French Alps Blue

[Julie Brown]

image shot in meadow in village of Uriage Le Bains in the French Alps 415m altitude, July 2009
Canon 40D, 300mm f4L IS, f5.6, 1/400sec, ISO 100, 0 EV,manual exp, pattern metering, B+ W circular polarizer, HH

PP Lightroom 2.6
significant crop
Exposure: set black and white points
fill light
enhance clarity and vibrance, saturation +2
tweak tone curve
sharpening and NR
HSL slight shift purple and magenta
adjustment brush: underside of butterfly exposure increase; selective sharpening
post-crop vignette

all comments welcome!

[Julie Kenward]

Good details on the butterfly, Julie! It's always best to try to catch them from the side or front if at all possible so we can make a little eye contact with them but I do like that we get a peek inside the wings from this angle.

You sure got a sloppy looking flower here but there is one advantage to it - it's not competing for the attention of the butterfly in the image!

I noticed that you have a pretty bright green area in the upper right corner (URC) compared to the rest of the greens. If you want to calm that down a bit open up a hue/saturation adjustment and click on "yellows" and then push the saturation level down a few points. This will lower the brightness (which is caused by a more direct burst of sunlight here) and help it blend in with the other greens a bit more. Just a suggestion...

[Julie Brown]

Thanks Jules. That is a ratty-looking flower isn't it? I do strive to get the butterfly in one plane and the eye in focus. When I first started photographing butterflies my main priority was species identification. Only later did I start to consider making the flower an important component of the composition. I chose this image for the blue of the dorsal side of the wings and because the BG was not as busy as some of the other images with nicer flowers. I will go back and rework the BG to try and tone down the green spots.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Julie, I like it. It has a nice soft look. I don't mind the yellow in the BG.:)

[Julie Brown]

Thanks Mike. I liked this image because you could see both the dorsal and ventral sides of the butterfly. Blues are always prettier when they open their wings.

[Anita Bower]

I like this image quite a bit! The blue colors on the wings are gorgeous, as is the detail--those little hairs (?). You did a great job with sharpness on the butterfly while maintaining blurring in the bg. I can see what Jules means about the bright URC. The flower doesn't bother me, and I didn't notice it's raggedness until reading Jules' post. :)

[Julie Brown]

Thanks Anita. The blue in the wings drew my eye when I was shooting it. As Jules pointed out, at least the flower doesn't draw attention away from the butterfly.