Just got new 100 f/2.8 Macro 1st attempts

Got it last night, just playing and learning.

Thanks

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They seem sorta blurry, did you use a tripod?

I agree... but the originals were sharper.. something happened during resizing.

Good first shots- they are suffering from jpg artifacts- might look better slightly smaller but at a higher quality setting from the compression point of view.
Brian V.

How can I avoid jpg artifacts in the future? Save as Tif, resize differently?
Thanks

Nothing to do with TIFFs- assume you are using the forums pic embedding with a 100K limit ?
Many of us host the pics elsewhere and link to them, whilst this has a physical size limit (800 pixels max length) it does away with the file size limit.
If you have photoshop or similar to help resizing pics for web use, instead of using "Save for web" try resizing it yourself down to 800 pixel max length and play with the quality setting to keep it under 100K or perhaps make it slightly smaller but try to keep the jpeg quality percentage up (max or high, 10 or 8, 100% or 80%) depending how it is expressed. If you try playing with a pic you should be able to find a suitable optimum.

Brian V.

Both images look soft, not entirely sure that it's solely down to web compression to be honest. Good shots though, off to a good start. I quite like the 2nd shot, which is of a Jumping spider. I suspect colour balance is off on both shots, but impossible to be sure without seeing the original scene with my own eyes.

I usually resize to the longest size being 800 pixels and then apply a 2nd pass of USM (do this on an image by image basis, some shots don't look any good with a 2nd USM pass imho). I then use Photoshop's save for web, keeping the size to just under 100kb.

Beware: Macro is very addictive!

Dave

Welcome to the world of macro.

Good first attempt, but the look blury and very high contrast for some reason. As the others have said this may be some processing issue to web format.

Try for less harch sunlight or rig a reflector, lower contrast will show the detail better.

Thanks for the advice... I NEED it. The originals are much better. I struggled with the 100k limit and ended up resizing and then reducing the quality down to 2 to achieve the required 100k limit.

I have a lot to learn for sure.

I agree Macro is addicting, all ready feeling it!

Thanks