My yearly macro outing!

[Randy Stout]

Good day all:

Each year in the early spring I try to go to the local butterfly conservatory in Grand Rapids, MI. This is said to be the largest temporary display of butterflies in the US.

Can be a challenge, as no tripods, monopods or other visible means of support:t3

Michigan winters/early spring are usually very dreary, and this day was no exception.

D700 Sigma 180 f/11 1/320s ISO 500 SB800 as master, SB800 on Wimberley macro bracket as slave, 0 on master, -1 EC on slave

Post:
CS5 selective sharpening, even out some dark areas in BG

My biggest issue with the image is that I was slightly out of plane top to bottom, although pretty good side to side. This has left the abdomen and lower wing edge out of focus.

I thought that the lighting was reasonable for a flashed image with little ambient light available.

Advice always appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

[Michael Lloyd]

I like the way that you controlled the flash. Nicely done.

[bhavya joshi]

Yeah.. Lower part of wings is little bit out of focus. but... Good shot..Randy..
Good work, Without tripod It is Challenging, you done perfect..
BG also nice,
Keep going...:S3:

[Norm Dulak]

Nice capture Randy.

I presume that you meant in your posting that tripods and other support means were not permitted in the conservatory. Thus, the use of flash was probably needed to obtain the results you have here. What I find interesting is your use of two powerful SB-800 strobes, one uncompensated, the other mildly so. But the result was very good.

One question: were the two strobes positioned one over the other, or was the slave laterally displaced?

The white blossom on which your butterfly perched and the similar blossom to the right of it lack detail, and the background is somewhat busy, but that's OK with me.

Well done!

[Randy Stout]

Nice capture Randy.

I presume that you meant in your posting that tripods and other support means were not permitted in the conservatory. Thus, the use of flash was probably needed to obtain the results you have here. What I find interesting is your use of two powerful SB-800 strobes, one uncompensated, the other mildly so. But the result was very good.

One question: were the two strobes positioned one over the other, or was the slave laterally displaced?

The white blossom on which your butterfly perched and the similar blossom to the right of it lack detail, and the background is somewhat busy, but that's OK with me.

Well done!

Norm:
Tripods aren't allow, all hand held.
I use a Wimberley macro bracket which is articulated, and I have the slave 3-4 inches the side of the front of the lens, with a small soft box over the head. Hence the softer light than you would expect with those powerful flashes.

Thanks for pointing out the detail loss in the flowers. I will try a linear burn selection to see if I can recover anything.

Randy

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Randy,
As mentioned above you did well with the flashes! I think some more smoothing out of the BG will help. You may want to also try a bit less SS. You can probably HH down to 1/125 of a seconds or so or at least 1/160 givng you another full stop ...then adding that to the f-stop fo rthat bit more DOF. Just some things to keep in mind when out at these type of locations!

[Norm Dulak]

Norm:
Tripods aren't allow, all hand held.
I use a Wimberley macro bracket which is articulated, and I have the slave 3-4 inches the side of the front of the lens, with a small soft box over the head. Hence the softer light than you would expect with those powerful flashes.

Thanks for pointing out the detail loss in the flowers. I will try a linear burn selection to see if I can recover anything.

Randy

Thanks, Randy, for the further information.

As for the loss of detail in the whites, what I do in such cases is to try S&H in PS CS5. I tried it here on the attached copy of your image, setting the shadows and highlights at 15 and 60%, respectively. I think it brought out some more detail in the whites, and might arguably have helped the light patch on the butterfly's proximal wing a bit.

Anyway, thanks for the very nice image you've posted.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks Norm, appreciate the repost, will have to go back and rethink this one a bit.

Randy

[Randy Stout]

Hey Randy,
As mentioned above you did well with the flashes! I think some more smoothing out of the BG will help. You may want to also try a bit less SS. You can probably HH down to 1/125 of a seconds or so or at least 1/160 givng you another full stop ...then adding that to the f-stop fo rthat bit more DOF. Just some things to keep in mind when out at these type of locations!


Roman:

I was 'dragging the shutter' to adjust the relative brightness of the BF while letting the flash light the subject. I tend to worry about the smaller f/stops increasing the apparent clutter in the background, but the increase in DOF at macro distances is so slight that this is probably a silly concern. Sometimes I have to get my mind reset for macro since I do it so seldom..

R1C1 supposed to arrive tomorrow, so pretty excited to give it a spin.

Thanks for the input, and look forward to the BG help.

Cheers

Randy

[Ken Childs]

Hey Randy, it's nice to see you pop in here for a visit! Actually the butterfly itself looks pretty good to me. I think that a contrast boost on the eye and a little spot clean up is all it needs. You might consider a small CW rotation and if this were mine, I'd try to do some more evening out of the BG.

I assume you have more shots from this expedition so I'm looking forward to seeing them :S3:

[Brendan Dozier]

Good detail and contrast on this one, Randy. Nice work doing it all handheld, repost looks great! I have yet to capture my first butterfly...

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Randy. Nice to have you drop by! You have very good detail and exposure on your butterfly (as you can appreciate, it's hard to expose for both blacks and whites). The softer focus on the lower portion of the butterfly is not a deal breaker for me - you might experiment with some selective sharpening in those areas. I like the added detail in the flowers in Norm's repost, but prefer the butterfly itself in the OP. As suggested above, a little more smoothing of the background will take this up a notch. I hope to see more macro images from you. :S3: