Malachite Butterfly

[Bob Miller]

I took this shot at a butterfly garden in Md. I was attracted to the unusual green color in its backlit wings
Nikon D3s
1/400 sec at f8
ISO 800
Tamron 180 macro

[PhilCook]

Bit of magic there Bob !......stunning subject and love the light through it's wings, flower perch is also lovely, makes for a very vibrant image. I feel maybe the second oof flower is slightly distracting and there seems to be an odd splotch in it's centre. If possible I would try to clone out the second one altogether, but with or without this is food for the eye

[Jonathan Ashton]

Wow that's colourful!! Maybe just personal taste but the colours are a little too saturated for me. You have excellent focus and a nice composition, there appears to be some kind of artifact in the bottom central OOF flower head. I suspect you chose f8 to blur the background, if it had been possible I would have suggested a smaller aperture, it is a big insect and I think a little more DOF would have been beneficial. I would suggest crop the bottom 1/2 inch to exclude the dark patch in the OOF flower.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Bob. Very cool backlighting of the wing! The butterfly gave you an excellent pose, I like the eye level shooting angle, and you have good sharpness within your DOF. I would agree about the center of the OOF flower - you might be able to carefully clone that blotch away. I think cropping from left and right would yield a very attractive vertical comp - as an alternative presentation. Other than the blotch, this is very well done!

[LindaHarden]

This has a really neat dreamy look. I find this kind of pose very difficult (so difficult, I haven't tried to post any yet). I think you nailed the greenish look in the wings. I agree with the previous posts about the OOF flower but I also wonder if slightly brightening the eye might increase the impact a little.