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I'm new around these parts (come from OCAU - which a fair number of you would know of).

Just thought I'd share a few images.
All have at most been cropped, but are pretty much straight from camera (apart from the obvious resize).
Comments appreciated, especially with regards to cropping - I find it hard to judge a crop on computer and much prefer to just 'crop' / frame when taking the photo.











In general I find myself shooting macro, or small scale photography.

Hi pippin88 and welcome

I like 1 through 4 (except in 4 I find the bottom left and right corners distracting) - keep on posting as I am a macro and flower lover

Chris

Hi Pippin88 and welcome. I like the pics, and I agree with Chris, no 4 does want the bottom corners cropped. Keep posting

Regards
Meic

sirhc55 wrote:Hi pippin88 and welcome

I like 1 through 4 (except in 4 I find the bottom left and right corners distracting) - keep on posting as I am a macro and flower lover

Chris

Yeah, I find the same thing with that shot (Picture 4 - fireworks), but unfortunately that was the spot I was in, and when I went and found a better spot my battery ran out. I'm pretty pleased with it anyway, as a hand held fireworks shot.

EDIT: Tighter crop and Auto Levels:

pippin88 - buy a backup battery - they are as cheap as chips (eBay) and you will never run out of power at that crucial moment

Chris

pippin88

If you are working in PS just clone the two areas out using the adjacent areas.

Chris

sirhc55 wrote:pippin88

If you are working in PS just clone the two areas out using the adjacent areas.

Chris

Heh, just did that and your post coincided.

Yep, a backup battery is on the cards, along with stuff to clean sensor, maybe look at a another tripod (got given one, but it doesn't seem to deal too well with the weight of a D70 and kit lens), maybe a 50 F1.8, and another 1gb CF card. And that's just the basics

Hi Pippin, welcome to the forums. Good composition and subject matter there - what lens did you shoot these with? Also, are you using the normal tone curve? Cos they do seem a bit dark and contrasty.

G'day Pippin,
DSC_1877web.jpg is really sharp and the droplet just on the central subject keeps grabbing my attention, and the colors in the flower in DSC_1289small.jpg seem to jump out at me, wow...

The crop on the fireworks shot seems to have really made a big difference (to me anyway ), seems to totally change the image with no distractions...

Cheers,
Mudder

Onyx wrote:Hi Pippin, welcome to the forums. Good composition and subject matter there - what lens did you shoot these with? Also, are you using the normal tone curve? Cos they do seem a bit dark and contrasty.

All shot with the Nikon 18-70 kit lens.
Yep standard tone curve. Can you have a custom tone going with Macro and Auto modes? (Though I am moving more into use A priority with Macro for depth of field choice). Any recommended curves?

The second image certainly is a bit contrasty, the flower is almost too red.

mudder wrote:G'day Pippin,
DSC_1877web.jpg is really sharp and the droplet just on the central subject keeps grabbing my attention, and the colors in the flower in DSC_1289small.jpg seem to jump out at me, wow...

The crop on the fireworks shot seems to have really made a big difference (to me anyway ), seems to totally change the image with no distractions...

Cheers,
Mudder

Yep, 1877 is probably one of my favourite shots, and looks even better with full quality / resolution.

Yep, the crop and clone on the fireworks has muchly improved it. I'll need to be more ready to do similar to other photos in the future.

Hi,

Welcome to the forums - just joined myself, everyones really friendly around here!

I really like the shot with the water droplets on the leaf, I like the way they magnify the leaf texture, very striking.

pippin, I'm surprised it was the kit lens, I've never seen such shallow DOF like the waterdrops on leaf one. Good work!

This 18-70DX lens is full of pleasant surprises as its capabilities and potential are amazing. Versatile zoom range, very good bokeh and closest focus is astonishing!

In the Important Links section you'll find a thread by Killakoala with a selection of many curves available for download in one convenient zip. This beats googling all over the net and downloading each one separately. Which curve is largely due to personal preference - how you like your pictures to look, and what you predominantly shoot. Unfortunately, they won't work with Auto or macro modes (switch from Auto to Program mode - it does everything the same as Auto, except gives you choices when it comes to image parameters like tone curve, colour mode, saturation, etc.)

Red - I do find the D70 have a tendency to saturate the red channel sooner than other colours. This doesn't help when you're looking at a luminosity-only histogram on the camera's LCD (roughly equates to the green channel, but not strictly correct). My suggestion is when knowing you're shooting a red subject, use a low contrast curve so you have some exposure latitude. Err on the side of caution when shooting (ie. expose slightly to the LEFT) and have a play in software afterwards to optimise it.

Hi Pippin, and welcome.

Onyx wrote:Unfortunately, they won't work with Auto or macro modes (switch from Auto to Program mode - it does everything the same as Auto, except gives you choices when it comes to image parameters like tone curve, colour mode, saturation, etc.)

Actually, what Onyx said is entirely correct, but it's not the full picture.

I know he just lovesto play with images in his PP phases (especially setting grey points and wb) and in this case, if you use something like Curve Surgery Pro (delightfully inexpensive at around US$15) then you can swap different curves into the image from "underneath" so to speak.

Do a forum search on Curve Surgery and you'll find the link to grab yourself a copy.