Reworked….
Another rework….
Different crop…
Is this a composite? No
Wow, I really like this, Vanessa. Cool-looking moth, nice and sharp, and a nice background. For me, the white of the lace is a bit bright, but still a fine capture overall.
The blown out whites don’t work for me. There should be plenty of leeway in exposure for a scene like this to avoid that, both in camera and in processing. Would be interesting to move the moth out of the center and soften the 3 stems in the LR.
Thanks @terryb and @Diane_Miller for looking and your feedback. It was direct sunlight, actually behind the moth. And obviously I was trying to get the right exposure for the moth not the flower, as he was flying around quite a bit and landing in different places. I was able to maneuver the sun behind me by walking further up the trail but only got back shots of the moth. I’ll post a couple more in the next few days, where he’s on different grasses. This was my favorite because he was looking right at the camera! I did lower the whites a bit and contrast but it affects the bg and the moth, which I really love the colors of… I’ll have to go back in and see if I can just work on the flower…
Vanessa, such a wonderful shot. I love how the BG compliments the moth, that is nice and sharp. I so wish you had the software capability to selectively lower the exposure on the flowers, because this could be a wall hanger! That back lighting on his wings is just really nice.
Thank you so much @Shirley_Freeman , so I tried reworking the flower and also the bright grasses in the Lrc as @Diane_Miller mentioned. I don’t think the whites were blown out as Diane seemed to think, but let me know if this is an improvement, also @terryb I would like your thoughts too… thanks!
Good work on the LR. The brush stroke darkening the flowers shouldn’t extend outside the white area, but I understand that may be a limitation of your software. But it did bring more detail into the ones that the brush stroke covered. Bright areas can be featureless without being blown out, and in this case it is featureless that is the drawback. Technically there are only a few pixels at 100% white but the brightest tones are crowded together at the right end of the histogram:
Even with the tonal information baked into the JPEG, I pulled up the Camera Raw filter in PS and was able to pull the Highlights slider all the way left, which darkened the flowers enough to bring up a little detail. If your raw converter allows this, try it on the raw file and see what you get. It will target the brightest areas very nicely.
Hey, Vanessa. Yes, the rework is much better, in my opinion. I do agree with Diane concerning the brush strokes extending beyond the white area, resulting in a shadow, but I know nothing about the software you’re using, so I have no suggestions. But I want to emphasize, it is an improvement.
Thank you for your feedback and suggestions @Diane_Miller @Shirley_Freeman @terryb …So I started from scratch on this one, did no local adjustments, just brought highlights and whites down all the way, I also did a different crop….
By bringing whites down you’ve made everything dull. Bringing highlights down is what you needed to do. Not whites. If the highlights slider isn’t enough, you have to not blow them out in the exposure.
