[The Edge]

I liked the pattern of the colours around the toy's eye, and had a play with exposure compensation at te same time

I used 50mm f1.8 with 31mm tube in the first and all three tubes in the second.

I took loads of pics, these two are the best IMO, my favorite is the first.





Unfortunatley the eye was a little dusty which didn't help the second shot - nothing a little PS work can't fix i suppose

[Matty]

damn Peace Beanie babies.......

great detail in those, very impressive

[The Edge]

Thanks

any other critique welcome

[Steve]

On my laptop they seem blown out and have lost a lot of the detail that is in the fir. Unfortunately the bright blown out sections are distracting. The other problem that is occurring here is the relationship and combination of a very shallow depth of field that you get with using extension tubes and your subject choice. For this type of photography to work the subject either has to be a very strong abstract or something that is detailed, instantly recognisable and grabs your attention without you trying to work out what it is. There is not enough detail in the black eye and not enough depth of field to consider the colours in the fir as part of the subject.

Hopefully that is a little helpful?

[The Edge]

They are blown out semi intentionally

When i did them i wasn't sure if it would work as a subject because correctly exposed it looked grey and uninteresting, while the shots i've posted were - IMO - more attractive.

I suppose it would almost be better were the whole lot out of focus as therre is then no highly detailed bit to distract from the colours?

Keep it coming, this is useful stuff