Advice to improve butterfly shots

[PeterN]

I need some help in getting my butterfly shots right. These shots were all out of hand with manual flash (SB-24 + polaroid softball). I used TTL mode on the camera instead of Manual (Realized that later but I do not know if it would have made a difference). Most shots were taken with 105mm. A few with 70-200 f4. All with D750.

Postprocessing: primarily standard or vivid camera profile - some clarity - s-tone curve - sharpening. Exposure adjustment upon need (either shadows/blacks or exposure)

I am not happy but I am somewhat stuck how I could improve. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

PS: my apologies for including so many photos. If it's too much, I will remove


#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7 - same in BW:


#8 - Another BW:


#9


#10


#11


#12 - same in BW:




Some other species in the butterfly garden:

#14


#15

[Jakov Minić]

Peter, what is it exactly that you are not happy about?
They look good to me
Numbers 6, 8 and 9 are my favorites!

[PeterN]

Peter, what is it exactly that you are not happy about?
They look good to me
Numbers 6, 8 and 9 are my favorites!

You are too kind.... I am sometimes blown away by the DoF, composition, colors, and sharpness of butterfly photos of others. I do not have that with these photos but I  cannot pinpoint what it is.
But mentioning your favorites is already helpful. These shots all share a similar position (and OOF) of leaves and butterfly.

[Jakov Minić]

With sharpness and DOF I can't help you a great deal since all my photos are blurry and out of focus
However, if you want to shoot a butterfly up close and get it all in focus, you need to freeze or kill the butterfly (literally) and then perform focus stacking. There are many examples on this forum, but I am not an expert on this subject at all.

[PeterN]

With sharpness and DOF I can't help you a great deal since all my photos are blurry and out of focus
However, if you want to shoot a butterfly up close and get it all in focus, you need to freeze or kill the butterfly (literally) and then perform focus stacking. There are many examples on this forum, but I am not an expert on this subject at all.

 
For focus stacking I need a tripod... (I did that with product shots). Too bad there is no focus bracketing function that can be set in mm's. ;-)
I like OOF and in watch shots I know what works and does not work (at least for me) but with these type of shots, it's easy to get a nervous background (that might be just my clumsiness).

[Peter Connan]

They do look pretty stunning to me too!

But I also prefer the ones with shallower DOF. Since you are obviously better than me at this, you need to take this with a pinch of salt, but perhaps look for "flat" postures and shoot them with wider apertures?

[PedroS]

Those are good ones.
Some points that could help your photos:

• always try to have the butterfly wings perpendicular to the lens, it will help a lot to have everything in focus
• use 3 to 4 flashes to decrease ISO, increase speed, and slow the lens
• shoot farther away with big teles, or use TCs
• prepare backgrounds and attract them with strong colors
• your last 2 photos are from butterflies eaters, right? 

[Andrea B.]

My thought is that there is too much background, not enough butterfly. So either crop these or get closer next time you shoot butterflies so that your compositions are stronger and emphasize the insect.

Butterflies are notoriously skittish creatures and sometimes we are stuck with a less than ideal background. So don't be afraid to stage manage your backgrounds in the editor by patching up distracting areas.

On the wings, open up the dark areas just every so slightly so that the wing & scale details are not lost. Then enhance such details with some kind of local-contrast sharpening using a detail slider or a hi-pass overlay or some similar technique. Brush the detail enhancements on the wings where needed so that the background stays soft.

Here is a cropped version of one of your beautiful butterflies with some detail enhancement and a bit of background trickery. I'm *not* saying this is "right", OK??  I'm just putting one possibility out there. You as the artist/photographer are the who should decide where to go with your work.

[These are a bit the worse for the wear because it is not easy to edit a resized jpeg without introducing artifacts, so I hope that Peter only looks at the compositional suggestion. Thx.]

[PeterN]

They do look pretty stunning to me too!

Thank you. Your are too kind.

Those are good ones.
Some points that could help your photos:

• always try to have the butterfly wings perpendicular to the lens, it will help a lot to have everything in focus
• use 3 to 4 flashes to decrease ISO, increase speed, and slow the lens
• shoot farther away with big teles, or use TCs
• prepare backgrounds and attract them with strong colors
• your last 2 photos are from butterflies eaters, right? 

Thank you. That is helpful. I will think about a manageable mobile setup for flash and I will definitely try to use the 300mm next time, perhaps with close-up lens or extension tube attached. Using a slower aperture will probably result in nicer bokeh than the 105mm.

My thought is that there is too much background, not enough butterfly. So either crop these or get closer next time you shoot butterflies so that your compositions are stronger and emphasize the insect.

Butterflies are notoriously skittish creatures and sometimes we are stuck with a less than ideal background. So don't be afraid to stage manage your backgrounds in the editor by patching up distracting areas.

On the wings, open up the dark areas just every so slightly so that the wing & scale details are not lost. Then enhance such details with some kind of local-contrast sharpening using a detail slider or a hi-pass overlay or some similar technique. Brush the detail enhancements on the wings where needed so that the background stays soft.

Here is a cropped version of one of your beautiful butterflies with some detail enhancement and a bit of background trickery. I'm *not* saying this is "right", OK??  I'm just putting one possibility out there. You as the artist/photographer are the who should decide where to go with your work.

[These are a bit the worse for the wear because it is not easy to edit a resized jpeg without introducing artifacts, so I hope that Peter only looks at the compositional suggestion. Thx.]

That is extremely helpful, Andrea! The crops and "trickery" works much better. I will experiment with that (now I know why should have bought the D810 instead of the D750 ;-) ). I will also experiment with your suggested detail enhancement steps. I sharpened in LR and adjusted radius (with ALT key) to include/exclude sharpening areas.

[zuglufttier]

Hi,

I think your pictures are pretty good, too! It's true, they seem a bit standard. But this is not because of your camera, your lenses or your aptitude in handling those. It's just a fact that most photographers use more post processing than you do

Embrace the possibilities of image editing and use those tools. It takes months or years to know what works in image editing and what doesn't just like taking the photo itself. Just changing the crop and some colour balance can yield great results.