Dun skipper on weedy flower

[LindaHarden]

CC welcome. This is the first Dun skipper I have seen this year.. It kept moving but I finally got this one in fairly good focus. Hand held.

camera = Nikon D90, lens = Sigma 150 macro newest, flash = SB700 with diffusion dome.
ISO = 200, Aperture = F14 and exposure is 1/250s, EV = -.3
In Capture NX2 this was my first attempt at setting black and white points and curves. Increased EV to +1, it has a little noise reduction and sharpening and is cropped at least 50%. I cloned out a flower on the bottom. thanks for looking.


https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-lSDceONZow4/T_Q1Um9OhJI/AAAAAAAAABg/GOiMavXhZLI/s800/DSC_6748%2520D90%2520Dun%2520V4.JPG

[Jonathan Ashton]

The image stabilisation appears to work well. The eye is sharp but the wings appear a little less than sharp, maybe a little more sharpening would help but I suspect the plane of focus is slightly out of kilter and if you are out of focus well you are out of focus. I am not too sure why you underexposed the image, if it was for the small flower heads I think you could have recovered them. The colours and composition are very good indeed... keep them coming!!

[LindaHarden]

Thanks... i have a habit of shooting at EV -.3 to prevent blown highlights but now that I am getting better at post processing I have decided reset the EV to 0 for this weekend's shooting. I also tend to forget to check for needed adustment shooting manual for the flash which might be why it was underexposed by over a stop. I should probably get more brave at lightening up the photos in processing too. I sure wish I knew a trick for always getting the wing in focus ... this was one of my better ones but I see it is soft at the tip... i may just take more practice. I've been wondering if I should just back up a step to increase DOF.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Linda for what it is worth I use Canon and I would underexpose butterflies like whites and common blues if they appear (and usually do) brighter than the surroundings, i.e. I expose for the highlights. When using flash, which I now tend to use as little as possible I use it at -1.3 to 1.66. Skippers I would tend to use fill in flash out of preference. You are correct in assuming you would get greater DOF as you move back as DOF is directly related to magnification regardless of lens type). I think in this image your plane of focus was slightly out, f14 would have provided sufficient DOF I would have thought.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Linda. Jonathan has given you some good suggestions above. The skipper gave you an excellent pose, you have good sharpness within your DOF, good comp and background, and the use of flash is not evident (i.e., the lighting looks very natural). I agree that the wing tips are a little soft, but I think you have enough detail there that some additional selective sharpening will result in a marked improvement. On my monitor, the background below the skipper is a little blotchy (where you cloned out the flower?). I would suggest trying to blend that in a little better. You might trying cloning at a low opacity (say around 30% or less) until things are smoothed out. :S3: You're doing great - keep them coming!

[LindaHarden]

Thank you Jonathon for the follow-up and also Steve... I hope to put these ideas to good use in my butterfly hunts this weekend. I'm also going to re-process the Dun Skipper with the processing suggestions.

[Allen Sparks]

Linda, nice image with a pleasing background. Good points already made by Jonathan and Steve. Keep them coming!

[Bob Miller]

Hi linda....another good shot! Your bg is handled nicely ( and bg is as important as subject). To get everything sharp you must take care that the angle of the back of your camera is parallel to the subject..... the slightest angle will throw your focus off. Now that said......also try bracketing your f stops as dof is extremely limited as you get close with a macro........but remember to use your dof preview ......if you have one ......so that your soft wash bg is not spoiled

[LindaHarden]

Thank you all for advice and comments. I did go back and process the image again and was able to achieve better results. I have been a slow convert to post processing..