Nomadick

Hi All,
Been lurking here for sometime admiring the beautiful images you guys post. Bought a Tamron 180mm and after 3 outings these are what I am getting; straight from my 60d converted from RAW to JPEG.
These were shot handheld with 430exII diffused by a modified Digital Harbor light box kit.
Your feedback will be highly appreciated as I want to learn.
Thank you.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Looks like you have two close-ups & one macro of the spider, and a macro of the bee. As you can see, your DoF is deeper with close-ups. This is why many photographers shoot at 1:2 (or so), then crop to 1:1 on post processing.

Your illumination and exposure look good. All three of your spider captures are a bit back-focused. Your bee is within the DoF, but not the center of photo. If this was intentional, then well done. If this was accidental, then this image is also back-focused.
Keep practicing.

Nomadick

Thanks a lot for the feedback, was struggling with the weight of the lens plus flash and bracket, add to that the wind which makes the subject seem like dancing from the viewfinder. I could have waited for a more favorable time to test the new toy but I'm excited I can not wait :) Hope the back focus is caused not by the lens but due to operator error and or the wind. Will try to back off a little next time and crop later for that DOF. As for the bee, yes it was intentional. Thanks again.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Are you using a tripod with that lens?

Nomadick

Hi Geff, No I'm not.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Well you are doing really well then, I have the Sigma 180 and find it much more difficult to use than a 100mm. My iris recently broke on the 100mm and I am still not using the 180 much. If I did not shot reverse I am sure that I would be using the 180 much more, but my biggest complaint about that lens is motion blur. It produces really sharp images as long as nothing is moving (usually me). And flash is a must, but I think that you may already know that. You are doing good, your images seem to be pretty sharp.

Douglass is right about your spiders being back-focused, but that could just be as simple as your own body movement while taking the shot, the DOF is that thin.

You are working with a really great lens but it is also a very challenging lens to use. it will come in short time, and like I said it looks to me that you are off to a great start. I would suggest that you try manual focus to see how you like shooting in manual mode, personally I do not use auto-focus when shooting macro.

Nomadick

Hi Geff,

Thanks for taking time to look and for the reassuring words. Hope you get that 100 fixed. Your works are a source of inspiration to me.

Regards.