Color Bath
A southern festoon butterfly (Zerynthia polyxena-Osterluzeifalter) sitting in an orchid meadow - what a wonderful morning!
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A southern festoon butterfly (Zerynthia polyxena-Osterluzeifalter) sitting in an orchid meadow - what a wonderful morning!
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May, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo in the nature around Vienna - as I respect such a beautiful and very rare species I can't tell where exactly.Time
Most of my macros I shoot in the early morning - so I get up long before sunrise.Lighting
The early morning light right after sunrise is soft and tender - that's great for the main subject and the background so you get a balanced exposure.Equipment
For this shot I've used a Canon 5d Mk II, a Tokina 100/2,8 macro, a Berlebach tripod and a reflector.Inspiration
Since I was getting in depth of macro photography I wanted to shoot a photo of this rare butterfly and some new fellow photographer friends were so kind to bring me there and even showed me one. As there are beautiful meadows with orchids it wasn't that difficult to find a perfect background for it. Many macro photographers try to get a completely blurred background, but I tend to bring the flair of the habitat into the picture without distracting too much from the main subject.Editing
I've used some post processing in Photoshop to optimize contrast, did some tonal correction and increased the crispyness of the image. Sometimes I use some NIK Color Efex filters as well.In my camera bag
Canon 5d Mk II (Mk III in the meantime) Canon 7D Canon 16-35/4 L IS Canon 50/1.4 Canon 70-200/4 L IS Canon 85/1.8 Sigma 120-300/2.8 OS Tamron 150-600 Berlebach and Verbon tripods ND Filters, gradient filters, polarization filterFeedback
First of all: be patient and get up early! To find insects in the morning isn't easy, but it's worth it, because the low temperature gives you time before they fly away. It's not easy to get a blurred background and to get the complete butterfly sharp - at least the wings and the head, but with some practice you can make it. You should use a tripod and manual focusing and try to get the planes of the lens and the butterfly wings parallel for a photo like this - this helps a lot.
