Dragonflies - 3rd try - C&C please

[2esetters]

Hopefully, DPR website is working well today.

Here a few recent dragonfly and butterfly snapshots using a 70-300 DO with 48mm of extension tubes. Hand-held with manual focus, so pretty hard for me to nail it. DOF awful shallow and shaky hands with poor eyesight not the friendliest combination.




Great Blue Skimmer

Northern Bluet




White-faced Meadowhawk




Type unknown




Type unknown

 

[Iain280407]

Nice compositions. The first shot is my favourite for sharpness and colour although the poses on 2&4 are classic. For my taste, the dof on number 3 is a bit shallow.

thanks for sharing these.

Cheers,

Iain

 

[olmail]

I would trade off shutter speed for more dof. maybe even a little less tube, though I don't know how much you cropped. they need to be a bit sharper, but nothing that should discourage you with only 3 tries at them. the unknown is a Halloween pennant. and I think you have a familiar bluet, not a northern. but those little blue damsels are really tough.

 

[dwa1]

Hi there 2esetters.

As another poster indicated, more DOF would be a good thing. I see that you were shooting at f5.6. I would go to at least f8 and perhaps even f10. You may need to bump the ISO to maintain enough shutter speed.

The little butterfly looks like a Pearly Crescentspot. It is very similar to the Silvery Crescentspot. Hard to tell them apart until you closely examine the wind patterns. They have those really cool looking banded antennae.

Thanks for posting.


Wayne

 

[Ed at Ridersite]

Concentrate on focusing specifically on the eye. This is critical with just about any wildlife.

 

[2esetters]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll try those different settings and see how things improve.
Don

 

[LifeIsAVerb]

Not a bad effort! As others have suggested, you might want to try a smaller aperture and lengthen the exposure time. You could try a monopod to study the camera a bit without sacrificing agility.

I was going to guess Northern Crescent (Phyciodes cocyta) on the butterfly. Though i did read that some "experts" don't even think this is a distinct species, but a possible variant of one of a couple of others.

 

[robertorinehart]

I think the last two are really great. They have a nice tone

 

[drj3]

You are definitely getting better. I agree with the others, drop your shutter speed to the lowest speed which you can hand hold. Sitting dragonflies tend to be very still. I generally use about 1/400 - 1/500 (560mm equivalent) with image stabilization. Looking at Phill104's gallery, I noticed that many of his were at 1/250 and were excellent. Dropping the shutter speed will allow you to increase depth of field and/or drop ISO.

 

[2esetters]

Made some setting adjustments, but only took shutter speed down to 1/1000 as a bit breezy this moring. 36mm of extension tube. Auto focus still unavailble. It tries but won't lock in.

Not much variety this morning. Any improvement though ?








Need bee to land on a duller flower - darn insects !

 

[dwa1]

Sorry, but they are just not in focus / not sharp. With extension tubes the distance from the subject where the lens can focus is very limited. Your subjects may be out of this "focusable" area. You must be very close (about 6-10 inches) to the subject.



If they look sharp in your camera's viewfinder, then perhaps you need to adjust the camera's viewfinder diopter adjustment - check the manual for more info. This feature allows you to tune the viewfinder to your eye.



If they are not in focus in the viewfinder, then there is no sense taking the shot.



I hope this does not sound harsh or offensive. Keep working at it. You will "know it" when they are sharp and with enough DOF.



Hope this helps in some way.



Wayne

 

[2esetters]

Thanks Wayne
I'll keep trying to nail the focus. Very infrequently the camera will beep and the focus spot flash when I manually focus accurately, but I cannot replicate it.

 

[dwa1]

2esetters wrote:

Thanks Wayne
I'll keep trying to nail the focus. Very infrequently the camera will beep and the focus spot flash when I manually focus accurately, but I cannot replicate it.

Although I have a set of Kenko extn tubes, I seldom use them for getting a lens to focus at a shorter distance. Instead, and for the increased magnification, I much prefer the Canon 500D diopter filter. Although the focusing limitation is similar to tubes, the 500D gives you a little more range - at least a few more inches where you can achieve focus.

btw... What lens are you shooting with here?


Wayne

 

[drj3]

Your first set is considerably better than the last two. The last two are not in nearly as good focus. Only the wings are close to okay on the dragonfly and nothing is really in focus in the photo of the bee. However, I think the problem was the wind. You shutter speed may have been sufficient to freeze motion, but the depth of field is extremely shallow with a 300mm lens at very close distances. If the wind even slightly moves the dragonfly or bee as you press the shutter, its motion may be stopped but it is no longer in focus. Your first set was better in that at least some part of the image was in focus (you can check this by using the loupe and moving it over the image to see what is in focus). Did you do any post processing of the images? I think to first set could have benefited from PP. Generally you will have the whole dragonfly in focus only when the front of the lens is parallel to the dragon fly. If this is not possible you should try to focus on the head. Attached are two images, one to demonstrate the effect of stopping down and getting the whole dragonfly in focus and the second to show the limited depth of field from the front when not stopping down. Keep working at it, You will get much better.













--
drj3

 

[wazu]

2esetters wrote:

Thanks Wayne
I'll keep trying to nail the focus. Very infrequently the camera will beep and the focus spot flash when I manually focus accurately, but I cannot replicate it.

I use tubes in my 100/2.8L and am impressed that the 70-300 DO works this well actually. My better focused shots when using the 60D body are at f9-11 and focusing by just moving slowly in and out. I also sometimes use a ringflash (Canons model) when light is insufficiant.

I think I will soon give my 70-300 DO a try due to your post. Handholding outdoors one needs all the range from the subjects on can get. I find it very hard to get close with then 100mm macro.

 

[2esetters]

Again, thanks for all the constructive criticism and advice. I think I'm getting the focus sharper and a better DOF. Bear with me, but here's my latest.


My favourite for composition




Found level adjustment hard for this one

Find this red WFMeadowhawk the hardest to focus










Bee in shadows - not very sharp but like the colours

 

[drj3]

These are much better, especially the two where there was sufficient light to keep the ISO lower. You are getting much better.

 

[Iain280407]

Much much better. The second is my favourite; I just like the pose.

cheers,

Iain

 

[2esetters]

Thanks guys! Feeling better about it. Advice has helped a lot, though still lots of room to improve. I'll keep experimenting, correcting and practicing.

 

[2esetters]

wazu wrote:

I think I will soon give my 70-300 DO a try due to your post. Handholding outdoors one needs all the range from the subjects on can get. I find it very hard to get close with then 100mm macro.

Frank Garga posted on this forum a month or so ago that he used extension tubes on his 300mm lens to capture butterflies and hummingbirds and suggested that I might want to give it a try. So I bought a used set and am trying to match his great shots. A long way off, but one needs a goal.