“There’s no success like failure, and failure’s no success at all.”
It’s one of my favorite lines. I don’t always think failure is such a bad thing, because we learn so much more from failure, than we do success.
So, I’d like to try a new type of post here at PhotoNaturalist. I’ll start by sharing a recent photo I took that I don’t think came out very well. Then, I’ll explain why I don’t like it and why it “failed.”
One of my favorite ways to learn more about photography is to just go out and try new things and experiment. I always learn a lot from these experiments so hopefully by sharing some of them with you, you’ll learn a few things too!
Since this is the first type of post like this, I’d greatly appreciate your feedback, so I know if I should continue them in the future. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or contact me directly by e-mail. Thanks!
Okay, let’s get started. Here’s the photo I’d like to discuss (click for a larger version):
It’s a photo of a female Variegated Meadowhawk, taken in the Colorado Desert of Southern California. I was really excited when I spotted this dragonfly because I knew a photo of it would go well with the photo I shot a few weeks ago of a male Variegated Meadowhawk.
I shot the photo with a Canon XTi and 300mm f/4L lens, at f/11, 1/200 sec exposure, and ISO 400.
But, I see two big problems with how this shot came out:
1. The tip of the abdomen is not sharp (click here for a larger version to see this more clearly)
2. The background isn’t out of focus enough
I don’t want to be Mr. Negative, so I do think a few things went well: the head and most of the body is in sharp focus, and the exposure was good.
So, what caused the problems above?
#1 – Why the abdomen is not sharp
Although the head, thorax and most of the abdomen is pretty sharp, the tip of the abdomen is noticeably unsharp. The reason for this is simple: my camera’s sensor was not parallel to the dragonfly’s body.
Since you only get one plane of complete sharpness, it’s important to shoot parallel to dragonfly’s bodies. Unfortunately, in this particular situation that wasn’t possible.
If I positioned my camera parallel to the body, then another branch of the Juniper would’ve been in the way, covering most of the dragonfly.
Sure, I could’ve used a smaller aperture to get more depth of field, but that would have only made the next problem worse!
#2 – Why the background is poor
When I first saw this dragonfly, I was really excited about the green background (something that’s hard to come by in the winter desert). Unfortunately though, the green branches of this bush weren’t far enough from the dragonfly to get an in-focus subject and an out of focus background.
Sure, I could’ve used a wider aperture, but that would have just made the first problem worse!
The real lesson of this photo
Although there’s certainly a lot to learn about depth of field with this photo, I think there’s even a bigger lesson here:
Sometimes there’s just nothing you can do in a certain situation to get the photo you’re looking for. To make this photo better, I would have just needed to find another dragonfly perching somewhere else where the conditions were ideal: a far away background and no distracting objects in front of the dragonfly (so I could place the camera parallel to the dragonfly).
Finding that perfect setup takes time! So, be patient and observant 
How did you like this post?
Since this is a new type of post I’m experimenting with, I’d greatly appreciate your feedback on it: was it helpful? Did you learn anything? Please let me know by leaving a comment below or contact me directly. Or, if you’re reading this through the e-mail updates, you can just hit reply
Thanks a lot in advance for your feedback!
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About the Author: Steve Berardi is a naturalist, photographer, computer scientist, and founder of PhotoNaturalist. You can usually find him hiking in the beautiful mountains and deserts of Southern California.
Steve,
This is a great post and I think a very important one. I am a big fan of constructive feedback (I had to learn to love it back in my school days) but it’s really essential in any creative industry. When I pick photos for my portfolio, I often ask “what is wrong with this” or “how would I have shot this differently” and take my own feedback back out into the field to keep shooting. Perfect way of learning. Opening up your own constructive feedback to an open forum like this will not only help yourself but help others too and I think posts like this are a great example of photographers giving back to the community.
With regards to the photo, while I agree with your “problems,” I still love how sharp the dragonfly’s eyes are. The background is just a little too distracting too. You’re right in positioning the camera parallel to the body if you want to get a full body portrait shot. When I try and shoot insects (usually quite unsuccessfully) I usually go for an angled approach, open the Aperture quite a bit, get in close, and pick a certain area to get a pin sharp focus on, such as the eye, and throw everything else out of focus – especially the background as I rarely find one I am happy with!
Great post, and I really do enjoy reading and learning from your blog.
Tony
I love your posts and enjoy and learn from each one. I like the opportunity to have image critique with one who knows what they’re talking about such as yourself! I do the same thing with my photos and often return to a location, if possible, to implement the fixes. But for your dragonfly shot you posted for this critique I think what you shot is as good as you could expect with what you were presented with. With postprocessing you could subdue the background more to reduce the distraction of it. But no postprocessing will give you in focus sharpness where none exists. So with that in mind next time perhaps go for an even wider depth of field although when I first read your technical factors and then opened up the image I thought for sure you were wide enough at f/11! Keep up the great work and thank you for sharing.
