Butterflies

A few recent butterfly shots - hope you like them.

great shots love the first and last shots

Nice shots, i like the 3rd down the most.

readysetgocapture wrote in post #10184078
Nice shots, i like the 3rd down the most.

I was going to say the same thing!

First one is a nice pic, well done with compo .

Good set. Your lighting is great. #3 is my favorite.

rraman wrote in post #10183978
A few recent butterfly shots - hope you like them.

Thanks for looking

I am having trouble shooting butterflies and wondering what I am doing wrong. Can you advise the f-stop a shutter speed you used.

Having trouble figuring out how to shoot butterflies. Seems like at 100% can't get all the subject in focus.

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One more,

Feedback helpful.

And by the way how do you add more than 2 images to one post

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canon shooter wrote in post #10188445
Having trouble figuring out how to shoot butterflies. Seems like at 100% can't get all the subject in focus.

To the OP great shots!!

To Canon Shooter, what are your settings and what are you shooting with?

reneethomas wrote in post #10188458
To the OP great shots!!

To Canon Shooter, what are your settings and what are you shooting with?

Those were shot with diff lenses. Sigma 70-200 and Canon 50 1.4 with extension tube.

All taken on 5D MarkII

Think I need to stop down lens more. But still need to keep shutter speed up for moving in wings.

I wonder if I am getting too close. My tech has been to hold shutter half way down and back off until camera beep for focus. I wonder if that might still just be too close?

Any suggestions?

rraman wrote in post #10183978
A few recent butterfly shots - hope you like them.

Thanks for looking

What lens and setting did you shoot at. How far away were you from subject?

Did you crop any?

#3!

Thanks for comments everyone

To Jim: These were shot with Canon 60mm Macro and Canon 430 EX flash but any Macro capable lens and a flash will do. On most occasions I use manual focus/settings with shutter speed around 1/200 sec and aperture around f/8 or so however if the butterfly wings are parallel to camera then a wider aperture would do as well since there isn't much depth to keep in focus. For shots close to 1:1 (like #3) it's best to choose the magnification first, set the lens to use manual focus and adjust your distance from subject until desired area is in focus.

Looking at your photos, it seems you may be having a couple of problems including camera shake (make sure shutter speed is short enough and compensate the lost light with flash) and you may also need smaller aperture, i.e. bigger f number. In case you can't choose small enough aperture due to lighting constraints, try to keep eyes of the butterfly in focus at the cost of losing some part of wings in focus.

rraman wrote in post #10189558
Thanks for comments everyone

To Jim: These were shot with Canon 60mm Macro and Canon 430 EX flash but any Macro capable lens and a flash will do. On most occasions I use manual focus/settings with shutter speed around 1/200 sec and aperture around f/8 or so however if the butterfly wings are parallel to camera then a wider aperture would do as well since there isn't much depth to keep in focus. For shots close to 1:1 (like #3) it's best to choose the magnification first, set the lens to use manual focus and adjust your distance from subject until desired area is in focus.

Looking at your photos, it seems you may be having a couple of problems including camera shake (make sure shutter speed is short enough and compensate the lost light with flash) and you may also need smaller aperture, i.e. bigger f number. In case you can't choose small enough aperture due to lighting constraints, try to keep eyes of the butterfly in focus at the cost of losing some part of wings in focus.

Thank I had not tried using flash. I will try that as well. I don't have a macro lens and was using auto focus. Without marco lens I was get as close as possible and holding shutter half way down and moving back until focus beep. Do you think that just might be too close.