Thread: Photography Task of the Week of August 18, 2007

WOW nice one Adam... I'm going to have trouble with this

Thanks Mr Toaster

Don't really want to post this when the only other entry is Adam's, but ah well, here ya go:



This is a red petal that I found in my garden full of dew. I tipped some of it out and part of it formed that droplet. I like the transition of the colour of the petal from bright red through dark scarlet through black

Not the best....but lots of water droplets....

TS

omgosh cool pictures mine suck! lol i just started photography like 2 months ago so dont kill me for the horibbleness but i tried! and i couldnt pick which one so heres 2 (kinda huge but ehh)

Well, I'm a little late in joining the party, but I just got my camera yesterday, and thought I'd give this macro photography thing a shot. So here we go:






I know, I know, there are four. And only one of them an actual droplet. But I just couldn't pick, sorry. I realize the composition is pretty bad, and the background is too bright in most of them, but these are pretty much my first attempt at macros, period. So please forgive me. Oh, and this is a leaf from one of our blueberry bushes, with a drop of water from my finger in the first picture, and just partially dipped in the glass for the rest. I took these on my porch railing.

Originally Posted by Man of Steel

I know, I know, there are four. And only one of them an actual droplet. But I just couldn't pick, sorry. I realize the composition is pretty bad, and the background is too bright in most of them, but these are pretty much my first attempt at macros, period. So please forgive me. Oh, and this is a leaf from one of our blueberry bushes, with a drop of water from my finger in the first picture, and just partially dipped in the glass for the rest. I took these on my porch railing.

Nice shots! Composition is usually just in the eye of the beholder (if it looks cool, take a shot and look closer later), but I'll give you a few rough pointers real quick, if you don't already know this stuff.

First of all, a picture should always have a specific subject. You can check this off, because you have a good subject in all of them - the leaf. This may sound very obvious, but sometimes you'll find yourself wanting to show a whole batch of scenery - stop for a moment and pick one thing, and think of that as the subject. That tends to help me make my pictures 'interesting'.

Second is the "rule of thirds". This is a very loose rule, but it comes in handy. What you do is imagine that you have two vertical and two horizontal lines across your picture, dividing it into nine boxes. The four spots where the lines meet are the spots that the human eye tends to go to when looking at a picture. The idea is, if you have a single subject and a non-critical background, just stick the subject somewhere near one of these four spots instead of dead center. You'll be surprised at the results.

Lastly, just something I've noticed - patterns are good, especially ones which draw you into the picture. A good example of this is your second photo, which I would say has the best composition. You can see the lines in the railing going off into the picture, and this, combined with the angle of the leaf, draws your eye in a bit. If you see any patterns like this, try to exploit them a bit.

Good luck, enjoy your camera and have fun! You're off to a good start, and your macro function looks great!

Originally Posted by thegnome54

Nice shots! Composition is usually just in the eye of the beholder (if it looks cool, take a shot and look closer later), but I'll give you a few rough pointers real quick, if you don't already know this stuff.

First of all, a picture should always have a specific subject. You can check this off, because you have a good subject in all of them - the leaf. This may sound very obvious, but sometimes you'll find yourself wanting to show a whole batch of scenery - stop for a moment and pick one thing, and think of that as the subject. That tends to help me make my pictures 'interesting'.

Second is the "rule of thirds". This is a very loose rule, but it comes in handy. What you do is imagine that you have two vertical and two horizontal lines across your picture, dividing it into nine boxes. The four spots where the lines meet are the spots that the human eye tends to go to when looking at a picture. The idea is, if you have a single subject and a non-critical background, just stick the subject somewhere near one of these four spots instead of dead center. You'll be surprised at the results.

Lastly, just something I've noticed - patterns are good, especially ones which draw you into the picture. A good example of this is your second photo, which I would say has the best composition. You can see the lines in the railing going off into the picture, and this, combined with the angle of the leaf, draws your eye in a bit. If you see any patterns like this, try to exploit them a bit.

Good luck, enjoy your camera and have fun! You're off to a good start, and your macro function looks great!

Thanks for the tips! My new camera (Powershot A560) actually has an overlay that can be used, that shows the nine-box grid superimposed on the LCD. I didn't know what this was for, though. Now that I do, I will most definitely be using that, hopefully to good effect. I'll also work on utilizing patterns more, too. Thanks again, both for the tips, and the reassurance that they aren't too horrible.

I'm definitely going to be doing more of this.

The main reason I got the camera was to be able to take decent pictures of my knives, with the help of a home-made light box, that I have yet to make. In order to do that, I'm going to need to get better at general photography, so expect to see a lot of my learning attempts in this forum. I may post a thread over in Ask Me/Tell Me About, too.

Well, I don't have any super-duper camera, but it does the job. Here's one I took at Multnomah Falls here in Oregon. Man, I love that place!