Translucent Tree Nymph

[Randy Stout]

This tree nymph was captured 2 days ago at the local butterfly conservatory. The fill flash , well off to the left of the camera, lit up the background enough that there was a bit of transillumination of the wings. I liked the effect, and the sense of depth in the image as well.

D4 Sigma 180 f/3.5 @ f/11 1/100s ISO 1250 Fill flash provided by sb800 on Wimberley macro bracket with Westcott Micro Apollo diffuser.

Post: Slight crop for comp. Selective sharpening, cleaned up some white debris on leaves

Advice and comments always appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

[Nancy Bell]

This is well done! Love the crisp blacks of the butterfly and the way you arranged the light to have a glow and some translucence to the wings. Beautiful! Great composition with the butterfly perched on leaves on the same plane and diagonal as the butterfly. Nice diffused green bkdg.

[Mitch Haimov]

This worked out very well, Randy. Subject looks great and you have plenty of DOF. Does not appear flashed at all, which is great when you can pull it off. Suggest cropping from left without clipping the OOF leaf.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Randy. Another nice specimen giving you a good pose and you have excellent sharpness throughout your subject. Also, good detail in both the blacks and whites and your artificial background worked well once again. I like Mitch's cropping suggestion. The way the wing bends inward where it touches the leaf adds interest. There is a little notch out of the edge of the hindwing - not a big deal, but it could easily be "fixed" with a quick mask if you are OK with such things. The leaves where the butterfly is perching seem rather dark and dull to my eye - you might consider selectively brightening them and perhaps upping the saturation a little. Also, the color balance seems a bit on the cool side - you might try warming things up a bit to see if you like that better. I think a few minor tweaks will put this one over the top!