This is a severe crop of my original shot for this challenge:
I asked the opinion of some friends and my DPC Olympics Team NZ teammates and it was almost unanimous that I go with the tighter crop. I still prefer the original shot as a photo but given those whose advice I got are DPC voters I'd be silly not to listen to them!
The crop took me slightly below the 720 pixel frame size and I'm a little worried that the caterpillar is oversharpened.
This is a Monarch Butterly caterpillar. It's not the first time I've used one as a model ;) No doubt you'll see some Chrysalis and Butterfly shots in the next month if they fit the challenges!
Processing Steps: Crop image as per outtake above
Clone out some imperfections
Shadow/Hilight
Curves
Crop to final crop
Shadow/Hilight
Curves
Hue/Sat layer in colourise mode to add some yellow to white stripes on caterpillar
Clone out edge of Sunflower centre at left of frame
USM
Different USM on lower petals
Add border
Save for web
Statistics
Place: 7 out of 185 Avg (all users): 6.9568 Avg (commenters): 7.5238 Avg (participants): 6.7119 Avg (non-participants): 7.0228 Views since voting: 3849 Views during voting: 412 Votes: 278 Comments: 31 Favorites: 5 (view)
I am so glad this did so well (even tho I personally think this one should have won a ribbon)! Congratulations on such a great score and finish -- and for having this beautiful photo newly gracing your highest rated photos on your profile :)
I think they advised you right by the way about the crop. The crop gives it great scale and perspective. It's perfect!
Nice DOF and I love the colors and OOF forms. Maybe a crop just below the two petals and the top and from the bottom just to the edge of the first petal. But that's totally subjective. Very nice image. Congrats.
By including such a large field around your subject as well as carefully controlling depth of field, you've done a great job of giving a sense of scale to your shot.
Wow! That's gorgeous! And I love the difference in scale between that tiny caterpillar and the yellow petals. Lovely composition too - good choice not to go for the standard ROT positioning of the caterpillar. This works!
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