Post your Butterflies!! Tips on how to capture them.

I bought a kit so I could raise a few Swallowtail Butterflies (Papilio machaon) and this is a frame with the Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens set to 1x.

Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F11, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (1x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT with a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe on the "A" head (the key), E-TTL metering, -1/3 FEC). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held. In post I used Topaz Denoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Clarity in that order.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2j3k​xTn

I bought a kit so I could raise a few Swallowtail Butterflies (Papilio machaon) and this is a frame with the Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens set to roughly 2.5x.

Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F11, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (over 2x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT with a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe on the "A" head (the key), E-TTL metering, -1/3 FEC). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held. In post I used Topaz Denoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Clarity in that order.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2j4K​1WD

Great shot. I’ve been admiring your work. I was wondering if you had managed to catch them around the time their wings develop, but before their proboscis zips together? There will be a lot of quick flailing around separately while they work them together so doing a stitch may not be possible

Keith Newton wrote in post #19067773
Great shot. I’ve been admiring your work. I was wondering if you had managed to catch them around the time their wings develop, but before their proboscis zips together? There will be a lot of quick flailing around separately while they work them together so doing a stitch may not be possible

There was so much movement that a focus stack would not have been possible.

The longer I shoot macro the more I want to shoot single frames. The only reason to focus stack, at least for me, is to get more detail and I just don't think that it's necessary.

Not my usual lens but you use what you have to hand.

I bought a kit so I could raise a few Swallowtail Butterflies (Papilio machaon) and this is a frame with the Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens set to just under 4x.

Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F11, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (almost 4x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT with a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe on the "A" head (the key), E-TTL metering, -1/3 FEC). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held. In post I used Topaz Denoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Clarity in that order.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2j5t​DDh

I managed to acclimate this Swallowtail Butterfly to me when it was a caterpillar, and it remembered me after its metamorphosis. It's willingness to let me get close, coupled with some cool temperatures, allowed me to take a lot of photos.

Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F11, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (over 2x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT with a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe on the "A" head (the key), E-TTL metering). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held. In post I used Topaz Denoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Clarity in that order.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2j81​ceS

Dalantech wrote in post #19072724
I managed to acclimate this Swallowtail Butterfly to me when it was a caterpillar, and it remembered me after its metamorphosis.

That's very interesting, I wouldn't have thought insects have much memory, especially not memory that lasts through metamorphosis!

Pippan wrote in post #19072727
That's very interesting, I wouldn't have thought insects have much memory, especially not memory that lasts through metamorphosis!

I thought it was pretty cool and it makes sense. What we've been calling instinct may in fact just be genetic memory, and it would explain how a lot of creatures are born knowing what to do. A butterfly doesn't have to learn how to fly, it just does it...

A few from a few years ago.

New specie for me tonight in the milkweed

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2jck​24y