Spicebush Swallowtail on Zinnia

[Bill Dix]

One more butterfly. Another hind shot, but for the butterflies I find that this angle often shows the wings to better advantage, at least so far for me. I considerably desaturated the yellow and red in the zinnia. Some might object to the zinnia bud -- I wish it were sharper, but I personally think it helps the composition. This is a fairly large crop, and there is noise in the BG. I ran one pass of Topaz, and tried a second pass but it hurt the butterfly wing color and edge more than it helped the BG. Maybe if I ran it selectively on the BG only?

D90 with 18-70 @70mm. ISO 500, 1/800s. @ F/6.3. 0EV, Aperture priority, matrix metering, AF-A, auto white balance, tweaked in RAW conversion to set the black point. Comments always appreciated.

Bill

[Bob Miller]

Hi Bill... The orange flower really pops on the green bg. I like the wing angle you captured. As you say , noise is a problem and I personally would take out the bud....but its your image. Overall...I Like it alot!

[Dave Mills]

Hi Bill, Seems to be a butterfly's eye view which is a novel and creative approach. I agree about the bud removal since it's competing with my attention. As stated due to the large crop it created a noise issue.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Bill,
I like the placement of your butterfly in frame, agree on the elimination of the bud and would give it a pass of noise reduction...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Lance Peters]

Hi Bill - Like the view - techs covered above.

Keep em coming :)

[Bill Dix]

I think your collective wisdom was right. Here's a repost, sans bud, and with another pass of Topaz only on the green BG. I also re-saturated the yellows and reds by just a few percent, and de-saturated the greens a like amount. There's a bit of a soft spot where the bud was. I didn't think of this until I reposted it, but I probably should have blurred that leaf slightly.

Thanks for the advice.

Bill

[Dave Mills]

Hi Bill, I think the repost is stronger! Good job!

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Bill

The first thing to try is getting closer to the insect for a lesser crop !!! I find for these a 300 about ideal ... with the camera magnification you can really reach out and touch someone !!!!

Don't mind the looking away since it does show the beautiful back side and the bud to the right is just fine.

With that much noise in the bg is best to smooth out .... Topaz does a great job but only so much it can do. Used the softening brushes in PhotoKit for softening then darken the corners to attract my eye to the center of frame.

[Bill Dix]

What a difference! Thank you, Alfred. The softening does wonders, with or without the bud. :)