This is my first post and wanted some ideas on how this could be better. It was shot on a friends farm in his Lantana garden. Good sun. D80 Nikon with 300 f4. Thanks. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi Mike- Welcome to BPN (again, as I did this too in your chickadee post).
This swallowtail is quite lovely. The colours and lighting are great and it is sharp. One suggestion I would make is to give the butterfly more room to breathe in the image. This will also allow you to include more of the beautiful flower on which the animal is perched. If possible try not to crop across an important image element like the flowers. If you can include a whole inflorescence, please do so.
Also, could you include more technical details with each image posted. Exposure information and ISO setting is particularly important. Also try to give some idea of the amount of the crop from the original.
Finally, we encourage posters to critique other images. We are very interested in what everyone thinks. Our suggested target is to try to comment on at least five images for every one you post.
John already gave you some great advice regarding composition. You did well in capturing the details and colors! I like the position of the butterfly across the diagonal of the frame. Because of the square crop, I can live with the very central position of the butterfly (and the tight crop as well), but you might try your hand with positioning the butterfly slightly off center using the 'rule of thirds' when you use other frame ratios.
The image could use some tweaks in post processing. In the image below (hope you don't mind me fuddling with your image), I've used the recovery slider to town down the highlights (yellow and red were clipped). I've selectively reduced the exposure and increased contrast of the top left and part of the lower left wing to balance it better with the right wings. I also selectively sharpened the left 'tail', because it is slightly OOF. You should have stopped down to increase DOF and/or adjusted the angle you got on the butterfly to get everything in the plane of focus (wing tip is a bit soft too).
Hope to see more of your butterfly macro's!
Thank you for your advice. Truth is, I was so close with this shot there is no crop up or down. I can adjust left/ right to take the butterfly off center slightly but I will have to back off to get more flowers in the shot next time. Jerry, thanks for adjusting the shot. Yes, it looks much better. The DOF is something I will have to keep in mind. Post processing is a whole other challenge for me. I should have taken this up in my 20s rather my 60s. Thank you so much for your help. I'm sure I will need much more.
Mike, thank you for giving me something besides birds to look at! It was a refreshing change.
I agree with the other advice given - you got great DOF and you seem to position him nicely in the frame - just don't forget to include some BG when shooting - you can always crop in tighter later but you can't always add more in.
I'd like to know what shutter speed (ss) and aperture you used so I could give you some ideas there. You might read the posting guidelines at the top of the forum and make sure you're giving us all the technicals as well as anything you did in post-processing (pp) so we can help guide you to a better image in both respects.
Overall, I think you did very well here. If you love the insects, slip down to the macro/flora forum where the place has a million butterfly images to help inspire you for the next time you're out in a bunch of lantana. Butterflies love that flower almost as much as the love a good batch of zinnias!
Great swallowtail, Mike! I agree with others that more of the lantana & more space would have made the image even more striking. Its been months since I've seen a butterfly here in Minnesota (and months to go)...
Tiger Swallowtail
It was a refreshing change.
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