This weekends critters

Messiah Khan

Messiah Khan

Messiah Khan

Soldato
Joined
1 Sep 2005
Posts
10,001
Location
Scottish Highlands
This weekends catch from bughunting:) ;

1.
Sit_still_and_you_wont_be_seen_by_MessiahKhan.jpg

2.
Eat_your_path_by_MessiahKhan.jpg

3.
keeping_my_compund_eye_on_you_by_MessiahKhan.jpg

4.
Daddy_broken_leg_by_MessiahKhan.jpg
 
nice colours on them shots, i likes them :)

OT - you off to Middlesbroughmusiclive on 3rd June? Some great gig photography chances there.
 
The first is my favourite but your focal plane is a bit off there. Nothing serious but I feel you need to blur the section of the plant at centre-left to stop the eye being drawn away from the subject. If it was my shot I'd consider a tighter crop to remove the green from the bottom right and cosy up to the butterfly more, but I'm picky like that.

I do like the soft-focus on the left wing though; helps to draw you in and also conveys movement, not something you see too often in macro shots.
 
wez130 said:
nice colours on them shots, i likes them :)

OT - you off to Middlesbroughmusiclive on 3rd June? Some great gig photography chances there.
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I hadn't planned to tbh. And I doubt my 18-55mm is anywhere near long enough for gigs.

glitch said:
The first is my favourite but your focal plane is a bit off there. Nothing serious but I feel you need to blur the section of the plant at centre-left to stop the eye being drawn away from the subject. If it was my shot I'd consider a tighter crop to remove the green from the bottom right and cosy up to the butterfly more, but I'm picky like that.

I do like the soft-focus on the left wing though; helps to draw you in and also conveys movement, not something you see too often in macro shots.
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Thanks for the crit. I see what you mean about that blade of grass now, I hadn't actually considered it before. I will deffinately try blurring it to see what that looks like. Personally I would have liked the closer wing to be in focus as well. I tend to use F5.6(lowest my lens goes on full zoom) to keep the shutter speed up, but sometimes I really should close the aperture down a bit more.

runing.man said:
Me to :) May i ask what camera you take these with ?
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As L0rdMike has mentioned, it is indeed a Nikon D40x(All the details are in the exif data) using the stock 18mm-55mm lens, with a Hoya macro zoom lens attachment. The macro attachment helps me focus closer (up to about 2cm from the front element) but it also creates some crazy distortions round the edge.
 
runing.man said:
is there any chance you can upload the full res version of 1,2 and 3 ? :D
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Due to what been going on with rebekka over on Flickr recently, i'd rather not tbh. One day I hope to start selling prints, so im holding on to all the high res versions of the ones that may be used. Sorry about that.

ScarySquirrel said:
No. 2 is amazing. Your macro shots always amaze me Khan, hopefully one day I can get shots like that.
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Thank you. Hopefully you'll see even better ones once I get a proper macro lens. Its not actually that hard to take pics like this. It just takes persistance, and the ability to take your time and look closely at stuff. I have to say I am really enjoying having taken up this photography malarky. The first three pics where taken yesterday, and it was really nice just wandering slowly around the fields out back looking for anything that moved. It really makes you relax working at that pace. :)
 
Well you really have picked it up quickly, I only hope I can learn half as much as you have in the 2/3 months (is that right?) you have been doing it.

My DSLR should be getting delivered Tuesday, it is coming with a few lenses, one of which is a Sigmas 70-300mm which has a macro mode, so I hope that will get me started on macro shots until a get a proper macro lens.

Out of interest what Hoya attachment do you use? Any chance you could link me to where I can find one that would fit a canon 400D kit lens? (if it is allowed) I googled but don't really know what I am looking for :)
 
*Looks at Exif data* According to my pics, I started Photography on the 13th April 2007 at 10:40:56. :) The Sigma should be more than good tbh. Im doing this with the stock lens which isn't doing too badly, so the Sigma should be pretty nice. The thing im using doesn't have much written on it tbh, other than; Hoya zoom close-up lens.

Just found it; http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1002&message=23028586

I actually nabbed it out of my dads old kit bag, as its got a 49mm attachement, so I just got a 49mm-52mm step down ring. Whereas my dads camera uses 58mm filters, so it would vignette like crazy. What camera you going with btw?
 
Canon 400D I went for as I learnt on a Canon EOS 300 (i think) back in college, but that was years ago, thought it would be best to stick with what I know (or what I don't know ;))

Thanks for the link :)
 
messiah khan said:
Thanks for the crit. I see what you mean about that blade of grass now, I hadn't actually considered it before. I will deffinately try blurring it to see what that looks like. Personally I would have liked the closer wing to be in focus as well. I tend to use F5.6(lowest my lens goes on full zoom) to keep the shutter speed up, but sometimes I really should close the aperture down a bit more.
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I do really like the second shot too, it's quite epic! For me it needs about a 30 px cropped off the top; that would remove the distracting element to the top right and focus the action.
 
glitch said:
I do really like the second shot too, it's quite epic! For me it needs about a 30 px cropped off the top; that would remove the distracting element to the top right and focus the action.
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Cheers. I wish his front left leg wasn't blurred though. Im really tempted to just clone it out. I see what you mean about the crop, might have to try that. What you think to the blade of grass a the bottom that he's stepping off? Im in two minds about it. In one way it needs it, as thats where he's coming from, but I also feel that its strong horizontal shape is distracting amongs all the diagonal lines.
 
I love the front leg being like that; really adds movement to the shot! Almost as if the wee critter is undecided as to where to plant his 'foot' safely.

As for the blade, I think you've got to have it in there to show where he's coming from. I don't think it's distracting at all.
 
DizMatt said:
love number 2
thought it was nikon from the vivid colours..much post processing!?
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Cheers. A fair bit on that one. Its got my usual dose of upping the contrast, saturation and black levels, then a bit of unmaks sharpen, followed by dodging and burning to bring the lady bird and the wavey path out a bit more. Its also been cropped a fair bit.
 
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