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Archive 2008 · Critique
  
 
coryedwards
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p.1 #1 · Critique


I have been shooting for 5 months. I am using a Nikon D60. I covet your feedback!
Thanks!
Cory






  NIKON D60    135 mm    f/5.0    1/640 sec    100 ISO    0.0 EV  








  NIKON D60    200 mm    f/5.6    1/100 sec    400 ISO    0.0 EV  



Nov 23, 2008 at 02:08 AM
Rodolfo Paiz
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p.1 #2 · Critique


Handheld or on tripod? Any flash used? Is this the 55-200 zoom lens?

I like the idea in the second... frog contemplating a jump to the outside world. The first is just a nice shot of the flower, needs a stronger composition. Either put more stuff in, or take stuff out, until the picture is telling us something specifically.

If possible, get more/better lighting. The colors are kind of flat and lack saturation... they feel pretty dull and lifeless. More light will mean better/more-vibrant greens and pinks in these shots. Even a single SB-800, held off-axis (say, with a bracket) and diffused (see LordV's coke-can diffuser in the Macro forum for an almost-free and very worthwhile solution) would do wonders for these shots. Also, as you improve the lighting you do want, take care with the lighting you don't want as well. The reflection of the light on the water in the first shot really needs to get eliminated, and you can only do that at the time you take the shot.

The flash would also help you use a lower ISO, since there's more noise in the shadows than I expect from a D60. Did you underexpose and have to bump up the exposure in post? If possible, try to expose a little further to the right (but don't blow the highlights) and then turn it down a bit in post. Much lower noise, and you can tick the black-point slider by a point or two to get richer blacks and better dynamic range while you're at it.

But in the end, all of that is secondary. In these two cases, the focus is nowhere near as sharp as it could be. The flower in particular has the water almost-in-focus (even that, not quite), but the flower itself is not sharp. Not the pink petals, and most especially not the center part (stamens?) which should be perfect since it's going to draw the viewer's attention. I'm sure it's not motion blur at 1/640, and you could probably use more DOF but for that you'd need more light. Just looks poorly focused to me. And that's critical.

Still, overall I think they're both good learning experiences. The first one should be a lesson in lighting, focus, DOF, and composition, then will not be a long-term "keeper". The second one has a lot of potential, just needs better execution (also in lighting and focus, mostly).


Nov 23, 2008 at 06:38 AM
coryedwards
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p.1 #3 · Critique


Thanks, Rodolfo! Yes, I used the 55-200 lens - hand-held. Using a tripod would help with the sharper image, yes? I am just now experimenting with the SB-800 flash.

Nov 23, 2008 at 08:22 PM
 



Rodolfo Paiz
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p.1 #4 · Critique


A tripod is slower, but sharper. Sometimes that tradeoff can't be made, because "slower" would mean missing the shot. But one of the biggest benefits of using the tripod is that it removes some major limitations on shutter speed. For example, that flower was not going anywhere... so you could have gone to f/13 for more DOF and still have a tack-sharp image at 1/80. The frog, OTOH, might not have given you time to set up the tripod in the first place.

Check up on LordV's coke-can diffuser. Really a very good thing that will cost you near-nothing and help a lot. As I just noticed on a jewelry shoot, more light is a great thing to have. If you'd had sufficient light, you could have also done faster shutters than 1/100, at smaller apertures like f/8 or f/11, and still gotten the frog very sharp.

Whatever else it does, a well-diffused flash will help you light the scene better, get faster shutters (or more DOF if you need it), and brighter colors. See this article for more detail and a by-the-way explanation of why studio lights and speedlights are different. Not your core concern, but worth it in an educational sense.

It's always all about the light.

Nov 23, 2008 at 08:42 PM
Scott Stoness
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p.1 #5 · Critique


1 has nice colors but a bit centred and tight on frame against petals. Would be much better with 1/2 of left space cropped off.

2 needs a bigger frog. I would frame with centred of lily pad top right and higher fstop and possibly steadier hands because it is either soft because of depth or shake.

Nov 25, 2008 at 05:59 AM
Rodolfo Paiz
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p.1 #6 · Critique


I like Scott's comment about the bigger frog. He's right... I played around with cropping the image as he suggests, losing the top-right part of the image, and the composition improves (at least I think so).

Nov 26, 2008 at 12:51 AM




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