As we approached this butterfly, all I could see was the beam of light behind the butterfly that was falling on the flowers behind him and on the ground. I wanted to put just enough light on the butterfly to make him set out from the flowers, so my expert VAL Cole pointed the light about a foot above the butterfly so that the light would feather gentle on the butterfly’s wings. Our reflector lady was too busy picking flowers for Grandma to be much help on this one.
Once again, we had some editorial comments by my staff that went something like this:
Chloe: "Grandpa, the flowers and the butterfly are so pretty."
Cole: "Blah, blah, blah."
Chloe: "Cole, I am not talking to you. I am talking to Grandpa."
Cole: "Blah, blah, blah."
Why do I feel like I am listening to some of our current politicians?
After seeing this one on my monitor, I tried various crops, including one that was just above the flower on the left side, which eliminated much of the negative space above the butterfly and flowers. After looking at this crop, I felt that the negative spaced added to the overall composition, but I could not decide why it added to the image. What do you think about the crop?
Enjoy.
Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4, shot at ISO 200, f/8 and 1/180th with a SB-800 on a softbox and triggered by Nikon CLS.
Post Processing:
Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.
Photoshop—ran nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter on the butterfly to add contrast to shadows, mid-tones and highlights.
Unlike the last one, I think the colors in this photo work beautifully together. You basically have two colors, green and orange, which complement each other. The position of the butterfly in the composition provides for a strong diagonal lines. Strong composition.
ReplyDeleteI think you have to look at how much room the flower on the left needs. It needs enough room to set it off from the background. If you crop it too tightly, it will blend more into the background. This produces a lot of negative space above the butterfly, but I think that helps to better separate the butterfly from the background. I like your crop and the composition that resulted from it.
Anne
What about cropping from the bottom up past the bottom orange flowers and the top down to just above the flower on the left, making it more of a traditional 4:5 horizontal aspect ratio?
ReplyDeleteThis photo looks almost like a painting rather than a photo. I like the colors but I wish they were more pastel. Enjoyed the commentary of your crew. It adds to the photos.
ReplyDeleteDebbie
As normal, a good image. On my enlargement I clearly see some of the plant hairs. I never know how much to increase the saturation in my images. I have a tendency to use a little less than in this image. But I note that the judges at the Photo Club seem to respond to pictures with more saturation.
ReplyDeleteNicely done. I believe that Steve has your answer. Eliminating the flowers at the bottom would make the butterfly more the star of the photograph. Your attention would go straight to him rather than flowing down to the bright, colorful flowers below him. Another good image. Enjoy your posts.
ReplyDeleteTed