Soup anyone?

[Ladybird]

After some stern 'urging' by Rel, thought I would post this.

Not entirely happy with this due to the fact I had to use magnifying filters and consequently the sharpness and quality of this little guy is not fantastic. But what can you expect with a 2.5 cm subject and no macro.

C&C most welcome...

[Manta]

Soup? Indeed!

Ain't gonna get much of a feed from those little legs!!

Great shot LB, the filters will never be as good as a dedicated macro (or even extension tubes) but you've put them to very good use here. A little soft around the snout but overall a really nice composition. Good exposure given what looks like pretty dark conditions. Did you use a tripod for this one?

More please. (Add me to your growing list of 'urgers')

[Glen]

Ladybird, great shot and more so without macro. Great use of DOF

[radar]

Ah,

they need to be at least 3cm before a Frenchman would consider its legs

Great pose, background, lighting. As Simon said, you just missed the focus for its face, but stilll a great photo, I'd be happy to have it.

well done,

André

[blacknstormy]

Glad to see my 'stern urging' worked  LOL

Hip Hip - another post !!!
Well done, and of a frog - even better
Nicely done - and bloody great for the gear that you took the shot with !! You should be proud of your efforts, it's a lot easier with a macro.

Ok - I know that the eye is slightly out, and has all been covered, but had a quick play (I know, can't help myself), and if you do just a little doge here, and a little burn here, and then do a little noise removal - you can trick your eye into thinking that the shot is in focus on the eye As I say - this was done pretty quickly, but it is still your shot - just bumped up a little in the 'digital darkroom' - same as they would have done in a normal darkroom in the past

If you don't like, I'll remove it (as always)

Again WELL DONE

Rel & Damo

[xorl]

Nice - it's hard enough trying to find a frog, let alone trying to get it to sit still .

I think your magnifying filters should be fine for this task. To me it feels like image contains motion blur which has been sharpened, although it's a little hard to tell without the original.

The EXIF data shows 70mm, 1/30, f/5.6, ISO200. Your image would probably benefit greatly from a much faster shutter speed. Depending on your technique/steadiness a shutter of at least 1/125 would be good for 70mm on digital. Given how close you are to the subject (macro) 1/250 would be more reasonable. I'd recommend going for shutter speed first and increasing your ISO to match. If you've got some room to play, then an aperture around f/8-11 would be good too. In this case I probably would have picked something around 1/250s, f/5.6, ISO1600. A tack sharp image with some noise often better than a blurry image with less noise. Balancing these variables for the best result can be quite tricky at times.

If you use a tripod then 1/30 is in the danger zone for vibration - especially with cheaper tripods (cameras with mirror lockup can partially work around this problem).

Another option is off camera flash, but the frog might not appreciate that very much .

[Ladybird]

Thanks for the comments everyone, all much appreciated!

Rel, of course I don't mind you playing with my images. When I become a super fantastic photographer that has been published 16 times or more, then I might change my mind!

Xorl, thanks heaps for the feedback. I've since done some reading and had some handy tutorials by a fellow DSLR member (thanks Simon!) that has helped me understand a bit about what shutter speed I should be using. But what you've said has definitely added to my increasing knowledge of the skilled art of photography. I really appreciate the time you took to write your message. As for the motion blur, I did use a tripod but it's an el cheapo variety (a good tripod is on my list of things to buy). Thanks again for your comments!

[ozimax]

Given the circumstances, a great image of a nice little fella!