Macro Play

[Brian Sump]

• Brian Sump Photography

This is not my normal thing but on a hike a couple summers ago I brought out the 100-500 in the mountain forest and began to play around.

R6
RF 100-500
Handheld
ISO 1600
1/5000
f9

LR and PS. Evicted a cobweb.

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

A powerful image Brian, the black background is the bees knees or you just don't like it - purely personal preference. The exposure and details on the butterfly are very good, I like the supporting flower heads. The far wing on the butterfly is just slightly OOF but I find that a minimal issue, the purists would say otherwise. I lik ethe image very much.

 

[Brian Sump]

A powerful image Brian, the black background is the bees knees or you just don't like it - purely personal preference. The exposure and details on the butterfly are very good, I like the supporting flower heads. The far wing on the butterfly is just slightly OOF but I find that a minimal issue, the purists would say otherwise. I lik ethe image very much.

Jon, I'm super encouraged to hear your feedback.

This is a bit new territory and I value your comments certainly.

I've always liked the black backdrop when it makes sense (i.e. the original frame had a naturally dark/shadowed effect) and glad to hear it worked for you.

Opposing wing noted. For future, I think I'll attempt to stop down further especially using macro.

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Brian I hope you do post more, spring is here and opportunity is knocking at the door. Flowers insects amphibians I am looking daily now.

 

[Dave Goldberg]

Very nice and classic butterfly profile, Brian. In an ideal world it would have been nice to have more DoF on the back wing but also the flower as well, but I know how fleeting they can be while harvesting a flower. I might be tempted to take down the brightness and saturation of the wing a bit, and possibly back off of the sharpening on the wing as well. I know from my own photos that too much sharpening on a butterfly wing can cause it to lose the natural powdery appearance of moths and butterflies.

Dave G.

 

[Brian Sump]

Very nice and classic butterfly profile, Brian. In an ideal world it would have been nice to have more DoF on the back wing but also the flower as well, but I know how fleeting they can be while harvesting a flower. I might be tempted to take down the brightness and saturation of the wing a bit, and possibly back off of the sharpening on the wing as well. I know from my own photos that too much sharpening on a butterfly wing can cause it to lose the natural powdery appearance of moths and butterflies.

Dave G.

Thanks a bunch Dave. Great feedback!

Interestingly, as an instinctive move I brushed back a lot of sharpening on the wing because I felt exactly what you described. Are some wings more naturally textured looking than others? Which area(s) do you notice it more in?

 

[Dave Goldberg]

Thanks a bunch Dave. Great feedback!

Interestingly, as an instinctive move I brushed back a lot of sharpening on the wing because I felt exactly what you described. Are some wings more naturally textured looking than others? Which area(s) do you notice it more in?

I think its very situational and I play around with sharpness and texture to get the right feel. I look at the wings in general and ask myself if they look powdery or crunchy. I also look at the hairs around the head and body at 100%, and if they look super sharp then I back off a bit.

 

[Dave Pastern]

Thanks a bunch Dave. Great feedback!

Interestingly, as an instinctive move I brushed back a lot of sharpening on the wing because I felt exactly what you described. Are some wings more naturally textured looking than others? Which area(s) do you notice it more in?

I've found that most Butterfly wings are fairly textured. The wings are made of scale like material if you can look close enough.

Regarding the rear wing, as someone who did macro exclusively for near 15 years, it doesn't bother me in the slightest. At 1:1 your DOF range will only be around 6mm anyways. I'm guessing this was probably taken at 1:2, so DOF would have been slightly greater, but not by enough to get that rear wing sharply in focus imho. I wouldn't fret over it too much.

My only suggestion is a slight crop to tighten the image down the Right hand side and top, and perhaps a tiny bit at the bottom of the frame too actually. Oh, and shoot stopped down 2/3 more stop to f11. Diffraction on the full frame sensor of the R6 shouldn't be an issue imho.

The image "as is" is superb mate.