New here, new camera, first pics

[Hawkdl2]

It's been 20+ years since I did any real photography but after a month of deliberating I bought a Nikon D5000, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 and a Vanguard 250 ball head for my ancient but still solid Bogen 5021 tripod. I'm still figuring out how to work this camera, but here are a few of my first attempts at macro. I'm also playing around with Lightroom 2 and Capture NX2 demos to see which way I want to go there. As you can see from the second pic, I don't have WB correction completely figured out - that's not what that monti looks like. The first one is pretty true.

I know I need a lot of practice, but critiques are very welcome.

 

[kilroy217]

these are a good start, but your depth of field is quite shallow in these shots. try closing your aperture a little, which will obviously slow your shutter speed to keep the same light. so, make sure to minimize camera shake by using your tripod, a remote trigger release (or a timer), and if necessary, increase ISO.

 

[aquariumclown]

Hey Larry, that's very good job for starters! If I can offer any constructive criticism...

Photo 1 - I like the overall shot but there is too much of the coral that's dark (unlit), I would suggest taking a photo that has a much more even lighting consistency, or you can do a light fill to even it out in post processing. The DOF is shallow as previously mentioned but also there are too many blurry distraction in the foreground, I would suggest framing better without distraction to the actual area of the subject you are trying to capture. I also notice some polyp movement which cause some blurriness, be sure you got your flow turned off. But overall, a great photo.

Photo 2 - Similar issues with the unevenness of dark and light areas and overall composition. This photo to me is a better composition than the first one as its much more interesting to me.

About DOF. You may want to learn how to photo stack at some point to get the whole subject in focus.

Great work, keep shooting! Congrats on your new camera, you'll have lots of fun with it.

 

[Hawkdl2]

Thanks for the comments. They were both shot on a tripod with a remote, but the pumps were on.

It was just an idea at the moment, but I intentionally used a narrower DOF as I wanted an central area of interest in focus that would fade away into blurriness. I thought the first one came close to what I planned than the second, but maybe the whole idea was ill conceived, or at least overdone. In any case, I see the distraction of the foreground in #1. I can't get past the crappy color correction in #2 to decide if there's anything about it I like.

 

[aquariumclown]

Larry, keep taking them. I'd love to see more.