Butterfly Parade

[Papilio]

Long time no post. There seems to be quite a number of butts flying in here in 2006. Here's a series of butterflies of various colours and sizes all taken from several locations in Singapore.


Tamron 180mm ; ISO 400 ; 1/125s ; f9 ; fill flash -1.7EV


Tamron 180mm ; ISO 320 ; 1/100s ; f11 ; fill flash -1.3EV


Tamron 180mm ; ISO 400 ; 1/80s ; f11 ; fill-flash -1EV ; on tripod


Tamron 180mm ; ISO 400 ; 1/180s ; f8 ; fill-flash -1.3EV


Tamron 180mm ; ISO 320 ; 1/125s ; f22 ; fill-flash -0.7EV

[eikin]

beautiful shots many aspire to achieve, particularly like #1

[melvynyeo]

Inspirational!!!

[BobCheong]

Awesome shots Papilio! Nice to see you back in the thick of the butts.

[tOGGY]

really nice......

[chngpe01]

Beautiful and thanks for sharing your wonderful pics

[weekh]

Beautiful!
Make me wanna use my Tamron 180mm.
How do u find the Tamron 180mm compared to your Nikon? I've the lens but almost never used it.

[Garion]

Papilio,

Absolutely stunning shots!!! I love all of them. Really some of the best butterfly shots I have seen on the forums so far. It takes a lot of patience, time and skill to shoot these tiny creatures, and it shows in your work. Salute and great job!!!

[selamatlzh]

[zincgkh]

Great Wish that can taken one like urs.

[tchuanye]

All are EXCELLENT! Good details, good background, and good composition!

[Papilio]

Thanks eikin, melvyn, bob, toggy, pengeik, kenghor, garion, selamat, zincgkh and chuanye.

Glad you guys enjoyed the shots.

Originally Posted by weekh How do u find the Tamron 180mm compared to your Nikon? I've the lens but almost never used it.

The Tamron 180mm is a very sharp lens. You should take it out more! Compared to the Nikkor 70-180mm, the Tamron definitely doesn't lose out as far as sharpness goes.

[Hosea]

Just curious, did you do an extensive PP for these pix or the Tamron lens
is able to executes such great shots without much pp.btw, what cam you
used?
Nice pix.

[Papilio]

Originally Posted by Hosea Just curious, did you do an extensive PP for these pix or the Tamron lens is able to executes such great shots without much pp.btw, what cam you used? Nice pix.

My usual minimal post-processing, as I'm not very good at PS. My workflow is adjust brightness/contrast to about +/- 5 depending on the subject and background, then apply USM. That's about what I can do well without doing more damage to the shot!

Camera = D2X

Originally Posted by alucard #2 is my favorite. The details captured are amazing. Last one at f22, is it cropped? How do you estimate flash settings?

Minimally cropped, if I remember correctly. Shots #3 and #5 are tripod-mounted shots, as the butts stayed still enough for me to do that. #5 used f22 as the plane of both the butts are not aligned, so I did that to get maximum DOF to try to get both butts in focus.

Fill flash is a case of trial and error for me , and I bracket my shots alot with various settings for the fill flash. I shoot with Rear Synch (in Nikon terminlogy, not sure what's the equivalent in Canon) Still a lot to learn about flash. In shot #5's case, the subjects were almost at the T-180's minimum focal distance (you should know how small these buggers are), and I had to tilt up the flash head.

[alucard]

Originally Posted by Papilio #5 used f22 as the plane of both the butts are not aligned, so I did that to get maximum DOF to try to get both butts in focus.

Thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by Papilio Fill flash is a case of trial and error for me , and I bracket my shots alot with various settings for the fill flash. I shoot with Rear Synch (in Nikon terminlogy, not sure what's the equivalent in Canon) Still a lot to learn about flash. In shot #5's case, the subjects were almost at the T-180's minimum focal distance (you should know how small these buggers are), and I had to tilt up the flash head.

I was thinking of those instant moments when the butts aren't too co-operative. Else, bracketing seems ideal. Most of the shots I have seen (elsewhere too) do -ve EV compensation for flash. And, technically the last shot seemed to make sense with small aperture and stronger flash setting (relative to other shots). Trying to estimate a rule-of-thumb setting between distance-to-subject, aperture, and flash EV setting.

I think it is called rear curtain sync in Canon too.

[DeSwitch]

Good contrast and colourful. really bring the Butts to the viewers attention. Like #1 the most.

[Outlook]

Exellent, everyone of them.
Long time no see such super series. A nice start for 2006 !

[Hosea]

Originally Posted by Papilio My usual minimal post-processing, as I'm not very good at PS. My workflow is adjust brightness/contrast to about +/- 5 depending on the subject and background, then apply USM. That's about what I can do well without doing more damage to the shot! Camera = D2X

That's great... can see these are outstanding pix from an exp. macros photog.
Pix 4 is best coz of its action.... doesn't look like a specimen.
Pix 5 is liken to two little angels .

[y0ngcheng]

great shots there as usual uncle ilio!
hmmm butts season coming eh?

[ortega]

stunning shots, i especially like #2