Puddling male Monarch Butterfly

[Ken Childs]

Canon EOS REBEL XT
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS @ 400mm
Manual
1/400"
F10
ISO: 200
Canon 430EX: On, Fired
Photoshop CS3

[Vida van der Walt]

Hi Ken. I think you captured nice detail with a lens that is not a dedicated macro lens. I am wondering if you could maybe lighten that shadow a bit and fiddle with the brightness/contrast settings to soften the light ( I am not a PP expert and this is just a guess). Like the vibrant orange as well.:)

[Julie Kenward]

Really nice monarch in some really nasty mud! I felt the bright spectral effects were a bit much so I cloned over them at 50% to tone them down a bit. I brought up the shadow under the butterfly using Viveza 2 (but you could also use shadow/highlight adjustment in PS) and then lightened him up while darkening the outer edges of the frame. I also cropped a bit off the FG as the OOF mud was really distracting.

You really did a great job on capturing the details of the monarch and the colors are exquisite - I would love to have seen this guy perched in the middle of a field of flowers, though!

[Ken Childs]

Really nice monarch in some really nasty mud! I felt the bright spectral effects were a bit much so I cloned over them at 50% to tone them down a bit. I brought up the shadow under the butterfly using Viveza 2 (but you could also use shadow/highlight adjustment in PS) and then lightened him up while darkening the outer edges of the frame. I also cropped a bit off the FG as the OOF mud was really distracting.

You really did a great job on capturing the details of the monarch and the colors are exquisite - I would love to have seen this guy perched in the middle of a field of flowers, though!

I was already working on Vida's suggestions when you posted you edit. Other than the size of the crop, they were very similar. I wanted the entire shadow to be there so the crop contains more of the FG but doesn't contain the heavy OOF section. To lighten up the shadow I selected it using the Quick Selection Tool and made a new layer with just the shadow and adjusted from there. There's a lot more color in that shadow than I realized!

I have this thing about using only standard print ratios when I crop. Most will be the same as what comes out of the camera but occasionally I'll use a different one when I need a bit more space to make the shot look right. I'm not exactly sure why I do this but it just feels "right". The only exception is the occasional square crop.

I have thousands of butterfly shots with them perching or feeding on bright, beautiful flowers so I'm always on the lookout for something different. :)

Thanks for the suggestions. They're always appreciated.

[Allen Sparks]

Ken, this catches an interesting behavior that I also try to capture when I come across it...

I also like the lightened shadows in the repost.

[Anita Bower]

Nice capture of this lovely butterfly. I like the details on the body--what looks like fur! The angle is good, as is the color. Looking forward to more images. :)

Jules: What are spectral effects?

[Ken Childs]

Ken, this catches an interesting behavior that I also try to capture when I come across it...

When you see a butterfly feeding on mud, feces or carrion, odds are it's a male. Males need extra minerals for reproduction and this is how they get it.

Nice capture of this lovely butterfly. I like the details on the body--what looks like fur! The angle is good, as is the color. Looking forward to more images. :)

Thanks, Anita!

[Julie Kenward]

Anita, spectral effects are the very bright hot spots that you get from either using flash or when the sun hits water or another highly reflective item. They can be as subtle as the beatiful round spots in bokeh or as harsh as hot white spots on our images that carry no data - and print as such.

[Anita Bower]

Anita, spectral effects are the very bright hot spots that you get from either using flash or when the sun hits water or another highly reflective item. They can be as subtle as the beatiful round spots in bokeh or as harsh as hot white spots on our images that carry no data - and print as such.

Thanks, Jules! :)