New to Photography and Macro

tripwater

Hello,

For the past few months and I have been reading every book I can. I am the type of person that does a ton of research before I dive into something. I am a musician at heart. I love photography and always have. I was drawn to macro photography just by its unique nature and beauty. It reveals things that we over look everyday and many things that we can't see in detail with our eyes.

So I finally got some gear a few weeks back and have been taking shots when I can. Please visit my close up galleries and give any C&C as they are welcome! Many shots I took early on I realized I had my aperture too wide and now I am trying to pay more attention to it.

I would like to say to you hardcore macro guys that I approach this as 'Close up' photography with some macro. I realize in advance that many of my pics are not true macro or even closer. While a few are true macro :P

I thought about posting individual pics but I figured it would be best to just post a link to the category

Thank you for taking the time

http://timkelley.smugmug.com/Close-Up

GOLDENORFE

welcome Tim, you have made a good start. light and composition quite good of quite a few shots.
the subject if too central of some, try to leave room infront of the bugs in the direction they are facing.
fry using f8- f14 as a good guide.
do please post some pics here as its easier for everyone to view and comment on individual pictures
phil

Lord Vetinari

Very good start - some lovely shots there. Agree with Phil on composition aspects. Macro shooting does take a lot of practice and when you are confident on actually getting a good shot then the compositional aspects tend to get easier.

Brian V.

tripwater

ok thanks!

I will try to pick out a few I think I did well on and could have done better on and post the individual shots so I can learn what I either did wrong or could have done better on.


Thank you for your time.

tripwater

ok, first off I just noticed a macro tutorial and tips thread that I plan on reading when I get a chance


Ok let's start off with this one...I took this at a Mexican restaurant in the evening. There was not a lot of light, we were outside and I had to take my aperture down farther than I would like to get a faster shutter speed for hand holding the camera. I still like the feel of this shot but I would liked to have had more DOF in this shot and more detail on the lime. What if anything could I have done differently?

1.




on the comment of composition, you mention many subjects are too centered... is this an example of what you are talking about?

2.



And is this a good example of not doing that?

3.



here is a shot I would like some C&C on. It was early morning after rain. I found this web by my door with rain drops in it. I took a fallen red leaf and put behind the web for more color, grabbed a lava lamp, took the lava top off and just used the light from the base for supplemental lighting as I had none at the time .

4.




Here are some shots that are not in my close up gallery but probably should be. I have them in my plants and stuff gallery

5.




6.




7.

Lord Vetinari

LOvely set of shots- esp like #1 and #5.

#2 and #3 are slightly unfortunate choices as examples of centred and non -centred subjects from the composition point of view simply because you can get away with a centred subject when it's directly facing you, although I think #3 does look better. It really applies when the subject is more side on, and generally will then look better with more room in the direction it's facing. However having said that composition in a picture may not be the prime concern of the photographer- depends on why they are taking the picture and their own view on aesthetics.

Brian V.

tripwater

Lord Vetinari wrote:

LOvely set of shots- esp like #1 and #5.

#2 and #3 are slightly unfortunate choices as examples of centred and non -centred subjects from the composition point of view simply because you can get away with a centred subject when it's directly facing you, although I think #3 does look better. It really applies when the subject is more side on, and generally will then look better with more room in the direction it's facing. However having said that composition in a picture may not be the prime concern of the photographer- depends on why they are taking the picture and their own view on aesthetics.

Brian V.

Ah, now I get your meaning! Thanks for the reply!