More Butterfly Shots

[Don Schaeffer]

Using the ProOptic 500 mm f6.3 mirror lens. Camera at /1200 second.

[n8]

The last one has potential with the softness and luminescence of the plants, but the noise in the butterfly takes away from that to me. Can you mask it out?

[rebcastillo77]

I agree with n8 about the noise, but I like the composition of the photos!

[Don Schaeffer]

I always get noise. I use a noise filter in Paintshop Pro but it doesn't quite do it. This was at f6.3 and iso 1600.

[armando_m]

Really like the flying butterfly !

Can I post the results after passing it thru noiseware (freeware version) and adding some contrast ?

[Don Schaeffer]

The more I mess with it the less precise it gets. I tried everything.

[n8]

I know the d40 can get noisy at 1600, and I'm guessing you're having to shoot at that to get a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the wings, but the d40 also has a flash sync of 1/500, which should do a fairly good job of freezing for you. Just a thought.

[Loupey]

Don, I won't sugercoat it - these do not appeal to me. The noise is extremely distracting.

It appears that you had sufficient lighting but it also appears that these are highly cropped and highly processed in addition to being highly ISO'ed - all of which, independently, can degrade the image quality.

The subjects in these images are quite approachable and I think you would have had better results by using one of your other lenses, shooting at low ISO, and getting closer.

I hope to not come across too strongly here. But if you really want to improve, you should take some comments to heart offered to you over the years here.

[Don Schaeffer]

Thanks Loupey. I will try the 50mm f1.8.