f I played golf, I would choose a single club and play the entire course with it. So, on Saturday I grabbed the 600mm f4 with 1.4x teleconverter and headed into the marsh. While heading back, I found a copper butterfly flitting in the grasses along the dike. It perched, I photographed. Another photographer showed up with a puzzled look on his face and he asked “What are you looking at?”. I answered a tiny butterfly and he could not believe that I was even attempting to get this butterfly with the bird rig. And it worked nicely with Mouille Creek making the BG and I left the OOF grass stem in to see what the opinion is about its presence.
Specific Feedback Requested:
Would you remove the OOF stem on the LH side?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
D850 600mm f4 + 1.4 teleconverter (1/2000 sec at f8.0, ISO 640) levels, Topaz DeNoise AI, Crop for Comp…
For the REPost, I removed the 2 dark insect fragments from an OOF spiderweb below the grass head and tweaked up the brightness a tad. I left the OOF grass in for now, but I think that removing it will make the image stronger with a tighter crop too. Thank you.
Jim, I love the sepia feel and composition. I would definitely remove that OOF stem, or at least brighten it a lot as it pulls my eye away from the subject and for me adds nothing to the scene. I’d also clone out the couple of dark spots below the grass tip. Making it more minimalist like this would turn the shot into a real winner!
Hi Jim! I really like this image! I love the comp, detail and lighting. I agree with Mike about cloning out the OOF stem and the dark spots. It will make this a great image.
Jim: Terrific capture with your big rig. I would certainly make the dust bunnies go away but I’m OK with the OOF grass. I don’t think it adds much but still provides some context. Which club are you taking to the course? >=))>
Jim, what a wonderful shot with the “big rig”! Long lenses do work well for macro shots, especially for the skittish subjects. I’m fine with the oof grass too. It kind of adds to the environment for me.
I love using a long lens for insects, I feel like they would like their space like any wild animals out there! I agree with @Mike_Friel about cleaning it up. It would be a really stunning image with just a clean background. Either way though, great capture!
Jim, it’s a fine look at this Copper. In my limited experience since they really tall grassy locations, I’d actually like to see more oof grass in the background. In this case, you could dodge that main oof seed head to reduce it’s presence, but having it there speaks to the this little butterfly’s habit. The details and luminosity of the Copper and its perch are excellent.
>=))>