A Couple Photos to Critique (1 Viewer)

I went shooting yesterday, and was able to get a couple decent shots of a dragonfly, and a butterfly. I'm shooting with a Canon EOS Rebel Xsi/450D, with a Canon Zoom Lens EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.5 III USM. Unfortunately my tripod broke that very day, so I was just doing my best to stay steady.

The shot with the butterfly I was in Manual, and RAW. I had a shutter speed of 1/1600, an F stop of 5.6, and an iso of 400.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p122/BrokenChainsX/ButterflyAgain.png

For the two dragonfly shots I was again in Manual, and Raw. Then a shutter speed of 1/400, an F stop of 5.6 and an iso of 100.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p122/BrokenChainsX/Dragonfly2.png

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p122/BrokenChainsX/Dragonfly.png

I think the big issue I have is with clarity. I know it didn't help that I was shooting such a low shutter speed with the size lens I was using, and no tripod on top of it. Unfortunately that's how low the shutter speed needed to be to get bright enough exposure while using an iso of 100. In the second dragonfly shot, I did blur him in the background on purpose to give a different kind of effect. I like it, though I'm sure it would've been better if I had a more interesting foreground in focus.

I do wonder if I should've increased my depth of field slightly, and that's why part of the dragonfly is more blurred than the rest. What do you guys think? Anything else that stands out to you that I can improve on?

Hi there,

I'll try to be constructive and make a few points. I'm not familiar with the kit so will stay away from that although I noted that the lens will focus down to 4.1 feet.

Clearly not having the tripod hasn't helped here and to be honest you could have done with the images being lighter still.

I'm struggling to see where the point of focus is for the butterfly but it appears to cut across the top of the wing. These subjects are notoriously difficult to shoot well and get everything in focus (if that's your aim) without ensuring you either have plenty of depth of field by stopping down a few notches or making sure your focal plane matches the angle of the subject, so absolutely side on as best you can. Stopping down means you lose light and shutter speed so would need to either compensate by upping the ISO or trying to find an alternative way to support the camera, against a tree or similar maybe to help with the low shutter speed. A bean bag is great for low level subjects. Your shutter speed for the butterfly was very high and could have been traded for a smaller F stop and more light for an instant improvement.

Dragonflies are more difficult still in my opinion. Again trying to get the subject in your focal plane will help with getting as much in focus as you can.

I'll assume you were using autofocus - even though your lens isn't a "true" macro lens and should be well capable of what you are attempting here, many macro enthusiasts tend to manually focus often because the depth of field is extremely shallow and they can ensure it's where they want and also because often the autofocus will struggle when your subject is in amongst leaves and grass etc and will pick the wrong point.

With the composition on the dragonfly shots - try side on and head on to start and experiment from there, they will look more dynamic when the subject is at least looking towards the camera rather than away.

The dragonfly shots, again you need more light so I would have bumped the ISO a little to help with that and maybe stopped down a little too for a bit more DoF.

This is such a massive subject to discuss I'm sure you'll start getting your head round the best ways to get results. For example, you could have used flash to control the light a bit. When you get your tripod sorted then maybe consider a cable or wireless release and, if the conditions allow, you can use a slow shutter speed combined with the release to ensure your image is properly exposed.

For me the out of focus dragonfly doesn't work - just my opinion.

I feel like i'm waffling a bit so apologies If I am - remember - photography is a learning journey and we all take little steps to improve so stick with it! I'm still learning loads after 5 years or so and it shows no sign of letting up

Happy shooting

TobyH

I cant see that a tripod would have helped any of these shots, in my experience any subjects like this would have been long gone well before you'd set the tripod up and got into position.

Capturing good macros of these beasts takes time and patience and like most other areas of photography also needs a little bit of luck, right time, right place etc. Its also about good balance between ISO Aperture and Shutter speed, you have to closely watch the value of each between shots and adjust the camera accordingly, I tend to aim for shooting at f16 for a reasonably good DoF but this has to be sacrificed if I have to let my shutter speed drop too low for hand holding or if the combination of the two puts the ISO way too high. As Toby says though on the 450D you should be able to shoot at ISO400 without problems, that will get you another few stops to use on Aperture or Shutter speed..

I think you have the right idea shooting in manual given the limitations of the 450D's controls but the examples shown look a bit underexposed, I wonder have you tried compensating or are you just going for what the camera shows to be a "correct" exposure?

As for the pics themselves I can just agree with Tobys remarks, I can see what you were trying to do with the out of focus dragonfly but its not quite worked. Just keep snapping.

I agree with both of the above comments. One thing which you ight want to keep in mind while using this or nearly any lens, is if possible avoid shooting wide open. However good canon lenses are, at 300mm and wide open, you WILL get soft images.

The under exposure is another issue. maybe a higher ISo would have allowed better light and a better shutterspeed.

Most importantly, keep experimenting. Its digital...

have fun

arijit