A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

[Guest]

Handheld PEN E-PL1 + Zuiko 12-60mm SWD

[catkins]

Re: A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

Lovely shot and love the flowers and the butterfly/moth!

My only comment would be that it could perhaps do with a touch of extra lighting to perhaps get the whites on the wings to stand out a bit more?

Regards
Chris

[Guest]

Re: A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

Thanks Chris - I made a selective levels adjustment on daisies and butterfly.

[Chevvyf1]

Re: A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

Nice one Mark ! I see the "sun" came out for the second shot

[Guest]

Re: A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

Yes Chevvy, yet personally I prefer the original for its soft subtle nuances of colour and tone.

Thanks.

[catkins]

Re: A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

Ah the joys of critiques, and I would have to agree with your latter comment - I think that this arises because the 'improved' lightness has spread across the image and contrast has probably become too much in the sublety of the flower petals?
I've had a play with the image and the tonal difference between the white in the moth wings and the light pink in the petals is fairly similar, so altering the white in the wings to add brightness then affects the petals.
So I'll add in my edit of your image and then immediately below add your edit and your original so that it is easier to compare 'side by side'. The ideal is probably to create layers (moth, petals, & background) and then select out the moth, alter brightness for that, perhaps up saturation in the petal layer, and perhaps slightly darken the background?

1/. My edit - the moth similar to your original, increased saturation in the petals, and noise reduction to smoothen mainly the background


2/. Your original - nicely muted but perhaps in need of a bit of sparkle to the wings or to use added saturation to petals to contrast with the moth?


3/. Your re-edit - perhaps too much overall lightness and contrasty moth


It all goes to show how much an image can alter in its impact, but by providing alternatives at least it becomes easier to see the merits or faults in the various ideas!

Regards
Chris

[Guest]

Re: A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

Chris - your edit (1/.) appears to be missing from your thread?

[Chevvyf1]

Re: A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

Mark I do actually prefer the original because of the washed out centre of the flowers petals are not in keeping with the flower ... "spoiling the ? for a ha'pence of tar comes to mind !"

It is fun playing with Contrast & Saturation - in Wales last weekend I had fun using Art Filters and other WB settings for "effects" ... have yet to upload 8 x 4Mb of shots ... and do the usual selections (delete or keep and then best of for here )

[catkins]

Re: A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

Chris - your edit (1/.) appears to be missing from your thread?

Is it still missing?

Regards
Chris

[Guest]

Re: A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

Is it still missing? Regards
Chris

Thanks for your edit which has appeared, Chris. sorry I didn't respond earlier.

Do you think the centre of the daisies and moth body is too dark, lost detail? I like what you did with the wings and petal tones.

[catkins]

Re: A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

Thanks for your edit which has appeared, Chris. sorry I didn't respond earlier.

Do you think the centre of the daisies and moth body is too dark, lost detail? I like what you did with the wings and petal tones.

Assuming you mean in my example of the edit - Simple answer . . . yes!

In darkening the background a bit, the centre of the left flower has become especially dark, and the moth's body darker than the ideal, hence the comment about the 'ideal' perhaps to be to create three layers and alter as necessary to achieve a so called 'ideal' (and as we all well know, 'ideal' is in the eye of the beholder, and the photographer of the image is always the one who has the ultimate say in what they want!!).

I started to have a play with this in PSP as I recently updated to the latest version but trying a filter crashed the program (!) with the slow realisation that Autosave hadn't been selected!! So I'll have another go and see if I can show any improvement to my first example.

Regards
Chris

[catkins]

Re: A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

My final example edit, where I have now used layers to alter lightness &/or saturation in each layer, plus added a little blur to the background. I have noted some of the comments so this is more muted than my previous edit, and may indeed be a little darker than my 'ideal' - but time is limited, and eyes sleepy!



The 3 layers are background, flowers and moth, so that each element of the image can be altered to suit desired effect without impacting on the other key elements.

This is very much by way of example, as the image is very much a personal approach that may or may not suit the originator of the image. So thanks or even apologies for letting me play your image Mark!

Regards
Chris

[Guest]

Re: A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

Thanks for your interest and taking time out to play with it, Chris.

Much appreciated.

[Zuiko]

Re: A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

Oh, so many versions, which one to chose? In isolation I think any one of these makes a superb shot, but surely one must have the edge over all the others? Well, I'm not sure, each seems to have a commendable aspect, but also a slight drawback, compared to the others. I think it all comes down to personal preference. The original does lack a bit of sparkle compared to the others but in this case I rather like the muted tones. I just think it's a lovely image.

[Guest]

Re: A Moment's Meditation on a Moth

Very well put, John!

Thank you.