Mountain Apollo

5D3 + Sigma 180mm macro. My favorite butterfly and the flower is Carduus carduelis. Early morning sunlight heated the butterfly, it was the moment when butterfly moved the wings in up position and was ready to fly for the first time in the new day. Due to wind and time limit I did the shot by hand holding technique (AI servo mode), f/5.6, 1/800, ISO800, native light and perch. The frame size is 3462 x 5306 pixels. I didn't have time to increase DOF.

PP: NR of BG, tone adjustment.

Location: Velebit mountain, July 2015.

Attachment 153757

Thanks for viewing and CC.

Cheers,
Miro

That is a beauty, love the perch and the BG. So tough to get the total DOF on these when they don't hold their wings perfectly folded!

Beautiful image Miro. It's too bad your DOF couldn't capture those wing tips in sharper relief, but given the circumstances you did very well. You were wise to handle it the way that you did, and the result is very nice.

Beautiful image Miro A lovely butterfly and composition shame about the wind it would have been a real gem of a shot otherwise.

A gorgeous shot despite the DOF not being quite ideal. Sharpness and detail on the body is wonderful and the white butterfly really stands out against the creamy BG.

What would you think about cropping from the bottom about halfway to the flower? Not a lot is happening down there.... If mine, I would also have a try at turning the darker area in the UL into something more like the soft gold on the right.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Diane Miller

What would you think about cropping from the bottom about halfway to the flower? Not a lot is happening down there.... If mine, I would also have a try at turning the darker area in the UL into something more like the soft gold on the right.

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Thanks for valuable comments. During editing I tried mentioned crop option but for my eyes this one looks better. Agree about UL it can be improved. To resolve wind vibrations and BG blur I used f/5.6 but it seems PP edit of segments cannot be avoided.

Cheers,
Miro

A beautiful specimen and a nice mix of colors. Very sharp where it most needs to be. As noted, the near wingtip is soft, but for this image, that is not really bothering me. Overall, this is very nicely done!

Great butterfly!