Glass wing butterfly

[omni]

Taken at Wisley gardens butterfly event.

[deetheturk]

Nice capture Steve!

[marlunn]

Nicely done Steve

[Stagecoach]

Very good Steve.

[FootLoose]

This is really cool in lytebox. Good one, Steve.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Dave Humphries]

Good capture Steve,

When I look at this type of natural development, I just think 'ain't nature wonderful'.


For Info to other UK members; the event runs until 8th March 2015, but remember that next week is school half term, so may (like weekends) be busier.

Event web page, which has details of admission price (to gardens) and booking a timed slot (to avoiding queueing).

I have no idea whether people are 'shepherded through' (esp. at busy times) - which might impact a serious photographer trying to get a great shot.

For the record: I have not attended myself (yet) and have no connection with the rhs, event or venue.

Cheers, Dave

[Rebel]

Awesome shot Steve

[Barbara Ponder]

Nice shot. Those are my favorites and very hard to capture, well done.

[Wavelength]

...Such a beauty

[DEAN01]

Wow!

[klpurkett]

Very cool! I've never seen a glass wing butterfly before... Thanks for sharing!

[DanK]

Very nice capture! I have never seen a butterfly like that. Perhaps we don't have them on this side of the pond.

If I can make one suggestion: the creature is dark, particularly given the bright background at the bottom left. The ideal way to avoid this is with a diffused flash, but you can compensate to some degree in postprocessing. I'll post below a very quick edit in which I used a two curves, one for the area around the bug (including it) and one for the bug alone, and dodged the bottom left. Not very good, but it illustrates the general idea. I'll take this down if you object to having edits of your images posted. I hope this is helpful.



If you are interested in what I mean by diffused flash, I'll post pictures of one of my DIY macro flash rigs.

[AndrewMcD]

Very nice image of a remarkable creature!

[IzzieK]

Very nice shot, Steve...and equally nice edit too of Dan's...

[JBW]

Wow!

[Texas Dave]

Very nice indeed.

[ied]

How beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Irene

[omni]

The photo was taken without the aid of a flash. Had I used one the leaf would have been blown out even using a diffused flash.
I do have a ring flash what I don't have is a normal flash for my hot shoe only the in built one. One day when I am rich I will buy one with a diffuser. But thank you for your thoughts.

[DanK]

Steve,

The photo was taken without the aid of a flash. Had I used one the leaf would have been blown out even using a diffused flash.

I doubt it. There are a number of really superb bug photographers from whom I have tried to learn--e.g., the well-known Brian Valentine, who posts as "Lord V" on this macro forum, and the moderator of that forum, who posts as "Goldenorfe." All of them use a diffused single flash much of the time, and most of them don't use a ring flash (because it gives flat lighting and is hard to diffuse). My home-made flash rig is more or less a copy of Golfenorfe's. The expense isn't trivial--you need a regular flash that can function in automatic mode, an off-shoe cable, and something that allows you to move it around (I use two mini-balls). the rest is cheap--my diffuser is made out of a soda can, aluminum foil, a few sheets of parchment paper, and paper towel.

Here is a shot to illustrate, taken with a flash rig somewhat similar to the one I posted, from a distance much closer than yours. You'll see that nothing is blown out.



Not trying to pick an argument--just wanted to give you information for the future in case you decide that you have gotten hooked on bug photography.

Dan