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Jerry van Dijk
10-30-2010, 03:22 PM
Hi all, it's been way too long since I have been able to post something here!
Here's one from last summer from my visit to a French butterfly garden. I don't know what species this is. It looks like a Swallowtail, but it's not the indigenious species we have here.
I tried something different here with the angle on the butterfly. Some of you may not like the room around and the environment showing, but I liked the position of the BF in the frame. Let me know either way!

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, handheld, 83 mm (500 mm eq.), ISO-200, F/4.2, 1/40 sec, EC -0.35, pattern metering, aperture priority, RAW.
ACR 5.0. Cropped for composition. Sharpened, NR, increased blacks and clarity.

Andrew McLachlan
10-30-2010, 07:38 PM
Hi Jerry, I like the composition and the space around the butterfly. I am wondering if you need to bring back a bit of detail in the abdomen and tone down the brightest greens. I am finding the bright green on the left a little distracting. No idea what kind of butterfly it is though, but I think you are right that it is some kind of swallowtail - might want to google it.

Jay Sheinfield
10-30-2010, 08:03 PM
Hey Jerry,

You had me wondering how you got such great precise DOF on the BF with the BG so nice and out of focus. 500mm at f/4, at 1/40 sec, hand held.............wow!, steady as a rock. I agree with Andrew on toning down the BG highlights. Might crop some from the bottom and the left a bit just to get less of the foreground OOF leaf in the image...............Generally I like seeing BF's more from side or top to show off their wings, but this position works for me, mainly because of the nice focus. Very Cool image.

Leon Robinson Jr.
10-30-2010, 08:10 PM
I like the composition. Cropping a little from the bottom would help tone down the green leaf.

Ken Childs
10-31-2010, 07:31 AM
Hey Jerry, I don't mind the space around the butterfly but this does look a bit overexposed so maybe slightly lowering the exposure in ACR would help. There are parts of the BG and FG that look very bright and if lowering the exposure to fix the butterfly doesn't take those areas down enough to keep them from being distracting, you may want to crop a bit tighter to remove some of those areas. The butterfly looks sharp and the only thing I'm not thrilled about with the angle and pose is that the one antenna disappears into the wing. Overall this looks good and a few editing tweaks should easily take it up a couple notches! :)

Jerry van Dijk
10-31-2010, 03:31 PM
Thanks for the advice. I recropped from the bottom, increased recovery (instead of decreasing exposure), increased the blacks , clarity and sharpness for some more contrast and details. To tone down the highlights, I used the click-and-drag function in curves to reduce the highlights in the BG. Additionally, I sampled some green from the BG and painted over the highlights at 25% opacity. I wasn't able to bring up more detail in the abdomen unless I reduced exposure to -3, leaving little else visible.
Jay, because I'm using a bridge camera instead of a DSLR, I have more DOF at lower f-numbers (which sometimes is a challenge to get a nice BG in macro). BG was a matter of finding the right angle which put the leaves in the BG far enough away. As for steady as a rock: image stabilization is a wonderful invention :)!

Steve Maxson
11-01-2010, 10:39 AM
Hi Jerry. Lots of good advice above and I think the repost is a nice improvement. I. too, am impressed at the sharpness at 1/40 - even with image stabilization. I like the pose and the inclusion of environmental elements. In an ideal world, I would like to see the butterfly's left antenna more clearly and I would wish the the OOF foreground leaf wasn't there, but nevertheless, this is still a very nice image. :)

Ken Childs
11-01-2010, 10:45 AM
Hey Jerry, the repost looks great! :cheers:

Adrian David
11-01-2010, 11:57 AM
Another vote for the repost. I, too like the pose of the butterfly.

Jerry van Dijk
11-01-2010, 02:19 PM
I. too, am impressed at the sharpness at 1/40 - even with image stabilization.

I take that as proof that I found the optimal balance between beer consumption and photography skills :cheers: :cheers: ;)!
Thanks for all your comments and advice!