White Peacock

[Julie Kenward]

I went to our botanical garden's butterfly festival this weekend where I captured a few images of this White Peacock butterfly. It was VERY crowded and very busy so I had to shoot and run most of the time...so no perfect DOF here but at least I got the face/legs and front wings in focus.

I evened out the BG in PS and brought down the luminance on the greens a bit. Ran NR and sharpened at the end.

Canon 40D, EF 100mm macro
f5 @ 1/250th, ISO 400, natural light
Daylight WB, handheld
Processed in CS5 and Nik's Viveza to even out the highlights/shadows a bit.

[Bob Miller]

Hi Judy! I like the way the fg leaves frame the subject and I think your DOF is fine. The head is nicely sharp! You have softened the edges of a busy bg and blended the bg nicely. I say....... :5

[John Storjohann]

Hi Julie.

This is a nicely captured image...I'd suggest maybe toning down the left-hand leaf that the butterfly is resting on...and maybe blurring the leaf behind the upper edge of the right wing. Nice color, great sharpness where it's needed, and other than the one leaf I think the BG creates an interesting pattern. Nicely done.

[Dave Leroy]

Good comments already given. Good for you to get the shot. I find it hard to get a decent "grab" shot. Hard to get the framing etc while others are milling around and about.

Nicely done.
Dave

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love the perspective you got in this image, and the whimsical look on the butterfly puts a smile on my face. I think you can crop a bit more from the top, and I'd tone down the perch's stem as it seems a bit bright. Otherwise this is a fine image...well done Jules:S3:

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jules. I like this head-on look and the view from slightly underneath that we don't often see. I also like the even, natural light and you have good sharpness where it most matters. There are some good suggestions above for tweaks that will make your image even stronger. Very well done! :S3:

[Ken Childs]

Hey Jules, there are some things that would have made this a better butterfly shot and I know you know what they are but I'll mention them so others will know what they are. :S3:
It would have been nice if the leaf on the right wasn't intersecting with the 'fly's wing and if the leaves on the left weren't blocking the 'fly. IMHO, the BG is still a bit busy.....having been exposed to Roman for so long makes me want to crop in much tighter which would remove a fair amount of that BG. I'm good with the DOF but I do think some selective sharpening work on the antenna would take this one up a notch.

Considering the conditions, I think you did extremely well. :S3: