A more conventional image

[Don Lacy]

Here is another Birdwing butterfly taken at butterfly world. I had herd of and seen Birdwings on nature shows but never thought I would see one in person and was ecstatic when on my four or fifth trip to Butterfly World they had these guys in the aviary. I am still amazed when i go there to see Butterflies with 7 inch wing spans flying around.

[Dave Mills]

Beautiful image! Nice backround and the subject is sharp and a nice specimen.

[Anita Bower]

Lovely colors. I like the blurred background which makes this butterfly stand out. The diagonal lines are pleasing. Well composed. Lovely! What fun to be able to go to a place where you can enjoy these beauties.
Anita

[Julie Kenward]

Don, that's pretty much perfection. Your depth of focus is great - can see every detail of the butterfly and yet the background is totally OOF. Your colors are bright without being oversaturated. You've got a great crop and a bit of the bf's natural habitat included.

I would like for you to add the original exif data for the camera, lens, aperture and speed so others can learn from your image! This is really nicely made.

[Don Lacy]

[QUOTE=Julie Kenward
I would like for you to add the original exif data for the camera, lens, aperture and speed so others can learn from your image! This is really nicely made.[/QUOTE]

Image was made with a 30D and 300 f/4 IS hand held, since this is a grab and go shooting environment I set the camera to aperture priority and evaluative metering so I could make exposure adjustments quickly and control the DOF.
I also wanted to blend flash and natural light so I choose ISO 400 to keep shutter speeds up and used a 550 EX in ETTL mode set to 0 comp with a Lumiquest diffuser to soften light from the flash. I went with 0 comp on the flash unit knowing that dark subjects would be exposed to the right which I could correct in the RAW conversion and white subjects would need little to no compensation. As it turn out when I converted this using ACR I had to dial in -0.45 exposure and +51 recovery.
The actual exposure numbers were 1/200 at f/5 and while the numbers are useful I think knowing how and why they were chosen more valuable as a learning experience. This is a great sight Julie I hope this is helpful to others just starting out.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Don, all the elemnts look great. Good sharp details, composition, and BG are very well done.

[Gus Cobos]

Excellent Don,
I like the composition, image and capture. I like the sharp details and color rendition on the butterfly...good show...:cool: