Idea loecone

[Jerry van Dijk]

Here's one from 2 years ago when I visited a very nice butterfly garden in Honfleur, France. It's Idea loecone, the Paper kite if I'm correct about the English common name. Minor PP work, except I cloned out an OOF flower in the LL corner. Stripes in the BG are from a palm leaf.

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, 56 mm (336 mm eq), handheld, ISO 200, f/3.6, 1/40 sec.

[Ian Cassell]

Beautiful and I like the BG striations.

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Jerry, I like the palm leaf effect. pretty cool. Nice subject placement and I like the inclusion of the bud. My only nit is perhaps toning down the top of the lower leaf. Very nice image...

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks guys! Allen, I see what you mean about the leaf. I tried both a lower exposure and a vignette, which both looked good (they brought down the bright leaf), but a local adjustment may work also.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice indeed Jerry, I have slight reservation over the sharpness of the butterfly - it doesn't look as sharp as the stem - does it meed a little more sharpening or is it possibly just not in perfect focus? I would consider removing the lower leaf completely for presentation purposes, I don't feel it makes a positive contribution.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Jonathan, I had to save this at 80% quality, which may not have helped. Furthermore, the wing patterns of these BF's aren't that well defined. As their common name indicates, the wings truly have a paper like quality. Thanks for noticing, I'll check the original image for sharpness issues.
I agree that removing the lower leaf would give a much cleaner presentation.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jerry. I love the light and the interesting effect of the background! Also good comp and excellent DOF. I like Jonathan's suggestion about removing the lower leaf and you might also evict the little stem/leaf in the ULC. This is very nicely done!

[Ken Childs]

Hey Jerry, most of what I was going to say was already said by Jon and Steve so I won't repeat. Only thing I'll add is you might consider cropping a sliver from the top or maybe instead doing a slight CW rotation to move the 'fly up in the frame.

[Ken Childs]

Since I already had Photoshop open, I thought I take a quick stab at implementing what was talked about above. Slight CW rotation, removed lower leaf (poorly), selectively sharpened 'fy. Rotation got rid of leaf in ULC.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Ken, you beat me to the repost, I have been abroad for a while and wasn't able to post. Here it is.
I chose to take some from the top, I thought the flower had too little room left on the right after rotation. I do like what your rotation did to the composition.
I did a little burning on the top leafs and the light spot in the BG.