Hi all, can I start by thanking all of you who gave me fantastic advice over the problems I was having, especially Andy Astbury and John R, Ian I did not ignore Andy's advice the image yesterday was one from the previous night processed differently to eliminate that part of the equation, I went out tonight and followed the advice to the letter and the result is below - I think this may be sharp but would once again like some constructive feedback, critiscm on it, my skin is thick and I want to improve my images, that is why I joined the forum.
I also shot same shot at f9 &f13 at f9 image was slightly sharper but DofF less f13 bit softer -still need to find preise sweet spot of lens but definately getting closer.
Good attitude Shaun.
Now this one would definately be better with some shadow detail. Shadow /highlights tool.
Its a hard angle to approach a subject like this ( from the side) The dof is so small.
You can see that your main focus area is on the wing. KI woulld try racking out a bit- don't get too close. |A big image in frame is certainly not always the best.
I think the best approach with a Burnet is flat on . But they don't always oblige.
Cheers
JohnR
John has given some good advice, certainly back off, the smaller in the frame the better your DoF will be, however don't be tempted to crop in when processing... with subjects like these consider very carefully your composition and the perch.
Looking at this image I think either a reflector or a touch of fill flash (care there as if I remember right when I used Fill Flash on this species the wings took on a strange coloured sheen) this would have pushed a little more light into the blacks to stop them blocking up.
I realise that it is often difficult to get parallel to your subject but patience and practice do help, if your subject was roosting then you should have a little time to experiment and adjust... One final thing.... (I do this for a living, for the time being at least) do not worry about stopping down a little more, even to f16, any softening due to diffraction can be cured by a little extra capture sharpening (I know some will disagree with me there), diffraction limits were far more important when we shot film as there was nothing that could be done about it.
Discussion
3 repliesTechs D300 Nikon 105mm macro VR turned off f11 1/13 sec, tripod, MLU remote release.
I also shot same shot at f9 &f13 at f9 image was slightly sharper but DofF less f13 bit softer -still need to find preise sweet spot of lens but definately getting closer.
Once again many, many thanks to everybody
Now this one would definately be better with some shadow detail. Shadow /highlights tool.
Its a hard angle to approach a subject like this ( from the side) The dof is so small.
You can see that your main focus area is on the wing. KI woulld try racking out a bit- don't get too close. |A big image in frame is certainly not always the best.
I think the best approach with a Burnet is flat on . But they don't always oblige.
Cheers
JohnR
John has given some good advice, certainly back off, the smaller in the frame the better your DoF will be, however don't be tempted to crop in when processing... with subjects like these consider very carefully your composition and the perch.
Looking at this image I think either a reflector or a touch of fill flash (care there as if I remember right when I used Fill Flash on this species the wings took on a strange coloured sheen) this would have pushed a little more light into the blacks to stop them blocking up.
I realise that it is often difficult to get parallel to your subject but patience and practice do help, if your subject was roosting then you should have a little time to experiment and adjust... One final thing.... (I do this for a living, for the time being at least) do not worry about stopping down a little more, even to f16, any softening due to diffraction can be cured by a little extra capture sharpening (I know some will disagree with me there), diffraction limits were far more important when we shot film as there was nothing that could be done about it.
HTH