Butterfly shot.

Viceroy

New to the forum and Macro. I take many butterfly shots, please tell me how I can improve. I have no PP software yet.

Viceroy

One More.

Lord Vetinari

Welcome to the forum . Both lovely shots prefer the composition of #2 and has wonderful light and colour. You can argue around whether cutting the butterflies wings off in #1 is ok or not but think I would have gone for more butterfly and less flower.
Brian v.

Joop

Good photo, s, but I miss some sharpness

Viceroy

Thank you both for the kind words, shooting handheld how can I get the sharper images? Any good tips are well appreciated.

basflt

every one shoots handheld
they dont look bad to me , esp #2 is very good

IMO you need to pay more attention at processing them ,
as that is an importend part of photography
( you do shoot in RAW ? do you ? )

edit ;
start by searching for , and downloading GIMP
its free , so you a least have something to start with

Faststone Image Viewer is also highly recommended
also free

with both , you can view and edit your photo's

paddler4

Great start! I agree with Brian--#2 is better. Re more success handheld: two common techniques are to use a monopod for support and to use flash, which helps freeze motion. There are some very good threads on this site showing do-it-yourself rigs for highly diffused flash. One other tip: depth of field will be narrow, so think about which part you most want in focus. Usually, it's the eyes.

Viceroy

Thank you folks greatly for the kind words and info, these images were not shot in Raw but as I progress and do more PP its the direction I am going in.

I have not tried using a monopod yet, thanks for the great suggestions:D

GOLDENORFE

Welcome to the forum, I guess as I Love shooting butterflies I like both, #2 is perfect composition , agree could be sharper.
I always shoot them hand held, can't chase after a butt with a pod!
Just shoot at f5 - 6. Alter ISO to keep high shutter speed , learn to brace camera still to get Sharp images .

Viceroy

GOLDENORFE wrote: »

Welcome to the forum, I guess as I Love shooting butterflies I like both, #2 is perfect composition , agree could be sharper.
I always shoot them hand held, can't chase after a butt with a pod!
Just shoot at f5 - 6. Alter ISO to keep high shutter speed , learn to brace camera still to get Sharp images .

Thanks Phil, for the kind words and info. After looking at your work it really put things in perspective for me. What ISO do you typically shoot at?

GOLDENORFE

Depends on light,try to keep s/s as high as poss. in uk butts only really active when sunny so iso 100- 400 usally ok. can shoot much higher with full frame sensor without noise but very rarely need to.