The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
It’s butterfly season, and I can’t stop photographing them. However, I wanted to try the Canon RF-s 18-150mm kit lens that came with the R7. I am very pleased with the results. Obviously, at that focal range, this lens has limited applicability for wildlife, but at a cost of $300, I think it would be a great “walk around” lens. The lens and camera together weigh practically nothing.
This is the first lens Canon has made specifically for the APS-C sensor cameras. Hopefully, more are in the pipeline.
Specific Feedback
Just your overall impressions, please.
Technical Details
Canon RF-S 18-150mm f3.5-6.3 IS STM, handheld, processed in ACR and PSE 2020 for exposure and cropping, utilizing a new technique employing subject select/Inverse introduced to me by @Diane Miller. A useful addition to my tool kit in processing.
This is a very nice image Terry. The butterfly falls within the plane of focus , with the wings and body being very sharp throughout. And that soft, clean background is superb. I too use the R7, but with the RF 100-400 lens and a 1.4x extender for wildlife. I’ve seen that a lot of people are using that 18-135 mm lens with excellent results. How much post processing, if any, did you do for the background?
Thanks @Ted_Forman. I normally shoot with the RF 100-500mm (which I love), but I wanted to try the RF-S 18-150, since it’s specifically made for the crop sensor. I think it’s a really nice little lens for what it is, and the price. I did very little to the background in this photo. I applied a slight vignette because I thought the flower in the LRC was too bright, and then did a subject select and inverse (thanks @Diane_Miller) which selected just the background for me, and did just a very slight light levels adjustment on the midtones. That was it.
What a fine look at this beauty, Terry. Nice details in the BF. He stands out nice against that smooth BG. Well done. Glad you were able to inverse the selection. Such a nice feature.
A wonderful image! No nits!! The lens looks to be very good.
Just always remember to check the subject selection, as it will rarely be perfect. (The Q key will show the selection as an overlay and the black or white brushes will let you patch it up, to add to or erase from it.)
Thanks @Shirley_Freeman. I can see using select/inverse is going to be very useful going forward.
Thanks @Diane_Miller. I don’t see that the Q key does anything for me in PhotoShop Elements, but it does have a refine edge function under the Select tab. In this case, I didn’t need it. Elements did a really good job of selecting just the butterfly.
The Q key pulls up Quick Mask Mode, which shows a (any) selection as a translucent colored overlay, red by default. There must be some equivalent in PSE. You can then edit/refine that selection with the brush tools then back out of QM mode gives the marching ants representation of the selection.
The select subject thing is amazing but never perfect!
Nice shot indeed, Terry. I like that you got in very close. It’s a fine shot of a butterfly in really good condition and posing beautifully. Maybe you’ll use that lens again for the butterflies!
Thanks @Mike_Friel. You mentioned the downside of using this lens - I must get in quite close. But, yes, I’ll be trying it out in the future if I have some cooperative subjects.
Hi Terry,
wow, that butterfly looks just fantastic. Congratulations on catching such a great specimen.
I haven’t had any luck photographing butterflies yet. They are too fast for me.
Thanks @Jens_Ober. This guy (I’m sure it’s a male) was nicely cooperative, allowing me to get close and sitting for a few seconds while I got focused. But they rarely sit still and not for long!
Really nice shot and glad the lens is up to snap. In my (admittedly little) experience Canon’s new RF “consumer” lenses perform pretty well but I really wish they were just a bit faster in terms of aperture.
You have caught a really pretty butterfly doing what I assume it loves to do. Everything that needs to be is sharp and the pose is nice and open showing the full glory of its colors. Somehow I really like how it sort of bends the “knees” to get in there. Good choice with a square crop as well. It all feels very balanced. Have you tried reducing the saturation of the purple flowers a bit? It might just be my monitor, but it looks like they almost compete with the butterfly in colorfulness which sort of pulls my eye.
Thanks @Ingemar_Holmkvist. I, in fact did reduce the saturation in the flowers quite a bit during processing. Ironweed sports very bright magenta flowers, and taming them is often a major challenge in bright sunlight.
