Practice Shot

[Bill McCrystyn]

D300 70-200VR ISO400 F/4 1/320 EFL300

Sorry, just got a new camera, couldn't resist. This is the first thing I saw. :)

[Ed Vatza]

Congrats on the new camera, Bill. I like the flower. The color looks good to me. The sharpness looks good for f/4. The background looks nice and creamy - that's what f/4 will do for you. ;) I'm not thrilled with the positioning of the subject flower smack in the middle of the frame. Since you already have the tips of the leaves on the right clipped. I would crop in more from that side effectively moving the flower to the right. I think that would give you a stronger composition here. I also find the bright spot in the LL just a tad distracting.

Look forward to see a lot more from you and your new camera.

[Bill McCrystyn]

Thanks Ed, It was a quickie and of course your right. I should have taken more time with it. I appreciate your critique. I think the softness comes less from f/4 and probably more from having the camera set on instant refocus and continuous servo rather than single lock AF and it allowed the AF to hunt as I pulled the trigger. This thing is so much faster than my Canon.

The dark side is looking brighter everyday. :)

[Robert O'Toole]

Hi Bill,

Congrats on the D300, If you need any help with setting PM me for some hints.

The image is nice, I don't mind the softish look at all, I actually like it. I agree with Ed on his suggestion on moving the blooms to the right.

I use the back AF-on button for just this kind of situation. With front button AF you have to cross your fingers when it comes to focus. With rear AF-on, you set it in continuous (servo) AF, lift your thumb to lock the focus, and fire away. The focus will not change.

Robert

[Julie Kenward]

I totally agree with Ed's critique. Push it a bit to the right and tone down that LLC. Quite nice for the first thing you stumbled upon! Keep 'em coming!!!

[Bill McCrystyn]

Perfect - Robert, you are the man. I had it assigned to DOF - duh. That was a wasted action. Never thought to make it something useful :) This way your also ready when they fly, back to continuos servo without the front switch change. Cool. Thanks man!

[Fabs Forns]

Congrats on your new toy, Bill, you'll get a lot of joy out of it :)

Agree on the comments and looking forward to more from that combo!!!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Bill, congrats on the new 300, and hope to see more macro stuff from you. Image looks good but agree on cropping on the right. Have fun.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Bill,
Congrats on the new camera. I want to comment on the lighting of the center flower and the one above it.......I like it!!..... but it had way to many distracting elements copositionally.......probably due to excitement! I took your original and cleaned it up and added canvas..........just to show you that your original vision wasn't that off.......so that next time in the field with a bit more work you may be able to achieve a cleaner version of your original vision.

[Bill McCrystyn]

Thank you very much Roman. As Artie would say, a very good repost! I wish I could take take credit for the exposure but I believe Active-D lighting set to normal had a lot to do with it, a big bonus with this camera. Your clean-up is perfect and I apprciate the time you took to show me how to get it right. Thanks - Bill