Miss Zinny and Her Sidekick, Mr. Fly

Image Critiques Flora Critiques
1

zinny-3.jpg
zinny-3.jpg1061×1075 336 KB

gf on zin.jpg
gf on zin.jpg1400×1104 408 KB

Gulf Fritillary on a Mexican Sunflower

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

The garden is just alive with a plethora of blooming flowers and hungry butterflies. Catching them in the raw, so to speak is quite the adventure as they flitter from one bloom to the next.

Specific Feedback

The colors in both images appear to be overly saturated, yet I promise not only didn’t I touch a saturation or vibrancy slider, I even knocked down some of the red’s an attempt to tame the explosive color. I dinked around in each of the color channels, with the color adjustment, and color balance pretty much to the point of pure frustration. Any suggestions?

Technical Details

Both images shot with a Nikon Z6ii coupled to a Nikkor 24-200 f/-6.3. Both handheld.
The first was shot at 180mm, f/6.3, 1/400, ISO 320
The second was shot at 155mm, f6.3, 1/400, ISO 320
Both were pre-processed in ACR though on each it was difficult to get a clean black point. I did the crops in PS, choosing a square crop for the Zinnia bloom as the components other than the bloom, outside the brilliant greens, did nothing to move the image forward. I did use the TK9 “Paint with Contrast” adjustment to highlight the tips of the antennae and wings.

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  • Vision and Purpose:
  • Conceptual:
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2

Nice kills from a successful hunting trip! The matching colors of the butterfly and zinnia are very nice. On the top zinnia, I wonder about reducing the cyan in the greens just a bit. The UL area pulls my eye; making the greens just a bit more analogous to the flower might be a nice touch.

3

The saturation is pretty close to where you want it in the first image. You can tweak down the yellows a tad in the second. The little bug on the orange zinnia looks like a georcorid. That’s a good find. Good job on getting these captures in bright light…Jim

4

Both images are beautiful, Chris. To my eye the colors look reasonable-probably as close as you’re going to get them in a jpeg file.

5

Many thanks to all these comments. I think I may be somewhat hyper sensitive to yellows and oranges because they always mess with my color sense.