Butterfly in a depth of field - Critters

How to capture this image

Critters

Can anyone identify this butterfly? Not a clue this end. As you can see by it's wings the poor thing is a little worse for wear, quite small and flat, dull brown throughout. Can't tell you what the underside of the wing looked like as the little blighter never flipped or fluttered for me. Also at quite a distance so this isn't a macro image. That though leads me onto what kind of image we would call this, and that would be use of depth of field, or as you may often see it abbreviated to dof.

It sounds far more scary and technical than it actually is. Not at all. If you were viewing this image with your own eyes rather than through my lens then your eyes and brain would adjust the sharpness and clarity of everything you see in the frame, so all would be in focus. With depth of field all you are doing is concentrating focus onto one point. In this case the butterfly. As the eyes move back through the image and around it you will notice the softening or blurring(usually referred to as soft focus) of the leaves, giving a 3D effect to the photo. Easily done. As I was at a distance I just adjusted the lens until I got the desired focal point for the butterfly. Needless to say this was on a manual setting. You can do this on any part of the image, but one thing you must get right is the sharp focus on the subject. If you don't get that right then the image will just be flat and blurry throughout. Easier to demonstrate and more dramatic on two opposing colours, but chose a nature image with muted colours as it's a shot often used in nature photography.


A while since we've had photography tips on the blog, but this is a question I get asked a lot, so there you go. Quite a sensible post for me too. Now go and practice and remember people I want results or you could just go and click Misty to see more cute critters.

ABC WEDNESDAY - P IS FOR PAINTED LADY

I was going to have a different "P" image, then I spotted the first butterfly of the year, a Painted Lady. Unfortunately I didn't have the macro lens with me, so it was another lie on the ground point and shoot jobs.

Now I'm no butterfly expert, so youprhaps you are able to help me out here.? For that reason you won't be getting all the latin names. Take up far too much blog space. I do know the Painted Lady is pretty widespread and found on every continent bar Antartica. I know they vary slightly from continent to continent and there are even sub species. I have read that the American Painted Lady is often refered to as a "Cosmopolitan." Is that true or is it another one of those urban myths that gets lost in translation? Like I said, not an expert in this area, so you tell me on this one.

I was also hoping to show you George the pelican that often escapes from the wildlife park and flies here to Ramsey, but he hasn't shown up for a while.

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