Please share your thought about these pictures

[folks]

Hi, all, I'm a newbie try to learn photograph, trying to take a macro photo, but I don't have a macro, I shoot using 17-50mm tamron, at 50mm, iso 800 f 4.6 and speed of 1/80. So what can I improve?

 

[David Nall]

You did quite well on the second one as you isolated the subject nicely. The composition of the first one is not as the background is to much in focus. Try opening up the aperture to 2.8 to minimize the depth of field in focus. Dave
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Visit my gallery at http://www.poperotzy.smugmug.com

 

[folks]

David Nall wrote:

... Try opening up the aperture to 2.8 to minimize the depth of field in focus. Dave

Thanks for your advice Dave, Really appreciate it

 

[Gale Bizet]

Second is lovely

First one is nicr to. think the bakground is the hindrence...So much practice...lol:> )))
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Best Regards
Gale

http://www.pbase.com/techwish

 

[Matthew Bright]

second is nice, the first as others have said the background is a bit distracting. also on the first one the flower is not in great shape so i think you could have compose just on the dragon fly and the petal he is on and that would limited the background issues and would have improved the flow of the image, your eye goes to the bottom of the flower instead of leading you to the Dragonfly. The second does this well. the lines of the leaf and the tail of the dragonfly draw you to the head of the DF.

 

[sworth]

You did quite well on the second one as you isolated the subject nicely. The composition of the first one is not as the background is to much in focus.

The problem isn't the focus, it's the tangent of the line cutting through the flower. That wouldn't be a problem if it didn't point straight down the middle of the flower. It's always good to be aware of your background and avoid tangents. It would have also been better if the line in the background was opposing the direction of the flower, instead of going in the same direction.

 

[RayGuselli]

I like the second one.....that works for me and well done without a macro.

I agree about the first and it is the background that is a distraction, that being the line running through.

Perhaps you could easily photoshop it out

Best wishes

Ray

 

[folks]

You did quite well on the second one as you isolated the subject nicely. The composition of the first one is not as the background is to much in focus.

The problem isn't the focus, it's the tangent of the line cutting through the flower. That wouldn't be a problem if it didn't point straight down the middle of the flower. It's always good to be aware of your background and avoid tangents. It would have also been better if the line in the background was opposing the direction of the flower, instead of going in the same direction.

I'm sorry, I don't understand tangent, I looked up tangent in dictionary online it points to trigonometry description. English is not my first language. Also I want to clarify something, When I crop this image, what I'm thinking was the stem connect to the flower point to the dragonfly. Please clarify, I really want to understand better

 

[cary smith]

"tangent" is not the best word to use, "diagonal" is more accurate

It is the diagonal line in the first photo that cuts into the flower and sets a bright area above it. That is distracting. Image also needs cropping of the flower to make the insect much larger. What is the subject of the photo?

Try and get darker backgrounds, green/brown is nice and natural. When first seeing a image our eye is first drawn to areas of lightness then to areas of high contrast. You want the eye drawn to the subject. You must have seen Ronnie Gaubert's thread ( http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1039&message=33414226 ) here on this very forum with insect photos. See his, see yours, why are his so much better?

cary

ps - a "tangent" is a line that just touches the edge of a curve/circle. In conversation it means - 'to the side" or "not directly related to the subject being discussed".

 

[sworth]

I'm sorry, I don't understand tangent,

It's a term used by artists when discussing composition. A tangent is a line in the image that connects with another line or cuts across it in a way that is distracting. An example would be an image where the line of a door in the background exactly lines up with the stripe on someone's shirt or the branch of a tree seems to be growing out of someone's head. In this case, the line in the background exactly cuts through the center of the flower. It would have been better if it was at an angle to the flower not centered, rather than straight on down the middle.

In natural things, symmetry is often something to be avoided. You want to create a dynamic organic movement of shapes for the eye. Tangents distract from that.

 

[mothman13]

folks,

What people are saying on the first picture is that that diagonal "line" from the upper right corner down to the flower (light on left, dark on right) is really distracting. If you eliminate that facet of the photograph, the eye is more drawn to the actual subjects of your picture, the dragonfly and the flower.



What I don't like about the result however, is that the background is TOO mono-chromatic (single color). I think things look better with a predominantly single color background if there are variations within that color, kinda like this:



Even though the background is gray, there are numerous shades of gray mixed together.

The main point is that if possible, pay attention to not only the subject of the photograph, but the perspective of the view AND the background as well. In non-macro shots, dropping the F/stop setting two stops can have a huge effect on blurring the background.

Hope this helps,

------------------------------------
Mothman13
http://www.texasmothman.com
http://www.pbase.com/mothman13

 

[folks]

Thanks all, really appreciated for the tips and more explanation, will practice more. Thanks all