Furry Kittens

[Madhav Jois]

My first outing with the macro lens. Although I was carrying my tripod, I could not set it up for this shot (physical constraints). So, to avoid blur I bumped the ISO to 800 to get better shutter speed.

Exif: Nikon D90, Sigma 105 EX DG Macro, f8, 1/500 shutters, ISO 800, 0 EV, Full frame image, Hand held.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6161/6136504115_bab7fbe50d_b.jpg

Critiques and comments welcome.

Best regards,
Madhav

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Madhav. Beautiful colors and interesting structures on the flowers. I like the way you positioned the flowers in the frame and the way the crooked stem leads my eye through the image. Very nice sharpness on the top flower - if the bottom flower was equally sharp this would be over the top. A slight repositioning of the camera in the field might have done the trick - but that can be difficult to do when hand holding. :S3: I hope to see more of your macro work!

[Paul Lagasi]

Agree with Steve about sharpness of bottom flower, lovely work, the top flower is razor sharp...well done

[Brendan Dozier]

This is a nicely composed image, Madhav, and the really like the rich colors. I agree, Steve makes some good suggestions, but really nice for first time using the macro lens!

[Ken Childs]

Madhav, this looks great, especially for a first outing with a new lens! As mentioned by the others, the OOF flower is slightly problematic so if this were mine, I'd crop in tighter and just keep the top flower....maybe something like this. There was still a bit of the bottom flower in this crop so I did some cloning to remove it completely.

102657

[Madhav Jois]

Thank you Steve, Paul, Brendan and Ken. Appreciate your valuable feedback.

@Ken: Thank you for processing my pic. I have tried this composition too, just with a lone flower. I should done a better job keeping both flowers in focus.

regards,
Madhav

[Julie Kenward]

That's the big challenge when shooting macro - how much DOF is needed against how much room/light/wind you have to work around. You did very well for the first time so keep going! One thing about the original post is that the bottom flower is also a little too close to the bottom of the frame. Giving that as much space around it as you have at the top of the frame would also have balanced the image a little bit better. Always try to get a little extra room when in the field shooting so you can crop it where you want it in pp.

[Madhav Jois]

Thanks Julie. I totally agree with you on giving overall space. After reading your comment, even I feel the frame is tight with 2 flowers. However, Ken's repost is perfectly balanced. Think I got carried way with the lens magnification :)