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Well, I'm still a beginner. I feel I'm lacking in my pictures overall quality. Here are some of the first pictures I've posted on here, I took these yesterday at a butterfly house near by. Looking at everyone else's pictures on here I'm kind of ashamed, but I'm trying to get better so productive comments would be helpful. I've tried to list the settings on flickr so everyone can see what's going on. First off I was amazed that it seemed like I was getting to much light some times. So I tried to turn down the exposure comp. and it didn't seem to help. I also had no luck in "freezing" there wings while they were flapping. I would like to know how to do this but first I'd like my pictures to improve when things are still. LOL

thanks for the comments.


here is one Butterfly and then a link to the rest.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24145148@N ... 987983733/



Ok then maybe not a picture but the link should work. What am I doing wrong to get a pictures hosted?

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Canon 40D kit Lens 28-135mm IS, Canon 50mm F/1.8, 10-22mm, 100 2.8 macro, 580 Ex.

dude posting picture is really hard but i can help you out

i leanr it the hard way

so what u do firs is that you use [u rl = the web adress of the page that image is on (in this case the url is http://www.flickr.com/photos/24145148@N ... 987983733/)][img]then%20here%20u%20right%20click%20the%20image%20on%20the%20website%20and%20you%20copy%20the%20url%20of%20the%20"actual%20image"%20in%20%20this%20case%20it%20would%20be%20http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2070/2292363612_b1a22043ea.jpg?v=0%20(remove%20the%20?v=0)%20so%20u%20end%20up%20with%20only%20jpg%20at%20the%20end[/img][/url]



press the quote botton to see how i did it for the final picture, that is the best way i can explain it

EDIT: that is not my photo it belongs to csmonte

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Focal Length: 135mm
Shutter: .3 sec
ISO: 400
Aperture: F13

Comments: Flash On



Focal Length: 135mm
Shutter: 1/400
ISO: 1600
Aperture: F5.6



Focal Length: 135mm
Shutter: 1/100
ISO: 640
Aperture: F5.6

Comments: additional crop of about 30%



Focal Length: 135mm
Shutter: 1/15
ISO: 640
Aperture: F16

Comments: Ex. Comp. -1/3, Flash On



Focal Length: 135mm
Shutter: 1/60 sec
ISO: 1000
Aperture: F5.6

Comments: Ex. Comp. -1/3

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Canon 40D kit Lens 28-135mm IS, Canon 50mm F/1.8, 10-22mm, 100 2.8 macro, 580 Ex.

Ok, I'm hoping everyone else can see these now. Thanks to your help, I got it.

I'm not really getting the url thing. I didn't use it and they worked fine. Its just that flickr puts the "?v=0" on the end that was messing them up. with that off its the same as any other forum I've been on. But with the url thing, not really getting that, but don't mess with it unless it doesn't work right?





Back To the pictures. They don't look to bad on my screen now, but I have resized them to 1024, and this is even smaller, you can view the larger pictures on the flickr site to see more detail. They just don't seem as Sharp. I actually used live view on many shots to get the focus dialed in perfectly. I guess I'll just see what you guys say first.

thanks

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Canon 40D kit Lens 28-135mm IS, Canon 50mm F/1.8, 10-22mm, 100 2.8 macro, 580 Ex.

about the url i mean first [url=url of the actual page the image is on][img]the%20image%20url%20(on%20the%20web)(u%20obtaine%20it%20by%20righclicking%20the%20the%20image%20and%20going%20to%20properties)[/img][/url]


great images, not onyl here but ur flickr as well

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Great job csmonte!

I especially like the brown one with the rings (the one in alex'post)
Butterflies always seem to have a special charm...

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I like the one with huge tv-antennas....

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Beautiful beasts, beautiful captures!
Did those sit still enough to work with live-view?

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Some were very still and would just about never move, then other types would never freaking slow down. One type we were looking for ever to find sitting still, then we realized how incredibly different some look when they close there wings up.

As far as live view. I found it helpful. It was wearing me out holding it so long though. After a while I used my tripod like a mono pod and that helped. I felt like I was the only one that could do "live view" with my SLR. go 40D!!

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Canon 40D kit Lens 28-135mm IS, Canon 50mm F/1.8, 10-22mm, 100 2.8 macro, 580 Ex.

I do have a question:

Looking at my settings, would you of changed anything?
I was having a VERY hard time getting the hole butterfly in focus and still not sticking it with a F16 and then not have much blur.

How about Exposure Comp.?
Would you turn it down to try to bring out more colors?


And how on earth could I of froze action?
I tried a few times turning up ISO all the way and speeding up shutter, and I came up with a Very Dark picture. By the time it was light the wings would blur. I guess I should of tried more with the flash?

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Canon 40D kit Lens 28-135mm IS, Canon 50mm F/1.8, 10-22mm, 100 2.8 macro, 580 Ex.

Hey csmonte,

I photographed some butterflies too on my trip to the zoo the other day, In the end it were the pictures i used flash on that came out the best. This was an inside-butterfly garden so the light conditions weren't too great... There were still some who were very hard to capture though. There was one who had the most amazing blue color on the top side of the wings but he was either moving around too frantically or having his wings up, hiding the blue. I haven't made a satisfying picture of it... Some animals are just harder to get than others i suppose...

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that's funny you mention that about that butterfly that had a very nice color blue on the topside of its wings, but then when closed it was much different. I swear that's probably the same butterfly I was trying to get. It never stopped and I never got a decent shot of one either. I tried to track a few in the air, but butterfly's don't fly with much of a pattern, they go everywhere.

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Canon 40D kit Lens 28-135mm IS, Canon 50mm F/1.8, 10-22mm, 100 2.8 macro, 580 Ex.