Macro

[mtresillian]

This is my first attempt at what my point and shoot digital camera calls macro.
I used natural light filtered through a curtain.
Any comments?
Michael

[Tuna]

Nice job, Michael. I like your composition, especially the other flower positioned the way it is in the background. It's Ok as is but a narrower DOF might have been better (can you control this on that camera?). Also, the background is distracting - maybe a solid background may have helped. I would also suggest a levels adjustment to bring out the richness of color in the petals - they look a little hot on my monitor.

Tuna

[mtresillian]

Hi Tuna,
thanks for your reply
I agree with the background....this is just my living room. However the DOF issue is beyond my control...it is just a fairly humble Olympus 350-Z camera and as far as I know DOF values are not adjustable. Either way it is still interesting to play with. Not too sure what you mean by 'hot' however I played with the levels a little....is this the direction you had in mind? i slid the mid-tones selector to the right... from 1.00 to about -.70.
cheers
Mike

[dadas115]

You are off to a great start. I like the lighting of the scene a lot but don’t quite know what to think about the background. Is it part of the plant? I wonder if you could have gotten a different angle so the second bloom isn’t visible and the background is more uniform (maybe from a higher angle).

Nice work,

Greg

[dadas115]

You might be able to get some control over the DOF by forcing the flash off and using the camera at its lowest ISO setting (if you can adjust it) in dim lighting. The camera will open its aperture as wide as it can under these conditions. If you use the maximum focal length as well you might be able to decrease the DOF some.

Might be worth a try if that isn’t what you are already doing,

Greg

[Tuna]

The second one looks good to me, Michael. It looks like you went in the right direction in your histogram adjustment. I like Greg's suggestion to reduce your DOF with that camera - but it brought up another point - did you use a flash? If so, it could be the reason for the "hot" or overexposed appearance of the petals. Natural light, through a window maybe would be a better option in a macro shot like this one due to a short distance-to-subject ratio that you can't control with a built-on flash. As for the background, If this is shot on a tripod, you could set the timer to shoot while you hold a complementary colored (black? green?) poster board or something in the background...

Tuna

[mtresillian]

Tuna and Greg,
Thanks for the suggestions. For this photo I did not use flash, and was set up on a tripod. I would like to try out your ideas to adjust the DOF and use some sort of attractive background......however my fiance allowed the orchid to die while I was in India. A bit of a shame really but I will have a go at some other ideas that I have in my head.
Cheers
Michael

[jar_e]

Michael,

Love the second shot with the colors. Much more definate and it darkens the background, which I found a tad distracting in the first shot.

Good shooting and lovely colors,

Jared