The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I was in N. Thailand last week, primarily to see this rare beauty, also known as the Kaiser-I-Hind (Emperor of India). It’s found on mountain tops from NE India to SW China. Here you can see it resting on Magnolia campbellii, its larval foodplant, on a ridge at 2000+ meters asl. It only rested for very short periods before resuming its hilltopping aerobatics with 3 other males. The females are very rarely seen as they keep to the distant treetops.
Specific Feedback
It didn’t come close, so I used the telephoto for the main shot. I’ve added a second photo taken with the macro lens, as it was the best one I took of the beautiful green upper side. All comments welcome - especially on the contrast between the butterfly and the surrounding vegetation, which was tricky to handle in bright sunlight.
Technical Details
1: D500 + 150-600mm (@600mm) 1/1250 f8 ISO 1000 EV +0.67
2: D500 + 105mm macro 1/1250 f13 ISO 1600 EV +0.33
Both shots: Denoise, crop, adjustments in PS to BG colour balance (more green), curves and saturation (reduced for BG in shot 2).
Mike, what a beautiful butterfly! Thank you for sharing. So glad that you were able to see one and to photograph it. Not knowing how bright his colors are, I’m not sure what to say about saturation and contrast. It would be nice if his colors stood out a bit more I think. I can see you had to deal with harsh light, but hey, you got a photograph of him. I love the first one especially, and in that one is where if it were mine, depending on what I remembered him looking like, I might try to boast his colors just a touch to make him pop more. What an experience this must have been! Great job capturing the shots.
Hey, Mike. I agree with @Shirley_Freeman that’s it’s difficult to critique a critter I know nothing about, and have never seen before. That said, I would like to see a bit more contrast between the butterfly and its surroundings, if possible. Perhaps tone down the background greens, and boost the exposure of the butterfly? I don’t know. All that said, it’s a gorgeous butterfly, and one I’d love to have in my portfolio!
What an amazing experience for you Mike. Gorgeous colors and detail in this one. As the others have said, it is hard to understand the colors not having been there or seen one. Only wish I had. Great shot.
Great macro photo. I do agree with all the other photographers. More contrast or something in edit to make the butterfly pop out more. My editing skills are limited… Really nice !!!
Awesome to capture this amazing specimen!! And a tribute to you that you were able to use the “telephoto macro” approach when needed. I don’t find the BG color in the first one too strong; the wing is obviously in shadow, but I think the suggestions to try to increase contrast on the butterfly are worth trying. If that causes too much saturation, try putting the Hue-Sat layer in Luminosity mode, or else copy the contrast mask onto a Hue-Sat layer and lower the Sat a bit.
The second one looks natural but maybe the same approach would work. Otherwise, you have the story of camouflage.
Wow, that is one amazing bug. What a beauty. Thanks for going out to stalk and capture it so we can all share. Never seen a swallowtail quite like it. Those curly antennae are just so different. I love all the different species of things I get to see here on NPN. As others have said, I think some contrast adjustment between the butterfly and the background could help it jump out a little more which wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Mike, sounds like a great experience and the first post is a fine look at this butterfly in its specialized habitat. The colors in its antennae and upper wings are very striking. Yes, getting some light on the body and lower half of the wings would be nice, but nature is often “not nice” unless you have lots of time and can go back repeatedly. The ventral view shows off the green in the forewing very well. Again you’ve got a good look under challenging conditions.
Amazing! What an incredible butterfly! The rework is great. You’re right about shooting in bright light. You don’t realize how shiny leaves are until you get a shot like this! Did you try to reduce highlights on just the background? You might even be able to keep the greens on the butterfly bright but reduce luminosity on the greens elsewhere. You might also leave it just the way it is, because its great already!
