We were camped in the small town of Wandoan in the Western Downs region of Queensland. One of my least favourite non-native, small shrubs (Duranta) had been planted all over the place. But, as luck would have it, this moth didn’t think the plant was that bad at all. It hovered around for quite some time. I’m sure I kept the townspeople amused.
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I never liked the image because of the twigs behind the wings. Above and below the insect would be an easy remove, but not in the translucent parts of the wing.
What a great capture Glenys. That background bokeh is perfect. I’ve never seen this kind of moth. I spent some time in Queensland back in 2015, but never came across one. Very interesting creature.
What’s not to love about humming Sphingidae? What I like best here is how it seems to be looking directly at you. Seeing the branch through the wings to my eyes just enhances the transparency and is not a drawback. I don’t share your feeling about the plant - it looks great. But then I don’t have to deal with them. An excellent composition too.
Wow!! The moth is gorgeously sharp and the flowers are a wonderful environment! I love the DOF with some of them dreamily OOF.
That stem doesn’t bother me but the Remove Tool is up to the task! I first like to clean up edges so I cloned along the outside of the top wing and then painted a careful path inside the wing with the tool. It left only one small area near the top of the wing that can be patched with the clone tool. A few Undos may be needed but you can do it! And of course there is the option to lower the opacity of the resulting layer to leave the stem softer, but it’s pretty inconspicuous anyway.
Thank you everyone for the kind and helpful comments!
Thanks for the nudge Diane! I tried the Remove Tool and wasn’t completely happy with the result. It didn’t look as good as your edit. I tried the AI tool and it worked a treat. It did however change the veins in the wing just a tad.
Glennie, I was just “chasing” clearwing moths without success for this challenge…the flower patch that they were using a couple of weeks ago is gone… I really like how your moth stands out sharply from the background, with it’s eye particularly sharp. I’m fine with the original as in NA, these little ones tend to be in busy locations. The question I always ask myself when doing significant removal or change is, “Am I showing nature as it is or as I wish it were?”
The rework looks fine! It’s wonderful to be able to scroll back and forth, and now I see the minor change that the removal produced. If the cloning is on a layer above the original, you could mask so the original wing structure showed in that one small spot. It looks like it is away from the branch enough that it will look right without too much color contamination from the branch. You’d probably have to clone out that one small piece that the tool created.
@Mark_Seaver , this is the fork in the road question.
I like the unaltered image because it is “as it is” with all its busy background elements.
I do like the altered image because it is “as I wish it were”. The image looks cleaner…more painterly?
I think the answer to your question is the intention and the audience the image is being shown to.
My art background is always going to show “as I wish it were”. But, if I’m entering any wildlife competitions (which I have not) I would keep the scene untouched for accuracy.
IMO both versions are OK.
Mark I have many images of this moth without alteration. I might post one or two in the Macro section here.
@Diane_Miller, Thank you again for the nudge. I like what you are suggesting, but I think the paint has finally dried on this image. LOL
