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Ken Childs
09-09-2010, 01:38 PM
Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS @ 330mm
Av mode
1/160"
F13
ISO:400
Canon 430EX: On, Fired
LR & CS3
Tripod

Cloned out a leaf that was partially covering the flowers and cloned out some other flowers and leaves from the right side. The proboscis was moving and blurry so I cloned the edges to make it look sharp. Blurred the BG a bit. Toned down the yellow flowers.

OvidiuCavasdan
09-09-2010, 01:51 PM
Nice composition and sharpness, colors are beautiful, good job on processing the image. Well done!

Allen Sparks
09-09-2010, 03:44 PM
I like tight crops too so this looks very nice to me. Wonderful details and color. Nice background. Well done.

Ian Cassell
09-09-2010, 10:27 PM
I like the tight crop on this too and the colorful flower makes the whole thing pop. Great job!

Steve Maxson
09-10-2010, 09:14 AM
What's not to like? Nice specimen, good sharpness, exposure, light, comp, and background. Well done.

Art Kornienko
09-10-2010, 09:47 AM
Not much to improve on this one Ken, really nice.

Roman Kurywczak
09-10-2010, 09:49 AM
Hey Ken,
Really nice job strengthening this one in PP'ing! Light and comp were very well handled. Very nice job on this one!:cheers:

Julie Kenward
09-10-2010, 06:22 PM
You really outdid yourself on this one, Ken. Love the tight crop and the way you framed/positioned this one. It gives me color in every place my eye wanders to and all areas are crisp and realistic. Great job on the cloning - it's so nice when you get to the point where you can do it and nobody would ever know and you're there. You've had a great summer and certainly have the images to prove it. :)

Don Lacy
09-10-2010, 07:38 PM
Hi Ken, Wonderful Monarch image love the colors and the BG is perfect. I hope you do not mind my next statement but to me this image is a perfect example why clipping in the sRGB color space can be forgiven and unless it adversely effects the colors in the image ignored, and yes the pinks are clipped as presented here with readings of 255 in PS. Please forgive my soapbox moment but I have been waiting for the right image to illustrate my point and it could not be one of mine and this one is perfect in every regard except for the clipping that no one noticed:)

Ken Childs
09-11-2010, 01:20 PM
For comparison, here's the original as it came out of the camera.

Julie Kenward
09-11-2010, 07:12 PM
Ken, I think the biggest improvement (besides the crop) is how you tamed that BG. Can you tell us a bit how you did that? I'm sure others would be very interested!

Ken Childs
09-11-2010, 08:06 PM
Here's the step by step done in CS3 and Windows.

Use your favorite selection tools and select the subject and anything else that doesn't need to be blurred. I use the quick selection tool and then fine tune the selection with a quick mask.
Deselect. Duplicate layer (CTRL + J).
Reselect. Clone away a portion of the subject all around its edges with nearby parts of the BG. You don’t need to be really accurate.
Deselect. Apply a blur. Gaussian usually works well.
Reselect. Clear the selection. (EDIT/CLEAR).
Deselect. Use the eraser to fix any edges that may have been blurred by accident.
Flatten image.
If necessary, use the blur tool to clean up any edges of the subject that may look too sharp/obvious.