Butterflies - DPChallenge Forums

06/01/2006 10:21:03 PM · #1

Went to the Butterfly show with Marjo tonight. It was rainy and cloudy so there was very little activity and very few butterflies to photograph. I felt fortunate to get three as good as these. Comments welcome.

Got to a few more this morning:

Message edited by author 2006-06-02 10:00:01.

06/02/2006 08:41:49 AM · #2

good morning. bump.

idnic

Canon EOS-60D

06/02/2006 08:59:33 AM · #3

Very pretty, Judy. Great color and detail. :)

06/02/2006 09:06:25 AM · #4

Hey Judy, These look great! Had alot of fun even if the butterflies were hiding. It was actually pretty comical in there. A butterfly would surface and everyone would follow it around and then swarm it...click, click, click....

Glad to see you recovered your corrupt data!

Message edited by author 2006-06-02 09:14:03.

06/02/2006 09:14:53 AM · #5

Originally posted by Marjo:

It was pretty funny. I told Marj it was like a game of "Where's Waldo" trying to find butterflies amongst all the foliage.

Marjo...I want to see some of your shots! I haven't been through all of mine yet. By the way, it seems it was just that one file on my cf that was bad. When I put the card in my reader at home, all the files except for that last one came up fine. (whew!)

theSaj

Canon EOS-20D

06/02/2006 09:57:41 AM · #6

I went to a butterfly farm in Aruba. Haven't looked at the photos yet to see if any came out. But if so, I'll post them here...

- Saj

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

06/02/2006 10:05:14 AM · #7

edited first post to add a few more shots.

gaurawa

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

06/02/2006 10:06:05 AM · #8

I left you comments. Most of them are a bit soft. You may want to sharpen after resize.

06/02/2006 10:11:35 AM · #9

Originally posted by gaurawa:

I left you comments. Most of them are a bit soft. You may want to sharpen after resize.

Yep. I did sharpen after resize. Any more PS sharpening and it starts to show (haloing etc.) I think I'd rather then a bit soft than to have that weird over-sharpened look. With the exception of I think the one in the white flowers, these were hand held. I'm still getting used to the weight of this camera and I think that is part of what makes it a bit soft. Also, I'm still figuring out the focus points.

Thanks for the comments!

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 USM

06/02/2006 11:30:48 AM · #10

Adding more. I don't see any award winning shots from me. I need to learn to focus more and talk less. lol I was going for a very shallow dof, either the eyes or the wings...didn't do too well. It was a good experinece shooting amongst a quantity of photographers (one who had a rather large head about 1/4" away from the butterfly) all going for the winner. Now I know what it'd feel like to shoot in the real world.
Tip of the hat to all the professional shooters! ;)

saj, would love to see your shots.

ourwebstop

Canon EOS-20D

06/02/2006 12:02:09 PM · #11

jpochard,

Those are some nice shots. I see what you mean about the soft focus here and there. I've fooled with butterfly shots at the zoo too. I don't know what lens you used, but what I found works best was a bit counter-intuitive (at least to me). I used my 75-300 and backed way up. Comparing the shots from closer up, the telephotos from across the room seemed to look better every time. I think the dof is a little longer, so I was able to get the whole butterfly in focus, but it's short enough to give a nice oof background. I love those "metalic" blue butterflies -- I wish they'd had some of those when I was at the zoo.

I'm no expert, so please take all this for what it's worth. I'll say, though, that most of my butterfly pictures would look pretty funny if they were zoomed out just a tad -- you'd see where I was shooting under people's arms, between their legs, through the straps of their purses, etc. Everybody was up close looking/photographing the butterflies while I stood back and tried to shoot around them!

Brian

Message edited by author 2006-06-02 12:03:04.

06/02/2006 02:04:33 PM · #12

Brian, All three of yours look great. Very crisp. Great job!

06/02/2006 04:26:31 PM · #13

Brian and Marj,

What great shots! Maybe this will become the official butterfly photos thread :)

Marj, I really love that blue one. Your lighting worked much better than mine.

Patents4u

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

06/02/2006 05:30:47 PM · #14

This is the only one in my portfolio...