70-300 "macro"

[PeterBirder]

I took advantage of yesterday's sunshine to practice making use of the 70-300's near macro capability. This is, I think the best of my efforts so far. Taken with the E600, hand held, manual focus using liveview.

Gorse Bloom



Any advice would be appreciated.

[catkins]

Re: 70-300 "macro"

I don't think that I'd like to offer advice, more in the way of observations, as a lot will depend on the key purpose of the image.

Firstly, I like it - it's a sign of the spring, and it reminds me of childhood (I fell into a patch of gorse and couldn't stand up because of the prickles!!)

My main observation links back to something mentioned on occasion in the past, namely achieving a balance in an image.
The image as it stands has three key areas, the bright flower, the shaded stem, and the sunlit stem. At present the eye gets drawn first to the flower and then to the sunlit stem and then to the buds on the shaded stem.

My feeling is that the image may benefit from having less 'competition' to the flower by either darkening the sunlit part of the stem or by removing the sunlit part of the stem. The visual brightness of the flower on the left hand third of the image could counter balance two thirds of the rhs being fairly dark.
Linked to this, the patch of shade in the centre of the stem may have reduced the opportunity to have a greater depth of field (exif is showing f5.6 at 1/500) thus having the full width of stem in focus - as a result the out of focus flower buds in the shaded area are a little distracting. Because the buds are in shade and all in one fairly shallow plain I think that having them in focus will not prove to be distracting.
Linking in with the 'competition' comment above, a way around having these various areas of sunlit and shaded areas may be to reduce the width of the image on the rhs to remove most of the sunlit patch of the stem - a bit of darkening of any remaining sunlit leaves or background may add to this.
The result would then have the full visual impact of the flower as its key attraction and this show up the abilities of the lens even more so.

Hope that makes sense as an observation?

Regards
Chris

[PeterBirder]

Re: 70-300 "macro"

Chris
Thanks for your thoughtful observations, just the type of advice I was looking for. Some very helpful ideas both for post processing this shot and things to consider more when composing future shots.

Regards

[Ellie]

Re: 70-300 "macro"

Excellent critique from Catkins, of a very nice picture of a gorgeous flower.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Not really sure what 'advice' you're hoping for. Is there something you're not happy with?

Anyhow, I'll jump in with both feet!

I think you've cropped the image to make it more landscape/letterbox - because you like the detail of the stem as much as the flower. But I can't tell whether you've taken from the top or the bottom of the original.

I'm not claiming to be any sort of expert, far from it, but there seems to be a general principle for photographing living things which is to let them have some space to grow or move into. That means that the lovely flower could do with a bit of a gap above it (because that's the way the flower is growing), and perhaps even also to the left (because that's the direction the stem will grow).

This also sort of loosely ties in with the idea of composing using 'thirds' - which I'd guess you know more about than I do. It's where the subject of an image is sited on the intersection of lines dividing an image into 9 squares. It's a rule that can also be broken, if that's what the photographer prefers. It might make a difference, it might not - only you can tell.

[PeterBirder]

Re: 70-300 "macro"

Hi Ellie
I think you've identified the main factor that made me less than happy with the shot. It's the lack of headroom above the flower. The reason that I cropped the way I did is that in the original image there is a piece of foliage above the flower whch is distracting.(original below) When I took the shot I failed to recognise this as I was concentrating on getting the manual focus right which is allway difficult with a yellow object. Also of course it was hand held using Liveview. Too much multitasking for a male brain. I didn't rate my chances at cloning out the offending item but it prompts me to consider again getting Elements 9 with its Content Aware Healing Tool which might have fixed it.

Many thanks.



Regards

[Ellie]

Re: 70-300 "macro"

I see what you mean, and see you really didn't have any choice with the crop.

But you could, possibly, crop in quite close and have minimal cloning though, and turn the image into a 'portrait'.

Maybe bring the lower edge up close in just above the dollop of something or other on the cobweb. Bring the right edge in to just to the right of the first three faded flowers/flower buds ... making sure none of the others sneak into the picture. You could crop the top lower, so that there are two little bits of thorn and the very tip of the third - they're in the dark area and could be cloned quite easily.

Doing all that would leave space to the right and space at the top. It might work.

Is it worth buying new software when you could try to take the picture again, knowing what you know now?

[PeterBirder]

Re: 70-300 "macro"

Hi Ellie
Many thanks for the further helpful suggestions. My son and his partner and our little grandaughter are arriving this afternoon for a few days as a surprise for my wife's birthday tomorrow so I will give your ideas a try in a day or so.
You're right about Elements 9, saved me some money.

Regards

[Daveart]

Re: 70-300 "macro"

Hi Pete I think you are on the right track, but have you tried cloning the foilage above out, should be reasonabley easy to do in this image. It would certainly getrid of the distraction.

Dave