Debra
I can’t say everything I want in English, but I will try.
I think the end of the abdomen slightly out of focus is not a real problem. I agree with Tony, eyes sharp, photo ok.
It’s true that the background distracts from the main subject in the photo, but may be this level of blur is good if in the background are recognizable elements such as leaves, tassels, flowers …
On the other hand, there are already lots of pictures with backgrounds completely out of focus, subjects completely sharp and all these photos look the same photo. There are many technically perfect pictures of insects that are all alike and it’s impossible to recognize the style of a photographer. I think it’s a good idea to try different things.
Excellent post and blog. Greetings.
Woah! I am no professional but IMHO, you’re being to hard on yourself! The photo is fine! We are our worst critic, some say.
Great idea for a post, by the way.
I love this new type of post. Very very very instructive… especially for people like me who are venturing into the fantastic world of nature photography.
Please keep up with this experiment. I’d love to see regular posts of this kind.
Steve – I really like your posting idea and would like to continue seeing them. While it is always nice to hear “great shot”, constructive feedback is an awesome learning tool. Maybe one day you will allow us to send you some of our rejects (I have tons!) for critique.
I also thoroughly enjoy your regular posts. Keep up the great work!
We usually learn more from our “mistakes” than our successes! Good post, and not a bad photo actually. The background bothers me more than the lack of focus on the abdomen. I think a little post-processing can take care of that background though!
I feel your pain. The answer to the background is wider aperture which decreases the DOF. There is no real answer but there are some workarounds. If you go to DOF Master you will find the DOF at 6ft at f11 is about 1/2 inch and at f4 is 1/4 inch. f4 would give a much nicer background, but all the wings wouldn’t be in focus.
A focusing rail and a stacking program with a wide aperture would be nice if the little guy would hold still long enough.
Good post.
Great concept and great first post. It is easy to relate to your presentations which further enhance the learning experience. Thanks for doing this as it is very worthwhile.
you don’t mention if you were shooting handheld or supported. in the handheld case i think you did exceptionally well at 1/200. in the field i don’t think you could have checked the fine focus detail on the abdomen’s tip as that would have been beyond the limits of your LCD. if on a tripod however i think you could have tried 1/100 @ f/16 in burst mode and then pick the best focused image and blur the background in post processing, perhaps underexposing it by a stop or two to throw the fly into greater prominence. it is a great photo in any case, one i would be very happy to emulate.
Great post and great idea for article series. I look forward to reading them all!
I agree that you’re being hard on yourself. It’s a good shot, and it would most definitely be a keeper if it were a less-common species. I thought you were going to nitpick the bright lichen on the stick and the bright spot in the background as being distractions. A polarizer might have helped. I actually think the mosaic darner on a mosaic-type background is kind of cool and shows something of the critter’s natural camouflage. Check out Art Wolfe’s book “Vanishing Point”. The whole thing is about critters being difficult to spot. Anyway, I would keep this shot even when you get another one with a “prettier” background.
This kind of post is extremely helpful! Covering specific problems in this level of detail is great for people like me who are just starting out and trying to learn even a tiny portion of everything there is to learn.
Absolutely love your blog. Keep going!
Great post. I look forward to more discussions like this to provide examples and reinforce photographic concepts and techniques.
Wow, thanks everyone for the great feedback! Looks like I’ll be continuing these types of posts
I take plenty of “bad photos” each week, so it shouldn’t be a problem, heheh.
@Tony – Yeah, I was definitely happy with the sharpness of the head and thorax.. in fact, I think it might be the sharpest I’ve gotten so far with the 300mm. But, the somewhat out of focus abdomen really bothers me. You mentioned a good point about the importance of getting close when photographing insects: it really helps get that great out of focus background
@Debra – Haha, I do the same thing: when I mess up a photo and learn from my mistakes I usually go back to the same spot, hoping to encounter the same situation. It works most of the time, but sometimes it’s hard with migrating species (like the rufous hummingbirds or these meadowhawk dragonflies).
@macroinstantes – Your English is great! I see your point about there already being so many photos where the subject is sharp in front of an out of focus background. I think it really depends on your end goal too though: whether you’re just looking for a “documentary” photo or more of an artistic one. Neither one is necessarily better than the other, but definitely different goals.
@IonBuck – Thanks! Although I’m certainly happy with a few things about the photo (head/thorax sharpness), it didn’t come out completely as I had wished. But, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future to get my photo of a female variegated meadowhawk
@Marc – Thanks, with all this positive feedback, I’ll definitely be continuing these!
@cfincher – Thanks for mentioning the idea of critiquing reader photos, it’s something I’ve been thinking about adding as a regular post.. the one problem I’m seeing right now though is that for a lot of photos you really need to understand the surroundings to determine what went wrong.
