long-tailed skipper

[LindaHarden]

I photographed this back in July.
Nikon D700, SB700 flash w/diffusion dome, ISO 400, 1/400s, F11, 300mm with a 20mm extension tube. I likely used a monopod (but don't remember now).

Fairly heavily cropped and levels and curves plus sharpening in NX2. I wasn't sure iif I should keep the flower on the right but in the end I left it in. I tend toward minimal processing. Comments welcome.

[Dave Johnson]

Super shot Linda with a smooth background. Nice and sharp and I really like the dainty flowers. A couple of suggestions... The oof flowers bottom right tend to draw my eye away from the subject and feel they wouldn't be missed if you chose to remove them. Also I feel the skipper looks slightly cramped and a little more breathing space or space to look into up top (if you have it) would take this already super image up a couple of levels. TFS.

[bhavya joshi]

Definitely, Agree with Above comments. after this some edits.. This is will Be huge.. Thanks for Sharing..

[Dave Leroy]

My pp'n skills are not as good as they need to be but I would make the effort to take the oof flower out. It also sounds like you have some space on the original to add a bit of room as suggested and I might add a touch of ccw rotation, just a bit.
Very nicely focused and I really like the nice and square on look at the Skipper.

[Arthur Morris]

Lovely background as noted above. The two main problems seem to be that sharpest focus is just on this side of the subject and the skipper is pretty ratty, especially the tail....

[LindaHarden]

Thank you all for the comments/suggestions. I plan to remove the OOF flower that I was considering as that seems to be the consensus. I like the idea of allowing more room on top and rotating just slightly and will try that as well. I have lots of room on the frame... This was one of my better long-tail skippers photos and I don't usually see them so I wanted to process it a little better than originally. Arthur... it is true that the focus point was slightly foward and upward from the head. I have several that are better focused on the eye but not as flat a plane for the wing detail. Thanks again all.