First attempts at macro (Monarch Butterflies)

ballentphoto

Over the weekend I received the Canon 500D close-up that I wanted to attach to my 70-200 VR. Took the family to the Desert Botanical Garden to take some pics of the monarch butterflies they are in the process of tagging to track their migration. This is the first time I have really attempted to take any type of macro shots and man that DOF is a killer :huh Stepped all the shots down to f/10 just to get enough DOF and should have done more but there was not enough light so that was the compromise. I have closer shots that I need to process but this was the first batch, and I am hooked with the macro world :barb Any C&C would be appreciated.






And the final one



Thanks for looking

Awais Yaqub

I am totaly impressed great work and investment

Criticism ?
well i think you must give littel space to butterflies and cut space in last and its just me

Lord Vetinari

Excellent shots with lovely light.
You'll find you don't want to go much smaller than F10 as diffraction softening starts to kick in.
For C&C- as Awais said it's normally good to try and give bugs some headroom in the direction they are facing (works for people too )
Brian V.

ballentphoto

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Excellent shots with lovely light.
You'll find you don't want to go much smaller than F10 as diffraction softening starts to kick in.
For C&C- as Awais said it's normally good to try and give bugs some headroom in the direction they are facing (works for people too )
Brian V.

Lord V and Awais thank you very much, I was concentrating so much to try to keep the focus I guess that I forgot to zoom out a little hehehe. So it would it be better to zoom/step back a little or "cut off" the backside in the frame. I do have many more images and I will be able to go back to practice some more. Thanks for the feed back I really do appreciate it.

steveL

nice photos...
What I would do is try to give yourself plenty of room and recompose during pp by cropping so that you have the antennae and wings completely in the photo. If you want a close body or head shot you could leave out the complete wing but the antennae seem pretty important to me and I would try and get them in if possible.

I would like to see those closeups you mentioned.

Swartzy

Wonderful shots
First attempt huh? You nailed it. Very sweet indeed. How'd you get 2 of them side by side? Must have butterfly bait laced on the leaves....

ballentphoto

Thanks for the kind words , but really this is the first time that I have tried the macro thing.

Swartzy wrote:

First attempt huh? You nailed it. Very sweet indeed. How'd you get 2 of them side by side? Must have butterfly bait laced on the leaves....

Hehehehe They are in a "tent" of sorts. The Botanical Garden here in Phoenix is part of a governement program to tag these little guys to track their migration across Arizona. There were a lot of them in there Heck if an newbie like me can get pictures imagine what a really experienced macro guy (Lord V) could do.

ballentphoto

steveL wrote:

What I would do is try to give yourself plenty of room and recompose during pp by cropping so that you have the antennae and wings completely in the photo. If you want a close body or head shot you could leave out the complete wing but the antennae seem pretty important to me and I would try and get them in if possible.

I would like to see those closeups you mentioned.

By request the Close-Ups

Skippy

ballentphoto wrote:

Over the weekend I received the Canon 500D close-up that I wanted to attach to my 70-200 VR. Took the family to the Desert Botanical Garden to take some pics of the monarch butterflies they are in the process of tagging to track their migration. This is the first time I have really attempted to take any type of macro shots and man that DOF is a killer Stepped all the shots down to f/10 just to get enough DOF and should have done more but there was not enough light so that was the compromise. I have closer shots that I need to process but this was the first batch, and I am hooked with the macro world Any C&C would be appreciated.

And the final one
Thanks for looking

Hey these are pretty cool haha and your hooked big time now
I saw the post later in this thread where you posted the closer images, they look great ....... thanks for sharing your 500D shots, I can see your over the moon about it ......... Skippy (Australia)

sirsloop

The trick is to wait for them to open up, the monarch's tend not to as much though. Still a very nice shots! It really takes patience to catch these guys!

steveL

3rd one is perfect...
The third close-up is perfect. You can tell how great the resolution is by how clearly the two little claws on the butterfly's foot are displayed. You must have a great setup now for doing this kind of photography. I will have to check your galleries now and then to see what you have been shooting. Have you been using a tripod with that lens or are these handlheld?

sirsloop

I think you'd almost have to shoot handheld... framing a shot and waiting for a butterlfy to show up would be ridiculous!

ballentphoto

steveL wrote:

The third close-up is perfect. You can tell how great the resolution is by how clearly the two little claws on the butterfly's foot are displayed. You must have a great setup now for doing this kind of photography. I will have to check your galleries now and then to see what you have been shooting. Have you been using a tripod with that lens or are these handlheld?

Thank you for the complement. Since its is the first time I have tried it I am pretty excited by the result. All shots have been handheld with a Nikon D200 70-200VR and the Canon 500D closeup "filter" and 800 ISO (who said that Nikon can't take higher ISO shots ) Stopped down to f/10 (can probably go to f/11 or 12 but diffraction could become a problem as Lord V indicated) It's nice to use but it's a really heavy setup (pushing 5lbs easily) The tighter shots were at 200mm and the focus set at the closest setting. I am about 19 inches away when I take the picture. Focusing has to be done by rocking back and forth (The lens is capable of focusing with the 500D attached but it's fussy) and VR (IS in Canon talk) is turned on (no real time to setup a tripod). I think that it works out pretty well since I am pretty far away from the butterflies. I definately plan on taking some more pics. This is very addictive.

ballentphoto

sirsloop wrote:

I think you'd almost have to shoot handheld... framing a shot and waiting for a butterlfy to show up would be ridiculous!

Now that would take some serious patience hehehe or bait to get the butterflies to come.

steveL

ballentphoto wrote:

Now that would take some serious patience hehehe or bait to get the butterflies to come.

I do just that for some butterfly photos-- just sit or kneel and wait, with camera set and ready to press the shutter. There is a garden I visit in September where you can always find butterflys and on a nice day for photographing, I can usually get some nice photos. I find that I have good luck waiting for them because they will revisit the same flowers after they get used to you being there. But getting the photos just by chance, I find they are few and far between. It does take some patience though. I don't mind waiting for a particular shot that I would like to get.

My cameras are slow to focus and sometimes I have to set the exposure manually ahead of time. There is a fair amount of luck involved when doing that but I get a high percentage of keepers. My Canon S30 and my newest camera the Canon A520 aren't very fast but they capture colors and detail fairly good.

Some of my butterfly photos:
http://steveandbecky.smugmug.com/gallery/1048595/1/48683012
http://steveandbecky.smugmug.com/gallery/1054416
http://steveandbecky.smugmug.com/gallery/1058905

A dragonfly that I waited for:
http://steveandbecky.smugmug.com/gallery/1116531/1/51971436

ballentphoto

Those pictures are great and the dragonfly pic is awsome Nice going