Male Orange tip resting

[Jonathan Ashton]

This lousy weather has not done me many favours but here is one. For the second evening running I was out wit Barney and noticed an orange tip roosting (or is it resting?) on an umbelliferous plant. I cout the stem and sheltered the butterfly from the wind and took it home. I placed the stem and butterfly on my mickey mouse tripod and put the camera and macro on a decent tripod and set up at ISO 100 with mirror lock. I took the image at the side of the house where there was less wind about, then as soon as the wind dropped I fired off some shots at f8 f11 and f16, the background is a gravel path.
I am posting this one at 1024px, the previous different butterfly was at 1200px, I am curious to gauge your preference, is the bigger image size better or do you prefer the smaller one with a frame al the way around it? I find it frustrating that when I post the image and check the preview it is nicely mounted and when I submit the image it becomes eccentric and the framing is all to cock.

[Diane Miller]

This is lovely! (Wish I could do that with birds!) The butterfly is a perfect match for the plant.

I could do with a bit more room top and bottom. Content-Aware Fill might be a small miracle for the bottom, to extend the stem. If not, would be easy to clone -- if it isn't against your principles.

Not sure what you mean by the changes in the image when posted -- not something I've ever noticed. Sounds like it shouldn't be happening.

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Jonathan,
Nice job getting the subject super sharp with good DOF. Nice exposure on the whites. I feel like I am looking up at the butterfly as opposed to flush with it. Was that the intent?

Allen

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jon. Sounds like you had a VERY cooperative subject! :S3: Another beautiful image with good sharpness and background. The even lighting is very nice, but IMO, not as spectacular as that in your previous post. I might be tempted to crop a little off the left. The framing of both images looks fine on my monitor so I'm not quite sure what is causing your frustrations in that regard. (?) This is very well done!