bob_71 Loc: Severna Park, MD

Butterflies are among the most assaulted of all prey. They owe their very lives to their wariness so they can be very difficult to approach. As a result, most shots of them are taken at a considerable distance. What you see in the viewfinder is a frame where the principal subject represents only a small dot in the middle.

In order to capture a shot with sharpness and exposure that is acceptable, I always shoot butterflies in AUTO-FOCUS mode and my metering mode is always set on SPOT. In conjunction with this setting, you need to select an AUTO-FOCUS POINT. Your manual will show you how to set this...I use the center point as mine for ease of tracking the butterflies until they land.

This setting causes your auto-focus system to isolate the tiny subject as it's only interest. Other metering modes use larger areas with multiple points that are read and averaged to achieve both focus and exposure settings. The butterfly is an insignificant portion of the metering when any setting other than SPOT is used.

The attached photo is shown in full frame, and the same photo is shown cropped using "Thirds" and finally as maximum cropped.

I hope that this will help in your greater enjoyment of butterfly photography.

Please view in DOWNLOAD mode.

Bob

(Incidentally) My camera is always set on SPOT metering.

Full frame as in viewfinder File size=3.71 MB


Cropped using "Thirds" File size=1.08 MB


Maximum cropping File size=696 kb

angler Loc: StHelens England

Great shot and information Bob.Nice one.

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

Nice result...I think your 'Butterfly' is a moth.

bob_71 Loc: Severna Park, MD

Your comments are much appreciated!

Bob

bob_71 Loc: Severna Park, MD

Thanks for your comments!

The 'Butterfly' is a 'Butterfly'! It is a Zabulon Skipper (Poanes zabulon)!

Bob

GWR100 Loc: England

Good set and info Bob :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Singing Swan

It has clubbed antenna....doesn't that put it in the moth category???

brucew29 Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

I use "spot" with autofocus or manual focus when time permits... good advice... :thumbup:



:thumbup:

bob_71 Loc: Severna Park, MD

The below is a quote from Wikipedia...


A Tiger Longwing butterfly (Heliconius hecale) - note the clubbed antennae and slender body
Shape and structure of antennae

The most obvious difference is in the feelers, or antennae. Most butterflies have thin slender filamentous antennae which are club-shaped at the end. Moths, on the other hand, often have comb-like or feathery antennae, or filamentous and unclubbed.[2] This distinction is the basis for the earliest taxonomic divisions in the Lepidoptera: the Rhopalocera ("clubbed horn", the butterflies) and the Heterocera ("varied horn", the moths).

Bob

bob_71 Loc: Severna Park, MD

Thanks for your comments!

Bob

Singing Swan

sorry ..my bad, I was thinking them backwards.

Pierre H.J. Dumais Loc: Mississippi Mills, Ont.

You do this so well Bob -- clear, concise and very valuable.
Hopefully these pieces will find their way together under one cover for an excellent photography tutorial.

Pierre

bob_71 Loc: Severna Park, MD

The older you get, the less you will use MANUAL!

Thanks for posting!

Bob

bob_71 Loc: Severna Park, MD

Not a problem!

Thanks for getting involved!

Bob

bob_71 Loc: Severna Park, MD

Thanks for your comments!

Bob