Common Buckeye

[Ken Childs]

Canon EOS REBEL XT
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS @ 400mm
Manual mode
1/640"
F11
ISO: 200
Canon 430EX: On, Fired
CS3

Added a bit more tilt to the left. The BG on the right side was mostly empty brown space so I cloned in some of the yellow flowers to fill the space. Used a heavy dose of NR on the BG to smooth it out. Cleaned up some tiny white spots on the wings.

[Julie Brown]

Ken, you nailed the composition and the species ID! The butterfly is sharp and really pops from the BG. The colors are gorgeous. Do you always use a flash when you shoot butterflies?

[Ken Childs]

Do you always use a flash when you shoot butterflies?

Just about always. The only exceptions are when I'm trying for a backlit subject or an in-flight shot.

[Julie Kenward]

I love the buckeye here - really nice tilt in the frame and good details (even the antenna!) I am less wild about the BG because of the deep pockets of dark both above and below the bf. I would think you could get away with a wider aperture at that angle as you seem to have him pretty close to square against the focal plane of the camera.

[Ken Childs]

I love the buckeye here - really nice tilt in the frame and good details (even the antenna!) I am less wild about the BG because of the deep pockets of dark both above and below the bf. I would think you could get away with a wider aperture at that angle as you seem to have him pretty close to square against the focal plane of the camera.

This was another case of right after posting it, those dark areas, especially the one at the top jumped right out and asked my why I didn't fix them.

Does this look better?

[Peter Farrell]

Beautiful image of one of my favorites. Great detail and colors. Nice job on the BG fill in.

[Allen Sparks]

I like the original and your repost looks great! great detail and nice job fixing the background. awesome colors too.

[Julie Kenward]

Soooo much better! Great cloning job, Ken!