1/200 s, f5.6, ISO 100, 371mm.
In Lightroom - cropped to move butterfly right of center, reduced exposure all around the butterfly using adjustment brush, some sharpening/contrast adjustment on butterfly.
Marc, I really like the lighting and how the butterfly stands out against the spotlight area of the background. If that brightness was anywhere else in the background, it would not feel right. The way the butterfly has light on it, it almost seems like it is a spotlight on the butterfly and top part of the flower. You mentioned that you cropped already, so you may not have the pixels to do so, but I was thinking that his might work better as a vertical (portrait) format. Just thought. When I enlarge it, the back part of the butterfly is nice and sharp, but on my screen the eye doesn’t feel quite as sharp. Hopefully it is my old eyes. This is a nice image with great lighting.
Gorgeous capture with wonderful BG, light and treatment! I second Shirley’s thought about a vertical. For me, a subject like this works well centered. I would consider darkening or removing the bit of flower head at the bottom and removing the spike coming out of the frame, and darkening the highlight at the top of the frame, as it pulls the eye away from the subject, but those are small items for a wonderful image!
Diane & Shirley, thanks for the feedback and suggestions. I tried the vertical crop and like it too. I’m not sure which one I prefer though. I usually like to give the subject a little more space, but I think this works nicely. I also removed that thorn protruding out towards the right.
I like it too, Marc. And I believe it was my old eyes, because the butterfly’s eye seems okay now that I can bring it in close to see. I might would add just a touch of space on the right, as the tip of the wing is fairly close to the edge. Nicely done.
Marc, I just remembered to add +Repost to your title so others will know that you made a change since to your image.
Marc: I do like the repost but the original works better for me. The portrait is nice and conventional but the original gives the butterfly some space to look into and I prefer that. Some of the minor cleanup on the repost does look good although I do like the one long spike on the right of the thistle on the original. The lighting here is what makes the shot along with the butterfly and the near perfect thistle. Top notch shot. >=))>
A lovely photo. The backstopping of the butterfly with that light is really nice. The vertical crop seems a bit tight to me and I am fine with the original also. I also would second the idea of just removing the two bits at very bottom of frame as suggested. A really good looking butterfly.
Marc, this is a fine look at this Spicebush Swallowtail on a lovely thistle. The lighting works very well. The vertical crop puts more focus on the subject, but but it’s too tight on the right. I like the bit of thistle leaf pointing right near the bottom. A square crop might also be interesting, using the negative space to the left to subtly change the story.
