Flutter-by

[Nancy Bell]

Photographed early in the AM on a large rabbitbrush thickly covered with yellow flowers. This is the only flowering shrub in the area right now and attracts many insects. And lucky for me this bush is right outside my door.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 100mm f2.8 macro, tripod, 1/640, f9, exp. comp. -1/3, ISO 400.

C & C most appreciated.

[John Storjohann]

Nice capture, Nancy! Wonderful detail and sharpness in the wings and eyes...you might try the saturation brush at about 20% or so to bring a little more color and pop to the eyes...love the gold flecks mixed in with the brown along the body...if it were mine, I might darken the area in the LRC where what appears to be bare earth shows through. Nicely done!

[Nancy Bell]

John, I liked your advice and here is the result.

[Brendan Dozier]

Nice close-up of this butterfly, Nancy. Great color, and good detail & sharpness - like how clearly you can see the eyes and antenna. Good suggestion by John, and repost looks good!

[Paul Lagasi]

A lovely Painted Lady, nicely captured, sharp..well done

[Ron Sprunger]

The repost is lovely, and I like that it's a little looser crop than OP. Wonderful detail, and near-perfect DOF. You might have been able to squeeze a little more DOF (for trailing edge of wings) with higher f-stop, provided he was as still as he appears in the photo :S3: My son has the 100 macro IS, and it's a wonderful lens. Well done.

[Jason Stander]

Great shot Nancy... superb detail, dof and colour... VVWD!:w3

[denise ippolito]

Nancy, The repost looks good. The wings seem to pop off the page.:S3:

[Nancy Bell]

Thank you everyone! Paul, I'm glad to know this is called a Painted Lady. They seem to be the most common butterfly in my area.

[Ken Childs]

Nancy, this Lady looks great and I like the unusual angle you captured......I really like what you did with the repost. The yellows of the flowers look a tiny bit muddy but since I don't know what kind of flower this is, maybe that's just how they look. Either way, you might try removing a small amount of black and magenta with a selective adjustment. As Ron mentioned, the back edges of the wings could stand to be sharper....butterfly wings generally respond well to selective sharpening so I think it would be relatively easy to select that area and sharpen it some more. Nicely done overall! :S3:

[Nancy Bell]

Ken, thank you for the additional suggestions. You are right about the yellow flowers that they appear muddy and I used the selective colors to adjust. Also sharpened a bit more of the rear wings.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Nancy. You captured a beautiful specimen and you have excellent DOF for f/9. The tweaks applied to your second repost make your strong image even better. I like the diagonal comp of the butterfly, though I would prefer more room in front of the butterfly than behind it. If you don't have extra room in front in your original image, you might consider taking a little off the top. Overall, this is very nicely done.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Nancy, your repost in pane #11 is perfect. I too like the different angle of the butterfly and agree that you achieved very nice sharpness throughout with f9. Nice work!

[Ken Childs]

Nancy, the repost looks great! The yellows look cleaner but they aren't so bright that they compete with the Lady.