Lucky or Good

Sony A77II, Illustration Mode
Minolta 200mm macro
ISO 1600, 1/500 @ f8
I found this newly hatched monarch on our patio this evening and decided to pose her before her wings were strong enough to fly. On my first shot I forgot that I had been shooting in the illustration mode the last time I used the camera. At first I was miffed that I hadn’t noticed the settings but when I looked at the result I just said never mind. In processing I added a touch of oil paint and some sharpening. I’ll post a straight shot some time later but would appreciate your comments on this effort. As the old saying goes, “I’d rather be lucky than good.”:wink: All comments welcome. >=))>

You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
1 Like

I like this a lot, Bill. That sure worked out nicely for you. Usually when I have the settings, it means a missed shot, not an opportunity! Very nice. :+1::+1:

Hey Bill…interesting “mistake”! The display of the butterfly in the frame is just perfect to my eye. I really like the way the technique has emphasized the color and spots on the wings. This beautiful butterfly really stands out! Taking in the entire scene, I find the illustrative animation on the butterflyweed to be more distracting or competitive to the main subject given the contrasty edges…especially when the defocused buds are softer. I dunno - still fun to explore this shot. Thanks for sharing!

Bill, this is very colorful, and I like the photo art look to this, the strong colors only enhance the abstract look here. The angle/tilt of the butterfly makes for a very dynamic composition. I’m not familiar with Sony cameras, is illustration mode some type of filter that gets applied to a jpeg in-camera, or is this done to a raw file?

Ed: This is an in camera filter and produces a JPEG. There are a number of creative modes available on most of the high end Sonys. Fun to work with and while I suspect the same effect might be possible in post processing this is a lot easier and especially nice for us folk who don’t like to spend a lot of time on the computer. >=))>

Hi Bill, I like this artistic look - a pleasing image and shows how one can get creative to produce unique images. I agree with Jim on the buds in upper left - maybe desaturating these some would be an improvement overall. nicely done!