Great Purple Hairstreak

A very nice species, well depicted and composed- Maybe to increase a bit the sharpness you could use a wider aperture, as 5,6 for example (or higher iso setting)- Well done, Fabio

Hi Tonia. Great subject. I like the many colors of the BF and the nice comp. I agree with Fabio that the BF itself is a little soft. I suspect you did not have a tripod and/or the wind was blowing. As suggested by Fabio, you could have tried a wider fstop/faster ss for additional sharpness. Of course, this would have blurred the environmental BG, and it depends on the type of image you were after.

Beautiful butterfly and I like the plants he is resting on. Agree it does seem a little soft. Were you at the end range of your lens? If so, I believe that can cause some softness.

Thank you everyone for your comments! To answer Carolyn, yes I was at the minimum focus point of the lens. I was attempting to keep an aperature that would still blur out the background yet keep the BF sharp. I'm begining to think in times like these I need to break out the tripod but I always worry about scaring away the subject while I'm trying to set up. Any thoughts on this?

To respond to your question, Tonia, here is my approach: When I am shooting, my camera is on my tripod nearly 100% of the time to begin with, so there is no "breaking out" the tripod. There are, of course, tripod adjustments that must be made (height, etc). I try to make these away from a live subject and then approach in steps (or inches), shooting closer and closer. The alternative is to shoot with a dedicated flash (and a diffuser to even the light) which enables handholding at faster ss. For most of my insect close-ups like this image, I am usually shooting flowers and the subject comes to me. Finally, try shooting early in the morning when the insects are cold and not moving as much. Hope this helps.

Thanks Scott, I appreciate the tips!

Hi Tonia, I definitely echo Scott's advices: in general with warmer weather you can get many more species (and sometimes you could also try to shot some insects in flight), but it could be probably tougher to obtain a good picture (mainly for the quality of light)- If you decide to use a tripod instead of flash stuff I'd try to get a dedicated macro lens (not a zoom), and possibly a long one (ex. 150 or 180mm, or even a 300mm- the Nikkor 300 f4 is fantastic with the most skittish critters, and with 1,4 and 1,7 teleconverter is perfect for butterflies and dragonflies shots)- Best wishes, Fabio

I agree with what others have said. I don't think it was possible, given the position of the butterfly, but I would have tried to eliminate the solid piece of green background that takes up the top right-hand corner. Having the sandy-color background that is present, encompass the whole background, would have been nice. Like I said, don't think the butterfly was positioned to allow this?

If no tripod is available, kick up your ISO. You'll have to experiment to see where the higher ISO "noise" becomes a factor. I've had to master this because a local tropical/seasonal flowers conservatory does not allow tripods any longer! Nik software Dfine helps in this area as well.

Finally, yes to a different f/stop. Sometimes it difficult to control the depth of field if it is really close to your main subject, which may have been the case here (?). Macro lens would have worked very well (-:

Thanks for posting your image and taking in the feedback.

Thanks again everyone for your helpful feedback. I will definately try some of these tips out when I go out next!

I do like the subject. It looks that you gave all of us an opportunity to improve our skills, by all the constructive comments given about this shot. Thanks.