@ACM – I agree, if the background was better, the abdomen wouldn’t be such a big deal (although it would still bother me a lot, heheh).
@Mike – I haven’t experimented with focusing rails yet, but it’s something I’ve been looking into lately. Thanks for mentioning them, I need to give them a closer look!
@Gary – Thanks, I’ll definitely be continuing this kind of post
@George – Good catch. I shot the photo with the camera on a tripod, but I left the ballhead loose. Although I couldn’t really check the sharpness of the abdomen out in the field (even after zooming in), I knew my camera wasn’t parallel to the dragonfly, so I knew it wasn’t gonna be sharp. I did try f/16 too, but that only made the background even more distracting.
@David – Thanks, I’ll definitely be writing more like this
@John – Haha, I agree — I would elevate this photo’s “goodness” if it was a rare species.. But, considering how common these guys are this time of year, I know I can do better
I’ll have to check out that Art Wolfe book, I’ve never heard of it, but I’m a huge fan of his photos. Thanks for recommending it!
@Kylie – Thanks! I think a lot of people (including me) learn a lot more by seeing actual examples, instead of reading general ideas, so that was one of my motivations for starting these types of posts. Glad you liked it, and I’m looking forward to writing more
@Joe – Thanks! I agree with Einstein, “Learning by example isn’t the best way to learn. It’s the only way to learn.”
I really liked it. I like the way you put it so that the fix for one problem would have made the other problem worse.
Dude you are crazy to find so much wrong with that photo. It’s amazing! The only ding I see is when you view large and look at her eyes you can see where there’s a little blown out portion just above the pupil. That 300 f/4 is an amazingly sharp lens. WOW!
Regarding failure — here’s a signature I use on one of the forums I visit:
“You never fail, you only produce results. Learn from them.” — Anonymous
@Zack – I absolutely love that quote, thanks for sharing it!
Hay Steve,
This is LOVELY post.. we see great photos from every photographer and say.. ahh… i wish i could… but if you post these kind of posts.. we will know how to make our “ordinary” photos into “good” one if not great!!
3 points: I consider the ONLY flaw with the image is the timing: her wings would have looked better more up: Moar Gooder Compisition, see…
Getting the sensor parallel with the subject-plane is simple, even without a tilt/shift camera: simply shoot wider glass, swing the *camera* so the sensor’s parallel, and crop away the other stuff ( yes I know that many suffer from the It Isn’t A Good Shot(tm) Unless ALL The Sensor Is Filled With Subject school, but as the phojos say “GET the shot!”, and this gives one neat shots of buildings & trees, too.. )
Or you can use http://FocusMagic.com to create focus where your glass couldn’t.
Finally, background-blur can be created in PS, and it’s BACKGROUND, so PSing it is fine.
Where’s the problem, then?
I only found your website today, and immediately added it to my feedreader.
Yes, please… this kind of posts is very unstructive, so I would be glad if you go on posting them!
Hello,
I am really excited about your website. I really find your posts helpful in the world of photography. I found here from your newer post on non focused moon in which that one also is a great post. Any way, thanks for your help and keep up the good posts.
Good Luck,
Hi!
I liked it very much. Please, continue with this kind of post.
Mr.Steve,This kind of interrogation of photos have been very benefical for the all of us.
Thank you so much.This type of reviews are very helpful for the people who are amateurs.
What you explained here is exactly true.Sincerely yours.
Most websites I visit show almost perfect shots ! I’m not learning anything from those ! This post shows what you don’t like about your shot, and more importantly, WHY !! More of these posts can only help Steve !!!!
I love your posts. Please keep doing this one. I often take photos then dont like something about them but have no clue how to fix a problem. This is helpful and much appreciated!
Hi,
I notice this is an older posting, but still of course very relevant. It’s encouraging when an accomplished photonaturalist like yourself, gives other aspiring photographers the chance to positively criticise your work, for the purpose of improving your images and our own.
I love the subject matter, and only recently became interested in the whole dragonfly family, from a photographers perspective. Your image I think captures the essence of the dragonfly beautifully, but as you’ve already conceded, the background is a little distracting, as it’s not been thrown far enough out of focus.
I can also spot another problem which has blighted some of my own efforts. I think when you took the shot, that there was a branch or twig or something obscuring the bottom part of the perch, and it’s been completely thrown out of focus, but it’s still visible.
Hopefully you will continue to post these type of images, as it’s obvious from the many responses, that it’s very popular with the readers.
Thanks again,
I want to see more posts like this one of the dragonfly. It helps me see and learn what is the difference between taking pictures and photography. I look at most pictures and don’t see what is wrong until the mistakes are pointed out to me.
Still learning,
and I want to do better.
Hi Steve,
Excellent post and very good Instructional Technique, get everyone involved and keep it simple.
Let’s have lots more please Steve.
Thanks very much.