European Cabbage Butterfly on Russian Heather

[Warren Spreng]

Down by the pond again, this one was fairly active but settled down long enough to catch this one. I opted for a square crop to eliminate having to clone out too many BG flowers. Canon T31, Canon EF-S60mm, 1/2000, HH, ISO 800, f/8. Very little processing other than a crop, cloned out two OOF flowers and NR to the BG.

153543

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Warren,

I like the contrast of the butterfly versus the background - really stands out. The smoothness of the BG is nice too. I am wondering if you could have taken this at a narrower aperture to get even the lower part of the butterfly in sharp focus - looks like the BG would still have been blurred with a narrower aperture. A very nice image either way.

Allen

[Warren Spreng]

Hi Warren,

I like the contrast of the butterfly versus the background - really stands out. The smoothness of the BG is nice too. I am wondering if you could have taken this at a narrower aperture to get even the lower part of the butterfly in sharp focus - looks like the BG would still have been blurred with a narrower aperture. A very nice image either way.

Allen

Thanks Allen, I thought the same thing about the narrower aperture, of course after I had the image up on the big screen! I need to look closely at some of the other exposures to see if possibly one of them has the lower wings sharper that I could integrate into this image. Thanks for the comments!

[Warren Spreng]

Here is a RP after I selected an area from another frame where the lower part of the wings had a better focus than in the original but the upper part of the butterfly was OOF, so I blended the two. Not sure if it shows much difference in the compressed version to fit this forum.

153560

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nice bit of blending Warren the whole image looks sharper than the original, it is a very rewarding butterfly to photograph when you can see all the subtle coloration.

[Warren Spreng]

Thanks Jonathan, that is something I have discovered since I started macro is the subtle details in some of the smallest things that can go unnoticed without images like this!

[Karen Pleasant]

Nicely composed with adequate SS for sharpness. The repost seems to have a little more DOF. Very pleasing colors of the butterfly and the flowers. You have done a fine job here! TFS!

[Warren Spreng]

Nicely composed with adequate SS for sharpness. The repost seems to have a little more DOF. Very pleasing colors of the butterfly and the flowers. You have done a fine job here! TFS!

Thanks for the comments Karen!

[Diane Miller]

Gorgeous! The increased sharpness of the RP shows very nicely, even in this small JPEG. A very nice perch for it, too.

Are these the little white ones I see fluttering around that never seem to sit still? Nice to catch one posed.

[Warren Spreng]

Gorgeous! The increased sharpness of the RP shows very nicely, even in this small JPEG. A very nice perch for it, too.

Are these the little white ones I see fluttering around that never seem to sit still? Nice to catch one posed.

Thanks Diane! Yes, these rarely set still, I just happened to be sitting on my dock where this heather grows and this butterfly decided to feed and was very approachable for a change!