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went out with oneputt and mitedo for a little photoshoot but the weather was rather gloomy.
I don't have a tripod and my sigma flash has to go in for repairs so these pics are shot handheld with the Tamron 90 macro and sometimes with the built in flash on the pentax DS.
most pics were blurry but i managed a few that were not too bad.

stamen


cactus


redback... i didn't realise there was baby spiders in it so this one is about a 200% crop


rose


flower


sorry but i know nothing about flowers

The colours, pattern and shape of that prickly thing are amazing.

Well done Shane to come away with a good group of keepers in what would have been very trying conditions.

I love the close crop of the cactus - it's amazing how objects are disguised when viewed that closely and how intricate nature's designs can be.

Thanks for sharing.

I agree, nice set of pics with the cactus as a standout.

Bob.

.

Sorry... I don't feel any of these are all that good as they feel over-sharpened to buggery.

Good point Leigh - I agree with you that there has certainly been liberal use of sharpening but I think that's something that's soon learned. Spotting the photo opportunity is half the battle and the cactus one, in particular, shows Shane has seen something through different eyes. Although the other shots are relatively standard approaches to composition and Shane has squeezed out a lot more edginess than was ever really meant to be there, I think these are a reasonably good effort on his part. With respect, I feel it also demonstrates the optical differences between the Tamron glass and the Nikkor 105 and 200 micros.

(This is, of course, coming from someone who has absolutely no credentials in the photgraphic arts at all but I know what I like... )

you could very well be right about too much sharpening as this is the first time i have used it.
To give me a better understanding of how to set it can you point out how to spot the over sharpening ? btw, i used CS usm with 50%, 20 pixels and 0 threshold.

Shane I do not think that the sharpening is over the top, but every camera is different. That USM works well on the D70 and D2X for most images, but I do sometimes drop the % depending on the image.

The cactus is good and considering the amount of the crop I reclon that the spider is pretty damm good as well.

There is some haloing around the edges and the contrast is pushed a bit. I'd probably drop the pixel setting down to maybe 5 pixels, depending on the resolution of the shot.
There are others who are much better equiped to advise on settings.

Shane cut your USM down to 150 - .02 - 0 & see how that goes

heres one at 50-20-0


and one at 150-.02-0

Shane,
Very nice!!!!
Don't try to follow those guys too often, they will lead you into a bad lust case

too late birddog ...
lusting badly for a tripod as these old hands are getting a bit shakey

decided on a manfrotto 190B pro [still have to make sure i get the right model No] now just have to decide which head ...

and a longer macro ...
and a 500 ish decent lens ...
and a 10-17 fisheye ...
and ....

Shane - the second sharpened shot (150-0.02-0) is right on the money!

i processed them exactly the same except for the sharpening ... funny how the colour is more intense on the first one.

That's what oversharpening will do. Be interesting to see how different settings affect the first photos in this thread...

Shane, These are absolutely stunning. Tack sharp.

Alex

Shane just had a quick play with your last shot hope you don't mind

damn that looks nice ... sort of in between the other two ... nice colour like the first one and nice detail like the second one.


sooooo .... what did you do ?

Shane ring me

kevin are you playing with LAB color.......

A little bit of both have tried doing the same with RGB colour & getting great results

heres another suggested way ...
USM 479-4-4
fade USM luminosity to 23



and just so people know what were working on ...
here is the original unprocessed image ...

love the symmetric effect in the cactus.

makes it the most interesting for me.

Steve