Looking Back

[Norm Dulak]

Chrysalis & Butterfly: Canon PowerShot S90, hand held
ISO 500; f/8.0, 1/250 sec.

Hydrangea: Nikon D300 w/Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 vr micro lens, hand held
ISO 400; f/3.5, 1/2500 sec; MM -0.67

Standard adjustments in PS CS6.

Before closing the file on my adventure with the Baltimore Checkerspot chrysalis (see post below), I thought I'd put the butterfly and the chrysalis from which it emerged together, in the more attractive setting of the Hydrangea leaf. So yesterday, as I had previously done with the chrysalis, I "extracted" the butterfly image captured at the edge of the pool onto a transparent layer, using Quick Select and Refine Edge in PS CS6. Using Free Transform, I then positioned the two extracted images on my Hydrangea leaf, with the result shown here.

While in the swimming pool photographing the emergent butterfly, I took shots from various angles, and with the wings closed or opened to various degrees. I chose the image you see here, because it shows the difference between the patterns and coloration of the inner and outer surfaces of the wings.

What I find most interesting are the relative sizes of the chrysalis and the butterfly. Nature does a marvelous job of packaging into the chrysalis what will become the butterfly, and then transferring fluids in the emergent butterfly to fill the wings and make the finished product.

Finally, I've learned that the Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly is the official Maryland state insect. So for me as a Marylander, this experience has been special.

Your comments and suggestions are as always most welcome.

Norm

[Jonathan Ashton]

Excellent colours and details, I think you have done a really good job. I have only minor suggestions, i.e. consider a crop to remove the vertically positioned leaf on the LHS and consider an intermediate green brush to help minimise contrast in the background leaves.

[Jason Stander]

Hello Norm... what a lovely capture... great comp although agree with Jonathan about the left leave... detail and exposure looks good... would maybe burn the highlight on the bottom... otherwise WD!:w3

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Norm. The chrysalis and butterfly are each well rendered, but the overall image is not working that well for me - mostly because the combo of razor sharp butterfly feet against a somewhat soft leaf surface doe not look real. I think this could work quite well if you found a leaf that matched the sharpness of your two subjects. :S3:

On another note, I think what you have here is a Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) rather than a Baltimore Checkerspot. You can check this out on BugGuide.net . The chrysalis of these two species is nearly identical, but the adults are quite different. :S3:

[Norm Dulak]

Hi Norm. The chrysalis and butterfly are each well rendered, but the overall image is not working that well for me - mostly because the combo of razor sharp butterfly feet against a somewhat soft leaf surface doe not look real. I think this could work quite well if you found a leaf that matched the sharpness of your two subjects. :S3:

On another note, I think what you have here is a Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) rather than a Baltimore Checkerspot. You can check this out on BugGuide.net . The chrysalis of these two species is nearly identical, but the adults are quite different. :S3:

Thanks, Steve, for both your critique of my post and for your correction of my misidentification of the butterfly. Having thought that I had "nailed" the identity of the chrysalis, I did not suspect that anything other than a Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly would emerge from it. :e3

Your entomological skills are on a par with your photographic analytical skills, and both are much appreciated! :S3:

Norm

[Norm Dulak]

Hi Norm. The chrysalis and butterfly are each well rendered, but the overall image is not working that well for me - mostly because the combo of razor sharp butterfly feet against a somewhat soft leaf surface doe not look real. I think this could work quite well if you found a leaf that matched the sharpness of your two subjects. :S3:

Hi again Steve.

In my prior reply to your comments, I expressed appreciation for your identification of the butterfly. Here, I'd like to address the technical issue of the sharpness of the butterfly's feet. In fact, the feet are disproportionately sharp compared to all of the other elements in the image, including the leaf, the chrysalis and the remainder of the butterfly. So I doubt that I could select a leaf of appropriate sharpness to harmonize with all of the elements of the image. The problem with the butterfly's feet arose because of the way I felt compelled to process the image.

Despite repeated efforts using my selection method and Refine Edge, I simply was unable to cleanly extract those delicate legs and feet. So after I had positioned the chrysalis and butterfly and flattened the layers, I cleaned up the legs and feet by pixel cloning. The result was what you see as undue sharpening of the feet, compared to the other image elements.

Had I been able to cleanly extract the butterfly's legs and feet without subsequent repair cloning, then the degree of feathering I applied to both the chrysalis and butterfly would have produced a better result. If you know of a better way to handle this kind of situation, please let me know!

Norm

[Anita Bower]

I like seeing the butterfly with the chrysalis. It creates a teaching image. I agree about using a medium green brush to even out the darks and lights of the bg.

[Norm Dulak]

Thanks, anita, and everyone else who has offered comments and suggestions!