Scarce Swallowtail

[Adrian David]

Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius)

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/5226/scarceswallowtail.jpg

Camera Model : NIKON D300
Exposure Time : 1/500 sec
F Number : 11.0
Exposure Program : Aperature Priority
ISO Speed : 400
Exposure Bias Value : 0.-2
Max Aperture Value : 3.2
Metering Mode : Multi Segment
Light Source : Auto
Flash : Flash was not fired
Focal Length : 105.0 mm
Sensing Method : One-chip color area sensor
Lens : Nikkor 105mm F:2,8 VR

[Fabs Forns]

Very sweet capture, nice and sharp and well exposed. The bud in the left is too close to the frame to be of help to the image. Either have more room, or crop away as a distraction.

[Randy Stout]

Adrian:

Very nice control of plane of focus, DOF. Great sharpness and detail.

Agree with Fabs about the bud on left. I would probably crop it out, but I tend to go fairly tight on comp.


Thanks for sharing.

Randy

[Julie Kenward]

Adrian, you have a beautiful specimen there! I'm wondering why you chose f11 for your aperture? It appears you were on a pretty even focal plane with the way the butterfly was presented - I bet you could have dropped down to f4 or 5.6 and still maintained your DOF but had a smoother and less detailed BG.

I also vote to crop the bud on the left - let the butterfly be the star of the show!

[Adrian David]

Here is the cropped version...

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/9346/scarceswallowtailcrop.jpg

Thank you very much for your suggestions and comments!

Julie, when you use a macro lens of 105mm, is very tricky with DOF.It is very, very narrow.You just have a few seconds when the butterfly stays with his wings wide open and really in focal plane! You are really close to the butterfly (about 0,5 meters) and he is not very "happy" about it...:)
All the butterflies that I have photographed, are in the wild, not in some butterflies farm, so you have wind, sun, and many other insects which can interfere with your subject.Also, the BG is very close to the subject, so there isn't much to do about it...All my photos with butterflies were taken hand-held...Please don't get me wrong! This is not an excuse...I am very glad that I get so many suggestions and attention!!! I am still learning with every shot I take, and I want to improve my work...Thank you very much, Julie, for the kind words and suggestions!!!

[Julie Kenward]

Julie, when you use a macro lens of 105mm, is very tricky with DOF.It is very, very narrow.You just have a few seconds when the butterfly stays with his wings wide open and really in focal plane! You are really close to the butterfly (about 0,5 meters) and he is not very "happy" about it...:)
All the butterflies that I have photographed, are in the wild, not in some butterflies farm, so you have wind, sun, and many other insects which can interfere with your subject.Also, the BG is very close to the subject, so there isn't much to do about it...All my photos with butterflies were taken hand-held...


Adrian, I realize all of this. I do own a macro lens myself and I have taken photos of butterflies both in open and closed areas with a comparable 100mm macro lens. Each setting offers different opportunities and different challenges as does any image we create - anywhere, any time.

I still stand behind my original comment because I do believe with a 100mm macro lens, handheld, even f4 would have done the trick had you been, as I mentioned, on an even focal plane with the butterfly (as it appears you were here). I hope you understand that I offered that comment as a way for you to think about the next butterfly images you create - that perhaps a smoother and cleaner BG could be achieved with a wider open aperture and still capture the butterfly in all its glory.

You are certainly free to take - or leave - that advice. I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with in the future!

[Adrian David]

Adrian, I realize all of this. I do own a macro lens myself and I have taken photos of butterflies both in open and closed areas with a comparable 100mm macro lens. Each setting offers different opportunities and different challenges as does any image we create - anywhere, any time.

I still stand behind my original comment because I do believe with a 100mm macro lens, handheld, even f4 would have done the trick had you been, as I mentioned, on an even focal plane with the butterfly (as it appears you were here). I hope you understand that I offered that comment as a way for you to think about the next butterfly images you create - that perhaps a smoother and cleaner BG could be achieved with a wider open aperture and still capture the butterfly in all its glory.

You are certainly free to take - or leave - that advice. I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with in the future!

Julie, it was not at all, my intention to criticize your advice!!! Please understand that I am at the very beginning of understanding the relationship between the different settings of the aperture and the final result reflected on the taken photo.I need my own trial and errors, to get it right. All I have said above was my own, personal experience, with this kind of situation, which is very very limited.In the field, my "reaction time" to adapt settings to various situations, is not that great, but I hope it will become much better in time.The fact that you give me so much attention and guidance is very encouraging for me, and very much appreciated.For me, the time dedicated to photography is very short, because of my work.It is limited to the weekends, and in the past months, the weather was regularly bad, exactly in the weekends...:( So my learning curve is a little slow...I am very grateful for the time you spend to give me some of your knowledge, and I appreciate it very much!!!
Please forgive me, if I have offended you in any way! It was not my intention! I was trying to explain what I have done in that photo-session...And may be my English is not that good, and I make some mistakes. Please forgive me for that! This is also a reason that I don't write many comments on the other threads, the language barrier, and the lack of experience...
Thank you, again, for all the advices you gave me! I hope to learn much more from you and from this wonderful community, which has no equal on the whole World Wide Web!

Adrian.

[Julie Kenward]

Adrian, you most certainly did NOT offend or upset me...I was afraid you might read my comment as such. I only wanted to remind you that I understand the conditions you are working in and I still thought my comment was valid and would work in some situations when you are out in the field. I am in no way offended by your comments. I was simply stating that whether you stop down or not is totally up to you as it is your artistic creative process and my advice is just that - advice!

Now go enjoy your day!

[Anita Bower]

Beautiful butterfly. For all the reasons mentioned above, I do not even attempt butterflies. I have mixed feelings about the BG and the flower on the left. Compositionally, the second, cropped image is stronger. In the first image, however, I like seeing more of the natural setting in which this butterfly lives. The BG could be more blurred, but, it doesn't bother me as is.

[Bob Allen]

This photo rocks and I'm jealous that it isn't mine. The swallowtails here in the western US commonly nectar from thistles as well. What a beautiful butterfly! My wife is going to Romania next year; I'll tell her to look out for it ;7)

Love the new cropped version. Less DOF would have resulted in the flowerhead being blurred. Part of the photo's value is that the flowerhead is entirely in focus, thus your use of f/11 (f/9 or 8 may have worked but you played it safe, as do I). When making the choice of DOF, I always go for more DOF. Why? In post-processing, one can always blur a busy background but one cannot add more DOF. In my world (mostly field guides, texts, natural history museums), images with shallow DOF go right into the waste bin. Of course, that choice depends on your intended use of a photo and your personal choice.