One of many butterflies who have been enjoying the Buttonbush blooming in my yard. One of our largest, most widespread and most recognizable skippers. The wing spread is 1.75 to 2.40 inches
Specific Feedback Requested
Any. There was a bright spot on the leaf just to the right of the skipper that I worked on with the spot healing brush in Photoshop. Can you see artifacts?
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon 60D
Canon 70-300mm IS USM @ 210mm
f/6.7
1/750 sec.
ISO 1250
Hand Held
Processed in ACR and PSE 2020 for exposure and cropping. Other adjustments noted above. Topaz De-noise applied.
Only that you pointed it out would I have paid attention to that part of the image, so I think you did fine.
Overall I like the sharpness in the butterfly and in the flower, but I think it’s a tad dark…I’m a bit of a mid-tone weirdo, so I always lift those at the end of processing if it looks a little flat. This is in shade, I realize, but it might be an interesting experiment to try. Skippers are so cute and I always like seeing them. What kind of a plant is it on? I’m not good with plant ID.
I agree the image is a tad dark, @Kris_Smith so I brightened it a bit and I think it is better. I tried to upload it, but NPN seems a bit glitchy this a.m. I had trouble loading the original image, too. I’ll upload the repost as soon as I can. He is on a Buttonbush, Cephalanthus occidentalis. This is an excellent native shrub for butterflies and all kinds of beneficial insects. Hummingbirds are also attracted to it, eating tiny insects that are drawn to it.
A nice look at the flower and the skipper. It does look just a tad dark to me, but like @Kris_Smith said, it is in the shade, which helped the whites, but not the darker subject. I’m not sure about the spot your removed/healed, but the bottom part of that leaf is a bit darker than the rest of it. Not really a problem. Very nice image. Yeah, I’m not sure what is going on with the site. I had troubles last evening trying to load my crab spider image.
Thanks, Shirley. Yeah, the pale area of that leaf is where the bright spot was. I might be able to clone that area to more closely match the leaf, but as long as it isn’t obvious I “repaired” it, I think I’ll let it be.
I think I’m good with it. I was just trying to check out the leaf after you mentioned the healing on it to remove a white spot, and if we could tell.
Hi Terry, nice job on the image! You’ve captured an interesting interaction between your subjects, placed them on the thirds and both the butterfly and the flower are in focus.
A couple things you could try is to go with a vertical framing since the leaves and the butterfly are long from top to bottom instead of side to side it could enhance those aspects.
As mentioned it is dark but I feel the flower and the butterfly are exposed correctly. I higher iso might improve the background lighting but in post processing you can try bringing up the green luminance (not sure if ACR has this feature but LR does) which could lighten the green leaf AND keep the butterfly’s exposure where it is. A lighter background object framing the dark subject will make it pop!
Hi, Michael. Excellent critique, and I incorporated some of your ideas in a rework, and I do think the image is improved. As soon as the site issues are resolved, I’ll upload the rework with your suggestions. Thanks
Updated version looks pretty good. It is very close to completion and the vertical crop works well. The edited version is too saturated and the skipper’s wing colors are too red. I would go back to the original do levels on the origin al histogram which should balance out the level of blues in the original…Jim
