10 tips for dragonfly photography
Вставка
- Опубліковано 30 лип 2024
- A tutorial about photographing dragonflies: 10 tips for successfully choosing a location, approaching subjects, selecting gear, etc.
Filmed in three of my favourite dragonfly spots near home on the French Riviera
GEAR USED:
- Nikon Z6
- Nikon D800e
- IRIX 150mm f/2.8 macro lens
- Nikon 300mm PF f/4 lens
- Nikon TC 1.7X III
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MUSIC:
Woodkid - Iron
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Excellent video, Pierre! Keep 'em coming.
Your tutorials are absolutely AMAZING! Thanks a lot!
Thank you Luis! Glad you liked them :-)
spectacular!!!
Thanks very helpful....
Such spectacular scenery & awesome photography. This was the perfect way after work and refocus! That's great video and images! Been waiting for this.
Enjoying it! ❤..!!
Thanks a lot for the kind comments ! Stay tuned for more
Brilliant video and superb images. Love the tip about flares. Thank you
You are welcome. Thks for the nice comment
Great video and images! Been waiting for this!
Thks ! Glad you liked it !
Very appropriatly timed tutorial Pierre, just about to recce an area at my local nature reserve for photographing some late season Dragonflies. The locations you have locally look great and all that lovely sunshine ! 👍
Hi Glenn, great ! Hopefully some of those tips will help you get some nice new images. Not sure where you are located but I assume Europe so indeed the Odonata are still active until late august / early september if the weather stays warm. Still time for macro ! Good luck
I love the idea of getting there before the sun comes up! We have laws in my area that say we can not enter the local parks, lakes, ponds & preserves until an hour AFTER the sun rises - we miss so much beauty!!
Yes it is always best since at sunrise light is often spectacular and dew can be abundant with insects totally still .And the stillness of the air is something fantastic too ! I love those moments
You have been very helpful! Thank you for your hard work.
Glad you liked it ! More will come
Super tuto très bien illustré, clair et détaillé. De superbes spots et de belles images. Bravo
Merci Emmanuel ! Tes propres images sont une référence absolue pour les amateurs d'Odonates et de belle proxy ! Je suis fan depuis plusieurs années ;-)
So amazing! I've never got a nice dragonfly picture. I hope next year I get one following this tips.
Hi José ! I am sure you will. Not so hard just keep trying ! Good luck
Lots of great info here. Thank you.
You are most welcome !
Thanks SOOOOO much for a wonderful and very useful video! And thanks for sharing so many of your photos, they were so amazing, beautiful and inspiring!!! Thanks soooo much! I of course had to subscribe too! I will have to do some research befor next summer, to find bodies of water locally where I can get to them with my car and then wheelchair. Mobility issues is a bit of a challenge. But I should be able to find some places that may be usable, esp. if I can bring someone else to help out. I’ll bring a collapsible stool to get down low (or lowER, ☺️). I have this little round stool that collapses to a round, flat thing and you can make it as high or low as you want to, a quite nice aid for those that can’t crouch or something like that! 🤗
Glad you liked the video. Actually dragonfly photo does not need a lot of movement quite the opposite. I sit by the pond or river side and the dagonflies then just ignore me, sometimes come to perch on my shoes ! I also use a small collapsible stool sometimes so I can wait comfortably by the water or IN the water !
Patience is key and staying still is the best to get closeup pics once you have found a good spot
On va voir Wookid en concert dans quelques semaines... excellente vidéo. Bravo.
I admire your love for what you do❤️
Mariem, thank you ! Yes it's a lifelong passion and a nice way to spend time outdoors !
