Painted Lady on Zinnia

Canon 7D2, 70-200mm f2.8L IS II, 1.4x TC III, speedlite
ISO 400, f13, 1/160s, hand held

Any comments appreciated.

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

Absolutely beautiful, Allen. I am loving your photos of one flower and a butterfly on or in flight near it. You are giving me inspiration!

I like the looks of the butterfly and the bloom a lot, Allen. I do think the composition could be stronger than this centered version. I took the liberty of recropping it to give you an idea of where I think it might want to go, but it’s your image.

Beautiful. I like both versions, but prefer the centered version because I like equal emphasis on the Painted Lady and the whole bloom.

I too very much like the butterfly, but I prefer the crop suggested by Dennis Plank. Nevertheless, good dof and nice soft light. I do have a question. How did you get this scene without shadows? Light seems to come from all directions. Did you use a light tent or some artificial light? Just wondering.

Hi Igor and oops I did use an on camera speedlite for this. I forgot to mention that above.

Thank you for the comments and the repost. I prefer the original version showing the symmetry of the entire flower and given the butterfly is in the middle. I think not centering is a good guideline to keep in mind but can be broken at times.

Allen: I’m going to agree with you regarding the comp and the inclusion of the entire flower. Going tighter on the butterfly does work for me but I like your original. :+1::+1:>=))>