Bugs in the cotton - c/c welcome!

Well this is my first photo i've submitted on the forum for others to critique, but i believe i am ready, and in great need, of some quality constructive criticism!

Give me your opinions, please. This is actually a ladybug inside of a cotton bloom.

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It has potential, but the image is far to small to really critique it. I also suspect that the Ladybird is probably a bit too small in the frame, and dominated by the flower. Could you post a larger image (you can post up to 800 pixels maximum dimension, keep it under 100kb as well).

Dave

dpastern wrote in post #2573386
It has potential, but the image is far to small to really critique it. I also suspect that the Ladybird is probably a bit too small in the frame, and dominated by the flower. Could you post a larger image (you can post up to 800 pixels maximum dimension, keep it under 100kb as well).

Dave

Sure! And thanks for looking. Not really sure how to do all that resizing, but i'm going to try my hand at it and repost it...

Give me a few mins!

Ok, i realize now that the initial picture was way too small, so i have resized it. Thanks for your critiques and comments!

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That's better. The Ladybird is too small, would be nice to have gotten a bit closer, and the angle isn't very good as well you can't see the face/head/eyes (like in human portraiture, with bug images, it's desired). The flower looks nice, and has some interesting textures. Was this taken with natural light? Looking at the shot settings for this shot, I note ISO 400, 1/100 and f32. You can use a lower f stop, f11 is about ideal - higher f stops will result in more depth of field, but you'll lose resolution, and I think that that might be why the flower and central stamen don't seem very sharp (could also be slightly out of focus as well I guess).

Good first effort, especially considering your lens setup. Might I suggest a 50mm and a set of Kenko tubes to play around with Macro a bit more? That set will give you around 1.4:1 (ie. 1.4x life size), and a working distance of 5cm from the subject (not the best I know). It's cheap, light, and easy to use.

Dave

Dave, thanks a lot for the help... Yes, it was one of those spur of the moment photos while at the farm. Never really been interested in taking flower photos, but this information really has me thinking! The sun was out and bright as ever that day, but i think maybe the on-camera flash was on, too.

I REALLY do appreciate your comments and help!
Thanks, Fara