Enjoyed this buddy, one of my favourite subjects to photograph! Great stuff 😉👍
Thanks ! Glad you liked it JP
Great in-depth tutorial with plenty of very useful tips Pierre. Lovely images & awesome b-rolls, especially loved of the aerial footage of you searching for subjects in the creek😀. Also the clips you managed to capture of them mid flight were exceptional! Cheers
Thks again. Yes I try to do a bit more video work when possible. Need new drone though. 🙄 Macrovideo will be a major focus this season. Hope to be able to produce several videos on the topic
Excellent video, it´s so helpful. Thank you so much.
Thank you Josef for the positive feedback ! Glad you liked it ;-) Working on more...
great video, thanks..
16:52 amazing...
Thank you
An Excellent video, very well thought out. 👍👍👍
Thnaks so much. I try to give good value to the content, always. Glad you liked it, makes the effort worthwhile !
very very useful tips sir. Thank you very much
thank you !
Brilliant tutorial Pierre. Thank you. I am now raring to go out, practice and get my feet wet.
Glad you liked it ! Still some timel left if you are in the he Northern hemisphere
Thanks for your a lot of helpful tips👍
Most welcome. Glad you liked the tutorial !
Very, very nice!
thank you !
Super ! Merci Pierre.
most welcome !
Helpful video which gives me inspiration to try harder. I think I need to practice slower approaches down low and from in the water. I had a magical experience one time in my canoe with many mating dragonflies landing all over the canoe and me too. Very cool to see you shooting with the IRIX 150. One of my all-time favourite lens. Very durable and beautiful bokeh. My copy broke after extensive use and I replaced it with a laowa, which is very good but the image quality is not the same as the IRIX. The focus grip on the IRIX, the weathersealing, and the focal length are all just so good. I look forward to more of your videos.
Yes patience pays off. I often just sit at the site, by a pond or a stream and wait. Damselflies have come to perch on my shoes... The IRIX 150 is hard to master due to the necessity of very precise focusing but with mid-size or large subjects it s a gem. I use my trusted Laowa 100mm for "true" macro at 1:1 or more. They have different purposes. The Laowa is best for very small subjects, but the IRIX can't be beaten for proxiphoto and especially macrovideo
@@rivieramacro5240 I agree. I have the Laowa 90 and it is a stunningly sharp lens with a nice throw. Perfect for hand held stacking in the field. But the Irix is different for sure. More like a portrait lens in my mind. I will be getting another when the budget allows. I see you are an ambassador. Not hard to represent such a beautiful piece of technology!
Nice background🙂
Thank you !
Thanks a lot; quite useful and helpful tips!
glad you liked it ! Thank you
Thanks for the video and useful tips! I'm fortunate enough to have a healthy population of dragonflies in my back yard. The larger ones usually stay above the pool while the smaller/younger ones often congregate around the tomato plants. Wish me luck! I'm going to try to get some in flight.
So good luck ! Sit still and they will just ignore you, no matter how close you are
I have just watched your butterflies and dragonfly tutorials....FNTASTIC. Living in South Africa near Kruger we have a lot of both in our area. As the buck eat any flower in the garden I have made a flower garden with lots of bowls filled with water and sticks stuck into pots. I sit on a wheelchair and find it is easier to get to any flying creature..... ( wheelchair because I spent a long time in it with hip problems)
Thank you Carol ! the Kruger ? WOW ! You live in what is said to be one of the most beautiful places in Africa. Lots of bugs where you are, lots of wildlife photo opportunities too
Having just the tiniest piece of water will undoubtedly attract dragonflies. Good luck !
@@rivieramacro5240 Thankyou so much. Yes I am lucky. The SA Dragonfly people say that where I live is one of the best places for dragonflies......... in a place called Marloth Park (in the bush on the boarder to Kruger).... We see and hear the lions calling in Kruger.
Outstanding presentation --- thank you
very kind ! Thank you
Thank you Pierre, I have tried photographing Dragon flies but haven't yet got 'a keeper'. Hopefully now armed with your knowledge I may stand a chance.
