Visit to Cockrell Butterfly Center at Houston Museum of Natural Science—Part 3

I cannot photograph butterflies in flight.  I usually get nothing but blur.  I did not do it in this photo, but I really like how the butterfly in flight in the background adds movement to the image.  Again, I like the bokeh in the background. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D800 on a tripod, 80-400mm f/4.5~5.6 lens with an extension ring attached at 300mm, ISO 1600, f/13 at 1/45^th of a second and a Nikon SB800 on the hotshoe. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon vivid preset, set white and black points, added vibrance and clarity.

Visit to Cockrell Butterfly Center at Houston Museum of Natural Science—Part 2

Good bokeh helps create this photograph.  The leaves and flowers in the background were no more than four feet from the butterfly.  But, because of the shallow dept-of-field (even at f/11), they were turned into a soft canvas background of muted colors.  I think this soft background helps set off the butterfly—the star of the show. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D800 on a tripod, 80-400mm f/4.5~5.6 lens with an extension ring attached at 400mm, ISO 1600, f/11 at 1/60^th of a second. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon vivid preset, set white and black points, added vibrance and clarity.

Visit to Cockrell Butterfly Center at Houston Museum of Natural Science—Part 1

Recently, Bill, a friend, and I went to the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Museum of Natural Science.  I wanted to do something different; something that made me think about the basics of photography—focus, composition and lighting.  

Equipment wise, I used my Nikon D800 with either my 105mm f/2.5 macro or my 80-400mm f/4.5~5.6 with an extension tube (so that I could focus closer to my subject).  All the photos in this series included the use of flash—Nikon SB800 mounted on the hot shoe of my camera, but generally pointed at an angle to the subject and dialed down 1 to 3 f-stops.  I used the flash to add a little fill to the subject.  I tried not to have the photos look “flashed.” 

Today’s photo is about form and color.  I had taken several close-up photos of this butterfly and then decided to do a more environmental portrait; so, I moved my tripod back a little and zoomed out to 200mm.  I like how the leave provides a soft line across the frame so I angled my camera to make the leave form a diagonal line.  To me the three colors—green, red/orange and black—work very well together. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D800 on a tripod, 80-400mm f/4.5~5.6 lens with an extension ring attached at 200mm, ISO 1600, f/13 at 1/90^th of a second. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Standard preset, set white and black points, added vibrance and clarity.

New Arrivals to JD’s Garden

Another sign that spring is here and summer is on its way—more and more butterflies in JD’s garden.  I have no idea what kind of butterfly this one is, other than a pretty one that was willing to let me take several shots of him (her). 

I wanted the photo to be totally about the butterfly so I combined two photos one shot at f/2.8 for the background and another shot at f/13 for the butterfly.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 105mm f/2.8 shot at ISO 200, f/2.8 and f/13 and 1/1000^th and 1/60^th of a second, respectively.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points and adjusted hue of green.

Photoshop—combined two photos using layers and auto-align feature and then applied a mask to isolate the butterfly from the background.

Another Chloe Butterfly

Before I discussing today’s photo, let me address an issue noted regarding yesterday’s post—I did not de-saturate the colors. I took the original posted image and just cropped it, added a layer to do the burning, and completed the stroke on the newly cropped photo. For some reason, it was de-saturated when I posted it on the blog. So, try to image the new crop with the same saturation. I am too lazy to re-do it!

Chloe and I took this photo when we took the one posted on Friday. When I first viewed this one on the computer, I was not very happy with it because out-focus leaves in the right corner (too near to the camera to focus) seemed to make the butterfly float on an unconnected leaf.

After looking at it for a while, I decided I liked the look that was caused by the out-of-focus leaves. But, what do you think?

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4 shot at ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/250^th

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, added clarity and increased saturation of green.

A Little Change of Pace

I thought that I would offer everyone a little change of pace from what I previously presented this week. Between a portrait session and a meeting with a perspective client, I dropped by the Houston Museum of History. I wanted to see what was new at the Butterfly Collection. Since Chloe is in school full time now, I do not go to see the butterflies as often as when she was not in school—she loves the butterflies!

For this photo I was presented a perfect situation—beautiful green, soft leaves and a black and orange butterfly gently perched on the leaf. The only technical problem was putting a little extra light on the butterfly. I chose to use a snooted flash so that I could control precisely where the light was falling.

I must thank the butterfly, he/she was very cooperative while I dialed the level of light I was hitting him/her with. I took about 15 photos before the butterfly flew off. This one was pretty much what I wanted.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm at 200mm with an extension tube attached, shot at ISO 200, f/7.1 and 1/250^th of a second with snotted Nikon SB-800 hand held to the right of the camera and triggered by Nikon SU-800 using CLS.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and cropped image.

