Large Skipper

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 50D Canon 180mm macro tripod 1/60 sec f8 ISO 640 +1 (forgot to reset from previous images!!:confused:)
I made a mistake and overexposed by 1 stop but the Histogram was recoverable and this provided the opportunistic advantage of very little noise (I suspect less than ISO 300 or so).
On reflection maybe I should have done another layer and reduced noise in the background but I don't really find the background noise obtrusive.
All comments welcome.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jonathan,
BG noise looks fine to me.... so no issues there. The skipper is nice and sharp with the flower complimenting the BG nicely. Yeah.....I may have preferred this as a vert.....with less space on the right...but overall the image has a very nice balance to it.....so I'd take it as is!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Roman, just knew you'd say that :)and yes I did rotate to make vertical but the butterfly just doesn't look right - his leg angles would have to be different if you see what I mean i.e. this is the angle he was at so if I rotate his legs don't look quite right.

[Julie Brown]

Jonathan, the colors are really nice here. I like the muted light and the sharp focus on the butterfly. The slight BG noise is not distracting. I can see this as a vertical crop.

[Bob Miller]

I really like this......you might consider cropping some off the LHS. Bg and colors are nicely handled!

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Jonathan, no complaints about noise in the BG from me! Very nice perch and butterfly. I like how most of the flower is OOF so it doesn't draw attention away from the butterfly. I do think the flower is a bit too close to the lower edge of the frame. I notice some motion blur on the wings, which may be the result of the low shutter speed.

[Julie Kenward]

I love skippers! You found one on a nice perch with a good body position so kudos to you, Jonathan! I like how light and airy this one feels and have no issues with the BG whatsoever. I also would cut a chunk off the right side and let that be the vertical image. No need to move the butterfly within the frame, just cut the frame into a vertical. ;)