Wings and blossoms — things to learn

[Steve Foss]

Both these images were taken in the heat of the day today in the bright sun, which was darn near straight overhead. Sun like that isn't always a bad thing, although it's a matter of angles and surfaces, and it helps to know a couple tricks.

I like this above other fritillary images I got today because it reminds me of the shape of those napkins you see tucked and stuck in champagne flutes in fancy restaurants. Manual exposure wasn't necessary because the subject and background were roughly the same exposure, and this lens is sharpest at max focal length at f8, which worked fine this time for background bokeh because the background was far enough away. And the descent in tone and intensity from the yellow-green bokeh at the top to the darker green at the bottom pleases me as well. Focus mode in both the below images was "one shot," which means you can lock focus on a specific point, recompose and trip the shutter. "Al servo" mode, which is continuous focus, would not have allowed that.

Canon 20D, Canon 100-400L IS at 400mm, iso400, 1/640 at f8 handheld in aperature priority mode.

A cabbage moth on a Joe-Pye-weed, both species as common as dirt. But they were in bright sun in mid afternoon and background was dark. Switched to manual mode since the 20D doesn't have a true spot metering system (close, but not quite). I exposed for the highlights in the moth and flowers, which were about the same value. It was four full stops underexposed compared with what the meter specified on the automatic modes. And it produced the very fast shutter speed you see below, assuring that no motion by the subject would be fast enough to blur the image and also rendering a dark green/brown foliage shade background nearly black, isolating the subjects and removing all distractions. Unless you have a higher model Canon (the 30D and above have true spot metering), or higher level Nikon bodies, letting the meter dictate the exposure in this case would have yielded a fairly well exposed background but blown-out highlights in the subjects, and the photo would have been useless.

20D, 100-400L IS at 400, iso400, 1/2500 at f8 from Slik ultralight monopod

[Dbl]

I really like that first image. The colors and bokeh are really pleasing to the eye.

[jonny_redhorse]

Steve...great detailed explanation on these butterflies!...the bokeh thing is fascinating to me and really makes the photo...I still learning about the "bokeh" thing and find it quite interesting...you guys out there with the"top end" cameras surely get great "bokeh" results and I'm seeing if my "fixed lens" 28mm-300mm camera can achieve "any kind " of bokeh let alone great bokeh ......(I think I said that right! )...I noticed I can achieve decent bokeh if the background is far enough away but if its not to far behind the subject (close) another story...I'm only now starting to get into this so you guys have some great information here and this post is really informative to me.....I personally like a super close depth of field but sometimes it's hard for me to get what I desire...I like the back ground to drop off into a"blurr"..just a personal preferrance thing I guess...I'm still unlocking the secrets of my camera..still alot to learn... ..at what distance does the background have to be(behind the main subject) before "good" bokeh is achieved? varies no doubt...just interested....here's a photo from a few days ago of a "white admiral"...can I assume I could have got rid of the entire background and had it total blurred in bokeh?...will the settings you just mentioned "always" result in a decent bokeh effect?.....guess I just gotta experiment... thanks jonny

[Steve Foss]

You're right, Jonny, getting a shallow DOF depends partly on how wide open the lens aperature will go and partly on the focal length of the lens. On a 20mm lens at f4, there's a much thicker depth of focus than on a 300mm at the same f-stop. The deeper the depth of focus, the farther away the background has to be to achieve good bokeh.

If your camera has a "portrait" pre-set mode, you might try that. Most portrait auto modes bring a shallow DOF.

[buzzsaw]

That white Butterfly picture is awesome, I love the dark background, it really helps that Butterfly stand out!

[Swimmer]

What he said. Thanks again Steve for the awesome photos and "bokeh" 101. I haven't even learned how to use spot metering yet! (on 30D) I love the camera though and also enjoy slowly step-wise getting a grip on the various functions.

Steve, you should write an instuctional manual on using and maximizing DSLR functions. Oh, I guess that is what you are doing here! Or, organize your various postings (with guest appearances, Tom et al) into a "book" and sell it...I would be your first customer...Oh, but thereafter we might have to beg you on this site to divulge info...so, nevermind.

PS, any recommendations on a applicable how-to publication?

[floating minnow]

Top notch work Steve! Thanks for the education.

[Steve Foss]

Guys, it's my pleasure to both learn and teach. It's all good. Swimmer, the camera owner's manual is your friend! If I had true spot metering available, I'd be using it like crazy. I'm afraid I can't help you with a how-to photo book. The only one I ever bought was about 25 years ago. It was excellent, but would be long out of print. However, there must be many good educational how-to photo books out there.