Orange tip (F)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 7D Canon 180mm macro ISO 640 1/640 sec f11
Had a tough time with these critters I tried the tripod then went without it then with it. This one is hand held.
All C&C welcome.

[John Robinson]

Hi Jon
Certainly plenty of these about at the moment. Thsi is a bit big in the frame for me to be honest and you don't say if its a crop. Lately I,ve been racking out more to get a smaller image and the benefits with DOF is amazing.
Going from the head to the right seems to get a little softer especially on the right hand side of the wings.and I think f11 is pushing it a bit.

(Stick that little poppy up flashy thingy !!!!)
I,m using mine more and more.
Cheers
john
Sorry to appear a bit negative but just being honest.

[Jonathan Ashton]

That's fine John no problem, I realize it is far from perfect but to be honest I was just glad to get a shot in the bag! It was a breezy day it started calm then as they became more visible the breeze picked up. I often use flash as fill in but I didn't on this occasion. It is full frame apart from a crop on the LHS where I removed a grass stem. I suppose I could easily have added canvas and recomposed just too eager to get a post in I guess!

[Jonathan Ashton]

For illustrative purposes I attach the same butterfly in the same place as the posted image above. It illustrates John's point over DOF - the butterfly is sharper from head to tip but the consequence was the back ground. This was the principal reason for going in so tight.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jon. Excellent sharpness within your DOF for handholding on a windy day and I like what you were able to achieve with the background - after viewing your second image. All those stems made this a rather challenging situation which you handled well. You might try some additional selective sharpening on the wingtips to see if that helps.
Great minds Steve (I did). Just realised I do in fact have a better image, I obviously posted this one too hastily!