The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
We’ve had a sparse butterfly season in southern Arizona thanks to a dry winter and spring, but there was still enough action to have some fun. I always get a kick out of dogface butterflies. This is a female Southern Dogface.
Specific Feedback
I’m interested in all your comments, including those relating to natural history.
Technical Details
OM Systems OM-1 Mark II, Post-processing in Affinity Photo 2
1/5000, F9, ISO 1250, 150mm, no flash
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
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Russ: What a great capture of this little lady. I don’t recall seeing any of these in my part of Texas so this is a nice treat. My only suggestion would be to make the flower stem coming out of the left wing go away and if you could eliminate the OOF flower behind the proboscis that would be even better although that doesn’t bug me as much as the stem. I do like the oof flowers on the right which shows the exit point of her flight. Really nicely done. >=))>
Very nice, Russ. I would certainly try to get rid of the stem. Something that might work to get rid of the out of focus bloom behind the proboscis, if you use PS and the TK plugin would be to use a luminosity mask set to darks (maybe 3 or 4) and then create a selection from it, invert the selection and then work on it through the selection. That should preserve the proboscis.
What a nice-looking butterfly, Russ. I don’t recall ever seeing one of these either. It looks like you already have some good advice above. You are really getting good at in flight shots of butterflies and such.
I never would have thought it was possible to capture butterflies in flight! Very well done! I wondered about blurring the flowers on the right instead of removing them, and did a 30% opacity clone of the BG over the stem to make it less obvious. Then did the same over the blurred flowers. Removing entirely leaves the stuff behind the proboscis too isolated.
Russ: I had to revisit this. The repost doesn’t work for me as the things I found most bothersome (the stem and the flower behind the proboscis) are still there. @Diane_Miller’s rework is better. Here’s my take and I’m not 100% enamored with it as it seems a bit sterile but at least the most distracting elements are gone. Back to you. >=))>
Beautiful shot of this butterfly, Russ. I love how you captured the wings opened wide. This year in Arizona was quiet, but I do see lots of these. Well done!!!
Nice job! But I agree with you. The image lacks context. I think I’ll go back into my inventory and look for a more promising image of a Southern Dogface.
