Silver Studded Blue

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 7D Canon 180mm macro tripod, ISO 200 -0.3 1/320 f10
I was reasonably pleased with this one but I still want to isolate the pair just a little more effectively against a bell heather background.
All C & C welcome.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jonathan,
Another very strong one although in this one some of the whites are a bit bright (legs and near lower BF eye). Easy tone down. I like the extra inclusion of environment....for a different look too but my biggest issue is the Whitish stick? in the BG between the perch and the BF. Toning it down and softening the edges will help quite a bit.....although if I recall correctly.....you are not a big fan of that......so just toning down the brightest whites will take this up a notch.

[OvidiuCavasdan]

Nice capture, sharp, good wings details, more light on the head of the lower bf and a bit more room at bottom would have been nice.

[Allen Sparks]

Nice capture getting both butterflies sharp. The BG competes with the subject as you pointed out but still a nice image overall.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks for the C & C,:cheers: I didn't use the flash gun for many shots as it was quite a bright day but I think had I used it there would have been more even illumination.
Regards the background Roman, I tend to go through phases, sometimes I want to capture the scene and absolutely minimise the use of Photoshop, others, if the subject is particularly strong I will be tempted to clean things up a little. At present I am trying to capture birds and insects in such a manner that I don't do any or very little cleaning up - it's a bit easier said than done:w3

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jonathan. Very nice job of getting both butterflies within your plane of focus. Roman, Ovidiu, and Allen each make good points which would make the image even stronger. I think this could also look good as a vertical comp if you had a little more room on the top and bottom.