Painted Lady

[Richard Stern]

My first foray into "pseudo macro" with the new Nikon 300 f/4 AF-S + 1.4TC focused as close as I could, without extension tubes etc. (D300). Handheld at 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 250. Hope the background isn't too distracting.

Richard

[Richard Lovison]

Actually I like the background with its interplay of white and green. I also like the composition with the placement of the butterfly. Beautiful image... well done.

[Ed Vatza]

Good detail in the body of the butterfly. Legs and antennae also look good. And you managed to capture a fine looking background. Nicely done.

[Ed Cordes]

Nice BG and good sharpess. The wings look a little ragged so this must be an old lady!

[Dave Leroy]

Nice to see how much of the butterfly falls in the dof. Well done. The whites look a little over done on my monitor. Good one. Dave

[Daniel Cadieux]

I don't mind the BG either, but would probably tone down the darker green patches touching the wing and flower. I like the fact you captured the "tongue" reaching out to flower.

[Steve Maxson]

A nice pose with the feeding tube extended and good sharpness on the butterfly. I don't mind the background, but would wish for a specimen with less tattered wings. Now that you've got the techniques down, you can hunt for the perfect butterfly. :)

[Julie Kenward]

Richard, your painted lady has got great DOF and details to it. I like the composition overall as well. The two places I think you could improve on this image are on exposure of the whites (especially the flowers beneath the bf) and the bright spots running through the middle of the image. I opened your image up in Camera Raw and it was definitely over exposed, evidenced by the fact that you had a huge line spiking up the right side of the histogram. I used the exposure slider and recovery sliders to bring the exposure into line but was still left with that muddy gray area on the flowers. I don't know if this is due to a contrast adjustment that went wrong or whether the flowers had a particular shine that showed as a gray on the image but I was unable to remove it, even with a linear burn layer.

So, this image is definitely overexposed (even though the butterfly looks great!) Remember to always "expose for the whites" because it is so much easier to adjust the dark tones up than to bring the highlighted or blown white tones back down.

[Craig Markham]

Richard, you captured a nice sharp macro image at that focal length. Nice that the butterfly was oriented parallel to the focal plane. Painted Ladies have long, arduous migrations; it's not surprising that this one looks like it has "been there; done that"! The slightly blown whites in the flower head don't bother me all that much; you've nailed the exposure on the butterfly, and the flowers are just a contextual field, functioning much like the BG. Julie has a point. Given the low ISO you used, you might have been able to correctly expose the bright highlights of the flower and then selectively lighten the darkened butterfly without significant increase in the noise ratio. However,that does seem like letting the tail wag the dog, and I think you made the right choice and avoided the risk of muting the colors.