The butterflies at the Montreal Botanical Garden

[MiFleur]

I took several shots of the butterflies, it was a beautiful sunny day and there were hundreds of people in the greenhouse. I almost knocked down a kid that came running at the same time I turned around with my camera. We are not allowed tripod or monopods in the place. Thank God! the kid would have passed out!

Here are some of my best shots, but I am disappointed with the results, These little butterflies don't stop for long and many of my photos are blurry, a) either because I moved or because the little darling would not stand still.
Any suggestions on what can be improved for next time? I personnally think that I will boost the Iso and increase the shutter speed... comments please

#1

130309_0597 copy by MiFleur, Catching Up!, on Flickr

#2

130309_0646 copy by MiFleur, Catching Up!, on Flickr

#3

130309_0750 copy by MiFleur, Catching Up!, on Flickr



#4

130309_0759 copy by MiFleur, Catching Up!, on Flickr

#5

130309_0790 copy by MiFleur, Catching Up!, on Flickr

#6

130309_0831 copy by MiFleur, Catching Up!, on Flickr

#7

130309_0630 taken at the Montreal Botanical garden by MiFleur, Catching Up!, on Flickr

 

[Mully]

They look nice and natural and the wings are in great shape....you were lucky to get so many.

 

[cgipson1]

Very nice shots!

Diffused flash! It will stop any movement, and increase the vibrancy of the colors and the contrast.

Example: Butterfly 1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing! or Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

If you have questions, please let me know...

 

[MiFleur]

Very nice shots!

Diffused flash! It will stop any movement, and increase the vibrancy of the colors and the contrast.

Example: Butterfly 1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing! or Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

If you have questions, please let me know...

I have to build a diffuser for my flash, somebody told me that he made one with a plastic bottle and taped it over the flash. Is that what you mean?
because there is no way I can bounce the flash in this greenhouse...

I see in your picture how smooth are the colors. my depth of field is very shallow, yours have the butterfly and the flower in focus.
when in photoshop, I do add contrast with the level layer adjustment. picking a black and white point when I can, otherwise I just move the sliders to either darken or lighten the image.

Thanks Charlie

 

[cgipson1]

Very nice shots!

Diffused flash! It will stop any movement, and increase the vibrancy of the colors and the contrast.

Example: Butterfly 1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing! or Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

If you have questions, please let me know...

I have to build a diffuser for my flash, somebody told me that he made one with a plastic bottle and taped it over the flash. Is that what you mean?
because there is no way I can bounce the flash in this greenhouse...

I see in your picture how smooth are the colors. my depth of field is very shallow, yours have the butterfly and the flower in focus.
when in photoshop, I do add contrast with the level layer adjustment. picking a black and white point when I can, otherwise I just move the sliders to either darken or lighten the image.

Thanks Charlie

Do you have an external flash? The pop-up can be used, but it is a little more difficult.

 

[ceeboy14]

They will likely toss you out on your ear if you use flash. Butterflies are quite delicate and react badly to most "non-normal" intrusions. At the Butterfly Garden in Gainesville, FL, I shot between ISO 400/640 and pretty much shot everything manual 5.6 @ 1/1600 to1/2500 with a 100mm 2.8 Tokina telephoto/macro.

 

[cgipson1]

They will likely toss you out on your ear if you use flash. Butterflies are quite delicate and react badly to most "non-normal" intrusions. At the Butterfly Garden in Gainesville, FL, I shot between ISO 400/640 and pretty much shot everything manual 5.6 @ 1/1600 to1/2500 with a 100mm 2.8 Tokina telephoto/macro.

View attachment 38475

I shoot flash all the time at Denver Butterfly Pavillion.. with no issues. I have been to around six different butterfly gardens, and all allowed flash.

 

[MiFleur]

Very nice shots!

Diffused flash! It will stop any movement, and increase the vibrancy of the colors and the contrast.

Example: Butterfly 1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing! or Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

If you have questions, please let me know...

I have to build a diffuser for my flash, somebody told me that he made one with a plastic bottle and taped it over the flash. Is that what you mean?
because there is no way I can bounce the flash in this greenhouse...

