My macro attempt

[jar_e]

Having nothing better to do on a wintery Sunday, I headed off around the house to find interesting subjects and shots. This, was one of the better ones.

[Trevor Ash]

Another good shot showing your technical skills and abilities. One improvement I can see for this one is to move closer. Do you have any closeup or macro lenses by any chance? In the very center of this photo is a clump of about 3 of those "sprouts". I don't know what to call them, don't make fun of me If you had one of those 50mm macro lenses you'd have been able to fill the frame with those three and get what I believe would be a better photo. You'd probably need a tripod at that point to retain the necessary dof. Judging by your avatar, you won't have a problem with that

[JK_Photo]

I was typing a reply with basically the same comments as Trevor and I lost it. So: what Trevor said.

[Trevor Ash]

There's another technique I should mention that I'm confident you would master quickly. In your photo, the background is roughly the same brightness as the foreground. This isn't always the best. If you used a reflector to add more light to the foreground elements and compensate the exposure appropriately then the background will fall darker and will be a little less distracting.

I took some liberty and stole your photo. I applied a crop to ilustrate what getting closer might have done and I "digitally" darkened the background about 1 stop to mimic what a reflector would have done for the foreground. I'm not suggesting this was a good crop that I made, I'm just trying to show "getting closer". The different in brightness levels is very subtle (which is good) but it's enough that it makes a difference. You can always compare the two on top of each other to see the difference if you have a photo editor with those capabilities.

Try it some time! All you need is white foamcore or something similar to reflect light back onto the subject. If you're shooting in any of the auto or creative modes then you don't even need to worry about exposure as the camera will handle that for you. You can control how much light is reflected by moving the reflector closer or further from the subject. It has an additional benefit of helping to fill in shadow and bring out further detail in many macro shots. Of course, that's not what you always want but usually it's a good thing.

[schrackman]

I am going to add my comments here and I hope it's not taken the wrong way, as I would only like to see you improve this photo.

First, this is not what I would consider a macro. A macro would have focused in a lot closer, filling the frame with one of the buds and its surrounding leaves. If done right, the pretty pink bud would have compensated for the drab color of the leaves, and in fact would have added a contrast to the photo that is otherwise missing in this picture.

I agree with Trevor above that you need to reconsider your lens options when shooting a macro. I would suggest going back and reshooting this flower with these considerations in mind, and I am willing to bet you'll come out with a much more impressive photo!

Ray

edit: I thought I should post a recent photo of mine (posted over in viewfinder) to show you what I am talking about. Although this isn't a flower shot, the idea is the same. My focal point of the photo is the colorful sharp end of the yucca leaf in the center while I use the other leaves to fill the frame and create a pattern of sorts. While there is not a whole lot of contrast in this photo, enough exists to focus the eye on the leaf tip in the center. Looking at it now I can see where a mistake was made in not hiding the leaf directly behind it as it does offer a bit of distraction to the eye.

[jar_e]

Thanks Trevor, Jon, and Ray.

Regarding the lenses, this is just the stock lens on the Fuji S5100, and trust me, getting these shots took atleast 10 shots to get the focusing to focus on the foreground, not the background. With that being said, I do have a wide-angle lens on order, which took some work living up here in Canada! Great tip Trevor, with the reflector idea. Never thought of using it, but it sure sounds like it would work wonders in situations like this. Ray, thanks for the words, and no offense was taken. I appreciate your words and loved your shot of the plant. True words about this being a 'macro' shot too. Anyways, thank you all for your replies and anybody else have anything?!

Jared