAW, in Manual, at all times, nothing else will do. These images were HUGE, but I have to resize them in order for MySpace to accept them. Myspace has a horrible habit of degrading images slightly.

My typical routine is to take a photo, download it to the hard drive, I load it up in DPP, alter the white balance if needed, then convert, save, and load it into PSE7. I then "Auto Fix" the image, which typically makes it look better, then I "Auto Sharpen" it, which tends to make it look even better than before, and then save and share. I don't do much to them, though perhaps, I should do more?

Anyway, and regardless, I'm truly enjoying this one on one session with you, if that's what you call it? Either way, doesn't matter, I'm having fun. I appreciate your critique more than you can imagine, and look forward to more.

 

[paulpippin29]

Thanks Bitter Jewler

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Not to sidejack, but paul, have you read "Understanding Exposure". People keep mentioning it here for a reason. I got it today and am almost 3/4's through it. Totally clears up the mystery for me. (well, we'll see in practice ) Get it. You will be glad you did.

 

[paulpippin29]

Well, I've yet to get that book, but apparently, I need to do so. I shall purchase as soon as I can. Thanks for the input

 

[lopezmariel]

this is nice.
what kind of edition have you done here. really good!