johnharbaugh

Butterfly

NIKON D5000

settings

Aperture f/5.6 ISO 250 Shutter 8/10000

upload_date

Nov, 2013

Views

182

Likes

Awards

All Star

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Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

Behind The Lens

Location

I live in the Cascade Mountains in Washington state and this photo was taken in my backyard. There are an unlimited number of photo ops of beautiful landscapes and coniferous trees but rather limited open areas with a lot of colorful plant life. I have a nice flower garden that provides me settings such as this.

Time

This photo was taken in late June around 1:00 in the afternoon. This time of year is pretty hot and dry in the Pacific Northwest and the afternoon sun brings out my little flying critter subjects. But living where we do there always seems to be a slight breeze.

Lighting

The afternoon sun provides nice lighting that allows for low ISO's, high shutter speeds and small apertures.

Equipment

I used my Nikon D5000 with a Nikkor 18-200mm set to f/5.6, ISO-250 and an exposure time of 1/1250 sec.

Inspiration

Butterflies, bees, dragonflies and hummingbirds provide great subject opportunities. They are typically very colorful and are often found around beautiful flowers. These animals provide the challenge of needing to be fast on the focusing and offer great mid-flight, stop-action shots.

Editing

Of course I try to get the photos as good as I can from the settings on the camera thereby requiring less post-processing. I like to challenging myself to get it right the first time, a throwback to my days using film when any modifications during development were very (very) limited. I use Photoshop Elements Photo Editor for my post-processing work. I usually tweak the Shadows and Highlights to balance the brightness and bring a little more light to the shadowed areas. The Midtone control can provide the right contrast. I bump up the Saturation to really bring out the colors, especially nice in a photo like this. I find I don't need to play with the Hue very often. Sharpness adds a little more snap to the photo and can also be used to add just a bit of grain to the picture.

In my camera bag

I carry my Nikon D5000 and a Nikkor AF-S DX 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II lens. I have the standard 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses but found that my needs always range from the full 18 to 200mm. The 18-200mm gives me everything I need and doesn't require changing lenses. My normal focal length is around 80mm, like in this picture. I carry a tripod, an extra SD card, wireless remote shutter trigger, a lenspen and lens cloth.

Feedback

With a quick moving subject you need to be fast on the focus with minimal camera movement. And with subjects that are in constant motion like the birds and the bees a tripod isn't practical. That's when plenty of good lighting allows for a much faster shutter speed to catch the moment and give you really nice stop action shots. And as always, you have to take a lot of shots. Especially for good moments frozen in time you usually have to take a hundred shots or more to get the perfect picture!

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johnharbaugh

johnharbaugh

Butterfly

Behind The Lens

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