Glasswing butterfly

[Steve Maxson]

This Glasswing butterfly (Pteronmia cotytto) was photographed at the Green Hills Butterfly Farm in Belize where they are raising 15 species of native butterflies. 5D M2, 100 mm macro, 1/100, f/11, ISO 400, MT-24EX macro twin lites (diffused), hand held. The background is a print of OOF vegetation - held in place by my wife. RAW file PP in CS5 - levels, saturation. I removed a few flash-generated specular highlights. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

[Randy Stout]

Steve:

Lovely butterfly image. Perhaps just a tiny bit tight in framing for my taste. Well lit.

When I first saw it, I thought this was a Clearwing (Miraleria cymothoe) For my education, how do you tell them apart?

Cheers

Randy

[Ken Childs]

Steve this is a beautiful shot of a beautiful butterfly! Us macro guys like tight crops so this works for me.....I would even consider taking a bit more off the top! Tell your wife she did a great job with the BG! My unofficial job as the Antennae Police forces me to suggest that you do some work on the OOF antenna. If you clone or paint away the fuzzy edges and sharpen and/or boost the contrast on what's left, it should look perfect! :cheers:

[Mark T Helm]

I have never seen a clear wing butterfly but it is sure are dramatic shot, I too am a tighter crop fan, maybe equal distances all sides. You did a good job on the focus for hand holding.
If this is a cooperative subject and you can steady your camera you might try a 3 shot shack, manual focus on antennae, main body and wings load images in CS5 as layers, auto align, auto combine, then the holy cow moment. just a suggestion from a stacking fanatic.

[Randy Stout]

I can see that Romanesque cropping is the order of the day in Macro! I will keep that in mind when I get around to posting my annual spring butterfly pictures!

Cheers

Randy

[Steve Maxson]

Thanks for the comments, folks.

Randy - After doing a little googling, it seems that glasswing and clearwing are sometimes used interchangeably as common names. It also appears that there are several species (in different Genera) that look very similar so I can't help you out on the comparative ID.

Ken - I was expecting you to comment on the OOF antenna. :S3: Your suggestion is a good one and I'll have to work on that.

Mark - This, indeed, was a very cooperative subject and it might have been possible to do a focus stack. Unfortunately, I'm not in Belize any more - and we were all asked to leave the butterfly exhibit after only 30 minutes (I was very frustrated by that!) so I had to work fast.

[Ed Cordes]

Wonderful! I agree that if you could sharpen the one antenna it would help.

[Allen Sparks]

Stunning! beautiful macro. the antennae does not bother me....

[Anita Bower]

Wow! Love the use of this bg to dramatize the see-through wings (right?) Stunning shot. The colors are just right. I like the tight crop.

[Marcin Biskupek]

Hello Steve.

Awesome effect. I don't know if the wings are rly transparent or just same color as BG but effect is stunning. I like the tight frame. I like this photo very much. :")) cheers

/e
PS> heheh glasswing .. i just translated its name .. so it is transparent :") beautiful specimen !!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Steve,
Awesome image of this species.......add black in selective color......and that should take care of Ken's thoughts on the body.....but minor tweaks to a great image! Nice to see you using the BG's too!