Want critique Early attempts at macro

[westsussex_views]

Hi my first post here! Taken hand held with Olympus OMD EM5 30mm Panasonic lumix macro lens

I only started photography a month ago & my macro lens arrived yesterday. I’d appreciate feedback please & advice on how to improve including resources etc.

 

[wildwonders_macro]

I only started a few months ago myself, and take all of my photos with my phone and a macro lens I have, so I think we have a similar level of experience. I think those photos look great! One thing you could look into if you would like to improve them is stacking. I'm not sure if you already know about it, but it helps to put the entire image into focus, which is difficult with the shallow depth of focus of a macro lens alone (for example you could bring the back half of the flower in the top photo into focus as well). I haven't ever tried stacking myself, as the people i've talked to about it have suggested that you need a camera, or a stabiliser for the phone (which I don't have) but it could be interesting to look into! The main stacking software that I've heard of people using once they take the photos they will need to stack, is called 'Zerene'.

 

[Chavezshutter]

Hi W westsussex_views,

Before I start I just want to point out for you and the rest of the forum that the "Want Critique" tag is a more critical review of photo ( in comparison to the "Opinion"tag ) in where members are encouraged to point out components of a photo that they think might be improved or may even be wrong in a specific photo. Members are more than welcome to use critique but I just wanted to point out the difference for the unaware.

Moving unto the critique and having said all that the photos you have posted looks pretty good and I dont see many issues but perhaps some small changes could be made:

The first photo is very good, the light is very nice and complimentary, focus looks good, good depth of field to appreciate the subject. The colours look great and are accurate, nice work keeping details in the white petals. I also like the angle. The background is ok. My one suggestion would be to keep the flower whole and not trim the lower petal, just a small framing change. When I do want to show a section of a subject I try to make the crop and framing obvious and purposeful otherwise I personally prefer to show the full subject. This photo is also the better of the 2 in my opinion.

The second photo is also good, the subject has nice colours, and its also sharp. The light is nice but the shadow going over the 2 red buds at the top is robbing the photo of some nice red tones which would in my opinion improve the photo. The background here is pretty good, I can see you wanted to keep the yellow flower in a dark background which is great but the highest white fuzz flower part has sky as background it is melding into the sky a little, the previously mentioned shadow also playing a role here.

If I could see the camera settings (EXIF) then I may be able to comment further.

Overall these are great shots considering your time in macro and are way ahead of where I was when I had similar experience. I didn't start paying attention to my backgrounds for at least a good year or so - I was too busy trying to get my subjects in focus. You already have the tougher skills under your belt, like focusing, DOF, composition, exposure and editing(?), a little more experience to put it all together and your'e set. Good work and I hope to see more

 

[westsussex_views]

Hi W westsussex_views,

Befor I start I just want to point out for you and the rest of the forum that the "Want Critique" tag is a more critical review of photo ( in comparison to the "Opinion"tag ) in where members are encouraged to point out components of a photo that they think might be improved or may even be wrong in a specific photo. Members are more than welcome to use critique but I just wanted to point out the difference for the unaware.

Moving unto the critique and having said all that the photos you have posted looks pretty good and I dont see many issues but perhaps some small changes could be made:

The first photo is very good, the light is very nice and complimentary, focus looks good, good depth of field to appreciate the subject. The colours look great and are acurate, nice work keeping details in the white petals. I also like the angle. The background is ok. My one suggestion would be to keep the flower whole and not trim the lower petal, just a small framing change. When I do want to show a section of a subject I try to make the crop and framing obvious and purposeful otherwise I personally prefer to show the full subject. This photo is also the better of the 2 in my opinion.

The second photo is also good, the subject has nice colours, and its also sharp. The light is nice but the shadow going over the 2 red buds at the top is robbing the photo of some nice red tones which would in my opinion improve the photo. The background here is pretty good, I can see you wanted to keep the yellow flower in a dark background which is great but the highest white fuzz flower part has sky as background it is melding into the sky a little, the previously mentioned shadow also playing a role here.

If I could see the camera settings (EXIF) then I may be able to comment further.

Overall these are great shots considering your time in macro and are way ahead of where I was when I had similar experience. I didn't start paying attention to my backgrounds for at leat a good year or so - I was too busy trying to get my subjects in focus. You already have the tougher skills under your belt, like focusing, DOF, composition, exposure and editing(?), a little more experience to put it all together and your'e set. Good work and I hope to see more

Hi Chavezshutter thank you for your feedback, I appreciate it.

I see where you’re coming from re the fuzz in the sky getting lost on the second photo. Next time I’ll think more about this!

I’ve been doing quite a bit of research into macro & am learning that background is key. I also learnt yesterday wind is not your friend! Very frustrating trying to focus on a strong, blustery wind!!

The first photo was ISO 100 f4.5 & 1/320 & the second was ISO 160 f7.1 1/400.

My editing isn’t great to be honest & this is one of the areas I need to understand better for macro (& photography in general). I use Lightroom (paid subscription) & generally just hit ‘auto’ light & crop a photo. That’s it.

Any more pointers you can give me I would appreciate it. Thank you so much.

 

[Chavezshutter]

Hi Chavezshutter thank you for your feedback, I appreciate it.

I see where you’re coming from re the fuzz in the sky getting lost on the second photo. Next time I’ll think more about this!

I’ve been doing quite a bit of research into macro & am learning that background is key. I also learnt yesterday wind is not your friend! Very frustrating trying to focus on a strong, blustery wind!!

The first photo was ISO 100 f4.5 & 1/320 & the second was ISO 160 f7.1 1/400.

My editing isn’t great to be honest & this is one of the areas I need to understand better for macro (& photography in general). I use Lightroom (paid subscription) & generally just hit ‘auto’ light & crop a photo. That’s it.

Any more pointers you can give me I would appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Yes shooting in wind makes things a lot trickier , I can see from your settings that you compensated well for it with your shutterspeed, the rest of the settings look great to me.

Editing is a ongoing process, it takes a while to work out what you like and what you think works best in each situation. Be patient but start to look at what you think looks good in a photo, some people prefer a more natural looking edit and this includes me about 90% of the time, at least in macro, the rest of the time I like to change it up with a little more creative edits. Personal taste is a big factor here but i think as long as you make a decent representation of the subject than anything is fair, but thats just me. If you do want to explore more creative styles I recommend trying some presets, there are plenty of free macro orientated Lightroom presets online. I would aim to learn to then adjust these presets to better suit each of your photos. Later, as you get more knowledgeable in Lightroom you can check what your favourite presets are doing and use this to make your own presets. There is too much to editing that I can cover here but I hope some of that information helps you out. Let me know if you have questions

 

[westsussex_views]

Yes shooting in wind makes things a lot trickier , I can see from your settings that you compensated well for it with your shutterspeed, the rest of the settings look great to me.

Editing is a ongoing process, it takes a while to work out what you like and what you think works best in each situation. Be patient but start to look at what you think looks good in a photo, some people prefer a more natural looking edit and this includes me about 90% of the time, at least in macro, the rest of the time I like to change it up with a little more creative edits. Personal taste is a big factor here but i think as long as you make a decent representation of the subject than anything is fair, but thats just me. If you do want to explore more creative styles I recommend trying some presets, there are plenty of free macro orientated Lightroom presets online. I would aim to learn to then adjust these presets to better suit each of your photos. Later, as you get more knowledgeable in Lightroom you can check what your favourite presets are doing and use this to make your own presets. There is too much to editing that I can cover here but I hope some of that information helps you out. Let me know if you have questions

Thank you Chavezshutter. I’ll keep all that in mind when editing.