Butterfly

[Chris Johnson 00 T/A]

First few shots with my 20D... I can say that so far.. I'm not that impressed. I'm not sure if it's my lense(s) or the camera itself. Using center weight focus only with a 70-210 3.5-4.5 USM lense, it seems as if my pictures are just ever so slightly out of focus on the good shots, and really bad on others.

In anycase, have a look see, and tell me what you think.

http://www.2000transam.com/temp/untitled-1.jpg

http://www.2000transam.com/temp/untitled-2.jpg

http://www.2000transam.com/temp/untitled-3.jpg


This is one of the 'bad' shots. It's not like the subject moved after it autofocused.

http://www.2000transam.com/temp/untitled-4.jpg



Are the first 3 out of focus, or is it just me? All of the images are direct rips from the camera, croped in PS. All images where shot at f/4.5

[Cobra351]

I'm not good at all with this technical stuff, but I'll take a try at it.

I don't think they're really out of focus or even bad, they're good shots. You said the first 3 were taken at f4.5? I can find the points in each picture where the focus is sharpest, but at f4.5 not much else will be focused, especially with the angles you're working with (wings leaning towards or away from the focus point).

The lens looks like it might be a bit soft too, maybe this contributes to the look? Try them again with f8-12, see if this helps some. I had the same issues on my first shots of butterflies! Changing the settings has helped some. I'll include the link to one of mine. Even at f6.3 you can see that the head (where the focus point was) is decent, but the upper and lower parts of the wing are gradually out of focus as the wing was leaning towards me. Of course shooting with a prime lens as I did will naturally yield a sharper image too.

I hope that this not only makes SOME sense, but helps some (I hope it's even partially correct, too! :rolleyes: )!

My attempt:
http://www.pbase.com/boss351/image/33784790.jpg

[Chris Johnson 00 T/A]

Maybe I'm having a hard time holding the lense still... I took your advice and took more shots... most of them are still out of focus...

I think this is motion blur rather than a focus issue.. however it was taken at f/7.1 1/250.

http://www.2000transam.com/temp/untitled-5.jpg

[Chris Johnson 00 T/A]

Okay.. going back to what I know.. full manual exposure with auto focus and full manual exposure with manual focus seems to have worked. It also taught me about my new camera. With manual exposure and manual focus, the camera also beeps when it thinks it's in focus... I can lean back and forth just a smidge and be out of focus either way.. when it beeps, hit the button ;)


f/8 1/400

http://www.2000transam.com/temp/untitled-6.jpg

f/10 1/250

http://www.2000transam.com/temp/untitled-7.jpg


I also took a bunch of shots at f/10 1/1000 and 1/3200 that came out perfect.

It's been awhile since I've had an SLR :oops:

[cfcRebel]

Hi Chris,
Those are nice shots. Maybe a couple of them are alittle blurry but I think they are fine. How far were you from the butterflies when the shot was taken? One thing i like about shooting butterflies is, I could get as close as 2 ft w/o scaring them. Try get closer to them rather than zoom from far away. Of course, you have to move really slooooooowwwwww to get near them. ;)

[Chris Johnson 00 T/A]

Most of the ones I was taking pictures of didn't like me that much... 10-12' at max zoom for most shots....

I think my issue has been fixed... at least for now. Since I've gone into full manual exposure mode, most of my shots have been crisp.

[Bob_A]

Hi Chris,

You have some nice shots here.

How much USM did you apply to these in PS? It almost looks like you didn't apply any, and if that is the case pictures like your first one of the butterfly, and last one of the moth would come out a bit soft. Number 2 and 4 have the focus on the wrong spot, so USM isn't going to help much..

Try USM at 300%, 0.3 pixels, 0 threshold (Canon recommends this as a starting point) and see how they look. Because of the anti-aliasing filter in the 20D the photos will typically need a tiny bit of sharpening or else they will loot a tad soft.

By the way, I think #3 is a really nice image (pretty sharp). I was able too take you image, apply auto-levels, increase brightness by 20%, and apply USM and it looks great.

Bob

[TammieO]

I like the 2 pictures of the skipper. I also think the first pic of the Queen would be nice with a little USM.

[Chris Johnson 00 T/A]

I'm a Photoshop N00B.. I've never done anything more than crop with it...

USM = Unsharp mask?

[Chris Johnson 00 T/A]

Now THIS is what I'm talking about! :)

Thanks SO much for that suggestion. What a HUGE world of difference.

I'm a much happier customer now :D

http://www.2000transam.com/temp/untitled-1USM.jpg

http://www.2000transam.com/temp/untitled-7usm.jpg

http://www.2000transam.com/temp/untitled-3usm.jpg

[Michaelmjc]

Wow some really great shots... I bet they're hard to shoot.

[Bob_A]

They look great Chris! I especially like the moth.

Now that you have the hang of doing sharpening, you could even try bumping up the saturation a bit in PS (by +10 to +20) and see how they look.

Bob

[Chris Johnson 00 T/A]

Wow.. thanks Bob.. You've been a wonderful help (as has everyone else). I really need to look around the 'net for a 'tips and tricks' for Photoshop. I would never have guessed to do either of the above without a tip from someone else.

Here's one with +20 saturation.. what a spectacular difference.


http://www.2000transam.com/temp/untitled-7usm+20hue.jpg

[Titus213]

Wow.. thanks Bob.. You've been a wonderful help (as has everyone else). I really need to look around the 'net for a 'tips and tricks' for Photoshop. I would never have guessed to do either of the above without a tip from someone else.

Here's one with +20 saturation.. what a spectacular difference.



There are some great post processing tutorials right here on this site. I was wondering if anyone had mentioned that post processing can be a major improvement. When I saw your first comments about being direct from the camera I was wondering about your workflow. Your changes to the photos is amazing. Really nice stuff.

[cjm]

I like them! Great work!