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View Full Version : Butterfly at the Fred Meijer Gardens



Gary Esman
03-07-2010, 07:56 PM
Hello, first time posing in this forum. Very curious as to what you think.

50D, 70-200 is 2.8 lens, f/2.8, ISO 640, Fill in flash, 1/200.

Thanks for looking!

Julie Kenward
03-07-2010, 09:13 PM
Welcome to our forum, Gary! I've been to Meijer's Garden twice while visiting my best friend (who lives in Cedar Springs.) That place is awesome!

I know how hard it is to get a good butterfly photo in a place like this - did you take this indoors or outdoors? My guess would be indoors because it looks a little more like indoor lighting and you chose f2.8 as your aperture - probably trying to keep the background from getting too much attention.

To my eye, the butterfly is a little bit soft and the one antenna is really out of focus (OOF). Try stopping down next time to f4 or 5.6 and see if you don't get a little more DOF on the butterfly while still leaving the BG blurred.

From a composition standpoint I'd take a good chunk off the left side of the frame, bringing the butterfly more to the left and offsetting him in the overall comp. Another thing to consider would be darkening the lighter areas at the base of the frame below the butterfly so they don't draw the eye away.

Good to have you with us...looking forward to more images!

Randy Stout
03-07-2010, 09:24 PM
Gary:

Glad you got to go. Julie gave great advice. It is really tough to shoot there without using flash as your main light, unless it is really bright. The DOF is always an issue. I usually shoot at least f/8, and many times f/11, to have any chance of getting the whole butterfly in focus. I have had some days, when it was bright, that the flash was just for fill, but most of the times, it becomes the main light. I try to drag the shutter to allow some background detail.

Cheers

Randy

Vida van der Walt
03-08-2010, 11:50 AM
Welcome Gary! Good advice by Jules and Randy. Lovely warm colours in this and looking forward to more images from you.:)

Ken Childs
03-09-2010, 12:48 PM
Hey Gary, welcome to the macro forum!

In addition to what Jules suggested. I'd consider taking a little off the bottom. Also, lightening up and sharpening the eye would help.