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Julie Kenward
08-25-2011, 04:15 PM
This image was created at my local botanical garden's recent butterfly festival. It was really intensely colored and the white/brown butterfly really got lost so I converted it to black and white in Silver Efex using their "Classic Portrait" preset, then converted to to Grayscale in CS5. I then added a few tones of yellows and browns in a quadtone conversion and finished up using the paint brush to tone down some of the darker brown areas in the BG. I skimmed the edges of the frame with one of the BG tones to create a slight vignette and this was the finished product.
John Storjohann
08-25-2011, 05:37 PM
Julie, I am really enjoying your monotone work....between the B&W dragonfly yesterday and this sepia-toned butterfly today, I'm having a hard time choosing a favorite. What I like about this one (among many things) is the way the foreground foliage frames the butterfly with almost a heart-like shape, a theme that continues with the shape of the foliage on the LHS; if it were mine, I might be tempted to lighten the flower behind the right wing just a bit more...other than that, I can't think of a thing I'd change. Very nice base image, and great work with Silver Efex...I'm not familiar with that NIK product, but you're making great use of it! :cheers:
Kerry Perkins
08-25-2011, 08:06 PM
Jules, nice one! I really like the toning and the ethereal look. Great job with the image all around!
Julie Kenward
08-25-2011, 08:15 PM
John, good eye! I played with that flower and went back and forth on how much color to leave. I'll definitely take another look. Kerry - glad you like it!
Judy Howle
08-25-2011, 08:33 PM
It is nicely composed and I love the conversion and tones!
Hilary Hann
08-25-2011, 08:39 PM
Well this is something quite different, very delicate and simply beautiful. John makes a good point about toning down the flower. But it is a quite lovely image.
denise ippolito
08-26-2011, 07:43 PM
Julie, Soft and pretty. I like the way you processed this. The stem on the left I would make a teeny bit darker and maybe lighten the inside shaded area of it if it were mine. Nice work as always!:S3: