New camera, first time posting pics here

Joined
Nov 12, 2007
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Camera: Canon 450D w/ 18-55mm Kit Lens, no other equipment used (getting a tripod and zoom lens soon!)

All images are from RAW processed in SilkyPix then cropped and resized with slight alterations in PSP.


This little guy let me get within 5 feet of him
dragonfly01.jpg



Random flowers on some bush/tree in our backyard
flowers01.jpg



Some kind of moth. He was flitting between flowers sucking up nectar, you can see his proboscis here.
moth01.jpg
 
Overall these are pretty good for first attempts!

Couple pointers:

The lighting is rather harsh. Best to shoot macro on overcast days. Either that or early in the morning or later in the evening.

You'll get better results using manual focus. What I do is fix the reproduction size I want (often 1:1) and move the whole camera back and forth to get focus.

A longer lens will help to isolate your subject from the background.
 
These pictures are good for your first time. I cant wait to see more.

I would recommend the book "understanding exposures", you can pick up a used one from amazon.

The first picture you might want to sharpen more, the second picture the whites are almost blowing out. Learn the exposures, and in the third picture I see where the focus point was, it does not seem to be focus on the moth.

Read the manual to learn the different modes and metering and stick it on manual to learn speed and aperture....
 
I was using manual focus but the sunlight was so bright i couldn't see the LCD in live-view and i cant see enough detail in the eyepiece get perfect focus. As i said, all pictures were taken in RAW, i can adjust exposures if need be without losing quality, but i'm also learning how to do all that as well. This is my first ever SLR camera and i've got a lot of catching up to do. These also aren't actually my first photo's with this camera. The dragon fly photo was actually my 260th. You should see my very first pictures taken inside my office trying to look out a window. LOL
 
Here's two of those photo's reprocessed more in line with what you were looking for (at least i hope so):

This dragonfly pic is now only cropped, it's 100% size, and enhanced the sharpening a little bit which brought out more noise in the background (not a huge issue to me since we're looking in the foreground anyway). I still cant get over how weird this guy's eyes look! Definitely not regular dragonfly eyes.
dragonfly02.jpg



resized from 100% to 29%, redid the coloring and exposure levels
flowers02.jpg
 
Seems to me as if taking the photo is only half the job! The other half is processing it correctly!
 
Seems to me as if taking the photo is only half the job! The other half is processing it correctly!

To some extent you are correct. Always if you shoot RAW solely. I shoot RAW+Jpeg that way when pictures turn out like I wanted, I can post them right away. That white group of flowers is pretty much one of my bane shots, I have never got them like I wanted. The problem is they are so decentralized and present a small target.These are good for first shots, will get better as you get used to the camera and, you get better glass.
BTW better glass will consume much of your money. :D
 
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