Stuart Ord
April 2025 - Red Admiral
About the Image(s)
Taken at a country property in July 24.
Olympus 14-150mm lens, 1/125sec at f13, ISO 250
Processed in Affinity 2, the original bright green backgrpund has been desaturated by converting to mono with opacity 44%
7 comments posted
Margaret West
I love the colors with the orange contrasting with the purple flower and the overall composition. When I enlarge it though it is not in focus. Probably hard to do handheld ? Like your post processing. The mild desaturation works well here. Posted: 04/04/2025 03:47:00
Stuart, Beautiful image. I love the colors and the detail you've captured on the antennae. When shooting butterfly's, if possible, you may want to up your shutter speed it bit. That might help with your soft focus. Great idea to desaturate the background! I might use that technique in one of my upcoming portraiture shoots. Thank you for sharing your expertise. Posted: 04/08/2025 14:11:58
Than you both for your comments. Yes, it is a bit soft. That lens is not a macro lens per se, and I was pushing it to its limit, but that's not to say there wasn't some camera shake or subject movement. There's no getting round the fact that the best photos come from the correct equipment and techniques. But as Margaret commented, our equipment bags can get heavy, even on micro 4/3,so I didn't have a macro lens with me. Taking butterflies with the 30mm lens is a problem anyway, as butterflies don't like you getting too close and that lens has a short working distance. But the Olympus 90mm macro is a comparitive heavyweight.
Yes, green can be a dominant colour. I don't know why I used a mono layer at reduced opacity rather than just desaturate the greens, maybe I was experimenting. Either way would work.
Posted: 04/10/2025 07:58:05
Yes, green can be a dominant colour. I don't know why I used a mono layer at reduced opacity rather than just desaturate the greens, maybe I was experimenting. Either way would work.
Posted: 04/10/2025 07:58:05
This was such a great pose by your subject, but it does feel very soft. I'm going to guess that your focal length was closer to the 150mm end; you can't hand hold successfully if your shutter speed falls below your focal length on your lens. I would also add more space in front of the butterfly's face. One other suggestion: at f13, you are capturing excessive sharpness still on the backgroun. Butterflies are a difficult subject. Posted: 04/12/2025 20:36:13
You are quoting the "old" advice of shutter speed in seconds to be less than 1 divided by the focal length in mm. I've often wondered if this applies to micro 4/3, or whether the advice should be 1/2 this or 2x this! I don't know. But I do know that the stabilisation was on, which gives several stops of benefit - I think OM Systems claim about x6 for this body. But of course, a shaky hand can defeat even the best stabilisation! So I'm not sure - shaky hand, imperfect focus, or lens outside its comfort zone.
Do you think the background is too sharp? It's the playoff for us, isn't it, get all the subject sharp (or as much as you decide you want to be sharp) but avoid a sharp, distracting background. I know, I should have focus bracketted!! It gives good sharpness across as many images as you use, then the focus falls off more rapidly if you are using a wider aperture.
Posted: 04/19/2025 22:04:14
Do you think the background is too sharp? It's the playoff for us, isn't it, get all the subject sharp (or as much as you decide you want to be sharp) but avoid a sharp, distracting background. I know, I should have focus bracketted!! It gives good sharpness across as many images as you use, then the focus falls off more rapidly if you are using a wider aperture.
Posted: 04/19/2025 22:04:14
Thanks for this image Stuart, lots to learn from it and from the comments! The butterfly and flower colors are very beautiful. I agree on softness - it is so hard to get the whole body in focus. I wonder if with a 200/300 zoom lens you could get a better result and get closer to a macro shot. Posted: 04/19/2025 20:26:03
Thanks Gloria. The lens was at 150mm, sorry I missed that detail! Having a longer focal length wouldn't have helped, as I didn't want to get closer as the frame was already full. Knowing the size of the butterfly, I'd estimate the magnification was about 0.3-0.4x, but that's in micro 4/3 terms. Had it been a full frame camera, it would have been twice that, so not far off the traditional definition of "macro". Posted: 04/19/2025 21:55:38