Most welcome. And don't hesitate to reach out again here or on Facebook
Really informative video. I found a new pond to me on Taylor Creek here in Toronto that has great possibilities for Dragon Flies. I am keen on doing a photo shoot there soon. I am using a Canon 90D with a Tamron 90mm macro. As well as a Tamron 18 to 400 zoom which I had excellent results with.
Good luck then. Try an extension tube with the long lens !
Wonderful thank you 🙏
Thank you Patrick ! Great to hear from you
Nice video. Not a huge fan of the music, but it's infrequent and short.
Great tips and awesome shots. Thank you. My suggestion - maybe turn down the music a notch, it's very loud compared to your narration
Hi ! Thks and I'll keep that in mind for future clips. Still in an ongoing learning curve w/Premiere pro and video editing ;-)
Great tutorial!!! You've got a new subscriber!!
Thank you Juan Carlos and welcome to the channel ! More tutorials being filmed
Wonderful! Thank you. Subscribing!!
Nice
i can't see the point of using crop mode on a FF camera, as you say its only a crop not an extra manification so you might as well do that in post, why run the risk of clipping a wing or antenna with an in camera crop when you still have the same image size with FF
great videos,
I think it's 2 dimensional the crop factor on D800 etc leaves you with around 16m pix not 24. but still excellent (crop factor squared) 36mp/(1.5x1.5)? Great advice, thank you
Yes you are right probably around 40% so ca. 15MPx. My mistake. Glad you liked the video
Your explanation with demonstration is excellent. You have mentioned teleconverter Nikon TC 1.7X III but I could find only NikonTC 1.7x 11 only I have Nikkor 70-300 AF-P lens Please suggest which teleconverter is suitable.
Thank you. Sorry my mistake the TC is 1.7 II, I think only the TC 1.4 was offered in the 1.4 III version. Beware that adding TCs results in some loss of sharpness and therefore IQ degradation maybe even worse with a zoom lens
Great video I'm in my 4th year now taking photos of dragonflies in the same location it can be quite challenging but I love watching their behaviour its fascinating.
Thank you. Yes I can go to the same pond over and over and it is a never ending joy to photograph those...
Your way to photographing dragonflies are nearly the same as mine, I use Sony A7RIV and A7RIVA with 61 megapixels, so plenty to crop from, I have fx the Voigtländer Macro APO-Lanthar 65mm 2.0 on one Camera and either the Sony 135mm 1.8 GM (close focus 0.7m) or the Tamron SP 300mm 5.6 Adaptall-2 on the other Camera, the Tamron are very light and compact (610g + adapter) so it is easy to carry, the close focus are 1.4m. I also sometime use my Sony 24mm 1.4 GM when I can come really close to get some images with insect, butterfly or dragonfly with the surrounding area. I have done macro photography since 1980, I never get tired of doing macro photography !
Nice ! Try adding an extension ring to the 300mm or the 135mm and you will get even more possibilities with one lens
thank you off to dragon land N. coast California redwoods
Good luck ! And please let me know if you know a good Dragonfly spot in or near San Francisco !
Excellent Thanks, merci !
Do you use à flash on your kit ? Or only natural Light ?
