Swallowtail Butterfly

[David Cowling]

The Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) is Britains largest and one of it's rarest butterflies. It occurs in a very small area of the eastern Norfolk Broads which is due the the distribution of the sole larval food plant, Milk parsley. The butterfly is on the wing for only a very short period from about late May to early July. It also seems very reluctant to show itself in anything other than ideal weather conditions, warm and sunny with little or no wind, quite a tall order for this part of the UK even in summer!. I went to exactly the same place again yesterday as the day I took this and never saw a single one.

Canon 7D ii Canon 100-400 Mk ii Canon 1.4x Extender. Hand held.

1/640 @ F 16 ISO 800

[MiroslavMaric]

Hi David,

Like the position of butterfly, BG and details. It's sharp. If mine I would add some tone adjustment (midtone contrast) on butterfly only. TFS.

Cheers,
Miro

[David Cowling]

Hi David,

Like the position of butterfly, BG and details. It's sharp. If mine I would add some tone adjustment (midtone contrast) on butterfly only. TFS.

Cheers,
Miro
Thanks for the critique Miroslav. Now that I am looking at it in a darker room the image looks over saturated, I processed it in bright daylight which is not the best thing to do. It would be very helpful to me if you could explain the effect of mid tone contrast on the butterfly and how I should do this. Thanks.

[MiroslavMaric]

The most easy way to do this in PS is to create curves adjustment layer. View here (http://s28.postimg.org/3s6jkda1p/bp_sw2.jpg) the print screen of PS CS6 including your photo. At the right side there is a adjustment layer with decreased level of mid dark and increased a bit of mid bright. The next step would be to create a mask around butterfly and to apply the mentioned effect on butterfly only. The third and best method is to use luminosity masks (please check there are plenty of tutorials and plugins on the web) and to apply the curves adjustment on mid tones luminosity mask only. Midtones contrast should be one of the last steps in the PP workflow and to do this a calibrated color monitor is a must. Hope it helps.

Cheers,
Miro

[David Cowling]

Thanks for the tutorial Miro. Here is a re-post with just a simple curves adjustment layer and a touch of desaturation. I will have a look at luminosity masks when I have more time as there seems a lot to take in.152959

[MiroslavMaric]

RP looks more natural to me. Good work and progress!

Cheers,
Miro

[Jonathan Ashton]

David the repost is a big improvement on the butterfly but also the background now appears less intrusive - well done.

[Ron Conlon]

Excellent on the repost.

[Diane Miller]

Wonderful shot and good work to find a rare sighting. I don't find the OP too saturated, but maybe biased just a little toward the yellows. Tweak the Temp slider to check.

Midtone contrast can also be achieved with the Clarity slider in ACR/LR (used judiciously). Compare with doing a Medium Contrast Curve there. (Always best to work on the raw file as much as possible.) In PS you can achieve a similar result with the old technique of Unsharp Mask with a low amount and large radius. (Do as an adjustment layer.)

Or alternatively, sometimes all that is needed is a black point adjustment. Make a Curves adjustment layer and click around in the image on the darkest area with the black eyedropper. (You can find the darkest area with a Threshold adjustment layer, which you then toss out. Google for detail if needed.) I've done that here, on the OP, in the area circled, then reduced the opacity of the layer a little as it seemed a bit strong. All a matter or seasoning to taste.

I wonder if the whites can be toned down and a little more detail brought into them in the raw file?

[David Cowling]

Hello Diane. Thank you for the tutorial, I have done a 2nd re-post using the black eye dropper on a curves layer. It certainly makes it pop. The problem for me with this image is that I don't like the BG as it is not the natural habitat of this species. Within the confines of the reserve there is a private house and the owner has very graciously planted a flower bed to attract butterflies and invites photographers to photograph the swallowtails when sighted. The butterflies will obviously go to where food is available but it doesn't make a very natural BG. I managed to find a lone swallowtail in a wilder part of the fen which I will show in a new thread.153023