www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Having only recently started taking photograph's of butterflies and an utter novice in identification I joined this website to improve my knowledge. I have been delighted at the advise given and everyone's willingness to share their knowledge and experience. I would very much welcome comments on my some of my photographic efforts to date. I have never posted any of my pictures anywhere before (except a couple for identification on this site) but have been reading some of the very helpful and constructive comments members have made and always wanting to learn and improve would welcome comments and advise.

I use a Nikon D80 camera with a 105mm Nikor macro lens and shoot in raw and then convert to JPEG. I usually set the camera to aperture priority at somewhere between f11 to f16 with an ISO speed of 200-400. If the light is not too good I use flash to ensure a relatively good depth of field.

Cheers,

Sylvia.

Hi Sylvia,
I'm sure that some of the more accomplished photographers on here will be happy to give you a more technical critique, but purely from a composition perspective, I will offer the following comments. I love your shot of the Small Copper underside - to me that's by far the best. I really like the 'criss-cross' effect of the blurred grasses, contrasting with the spots of the butterfly. Although a lot of people prefer to acheive a 'studio feel' by creating a very plain backdrop, I personally like to see the habitat in which the insect is sitting. The trouble with this is that it's very difficult to avoid 'awkward' bits of vegetation, which often detract from the shot. Particularly the Ringlet suffer in this respect. Some of the others are cropped a bit too tightly, but that can be easily remedied. Having 'only just started', I would say you're doing very well.
Neil

Hi Neil,

Many thanks for your comments, they are very welcome and much appreciated.

I would have to agree that I do sometimes tend to crop a little too tightly. I can get carried away by the beautiful and intricate paterns on most butterflies, either with wings closed, or open. Wrongly, I then tend to fill the frame with the image!! I will endeavour not to let my enthusiasm dictate the outcome and be a little more conservative with the cropping tool. I try and look at the background/foreground but, as you will well know, the time available to capture an image can be very brief and I work on the principle that its better to go home at the end of the day with something rather than nothing at all.

I am learning all the time and now, at least, manage to get some images that are reasonable.

Thanks again for taking the time to offer your views.

Kind Regards,

Sylvia.

A goodly little selection!

I'm with Neil in that I much prefer habitat shots over reference book shots with some element of composition (off centre, in a corner, etc). That's not to say I don't get the reference shots but tend not to show them unless they're the only ones I managed. Only advice I'd give is to consider placing the butterfly elsewhere in the frame other than central and use the surroundings and light to aid the composition. I think of macro shots in the same terms as landscapes with lead-ins, rule of thirds, highlighting, etc but I appreciate this is my personal way of getting the shot (but, as I say, with plenty of 'traditional' ones along the way!)

Many thanks, I've a few days off work next week so, if the weather is a little kinder than of late, I'll try and put your good advise into practice. I'll post anything decent that I capture!!

Cheers,

Sylvia.

Further, if you could post larger images, preferrably 800 pixels on the longer side, we might be able to pick more holes in them.

Still very new at both taking photo's of butterflies and to showing them - anywhere! The first time I posted some for identification I got them too large and now, it would appear, too small!! I'll try and do a little better next time, your comments are appreciated, without them I can't hope to improve.

Kind Regards,

Sylvia.