Veined White

[Julie Brown]

Canon 40D, 300mm f4L IS, f8.0, ISO 320, 1/320sec, manual mode, 0EV, HH

PP Lightroom 2.6
white balance as shot: cloudy-slight change with custom WB
Exposure: set black and white points
fill light
enhance clarity and vibrance
tweak tone curve: lights down, shadows down slightly
sharpening, NR

shot in a meadow along park road at Lac Luitel, near Chamrousse, French Alps, July 2009
intermittent clouds

C&C welcome

[Julie Brown]

:(This is not what I intended to post-now that I look at it here, this image is dull and not sharp! It did not look this way in LR. I am going to have to figure out what went wrong and repost. I'm having trouble saving my images to less than 200kb-maybe that is the problem.:o

[Julie Brown]

Here is the repost at 200kb. Before exporting from LR I used the clone tool to smooth out the BG a bit, reworked the tone curve and boosted some colors in HSL. I also added a post-crop vignette. Not happy with the OOF flower in the foreground.

[Julie Kenward]

There you go! MUCH better!!! ;)

Julie, if you want to discribe how you are sizing and saving your images so we can figure out what's going wrong just let 'er rip.

I love the repost. Again, the butterfly's face is away from you but it's not a killer in this image because, again, we get to see a beautiful wing pattern and still get a side glimpse of him. I like where you put him in the frame but would consider adding back a little bit of green on top - it feels a little tight at the top to me.

If you don't like the OOF flower at the front, put your clone tool on one that is in focus and see if you can't go right over the top of the OOF flower - sometimes you get lucky and it works!

Nice job on the whites as well.

[Julie Brown]

Thanks Jules. I will try cloning an in-focus flower and re-crop for more green BG. If it works, I will repost the image. I am also going to go into my archives and find you a butterfly image that is a flat side view with a sharp eye and head!

Regarding the sizing and saving images-for this last repost here is what I did:
I shoot in RAW
1) From LR I exported the image as a tiff (it was 1MB)
2) then I opened it in Elements and resized the image: set it to 72ppi, changed the pixel dimensions (375x175) until I got it below 200kb (I also watch the document size per your instructions), checked constrain proportions; resample set on bicubic (should it be bicubic sharper?)
3) then clicked OK
4) went to save for the web at high quality
Every time I go through this process I get different results-hence the very low quality first post

[Allen Sparks]

beautiful butterfly and great shot of one. Love the composition. More green on top would be nice.

[Julie Brown]

Thanks Allen. I will work on that.

[Anita Bower]

The repost is much better! Sharper and I like the added pp you did. The OOF front flower doesn't bother me, probably because it is so small. And the OOF flowers behind the butterfly work well to focus one on the butterfly.

Re. sizing. I'm no expert, but this is what I do. In Elements >Image >Resize >Image Size; uncheck "resample image," change resolution to 72 dpi, turn "Resample Image" on again, change the "Pixel Dimensions" to either 800 Height or 1024 Width (those are the maximums. Save as jpg. Check to see the file size. If it over the allowed 200KB, resave changing "Quality" to 10 or so--experiiment with this.

:)

[Ken Childs]

Thanks Jules. I will try cloning an in-focus flower and re-crop for more green BG. If it works, I will repost the image. I am also going to go into my archives and find you a butterfly image that is a flat side view with a sharp eye and head!

Regarding the sizing and saving images-for this last repost here is what I did:
I shoot in RAW
1) From LR I exported the image as a tiff (it was 1MB)
2) then I opened it in Elements and resized the image: set it to 72ppi, changed the pixel dimensions (375x175) until I got it below 200kb (I also watch the document size per your instructions), checked constrain proportions; resample set on bicubic (should it be bicubic sharper?)
3) then clicked OK
4) went to save for the web at high quality
Every time I go through this process I get different results-hence the very low quality first post

1mb is really small for an exported tiff. Most of the ones I get from LR are 40 to 90mb.

You don't mention sharpening after the resize. Final sharpening should always be done after your final resize. You should be able to resize to something with a max of 800 tall or 1000 wide and still get a good looking image for posting that's under 200kb.

I think the problem is that you're trying to get to under 200kb at the wrong time in the process.

This is how it works in CS3. I would hope that Elements has a similar process. After changing the dimensions of the image to fit the BPN guidelines, make your final sharpening adjustments. Then go to file/save as and choose a location to save the image and a file type which in this case is jpg. When you click on save, you get an option of quality between 0 and 12. Usually a selection of 7 to 9 will keep the file size under 200kb. Hopefully someone using Elements will chime in and explain exactly how to do this in Elements.

I don't like using the save for web option because it strips the exif data or at least it does in CS3 and older versions of Photoshop. I hear CS4 allows you to keep the exif as an option when saving for web and devices.

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Ken and Julie, I have Elements also and it works like Ken describes for CS3. First resize your image to get a max of 1024 width or 800 height...then save as jpg and use the Quality Option (0 to 12) to get a file size less than 200kb. This usually means a Quality Option of 7-9 as Ken states.

[Julie Brown]

Hi Anita, Allen, and Ken,

Thank you. This really helps. I will work on this and get it right! Ken, in LR what should the settings be for export? As I recall, I have been exporting as a tiff and setting the dimensions to 800x1024, but I think I also set the ppi to 72. Is that the problem? Is it supposed to be 1080ppi from LR?

[Ken Childs]

Hi Anita, Allen, and Ken,

Thank you. This really helps. I will work on this and get it right! Ken, in LR what should the settings be for export? As I recall, I have been exporting as a tiff and setting the dimensions to 800x1024, but I think I also set the ppi to 72. Is that the problem? Is it supposed to be 1080ppi from LR?
I don't do any resizing or cropping in LR so my exported tiff is the same dimensions as the original that came out of the camera.

You should be able to export the tiff directly from LR to elements without having to take the extra step of saving the tiff. In the LR preferences, choose the External Editing tab and under Additional External Editor/Application, select the exe for Elements. File format should be tiff. The other settings are all a matter of preference but I think it's a good idea to setup the Resolution so it's the same as the original file. Once you've made all of your edits in LR, hit Ctrl+Alt+E. Select "Edit a copy with Lightroom adjustments" and then click on Edit.

Anyone with LR experience please let Julie and I know if I'm giving bad advice. This works for me but I really don't have that much experience with LR. Also let me know if this conversation should be taking place somewhere else.

[Vida van der Walt]

Love the repost. Beautiful image and I like the crisp, fresh feel to this.:)

[Julie Brown]

Thank you Vida. I was thrilled when this butterfly showed up. :D I knew it was a new one for me (I was in France:cool:). The black markings on the butterfly help it to stand out from the white flowers and the green BG.