Thank you ! These are proxyphotos so no flash (unless you need a bit of light to fill the shadows), too cumbersome and no burst shooting possible with flash anyway. But for my macrophotography yes I use flash always (you can have a glimpse of the setup in my Concave diffuser in Borneo video)
sorry today i go to sleeping tomorrow i see your video
Thanks for this beautiful video. Very nice tutorials. Do you recommend using flash + diffuser for the subject in this video? (I also watched your excellent diffuser video 😊)
Thank you so much Mehmet. Regarding flash: large subjects like this are probably easier to photograph in natural light and you can also work on Bokeh. But yes you could use flash either to fill the shadows or for closer shots of face, wings etc. At higher magnification, you will need flash. Personnally I like to photgraph dragonflies in natural light with long focals, and I try to avoid harsh shadows. Morning lights and dew are great. But it's all a matter of style. You can try different approaches
@@rivieramacro5240 Thank you so much. I follow you with joy :)
Stunning Photos just started following you on Instagram (well worth a look) Great video Pierre thanks for the tips. What speeds are you taking the in flight shots? Thanks for sharing
Thanks for the nice comments Jon ! For in-flight shots I set the ISO to avoid too much loss of detail (1600 - 2000 ISO) so speed varies from 1/2000s to 1/8000s (I chose aperture too). the faster the better so try to be at 1/4000s if possible to freeze wing movement. With modern sensors noise levels can probably be acceptable up to ISO 3200 - 6400. But if you need to crop then you'll lose details. It's a always a trade-off
@@rivieramacro5240 thank you for your information
Great tutorial. Could you share your camera settings? Thanks in advance
Regards from Mexico
Buenos dias Gibran ! Thanks but unfortunately there is no single universal setting for those images. In natural light I use Aperture priority mode then I adjust ISO to get the speed I need. Then Manual mode if I do video. If you plan on getting nice bokeh then open up (and watch DOF), for in-flight speed is key and try to get as much DOF as possible to broaden the plane of focus (boost the ISO). For stacks, any diaph value will work, depending how you want the background and how many steps you can use in your stack... Hope that partially answers your question !
Pour le flare - excellents conseils... par contre, si on ferme le diaphragme, on obtient des polygones... c'est moins joli que des ronds (pour ça, il faut soit travailler à pleine ouverture ou avoir un design de diaphragme qui préserve le rond)
Oui c'est vrai bien entendu. J'ai l'habitude de faire pratiquer l'exercice pendant mes mini-stages de macro mais je ne voulais pas faire trop long sur le sujet, la video fait deja 17min
Cela vaudra peut-etre une nouvelle video...
Bonne idee merci !
Hi , in crop mode with a 36 MP camera, you are actually down to 16MP not 24MP
1.2x crop mode gives a 25MP image.
Yes I think you are right, my mistake ! Thks for pointing that out. Wrong calculation !
@@richardwagner282 yes 1.5x on Nikon is 16MP indeed !
great tutorial
You should watch a tutorial on video editing to balance the audio better
Thks. Learning curve... Sound is probably better controlled in other vids, Several people have made that comment on this one
En plus, dans le jardin, on doit pouvoir se mettre au niveau du plan d'eau (sans trop se salir)
moins fun que de s'allonger dans la boue au bord d'une mare cependant :-)
what's your recommendation for macro lens?
Hi ! difficult to say. All macro lenses are of very high quality. To chose you have to decide what kind of macro you want to do. The Tamron 90mm, the Laowa 100mm are great choices. The Canon 100 is very good and we have to see what how the new Nikkor 100mm Z mount performs, but should be sharp too. With longer focals lengths, the IRIX 150 is great and the Sigma 150 is also said to be good.The Sigma 180mm is super sharp but heavy. I would suggest not to buy anything under 90mm since you have to be very close to the subject (if you want to do insect macro)
And for M4/3 the 60mm Olympus is fantastic
great pictures could you be a bit more precise about camera settings
Thanks. But settings depend on images. For best bokeh and still shots keep aperture at f2.8 / f4, for in-flight shots use at least 1/2000s if possible, then adjust ISO accordingly and use f/8 at least to get more depth of field and increase chances of getting insect in the focus plane
Nice video. Not so nice music.. but enjoyed the video.
thanks ! Music choice is always difficult, can't please everybody though ;-)
@@rivieramacro5240 that's true. No problems 🤣, thanks for the video
No "flash"???? No diffused light????
well no since flash will just burn everything and diffusing it is not possible as animals are too shy. Better get up early for example to play with beautiful soft morning mights, shoot against the light, etc. And avoid shooting in direct mid-day sunlight. Learn to work with natural light !
@@rivieramacro5240 Thank you