Isabella Toger Longwing - Justaredandyellowbutterfly

[Scottes]

Isabella Toger Longwing (Isabella Eueides) taken at a local butterfly house. Canon 10D, Sigma 105mm Macro, 420 EX with Lumiquest Ultrasoft, f/10, 1/160, FEC +2/3, ISO 100

In many ways this looks underexposed to me, but so far I've taken about 40 pictures of one of these guys across 3 outings and today was the first time I got yellow in the wing like it is in real life.

I have a tendency to visit these butterfly houses on dismal or rainy days - why waste the sun? - so I tend to be very dependent on flash when I shoot them. (They'll be outside soon, I hope.) The 420 EX is not fun when you're totally dependent on flash - a 550 EX is starting to look very useful. I've found a good diffusion device to be very helpful with dark butterfly houses due to the glare of their scales. The OmniBounce doesn't do much, the Lumiquest Pocket Bounce is still too harsh this close because it doesn't diffuse. The Lumiquest Ultrasoft seems to be pretty darn good.


Of course all this goes out the window when I start chasing them outside in the sun. :)

Any comments or critiques about the picture or the above prattle is appreciated.

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/IsabellaTiger750_3681.jpg

[shniks]

Its beautiful, I feel I can almost reach over and touch it.

[IanD]

Really nice capture. Colours are excellent.

[stoneylonesome]

Great shot, you are so right outside in the garden FORGET IT they just fly around to darn fast :lol:

[JZaun]

Yep I'm gonna have to pay more attention If I hope to learn how do get great butterfly shots like that one :D

JZ

[Laziferous]

Nicely done Scott!

[Scottes]

Yep I'm gonna have to pay more attention If I hope to learn how do get great butterfly shots like that one

We'll trade - you show me how to take pictures of flowers, and I'll show you how to take pictures of butterflies.

It's taken me long enough to get an idea of how to shoot butterflies... I've probably got 500+ photos of butterflies under my belt. You'd think it would be easy to get a good picture in a butterfly house...

[PhotosGuy]

Nice shot!

[PacAce]

Scott, that's a nice picture of the butterfly. And the lighting is just right. Thanks for the tip on the Lumiquest Ultrasoft. I'm going to look into it myself.

Re the exposure, I think it's just perfect. If you were to go any brighter you would definitely blow the red and lose the natural looking yellow color and the details in it.

[Scottes]

Scott, that's a nice picture of the butterfly. And the lighting is just right. Thanks for the tip on the Lumiquest Ultrasoft. I'm going to look into it myself.

Take a look at their softboxes, too, and decide. I like the Ultrasoft because it folds up and it's up higher and with the 420 EX you can tilt it down a little to "aim" it to closer macro subjects. But if you have positionable macro flash bracket then one of their softboxes might be nice.

Also note that in full-forward position the flash matches the lens length, whereas if the flash is tilted it's always set at 50mm, thus spreading and diffusing the light more. Since the softbox forces the flash to straight forward it will be set to 100mm - ie; less diffusion.

I've seen one of their softboxes in use on a 500 being used for fill flash. I think the guy had it set at 1/8th or something. It didn't look like the softbox was fully utilized, ie; more light was coming from the center than the edges. Kinda hard to tell with the human eye, though.


Re the exposure, I think it's just perfect. If you were to go any brighter you would definitely blow the red and lose the natural looking yellow color and the details in it.

Yep, that's what happened every time I let the camera think. I went full manual and kept stopping down until the yellows weren't blown. This is perfectly exposed to get the butterfly colors, but I think it's underexposed overall.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Isabella is captivating!

I'd love to know the story behind her name?

I am imagining a circa 1803 naturalist months away from home by sailing vessel on some forieghn shore lugging caontainers filled with plant samples and fewmets coming across this rare beauty and naming after the love of his life... or perhaps some other kind of rare beauty he had found in a Mediterenian port :roll:

But then again,. I'm an uncurable romantic too :wink:

[Chris1le]

Boy that is a nice shot. The exposure looks dead on to me. But then I like like my shots just a tad underexposed. Seems to bring out the colors better.

[where1]

Beautiful butterfly. She is so crisp, great detail.

[THE BEAST]

top piccy mate keep em coming.

[Scottes]

I'd love to know the story behind her name?

Sorry to spoil your romantacism, but this butterfly was the last discovery by the famous lepidopterologist Dr. Frank Larcy. He captured one of these in March of 1903 as it was feeding off a small purplish flower. The flower got caught in the net, so the good doctor reached in and snapped off the flower in order to get his prize. As he peered into the net, he mumbled "That Isabella..." and suddenly keeled over and died.

It's been rumored that he was about to say "That is a belladonna plant." But we'll never be sure.

But that's how this butterfly was named. Somewhat mistakenly I guess.

:)