Day 9 : Residue
by ShaneBlake

Comment:
Excellent! Looks like a burn. This is a great magnification and the detail rocks. Not thrilled by the right side of the image. Think this should have been cropped.

Day 7 : Ripe
by ShaneBlake

Comment:
LOL looks like a Martian plant that just spewed its spores! Excellent detail and focal position. Like the color reproduction everything here seems to work well. The light confuses the eye, making it look less like an indented area and more like a flattened surface.

Day 6 : Revved
by ShaneBlake

Comment:
Cool image. Like to see you take that ribbon winner from a few weeks ago and duplicate it with this car! Nice detail and DOF. Like the green reflection in the spokes.

Day 5 : Resilient
by ShaneBlake

Comment:
Excellent macro. Great focus and positioning in the crop. Nice that there is a lighting gradient in the background. Adds an extra dimension to the image. Great job.

macro.jpg
by icu1965

Comment:
Yup. It's harsh/sharp/bright, but there are things you can do to resolve that.

If you have PS, take the original and duplicate the layer.
Set that duplicate to Filter/Highpass (3-9 px)
Set that layer to overlay
Edit/Fade to a point where there are no halos, but it still pops off the screen.

This type of sharp tends to have less of a piercing effect on metal and high contrast images.

macro5.jpg
by icu1965

Comment:
Great job of lighting this and not getting extreme hot spots all over the reflector! Nice focus/DOF. A square crop including the whole of the light might place more emphasis on the center bulb. This one would do well with a slight noise reduction and a boost on the bright to make it look like you used a higher exposure range.

macro6.jpg
by icu1965

Comment:
I like this a lot. Plenty of light and great exposure to prevent that red cast that is happening in the rest of your series. Like the differences in the sharpening. Would have been a mistake to resharpen them. This is a great capture of the essence of an artist. Would remove only the sticker from the pencil in the 3 o'clock position.

macro8.jpg
by icu1965

Comment:
Suffers slightly from red-shift due to low light. I like the setup here and would love to see this one shot again at just a slightly higher angle, from a tripod and slightly overexposed. DOF is great. Really want to see the color reproduction look pastel-ish.

macro9.jpg
by icu1965

Comment:
I like the concept of this image. The leading and diminishing perspective line here offers a lot of interest. Can you keep the same angle, fan these out a bit to enhance the far end's termination and place them on a contrasting color/colors background that is muted enough to not challenge the main subject? Maroon as opposed to red, amber instead of yellow. Sharp as heck focus on those unsharpened ends with fading DOF (f7 or 8) and a focused light that casts shadows just so slightly? Maybe even have one of them sharpened?

macro10.jpg
by icu1965

Comment:
Agree with JR. Shadow is the key here. Focus is a bit off, but I suspect this is due to a handheld long exposure. How can you place this loop in a classic macro position, still capture it as a focal point, use an f16 aperture and targeted light to show off that loop shadow? (Tripod, Penlight or reflector and something to support the tool while you frame the whole...)