My first critique

[AJev]

Yep, I'm a noob, but we all have to start somewhere. I'm posting a shot I took with my new macro lens a couple months ago - I love how it turned out but I'm curious to see if other people think it's good or not. I welcome all comments, good, bad or indifferent - I can take it! Thanks!

 

[Theantiquetiger]

Too narrow depth of field (IMO). If you are going to use that shot, I would crop it closer, getting rid of the OOF limbs

 

[tirediron]

Shallow DoF is a fact of life when working with macro-photography. Your depth of field can be as little as <2mm, so it becomes critical to choose your point of focus carefully. That said, I think that you did choose correctly as the head/thorax is a lot more interesting than the wings. I do agree however that a closer crop would improve the image greatly.

You may want to search on the term "focus stacking" and "zm combine". Focus stacking is a software-based technique which allows you to combine multiple images with different points of focus into one with vastly greater DoF than is possible in the "real world". Sort of the macro-equivalent of HDR.

 

[AJev]

Thanks for the tips - definitely going to research focus stacking! I just got my macro lens and I'm having fun experimenting but macro is tough! (IMO) If I crop it closer, I worry that I would lose too much detail - I guess shoot it closer next time?

 

[Skyclad]

Closer crop?

 

[AJev]

When I do that, I loose all the definition and everything goes blurry?

 

[dmanning11]

If you are doing really small macro increase your F-stop to give you a greater depth of field. The difference between F2 and F8 is huge.