Face to Face

This butterfly was so interested in this flower that he did not care about anything else. I wanted the photograph to be about the details of the butterfly, so I added an extension tube to my 105mm Nikon Macro lens to focus on the details. The hardest part of the photograph was dialing down the flash to the point where we would not blow-out the details—Cole did a great job!

Even at an aperture of f/16, I was able to get only his right eye in focus. I think that the shallow depth of field helps focus the viewer's attention on what I thought was the real subject of the photograph.

Cole somehow escaped the wrath of his sister while we were taking this one. Rather, it was Grandpa that felt the sting of "Little Grandma." The comments went something like this:

Chloe: "Grandpa, you are getting to close to the butterfly. You are going to scare him or hurt him. Back up."

Grandpa: "I am not going to hurt him; and, if he gets scared, he will just fly away."

Chloe: "I THINK you should STOP getting so close to him."

(Cole smiling off to the side)

Chloe: "Cole, make Grandpa stop getting so close to him."

Cole: "I want to see him fly off."

Chloe (as she is storming off): "Guys, I am going to tell Grandma that you are scaring the butterfly. She is going to put you guys in time out."

Cole and Grandpa (setting in time out): "Grandpa, you got me in trouble!"

SILENCE from Chloe and Grandma.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4, shot at ISO 200, f/16 and 1/60^th with a SB-800 on a softbox and triggered by Nikon CLS.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.

Photoshop—ran nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter on the butterfly to add contrast to shadows, mid-tones and highlights.

Simple Light

As we approached this butterfly, all I could see was the beam of light behind the butterfly that was falling on the flowers behind him and on the ground. I wanted to put just enough light on the butterfly to make him set out from the flowers, so my expert VAL Cole pointed the light about a foot above the butterfly so that the light would feather gentle on the butterfly’s wings. Our reflector lady was too busy picking flowers for Grandma to be much help on this one.

Once again, we had some editorial comments by my staff that went something like this:

Chloe: "Grandpa, the flowers and the butterfly are so pretty."

Cole: "Blah, blah, blah."

Chloe: "Cole, I am not talking to you. I am talking to Grandpa."

Cole: "Blah, blah, blah."

Why do I feel like I am listening to some of our current politicians?

After seeing this one on my monitor, I tried various crops, including one that was just above the flower on the left side, which eliminated much of the negative space above the butterfly and flowers. After looking at this crop, I felt that the negative spaced added to the overall composition, but I could not decide why it added to the image. What do you think about the crop?

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4, shot at ISO 200, f/8 and 1/180^th with a SB-800 on a softbox and triggered by Nikon CLS.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.

Photoshop—ran nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter on the butterfly to add contrast to shadows, mid-tones and highlights.

Butterfly on Cornflowers

The entire production crew really like how this butterfly was setting on the cornflower. Whatever there was that drew him to the flower, he was determined that a Bollywood production crew was not going to get him to move. Every once in while he would fly around for short while and then come back to the same blossom.

Every time the butterfly would fly away, there was a discussion that went something like this:

Cole: "Chloe, you scared him away by putting the reflector too close to him."

Chloe: "No, I did not. You scared him away with your bright light."

Cole: "No, I did not. Grandpa, is he coming back?"

Butterfly would land again. Shooting would resume--to be followed by another take-off, discussion and landing.

Here we place the light behind the butterfly so the at we could get nice even lighting on his wings and we placed our reflector to the right side about even with the butterfly so that we could get some light on the backside of the flower he was setting on.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4, shot at ISO 200, f/9.5 and 1/250^th with a SB-800 on a softbox and triggered by Nikon CLS.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and changed hue and saturation of green.

Photoshop—ran nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter on the butterfly and flower to add contrast to shadows, mid-tones and highlights.

Green and Yellow

Little doubt at what caught my attention about this scene—the colors. All the colors in the scene blend perfectly. We positioned the SB-800 on a softbox on the right side and the reflector low and on the right side. I wanted the light to be very even and soft.

I took a couple shots in portrait orientation, but the image looked too static. I then noticed the flower in the right corner. I thought that it would add an implied diagonal to the overall composition. Although the flower in the corner is small and faint, I believe it adds a lot to the overall composition.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4, shot at ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/250^th with a SB-800 on a softbox and triggered by Nikon CLS.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity, change green hue and saturation, and added vignette.

Photoshop—ran nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter on the butterfly and flower to add contrast to shadows, mid-tones and highlights.