Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Camping on the Mogollon rim, in pine country AZ, I found this little guy; I love the contrast of colors, and the smooth against the wood grain.
Nikon coolpix 8700
Teri: Neat subject with good color contrast. As presented it’s a little soft but some simple sharpening helps. Would also like to see it larger to better explore the textures in the wood especially. >=))>
Good morning Bill! Playing with the program and exploring I came up with this: is this what you meant?
Cool beetle and I really like the contrasting colors and textures. Too bad you missed the focus. It may have been moving, but there could be other factors. Without camera settings it’s a little hard to judge, but macro shots like this have to be pretty sharp to begin with. The second photo is ok, but you’re just sharpening softness and so it’s really not much better.
Whenever I photograph insects that move a lot, I use a fast shutter speed and ISO if necessary. I also use a flash if I can because that will freeze the action even if the shutter speed is too slow to do so. Using focus peaking helps as well because it can visually show you what’s in focus and what isn’t. Sometimes startling or surprising the insect can get it to stop for you. Don’t scare it to death, but give it something novel or interesting to focus on (you!) for a few seconds and it will usually stop for a photo. Hope this is helpful and keep trying! Bugs aren’t the easiest subjects in the world.
Teri: I didn’t enlarge the original image but doing a quick and dirty smart sharpen cleans it up a bit.
Teri, I really enjoy taking photos of insects. Right now it is much too cold here for them, so I have to wait for spring most likely. I think both @Bill_Fach and @Kris_Smith have given you some good advice. I use the flash with a diffuser most of the time for insect images. They are small and sometimes fast, but we are also dealing with low light trying to have enough DOF. I am looking forward to seeing more of your shots, especially of insects. I am always amazed when I pull them up on the computer screen and see all the details in their little bodies that there was no way to see in real life. Enjoy. It is an amazing new universe, and usually you don’t even have to go anywhere except your own yard/garden.
Thank you for your suggestions. I am working on muting backgrounds to highlight the image (not rhis one though) and look forward to sharing those results.
This is actually a photo of a pleasing fungus beetle also known as the blue fungus beetle. You discovered by chance that one challenge of macro-photography is the shallow depth of field when photographing tiny organisms. The lighting is very harsh and shading the beetle with a white umbrella or piece of paper can provide a more pleasing type of lighting. For composition, try to have more space on the left hand side to which is where this beetle is headed. Otherwise, a good effort on capturing this insect…Jim
Not much to add to what’s been said, Teri. I think you have plenty to digest already. It’s a very cool find-I’ve never seen one, and I like the setting a lot.
