Tips For Butterflies

Any suggestions on how to capture butterflies?

You tell me CF, it is a great capture. But it almost seems may I say artifical?? That is prob because of the extremely shallow DOF (which you nailed perfectly). Did you use a flash? Seems so.

GB

GB1,

Thanks for the comment. I appreciate it. No flash, late afternoon sun. I took several shots, most did not come out at all but I did get this and another of a monarch caterpillar, although I am sure that is not what they are called at that stage.

Thanks again.

CF

You already did a very good shoot here, maybe use a Macro lens next time and you will get more detail of the subject.

you don't need to get any closer (unless that is a crop). the reason i feel it looks kind of funny is because the entire length of the butterfly is in the narrow DOF, usually they don't line up perfectly and the back of the wings starts to fuzz out.

very nice color, and its great how it stands out from the back ground. not all your shots are going to turn out, if i came out with this shot after taking 50-100 i'd be happy. practice will get more better.

I was gonna say, you tell us! That's a GREAT shot! The clarity and colours are fantastic. Superb job!
So...are you gonna tell us?

CF, you don't need any help capturing butterflies - but if you were looking for notes on how to capture them in flight, Loupey has a thread in the Nature forum titled "Flying Insects - what works for me" - or something like that.

Hey, CF - great job getting the whole b'fly in the DOF. As Dylan mentioned, getting the whole thing in focus is not that easy to do :thumbsup:

I was thinking along GB's lines as well. I thought it was fill flashed too. But if you got it with natural lighting, all the better!

I like your composition and subject size (not all macros need/should be really close). The only pick I have is the background - the color is a bit too cool for the warmness of the butterfly and flowers.

We'd love to have you in the Nature/Wildlife Forum. You may get additional comments and helpful tips on photos like these over there :)

nice capture. If you're looking for improvements on this. The only thing that comes to mind is I think it would've looked better if the wings of the butterfly were a bit further apart to show the definition. Right now it looks like a single wing.

Other than that, I think the colours are very vibrant, inviting and very butterflyish. good job.

Thanks to all for your comments. I have been in Hawaii on vacation for over a week and not checking the web site. But, thanks for taking the time to comment, I really appreciate all the suggestions.

CF

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Coastal Flyer

Any suggestions on how to capture butterflies?

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I also thought that you used an hint of fill flash. The effect comes from the very white tonality of the light. I would normally expect sunlight to be warmer.

I think that it's been very well captured as people already said. I'd enjoy this photograph even more if it was a bit darker all arround but that's just me.

kudos

Seb

Thanks for the comment, Seb. I appreciate very much. I took many shot of butterflies that were covering this bush and just got lucky with this one.

CF

warm up the background, and maybe decrease teh saturation (it looks cool and oversaturated). cool shot!

Thanks very much for the comments. I appreciate it. The background , the gray, is surface of Pelican Lake in central Minnesota. I am a novice with PS so I don't know how to warm up the background. But, I understand and appreciate the suggestion.

CF