Flower Garden pics

rookieshooter

SF Botanical Garden
D700
105mm VR

C&C welcome. Let me have it please

#1


#2


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#12

paddler4

Some gorgeous colors. Gaillardia?

I am still a struggling newbie, but I can offer two suggestions. One is actually from Scott Kelby, who suggests that it is usually a good idea not to photograph flowers from the same perspective that people usually see them. If you use the common perspective, there is a greater chance the images will look like snapshots. I think it is usually, but not always, good advice. In some of yours (#2) you were following that advice. In some others (#1), you weren't.

The second issue is that you are confronting one of the banes of macro: shallow depth of field. In several of your images, that detracts from the overall impact. There are not a lot of options. One step is to keep the part you want in focus as close as possible to a plane parallel to the sensor. It's not always feasible, which is why fat spiders are particularly tough, unless you photograph them from their undersides. A second option is focus stacking, which people here use to spectacular effect but which I have not mastered yet. The final option (I am ducking before the tomatoes fly) is to close the lens down. I don't know your lens at all, but the Canon macro lens I use shows remarkably little softening from diffusion up to f/20 or 22. I try not to go that high, but when the choice is a little softening vs. a big DOF problem, I opt for the former. Also, if you are using natural light with handheld shots, shutting the lens down often means using a higher ISO, with more noise.

GOLDENORFE

REALLY LIKE #2,7 & 10.

most shots are too central in framing, and as already mentioned shooting straight at them is not very interesting for full flower shots. the close ups are much better showing the interesting details
phil

rookieshooter

paddler4 wrote:

Some gorgeous colors. Gaillardia?

I am still a struggling newbie, but I can offer two suggestions. One is actually from Scott Kelby, who suggests that it is usually a good idea not to photograph flowers from the same perspective that people usually see them. If you use the common perspective, there is a greater chance the images will look like snapshots. I think it is usually, but not always, good advice. In some of yours (#2) you were following that advice. In some others (#1), you weren't.

The second issue is that you are confronting one of the banes of macro: shallow depth of field. In several of your images, that detracts from the overall impact. There are not a lot of options. One step is to keep the part you want in focus as close as possible to a plane parallel to the sensor. It's not always feasible, which is why fat spiders are particularly tough, unless you photograph them from their undersides. A second option is focus stacking, which people here use to spectacular effect but which I have not mastered yet. The final option (I am ducking before the tomatoes fly) is to close the lens down. I don't know your lens at all, but the Canon macro lens I use shows remarkably little softening from diffusion up to f/20 or 22. I try not to go that high, but when the choice is a little softening vs. a big DOF problem, I opt for the former. Also, if you are using natural light with handheld shots, shutting the lens down often means using a higher ISO, with more noise.

Good feedback, thank you. You are on point and I had this gnawing feeling in my gut that yeah the pics are okay but none of them take your breath away and are pretty standard in terms of composition. I did stop down all the way to F51 on a few shots just to try to get a wider DoF but I have learned now to never go over F16 or so.

Regardless, I appreciate your candor and wisdom and will head out soon for more macro shots and will certainly try to come up with something unique.

NaturePics

I'll offer a different opinion. I think that your picture #1 does a first rate job of capturing the subject matter. I react with pleasure to the colors in the flower and the contrast of the background color. In this case, I think that centering the flower is the right choice and cropping it fairly closely around the flower is works too. A straight-on view of the flower is a good choice for this image.

#2 looks a bit cut off to me. I can't fully understand what I'm seeing.

Focus is soft in #5 but the low angle view produces a nice picture for that flower.

#7 and #10 are examples of images showing something you don't really see with the naked eye. Maybe moving the subject a bit off center would make it more interesting but I don't see much else in focus in either picture. In pictures like these, I'm interested in the sense of discovery of something micro and less concerned about the artistic qualities of the photography.

Bill

Lord Vetinari

Rather like #1 and #5 although the framing is a bit tight on #5.
As commented above most of the bug shots are a bit centred in the frame.
Often giving subjects more room in the frame in the direction they are looking works well (even with flowers) so a centred straight on flower as in #1 actually works well.
Main thing is to take photos you like and enjoy doing it. Most people when they first start macro struggle with focus, light and DOF when you get more confident with these you can start looking at shooting angles and composition a bit more.

Brian v.