I see in your picture how smooth are the colors. my depth of field is very shallow, yours have the butterfly and the flower in focus.
when in photoshop, I do add contrast with the level layer adjustment. picking a black and white point when I can, otherwise I just move the sliders to either darken or lighten the image.

Thanks Charlie

Do you have an external flash? The pop-up can be used, but it is a little more difficult.

Yes I have the SB-600 with the little plastic translucent and textured diffuser that hides inside the flash.... and they are allowing the use of flashes.

 

[cgipson1]

I have to build a diffuser for my flash, somebody told me that he made one with a plastic bottle and taped it over the flash. Is that what you mean?
because there is no way I can bounce the flash in this greenhouse...

I see in your picture how smooth are the colors. my depth of field is very shallow, yours have the butterfly and the flower in focus.
when in photoshop, I do add contrast with the level layer adjustment. picking a black and white point when I can, otherwise I just move the sliders to either darken or lighten the image.

Thanks Charlie

Do you have an external flash? The pop-up can be used, but it is a little more difficult.

Yes I have the SB-600 with the little plastic translucent and textured diffuser that hides inside the flash.... and they are allowing the use of flashes.

You can DYI.. or do this: Amazon.com: Fotodiox 6"x8" Softbox for Nikon, Canon, Vivita, Sunpack, Nissin,Sigma, Sony, Pentax, Olympus, Panasonica Lumix Flash: Camera & Photo

One of my favorite diffusers for Macro with a full speedlight, works great! Ask Sharon ( sm4him ), I got her hooked on them too!

 

[MiFleur]

They will likely toss you out on your ear if you use flash. Butterflies are quite delicate and react badly to most "non-normal" intrusions. At the Butterfly Garden in Gainesville, FL, I shot between ISO 400/640 and pretty much shot everything manual 5.6 @ 1/1600 to1/2500 with a 100mm 2.8 Tokina telephoto/macro.

View attachment 38475

My macro lens is a 60mm and it is at repair right now, so I shot with my zoom nikon 70-200 f2.8 and my tamron 24-70 f2.8, it was very hard with the 70-200 because of the minimum focus distance. I wished I had extension tubes. Too many people around to back up to the right distance. So I switched lens to be able to be closer.

I wonder if I would have had enough light at ISO 640, but I really think that I did not have a fast enough shutter speed. I did use my flash a few times. but it does limit the shutter speed to 1/200 of a second no?

Your photo Ceeboy is impressive, I really like it!

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Look nice miFleur! The butterfly place close to where I live had to close it's doors unfortunately

 

[cgipson1]

They will likely toss you out on your ear if you use flash. Butterflies are quite delicate and react badly to most "non-normal" intrusions. At the Butterfly Garden in Gainesville, FL, I shot between ISO 400/640 and pretty much shot everything manual 5.6 @ 1/1600 to1/2500 with a 100mm 2.8 Tokina telephoto/macro.

View attachment 38475

My macro lens is a 60mm and it is at repair right now, so I shot with my zoom nikon 70-200 f2.8 and my tamron 24-70 f2.8, it was very hard with the 70-200 because of the minimum focus distance. I wished I had extension tubes. Too many people around to back up to the right distance. So I switched lens to be able to be closer.

I wonder if I would have had enough light at ISO 640, but I really think that I did not have a fast enough shutter speed. I did use my flash a few times. but it does limit the shutter speed to 1/200 of a second no?

Your photo Ceeboy is impressive, I really like it!

With Flash, you can use a much slower shutter speed (1/60) to increase the ambient light exposure of the background... as the subject will be exposed by the flash. The flash exposure is so fast that it will stop any movement, even hummingbird wings. Don't need a fast shutter with flash.

 

[MiFleur]

Look nice miFleur! The butterfly place close to where I live had to close it's doors unfortunately

That's really too bad!

 

[ceeboy14]

I will check again in Gainesville but I am pretty sure they were ticky about anything other than natural light. Soft hood for most flashes are quite good, and if I can use them there, certainly will.

 

[Juga]

They look nice and natural and the wings are in great shape....you were lucky to get so many.

I completely agree and the colors pop!