Late Season Postman

[Randy Stout]

Taken two days ago during my final outing of the year to our local butterfly exhibition. The butterflies were still very plentiful, but showing a little bit of wear and tear, as new ones are no longer being released. It was a warm/sunny day, and they were very active, hard to get them to pose!


D4 Sigma 180 f/10 1/400s ISO 800 . No tripods or monopods are allowed, so I have a little brace that I hold against my belt. R1C1 flash, two heads. Artificial background held behind the subject to avoid the inevitable black background

Post: Selective sharpening, crop for composition.

Advice and comments always appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

[MiroslavMaric]

Like the frame and well exposed details of the butterfly. For my taste a bit more light of BG could be a plus. TFS.

Cheers,
Miro

[Jonathan Ashton]

Excellent wonderful colours. Exposure looks good to me. Details first class. DOF is very good, just for the sake of it I would suggest taking a few duplicate images at a slightly greater distance, this will give a tad more DOF. I have come to realise (after all these years!) that filling the frame with macro subjects usually makes life unecessarily difficult especially when the subject is as large as a butterfly or moth. In this case for instance it just may have been possible to get the left antenna fully in focus whilst still getting a very high quality image.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks guys for your thoughts!

Jon, I must admit that I struggle to not fill the frame for macro, more so than birds.

Will have to work on that!

Randy

[Anita Bower]

Very nice. Lovely pose. I like seeing that curly thing. I wondered how you got the lovely bg, then read your comments. Clever of you. I would have thought the butterflies would move too fast.
I think the image could be brighter, but is OK as is. I, too, am working on letting there be a bit more space around my macro shots.

[Randy Stout]

Anita:

I like darker images, and edit in a darkened room, so sometimes I do post images a bit darker than others like. Here is a slightly brightened version. Let me know if this is more to your liking.

Thanks

Randy

[Anita Bower]

I like it more, but, what matters is the one you like more!

[Diane Miller]

Gorgeous, with perfect sharpness and detail! Perch and BG are wonderful to show off the subject. Advice?? Print, frame, hang.

I lean a little more to the lighter one but would never have thought of the original as on the dark side.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Randy. Very nice pose, comp, and sharpness! The background brightness is somewhat subjective and a matter of personal taste. I think I like the OP with the more dramatic darker background better. :S3:

[Alison McCoy]

Love the first version of this image though both are stunning. Amazing detail in the insect. The bg and composition are great. Congrats on making such a fine image.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Hi Randy
So you are a master of macro too? Great mate!
Wonderful close-up. Not sure how much a butterfly would move (even the antennae) while stationary, perhaps making multiple images more difficult? I've recently tried the stacking with mushrooms and it works well enough I think.
Great work!

[Randy Stout]

Akos:

The conservatory where this one was imaged has a pretty strong ventilation system, so the leaves are often blowing a bit, so stacking would be pretty hit or miss. Some areas is might work.

This was taken on a relatively bright day in Michigan, so the butterflies were much more active, not sitting still for long.

Cheers

Randy