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Derrel | all galleries >> Galleries >> Viewer Favorites > DSC_1334_725xcrop.JPG
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July 2,2004 Derrel

DSC_1334_725xcrop.JPG

synchro-sun tests,bright sunlight

I shot this at f/18, trying to make the sky render as "twilight", so I would have a COLORFUL close-up butterfly seen against a DARK sky. The sky was a much lighter blue than this,and at the lower right hand corner of the frame you can see what was a gray-ish cloud formation. Earlier photos,shot just moments before this shot, had shown me that f/11 was more the appropriate exposure to render the clouds their true shade, but that looked like crap on the LCD,I thought, so I decided to close down the f/stop to f/18 and use the diffuser dome to get a good foreground exposure, and to force the sky to go dark enough to feel,well, dark, so the butterfly would "Pop!".Now,the thing is, I was able to review my earlier images on the D70,even shooting RAW mode, with almost instantaneous review of what I had JUST shot. I glanced at the LCD,saw that f/11 was too bright,and finger wheel clicked down to f/18. This type of nearly INSTANT LCD review speed for a three-raw sequence is impossible to get in less than something that feels like 23 seconds or so with the Fuji S2.With the D70, a 3-shot RAW sequence can be reviewed beginning immediately after the last shot has been fired,and while the images are being written to the storage card,and on-the-fly exposure changes like shifting from f/11 to f/18 can be made based on quick feedback from the D70's LCD screen. This is a crop-in for better composition. I got off three shots in rapid fire succession to get this one,and my framing on the original wasn't all that great, but I did like the exposure and the position of the butterfly's body. Butterflies of this size are tricky to get into adequately deep DOF with a 1.5x D-SLR camera. A good CoolPix would probably make a better butterfly camera many times, but I don't have a CoolPix or other small-sensor digicam.

Nikon D70 ,Sigma 180mm f/3.5 EX APO Macro
Sigma 180 Macro, Nikon SB 800 speedlight full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Guest 26-Jul-2006 03:17
Very nicely done. If that pne leaf wasn't there in the foreground I think it would be a truly exceptional photograph. Just my opinion.... still a quite beautiful photo!
Guest 20-Jan-2005 17:44
very good!