Newbie with alot to learn!

JustinZ850 · Sep 8, 2011

Can only get better with practice, so I'm going to make an effort to get out and take a few shots each day. Here are a few of my first...

1

Curious Duck by JustinZ850, on Flickr

2

Laying Around by JustinZ850, on Flickr

3

Searching for Sweets by JustinZ850, on Flickr

tirediron · Sep 9, 2011

Nicely captured. I think they might be even stronger with a little brightening; they all seem slightly under-exposed to me.

pixilstudio · Sep 9, 2011

i hate bug shots but.. the bee is a good one

WesternGuy · Sep 9, 2011

Nice shots, but I agree that they do look a little underexposed - if you shot them in raw, then you may be able to brighten them a bit. It is too bad that most of the second one is out of focus, but that can be a problem sometimes with close-ups - was this taken with a macro lens?

WesternGuy

JustinZ850 · Sep 9, 2011

Thanks for the tip on being a little underexposed, I will work on the RAW files a little more after work.

2 and 3 were with macro lense

fossilboy · Sep 9, 2011

Excellent photo's, makes me want to raise my 'game'. I'm considering purchasing a macro lense after seeing its potential.

JustinZ850 · Sep 9, 2011

Here is a shot similar to #3, how does the brightness/exposure look on this one?

4

Bee by JustinZ850, on Flickr

Forkie · Sep 9, 2011

I agree with the underexposure and all could do with being slightly brighter but actually these are not bad. Not bad at all!

#1: You've got down to the duck's level, well done. You've got his head in the top-right of the frame and his chest and neck create a nice 'S' shape.

#2: Nicely framed, head in the top right facing the right way, the nice swoop of the body guiding the eyes up to the head. All looks good here.

#3. Nice and sharp, good black non-distracting background. Great focus on the eyes. Shame about the stick cutting through the frame, but looks like it couldn't be helped. Again, nicely thought through and the processing is subtle and reserved which is great.

You've definitely either been reading a lot about composition, or you have a natural knack.

I also had a look at your Flickr page: Ruffled, Dragonfly and Lizard are all superb. Keep this up and you'll get some great photos.

JustinZ850 · Sep 9, 2011

"You've definitely either been reading a lot about composition, or you have a natural knack."

Thanks for the feedback! I did alot of reading on the internet with my spare time in Afghanistan the last 3 months. I took a few shots here and there before but really had no idea what I was doing. Can only get better with practice

bazooka · Sep 9, 2011

You're doing very well, you picked a couple of photogenic creatures and did a good job showing them off. The exposure on the 2nd one is much better. Notice how you gained detail even in the black 'fur'.

JustinZ850 · Sep 9, 2011

Sure noticed it, guess it helps to actually use the Spyder3 I had sitting in the box lol. My monitor was much brighter before the cal so that explains why it was off a bit when I processed the images.

KmH · Sep 9, 2011

JustinZ850 said:
Can only get better with practice, so I'm going to make an effort to get out and take a few shots each day. Here are a few of my first...

That is a good way to get better, only if you have a goal for each days work.

Monday - explore how DOF is affected only by changes in focal point to camera distance.
Tuesday - explore how DOF is affected only by changes in focal length, while subject image scale is held constant. (As focal length increases, you move back from the subject to maintian subject image scale.)
Wednesday - explore how DOF is affected by changes in focal point distance to background.
Thursday - explore how DOF is affected by changes in lens aperture, while adjusting ISO and or shutter speed to maintain a constant exposure value.
Friday - find scenes that have a lot of dynamic range so you can determine the dynamic range capability of the image sensor in your camera.
Saturday - Shoot vertical day. Find subjects amenable to a vertical image framing.
Sunday - go online and investigate several of the available pot process image sharpening techniques. Make next weeks shoot list.