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
I took this shot on a pretty heavily overcast day. I was on a walk through a nice field when I found the monarch feeding on some milkweed. I took a series of it while slowly getting closer and this is one the clearest shots I ended up with.
Feedback Requested
While I enjoy the photo it just doesn’t look as cool as I thought it would when I made the exposure. I feel like my settings were right and I got close enough for the image to fill the frame but still it just feels kind of meh. Is there something I could have done differently? Or since monarchs are kind of common is it just a fairly common creature doing a fairly common thing, so it is not that interesting? I’d love to hear the communities thoughts.
Technical Details
ISO800, 100mm macro, f2.8, 1/640. I lowered the highlights and brought up the shadows to get more details on the hairs in the middle. I also upped the texture and clarity again to help with the monarch hair details. The colors were naturally that bright and I did not use any color edits or saturation.
Jay: My wife and I have cultivated monarchs for many years so I never tire of them. This male in pristine condition is a very worthy subject and I do think there are a couple of things you could consider to give it more impact. All I did here was crop a bit from the right and add a moderate vignette. I think a lot of your concern about the image being somewhat meh comes from the BG not being particularly interesting so diminishing its impact on the shot may help. Back to you. >=))>
Hi Bill, I agree monarchs are so cool! I really enjoy the idea of cropping and adding vignette. It definitely feels a bit more of what I was hoping for it to look like. They are amazing creatures! Thanks for your ideas!
Oh do I know what you mean about thinking something was great in the field only to think it’s meh in the computer. Mainly it’s the 3D to 2D transition and somethings just don’t work. Not that this is one of them, but as you go on to say, it’s a pretty common sight. I’ve been a photographer for so long, that I often don’t bother with things that are commonly photographed or that I’ve done an excellent job with in the past. When I am trying for a photo of something mundane, I make an effort to either do something novel or something excellent. Mostly I fail, but it’s the higher standard that keeps me interested. Especially with things that are common.
So, now that I’ve blathered on, here’s what you could do in future with this kind of shot. Really isolate the subject. Here you have a lot of environment in the frame and not all of it is keeping our eyes on that orange beauty. The visual notes indicate where and I hope they help. If you can wait and follow the Monarch while it feeds, you may find it lands in a more picturesque position. Better yet, sit and wait at an optimal flower cluster and see if it lands. Clean backgrounds and a more isolated location will definitely help.
For this image though, you’ve got some good things going - mainly the light and the frame filling Monarch. It isn’t entirely in focus, but a lot of it is and that works. All the colors look natural and not over cooked. Having it on milkweed also tells more about its lifecycle and dependence on this plant. All great story-telling elements.
A lovely capture! @Kris_Smith has given you some good ideas and those areas are easy to moderate with a subject selection, inverse it and some cloning.
This is a really nice shot of the Monarch, Jay. Since I live in the Pacific NW, they’re not at all common with me, so I appreciate seeing images of them. I notice you shot this at f/2.8. While it would have caused the background to be even more prominent, stopping down a bit would have gotten more the wings and body completely in focus and for some reason, I really like it when the antennae are in crisp focus. You mentioned that you took a lot of shots and while the classic image of the spread wings is nice, it is the classic image. Did you try photographing from some other angles? Sometimes an unusual angle on a common critter can make for a special image. Just throwing out a few ideas to consider.
Thanks so much for those notes! I totally see how the leaves and stems are competing for attention and pull my eyes away from the butterfly. I’ll have to head back to the field and see if I can frame the image with a less busy background trying to get the milkweed flowers but less of the stems and leaves.
Hi Dennis, I agree and I was a little bummed out some of the top part of the butterfly was a little out of focus. I did get one image of it flying, that happened to be mostly out of focus, but I still find more compelling than this one which is definitely more in focus. haha they fly so quickly and randomly they are definitely challenging to capture.
Jay, I always enjoy the Monarch and never tire from seeing them or seeing images of them. They aren’t around here in NC as much as I would like to see them. I even planted a pack of flower seeds that are supposed to attract them and have everything they need for their whole life cycle. I have yet to see any BF on the flowers, much less the Monarch. Very disappointing.
I like the composition, and with a Monarch for the subject, well, you can’t go wrong. I like what the rest have suggested for this image and for out in the field for the next time. I know I have been guilty of getting excited about the subject and not think how it will look 2D or just forget to check my settings before taking the shot. Wishing you the best when you go back out there.
Sometimes you take a shot and it may appear after later examination to be not very exciting. You are missing one important feature of milkweeds is that the flower can snare the tarsi of an insect which can enhance pollination. Monarchs do not seem to be affected by this and will move effortlessly between flower clusters of common milkweed. With any type of macro shot, sharpness is an important feature of the composition. The shallow DOF cost you quite a bit of sharpness. For macros of butterflies, wing scales should be apparent, and I can see some of them in sharper portions of the wings. Having some of the milkweed leaves in more focus can help this type of comp. The main theme of this photo is pollination so getting some of the flowers in focus with the subject can’t hurt. Overall its not a bad shot and you just have to have more of the elements in focus to complete the story. Well done…Jim
Hi Jim, thanks for pointing out the scales, it makes it a lot clearer to me the parts that were in focus vs not. I didn’t know they had such cool scaling patterns. I also had no idea about the milkweeds snaring the tarsi. I’ll have to keep an eye out for that next time I am out on a hike.
