Hummingbird Moth on Butterfly Bush Flower

[Norm Dulak]

Nikon D300 w/Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 vrII micro lens, hand held
Nikon R1 twin strobe system, w/D300 as Commander
ISO equivalent 640
1/320 sec @ f/22

Anxious to try out a new Nikon wireless R1 twin flash system on my camera, I set up shop by a huge patch of butterfly bushes by my home, which daily attracts dozens of swallowtail butterflies, monarchs, hummingbird moths and numerous other flying critters. What you see is a visitor to a flower about a foot from my lens.

Beyond normal PS CS5 adjustments, I also cloned out some distractions above the moth, applied Topaz DeNoise 4, and added a bit of canvass above the upper leaf. It's a pity, but I didn't quite catch all of the bottom of the flower!

I know that some prefer some wing blur. But I like the way that the strobes froze the wings, to reveal the beautiful wing architecture.

Please tell me, what do you think? How could I have done better?:cheers:

Norm

[denise ippolito]

Norm, Looks great. It looks like you added some canvas to the top. I might go ahead and add some to the bottom and finish off the tip of the flower (should be fairly easy) I like the frozen wings and the details. I might spend a little bit of time cleaning up a bit more of the BG some of the artifacts are showing through. I think this is a very nice image and you did a great job!

[Norm Dulak]

Norm, Looks great. It looks like you added some canvas to the top. I might go ahead and add some to the bottom and finish off the tip of the flower (should be fairly easy) I like the frozen wings and the details. I might spend a little bit of time cleaning up a bit more of the BG some of the artifacts are showing through. I think this is a very nice image and you did a great job!

Thanks Denise!

In fact I have experimented with a repair of the bottom of the flower and the addition of more canvass, with the result shown in this re-post.:D

Norm

[denise ippolito]

Norm, You did a great job with the re-growth!!:)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Norm,
Great comp advice given above by Denise. To me....the flash is a bit strong so I want to offer some possible solutions for you to keep in mind for the future......try getting as much ambient light in as you can.......this will help balance the light a bit more and keep that look down. You will have fun with those twin lights.....just remember to try and keep the ambient balance.

[Norm Dulak]

Hey Norm,
Great comp advice given above by Denise. To me....the flash is a bit strong so I want to offer some possible solutions for you to keep in mind for the future......try getting as much ambient light in as you can.......this will help balance the light a bit more and keep that look down. You will have fun with those twin lights.....just remember to try and keep the ambient balance.

Thanks for the advice, Roman. That's something I hadn't thought of, since I was intent on freezing those amazing wings. And the area was enveloped in shade when I captured the image. But the +0.7 comp I set on the strobes will be dialed down next time, to get a better balance with the ambient light.

As with all good new toys, there is always much to learn!:cheers:

Norm

[Jonathan Ashton]

I think you have a great image there, I like the repair job too. I would like to see this sort of image with a natural background, I don't know how easy or difficult this would be, they are day flying moths so to me it makes for a more natural image:)

[Norm Dulak]

I think you have a great image there, I like the repair job too. I would like to see this sort of image with a natural background, I don't know how easy or difficult this would be, they are day flying moths so to me it makes for a more natural image:)

Jonathan:

Thanks for your comments! But regarding the natural background, that could be done by reducing the power of the strobes, and letting ambient light make a bigger contribution as Roman has suggested. But the background here is extremely busy in the thick butterfly bush patch, with branches and leaves everywhere. So you have to pick your poison; busy (and arguably distracting) background with lower strobe power, or black (unnatural) background with stronger flash output.:)

Norm

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Norm. Some good advice already given above. I like the way you were able to stop this moth in flight and the comp in your repost is a big improvement. My suggestion would be to remove some of the background elements that vaguely appear out of the black - especially around the moth where the greens look like smudges that I feel really detract from your otherwise very nice image. :)

[Norm Dulak]

Hi Norm. Some good advice already given above. I like the way you were able to stop this moth in flight and the comp in your repost is a big improvement. My suggestion would be to remove some of the background elements that vaguely appear out of the black - especially around the moth where the greens look like smudges that I feel really detract from your otherwise very nice image. :)

Steve:

That's good advice. And after Denise suggested the same, I cleaned up the bkg of the underlying Photoshop file. I probably won't re-post again here though.

But thanks to everyone for your comments!:)

Norm