Painted Lady Butterfly

[Allen Sparks]

Canon 40D, Sigma 150 mm macro with Tamron Pro 1.4 teleconverter
ISO 400, 1/1000, f13, hand held

[Julie Brown]

Allen, nice composition, colors, butterfly position, sharpness.

The 150mm + 1.4x TC macro gives you more distance, yet still have the 1:1?

This gives me an idea-use my 1.4x TC with my 100mm macro-no IS so the limitation would be to have good light. Can I even use the TC with the 100mm macro?:confused:

[Allen Sparks]

Julie, I use the 1.4 teleconverter to give me more working distance as you mention and get up even closer than 1:1 if I need to (i.e. tiny hoverflies or dragonfly head shots). I think using a high quality teleconverter is a must and yes I think one would work well with your 100mm macro. I have had good results with the Tamron Pro SP 1.4 teleconverter which is designed for lenses that are at least 90mm and at least f2.8 wide open aperture. I really don't notice a difference in using this combo versus the naked lens. I think using a lower quality teleconverter would lessen the image sharpness, etc.

My 150mm macro plus 1.4 teleconverter makes this combo an effective 210mm f4 macro set up. I find the extra working distance helps alot when shooting insects.

[Markus Jais]

Can I even use the TC with the 100mm macro?:confused:

@Julie: You can use the Canon EF 2.8/100 USM Macro (I think you mean that lens) with the 1.4x extender but you have to use an extension tube as well.
See here on my website for more details:

http://markusjaisphoto.com/lenses/using-the-canon-ef-100mm-f28-macro-usm-with-a-14x-extender/

That combination works pretty well and gives very good results.


Markus

[Markus Jais]

I like the picture. Great colors in the flower and the green in the BG is also great. The orange is a great match for the breen BG.

Markus

[Ken Childs]

Allen, the butterfly is a beauty! Clean and sharp. The only problem I see is that the flower is so much brighter than the bfly and it's in the ROT position so my eye keeps getting pulled away from the main subject of the photo.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Allen, great looking subject, excellent detasils and a good looking BG. Well done.

[Ken Childs]

I thought I'd try a different crop. I also lightened and sharpened the eye a bit more. Let me know what you think.

[Julie Brown]

Allen I like your second post better. It takes care of the part of the flower that was OOF. The eye is sharper. I like to crop butterflies tight-I think it helps to showcase the bug.:)

Thanks to you and Markus for the info regarding macros and TCs.:D

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Very lovely, I like the repost it seems to put more emphasis on the BF. Great BG and sharpness.

[Myer Bornstein]

Excellent picture and good info re telecoverters with macro lens

[Allen Sparks]

Julie, You need to thank Ken for the repost. He did it...not me. I like Ken's rework and that is actually the way I usually shoot butterflies - full in the frame regardless if the flower is cut off or not. I was just trying something different with this shot...I rarely back off the subject and try a wider view but I did for this shot.

[Julie Brown]

oops!:o sorry Allen. I do like your image!:)

[Vida van der Walt]

Hi Allen. Beautiful image. Love the colours, nice detail and lovely BF. If you wanted to keep the vertical crp you could also rotate and clone the empty bits of bg (perhaps you have more bg in the original and don't need to clone) I did a quick rework to illustrate.:)

[Allen Sparks]

Thanks Vida. I like your rework also. I actually chose the original crop to match an 11 by 14 print size without losing too much resolution. I plan on entering this shot in my camera club's monthly competition and need that dimension for the print.

[Julie Kenward]

It a beautiful butterfly image, Allen - good luck with the composition. One thing I thought of that you might not feel "ethical" about doing is to change the orange of the flower to have a little more rose/red tone so it would more closely match the bright spot in the bf - helping to keep the eye from moving to the brighter orange flower. Don't know if that's "allowed" in your composition but you might kick the idea around.

[Allen Sparks]

Julie, thank you for the suggestion. Changing the color to match the butterfly is an interesting thought but I'm not sure that would be allowed in my club's rules...plus I have already made the print! It will score well enough I guess (but probably not well enough to win!) ...but actually I need for Spring to get here soon as I am scraping the bottom of the barrel for new entries each month.

[Ken Childs]

If you want a flower that goes well with Lady Butterfly species, plant some Purple Coneflowers. They're a wonderful color match. :)