Rotated photo since the vertical one was making me dizzy.
I’ve kept going back to this very accommodating Monarch caterpillar in an attempt to get a nice sharp image. First tried stacking and failed, there was too much of a breeze for me to make that work. I narrowed the aperture, raised the iso and shutter speed, also used an external flash to help stop the movement.
I do feel this is rather a “bare bones” photo but the caterpillars have eaten all the flowers!
In post ACR, I used linear profile with auto adj., in PS highlight/shadows and curves adjustments. Cropped to 11/17 (2:3)
Do you prefer the vertical or horizontal? Any other thoughts, comments or suggestions are welcome.
Nikon D7200, f/9, 1/250sec., iso 320 @105mm, tripod, polarizer, external flash
Thanks
Linda, I am so glad he was cooperative and let you get a few shots, changing settings as you needed. You may not have any more flowers for him to visit as a butterfly! I like the horizonal, it just feels right. Nice details in him, from one end to the other. I like the cross section of the leaves, which seems to frame. Very nice.
Thanks, @Shirley_Freeman, @terryb and @David_Bostock for your thoughts and comments. I’ve just recently discovered this plant is a type of milkweed (Mexican Butterfly weed) which explains why the caterpillars were drawn to it in the first place. Hopefully they will come back next year.
Linda, this is a good look at this Monarch caterpillar. Monarch’s routinely use milkweeds as their host plant, so if the plants return, the Monarch’s will also. Both orientations look very good, with the details in the caterpillar captured well. What I mind interesting is the visual effect of image size. The vertical is significantly smaller when viewed on a standard monitor than the horizontal. That size difference makes the horizontal view notably stronger, which is a well studied visual psychology result.
Hi Linda! You did a wonderful job of capturing this beautiful caterpillar! I love the colors and the minimalist background. I like the vertical one the best and was thinking if you gave it one more rotate maybe it wouldn’t make you feel dizzy! Because then the caterpillar would be going up, like this…
Thanks, @Mark_Seaver and @Vanessa_Hill for your comments. Good point about the visual effect, Mark. In fact, I went back to both images and verified that they are the same size. And Vanessa’s version adds yet another dimension. All a good lesson, at least for me, that looking at a subject from many angles gives a totally different feel. Thanks for taking the time.
