Hummingbird Hawkmoth (+revised)

[Huw_Thomas]

Revised Version

Revision 1 (latest)

What changed: sharpness returns … was me playing with jpg rather than original I put bokeh just to see if I prefer the brown echo of the hawkmoth thx all

Added after receiving feedback from the community.

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Original Version

Critique Style: Standard

The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.

Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive

About This Image

Lucky again this am - glorious sunlight, nice camera and lens , all right with the world!
The Moths the star … just in the right place!
Just love the colours and the light, focus was all really down to camera

The image screams autumn morning, low oblique sun, playing compositionally with colours and just allowing nature’s glory to do the rest

Feedback Requested

mood, composition , any suggestions ?
Stalk behind moth could go I suppose?
Lucky with Bokek, highlights worked on - as good as I could get I think

Technical Details

Camera: A7v
Lens:Sony 90mm G
Focal length:90
Shutter speed:1/4000
Aperture:f/7.1
ISO:6400
Flash:no ev -0.7 metering for highlights
DXR PR,

[Bill_Fach]

Huw: Got a serious -spike from this one! The lighting is soooo good and the wing position is terrific. The only things that could elevate this from A++ to A+++ is if you would eliminate the yellow bokeh ball in the LRC and the OOF stem exiting the URC. Still a magnificent capture as is. >=))>

[system]

The original poster added a revised version of their image.

[Mark_Seaver]

Huw, an excellent catch! A fine mix of colors with the moth and flower positioned well. I agree that removing, the long lighter streak in particular, the distractions is a fine improvement.

[Dennis_Plank]

Not sure what happened, Huw, but when you removed the distraction for the revision, the moth isn’t as sharp-did you grab the wrong version of the image? Other than that minor nit, a great catch and gorgeous image.

[system]

The original poster added a revised version of their image.

[Jim_Zablotny]

The revised version looks pretty good, but I’m not a fan of the dark BG in this image. I would not change that as the results could look artificial. The subject is pretty sharp and the orange hindwings are very nice. The rim-lighting on the wings produce nice strong linbes of separation from the BG. The harsh lighting was difficult to manage and this insect only flies when it is warm and sunny. As photos go, the subject sells the image and you produced a very nice image of this very difficult subject…Jim

[Huw_Thomas]

Thanks Jim

The light meant I needed to under
expose everything ev -1 ish to catch most of the highlights - I just love shooting against a difficult sun

Here it is ev +4. Background was quite messy

Thanks again everyone for help with this image

Huw