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Butterflies
Butterflies
MaryO


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Michael Jackson Song/Lyrics (Expert Editing*)
Collection: Silly Stuff
Camera: Nikon D200
Location: Springfield, VA
Date: Jul 4, 2009
Galleries: Humorous
Date Uploaded: Jul 5, 2009

 This has got to be one of the silliest timewasters I've ever indulged in! I don't think Expert Editing is my thing ;-) It takes me FOREVER.

Our subject is ... in its natural state ... a Great Spangled Fritillary who came visiting yesterday. 3 shots of him, 2 of a hat, and one of a glove. Used my Sigma zoom for the butterfly and my Nikon 50mm for the hat and glove.

Used multiple butterfly images because the song title is plural. Would have been a lot easier if it had been singular!!

PP - converted all from RAW, levels, white balance.

Cloned hat trim to look smoother, desaturated it, dodged it so it would look like a white ribbon on each hat. Selected hats as objects and converted to duotone B&W.

Selected glove as an object, increased brightness and contrast.

Used big butterfly image as my base. Dodged butterfly a bit (mostly eyes). Added shrunken hat, made antennaes into objects so they could stick out of the hat, added shrunken glove. Rotated/skewed additions as needed. Added shadow under the brim of the hat.

Repeated for other butterflies (one just has the hat), then selected them (clothed) as objects and pasted them into the main image. Blurred and shrunk them so they'd look like they were in the background more.

Cloned and touched up about a bazillion things in the background to smooth out all the rough edges from my imprecise object definitions. I am really not good at this! Also connected a couple of stems so nothing was floating in space.

After all was merged and blended, resized, increased contrast, sharpened, added border, blurred forground hat a bit more (looked too sharp to me in comparison to the butterfly face ... different lenses and lighting so not a surprise). Dodged main butterfly some more and then cloned some color onto a bright spot in the flowers. I'm overprocessing this one like crazy ;-)

Originals (noting this for myself, mostly, so I don't forget): butterflies 6, 43 and 54; hats 8 and 15; glove 1.

Statistics
Place: 17 out of 75
Avg (all users): 6.2258
Avg (commenters): 7.4000
Avg (participants): 5.7692
Avg (non-participants): 6.3793
Views since voting: 1453
Views during voting: 384
Votes: 155
Comments: 16
Favorites: 1 (view)

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AuthorThread
Sony Alpha a6000
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS
 07/14/2009 12:36:43 PM
Great job Mary - Congrats on nice finish !
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-6D
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS
 07/13/2009 07:43:17 AM
You pulled this off nicely. Nice job Mary! Very funny!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-6D
Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 L II USM Lens
 07/13/2009 12:19:38 AM
you did a great job with this!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III
Olympus 45mm f/1.8 M.Zuiko Digital
 07/12/2009 11:47:06 PM
Soooo cute! Love the hat... oh and GLOVE! Hilarious.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM
 07/12/2009 07:38:00 AM
I like this - as it seems one of the very few entries in this challenge that actually shows some creativity.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Sony Alpha a6000
Sony E 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ OSS
 07/08/2009 06:51:49 PM
Very cool! Love it!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Olympus OM-D E-M5
Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 8-18mm f/2.8-4 ASPH
 07/08/2009 08:24:40 AM
This is so damn clever and well done. Love it. 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-5D Mark III
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS
 07/07/2009 09:05:04 PM
Challenge Relevance:7 Impact/Emotion/Mood:6 Technicals:6 Processing:6 Creativity:8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-5D
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS
 07/07/2009 08:45:21 PM
Love the hat touch!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-60D
Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
 07/07/2009 08:33:32 PM
Cute hat!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D7200
Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED VR
 07/06/2009 09:37:59 PM
Holy Crap! I totally missed the hat on the butterfly the first time around... Freakin hilarious... Well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-40D
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 USM
 07/06/2009 06:59:05 PM
lol, too cute
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-450D Rebel XSi
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
 07/06/2009 10:10:06 AM
lock up the little caterpillers!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-7D
Tamron AF 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical(IF)Macro
 07/06/2009 09:07:30 AM
love the little fedora..clever! :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM
 07/06/2009 01:38:11 AM
BAHAHA!!!!! thats so freaking funny!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-6D
Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 L II USM Lens
 07/06/2009 01:22:58 AM
silly!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
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