Spring 2017

Parker219 · Apr 2, 2017

Hello,

I am happy to see some insects out.

Feel free to post some spring 2017 photos here if you do not want to start your own thread.

I don't think any of these are award winning...YET...but I will keep at it.

1.

2. Do you think the big bug was stalking the small bug that is on top of the leaf?

3.

4.

5. Finding some shade.

6.

ZombiesniperJr · Apr 2, 2017

Very nice set!

Parker219 · May 28, 2017

7. I am not exactly sure why the bee is blurry, either out of focus or shutter speed was too slow, this was 1/400 I beeeeelieve.

8. This has some noise because my ISO was higher in order to have a 1/500 shutter speed at f/16.

9. This was RIGHT before the ladybug took off, you can see the ladybug JUST pulled out one of its wings.

10.

jcdeboever · May 29, 2017

These are pretty darn good in extremely tough lighting conditions. Life would be much easier if we could have an assistant with us holding up a diffusor . I have been studying /practicing HSS flash photography the last couple of days in anticipation of shots like these.

What I don't understand is why you would have trouble obtaining the fast shutter speeds in light like this? Look at your DOF range on the lens, you may not need to go so small on aperture. Something seems off though, you should have no trouble getting 1000s + at 200 ISO... Of course I am basing off what I see as I wasn't there. I would more than likely be in the minus EC, spot metering, AE-L for shots like this, remember that the camera is stupid. Matrix and Center will screw this scene up the majority of the time with all the reflection. Maybe @Derrel will chime in or someone else as I no longer shoot Nikon.

Look at your file in the camera, turn on the preview focus point feature, it looks like it focused to the left and not the flying bee. I had a (lemon) D7200 and all my shots showed the focus point where it should have been but everything was sharp to left looking at the image. It drove me insane... not saying yours is doing it but you could rule it out on a brick wall or focus target.

I would encourage you to play around with spot metering, AE-L, Aperture priority (not manual), out in your back yard or at a park for a couple hours. I have to do that in order to get a feel for how to capture stuff like this quickly, move the camera around a little to get the exposure looking right in viewfinder, lock exposure, recompose for focus, fire shutter. It's not easy at first but when you get it, it makes you better. The reason I suggest A mode is all your concerned with is DOF range, and you can quickly establish that and focus on exposure locking and composition. You may have been juggling a little bit in manual, extreme light, and the EC.

Parker219 · May 29, 2017

^ Thank you for your insight.

You are not far off on your numbers as far as why I can not shoot with a shutter speed of 1/1000 at ISO 200, but just a little bit makes a big difference in the noise with the d7200.

I knew that I wanted the shutter speed a 1/400 in order to not have camera shake really come in to play, since obviously these are hand held walking around / crouching. Then I knew that I wanted f/16 because of the depth of field. So I locked in those 2, then picked auto ISO for when the sun went behind a cloud or the subject was in shadow.

The camera ended up picking around ISO 1000 for these.

So in order to shoot at ISO 200, I would need to both go to f/11 and shutter speed 1/200, both of which I did not want to do right?

As far as the focus goes, this is a manual only lens, so I am looking through the viewfinder trying to nail the focus that is extremely small.

In order to try and get a bee in flight, I normally focus on a flower that the bee is circling or I fee a bee might land on, then fire off some shots as the bee gets close. Is there a better way? I seem to get the flower in focus, but miss the bee, I guess I need to see where the bee is coming from, so either further away than the flower or closer to me than the flower, then move the lens slightly further away or closer?

Parker219 · May 29, 2017

I think catching a bee perfectly in focus is just going to take practice and LUCK, but having the settings and technique down will help. I have came VERY close to nailing the shot I want, but have still not gotten it.

miss 1 -