Reprise: A Small Bit of October
Dec 16, 2014 22:21:03 #
Doing some catching up, just in case anyone needs to see some warmer colors from a couple of months ago (October 4th), this small light colored moth was working the English Lawn Daisies (one of my favorite weeds). I think the antennae ends that look like ski tips are different from a butterfly's requisite "cans," so for the moment I'm calling it a moth although I don't know for sure. Cute 'lil feller but didn't sit still much...
Photo notes: The DIY flash diffuser was used and I was curious to see what would happen using f/32. This has been sharpened and reduced in size so it is not possible to see how much diffraction from using f/32 had degraded the image. In fact, this photo is more than a little "rescued" by applying some modern digital processing wizardry. Between a bit of a breeze and the moth's movements plus my not having the original exposure spot on, it is lucky to be good enough to share. All of which is a fancy way of saying "it didn't quite come out right" if left as-is. Also, this was taken with a macro lens but is not a true macro photo -- merely a close-up from focusing at greater distance than required for 1:1 macro then cropping to use only a part of the frame. (1981 x 1444 pixels were used out of the original 4256 x 2832, but who's counting...)
Photo notes: The DIY flash diffuser was used and I was curious to see what would happen using f/32. This has been sharpened and reduced in size so it is not possible to see how much diffraction from using f/32 had degraded the image. In fact, this photo is more than a little "rescued" by applying some modern digital processing wizardry. Between a bit of a breeze and the moth's movements plus my not having the original exposure spot on, it is lucky to be good enough to share. All of which is a fancy way of saying "it didn't quite come out right" if left as-is. Also, this was taken with a macro lens but is not a true macro photo -- merely a close-up from focusing at greater distance than required for 1:1 macro then cropping to use only a part of the frame. (1981 x 1444 pixels were used out of the original 4256 x 2832, but who's counting...)
Dec 17, 2014 01:20:14 #
My only suggestion is to crop a bit tighter, in a square format. The butterfly's detail will hold.
Male Common Checkered skipper (Pyrgus communis):
http://www.wildutah.us/html/butterflies_moths/hesperiidae/h_b_pyrgus_communis_specimen.html
Where was this butterfly photographed?
Male Common Checkered skipper (Pyrgus communis):
http://www.wildutah.us/html/butterflies_moths/hesperiidae/h_b_pyrgus_communis_specimen.html
Where was this butterfly photographed?
Dec 17, 2014 12:41:06 #
Dec 17, 2014 13:14:33 #
Warm colors very welcome. Beautiful shot, and I agree about the square crop. It would focus all attention on the butterfly.
dar_clicks wrote:
Doing some catching up, just in case anyone needs ... (show quote)
Dec 17, 2014 13:23:41 #
Dec 17, 2014 16:05:35 #
Dec 17, 2014 19:56:46 #
Nikonian72 wrote:
My only suggestion is to crop a bit tighter, in a square format. The butterfly's detail will hold.
Male Common Checkered skipper (Pyrgus communis):
http://www.wildutah.us/html/butterflies_moths/hesperiidae/h_b_pyrgus_communis_specimen.html
Where was this butterfly photographed?
Male Common Checkered skipper (Pyrgus communis):
http://www.wildutah.us/html/butterflies_moths/hesperiidae/h_b_pyrgus_communis_specimen.html
Where was this butterfly photographed?
Thanks for the ID -- I appreciate it, and good to know it is indeed a butterfly rather than a moth. It was photographed in the Salt Lake Valley approximately 12 to 14 miles south of downtown SLC.
The "Skipper" name describes its behavior rather well -- that critter skipped from blossom to blossom faster than I could keep up with it, which is why I only got a single, one-off, kinda bad photo of it.
... and odd that I didn't go for the square crop -- something I like a lot having started out in photographic life with a 2-1/4 square Brownie Hawkeye! Looking at it again today, I agree with you and Dixiegirl about that. I'm usually kind of aggressive when cropping, but hung on much too tightly to that scraggly flower on the left side!
Thanks, everybody for the comments! Helps.
Dec 17, 2014 20:43:48 #
I don't know whether this is exactly the perfect square crop, but here's a try at it.
This display size is about the maximum the photo can be before flaws start to annoy more than I'd like. The lesson is quite clear for repairing a sub-standard exposure in post processing, i.e., the application for the outcome is quite limited. In this case I knew that it would be reasonably presentable for "e-Mail size" distribution, but certainly no 16x20s would be made! Sure some sharpening, etc., can give it a bit more eye appeal but never as good as if all had been well to begin with. Actually this was on the discard list until I got to wondering if I could do something with it. Posting it turned out to be fortunate because at least I learned what the critter was!
This display size is about the maximum the photo can be before flaws start to annoy more than I'd like. The lesson is quite clear for repairing a sub-standard exposure in post processing, i.e., the application for the outcome is quite limited. In this case I knew that it would be reasonably presentable for "e-Mail size" distribution, but certainly no 16x20s would be made! Sure some sharpening, etc., can give it a bit more eye appeal but never as good as if all had been well to begin with. Actually this was on the discard list until I got to wondering if I could do something with it. Posting it turned out to be fortunate because at least I learned what the critter was!
Dec 17, 2014 22:29:49 #
Dec 18, 2014 03:59:19 #
dar_clicks wrote:
Maybe not quite so square.I don't know whether this is exactly the perfect square crop, but here's a try at it.
Dec 20, 2014 19:41:57 #
Nikonian72 wrote:
Maybe not quite so square.
Ha! okay -- looks like cropping choices contain a "personal preference" component to some degree! I also see the advantage of a slight de-squaring. One of my sisters likes more background, perceiving a story to be told by a bit of sustenance still available for our hairy little butterfly friend while all around late Fall is taking an inevitable toll in its outdoor pantry. On the other side of that coin is the sad fact that the background in my photo isn't composed very well to contribute much of artistic value, not that there was much of that available there anyway.
Thanks (all) for finding more to think about than I thought there was in this photo.
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