How I did it -

I am looking for feedback on this image. I really like the way the butterfly stands out and is back lit and the background blurred out and nondescript. I entered this in a contest and it got a very low score and I am not sure why. It was difficult to capture well and thought others would realize that.

COMMENTS:

Kenneth Deitcher, MD, FPSA	Nice image but it has many flaws. The monarch is not in focus and there is too much dead space at the top right. The position of the Monarch, at the angle you took it, does not show the wings at their best. You should have waited to see if the insect moved to a more favorable position and taken another image. The back light is very nice but the difficulty of taking the image is not considered in judging.
Elaine Icklan	First of all this is a very good image with good color saturation and sharpness. Don't worry about what judges have to say since your effort and joy in making an image is most important. Secondly a judge is not obligated to appreciate the difficulty of achieving an image. His or her only obligation is to score on technical achievement and impact.
Barbara Mallon	Your butterfly is sharp and he is doing his feeding. You have a different angle which is good. I would crop out the top group of flowers to improve the composition. Also go around the photo and darken anything that is not contributing to the image.
Tony Tam	I like to photo butterfly also. In your photo the flower on the top left distract the viewer to concentrate on the butterfly. You can crop the side and extend bottom and right side background. If you use CS4 or 5 this would be easy. Also the leaf on the right wing of butterfly should removed or cloned out.
Carolyn Schlueter	The elusive butterfly ... and they can be soooo elusive and flitty to capture, but you did great with this one. We read a picture from left to right and from top to bottom, so the first thing I would do is flip this lovely photo so we read the butterfly and then the flowers into the picture. I think that would help improve it from a judging standpoint right off the bat. I know the tad of bright green at the end of the leaf is that brilliant color, but I would definitely tone that down as it is taking away from the butterfly and looks a bit 'out of place' on the right of the butterfly's wing. Think that would help keep the attention on the 'star of the show.' You always need the contrast of lights against darks and while you have a beautiful dark bokeh background, I would try dodging and burning the flower and body of the butterfly to make them a tad lighter and bring out the whites so they 'pop' more and by the same token, darken the area around the butterfly/flowers a bit more to create even more contrast.   Good luck in your next competition with this one!
Tom McCreary	Most viewers don't appreciate how difficult an image was to take. Your lighting is very good, and the butterfly is sharp. I would crop off the flower at the top as it makes me think that you have 2 subjects, the butterfly and the flower. The background is good.

Member Bio

Adrienne Bergen - Biography I grow up in the world of photography and photo finishing. My parents owned a small camera shop in NYC underneath the Audobon Ballroom (the spot where Malcom X was shot). They sold cameras and accessories, film and just about everything connected. In the back we processed film using a rocker with baskets that passed the prints from wash to wash and a huge belt dryer. From the time I was tall enough to reach I was placing prints on the canvas belt to dry. We took everything home to NJ where the entire family sorted and bagged them for the customers. My mom and I did hand coloring with Q-tips when requested. After college I married (to a man whose father was an award winning amateur photographer), practiced as a pediatric physical therapist and had two sons. I used photography to teach about the work I did but rarely for pleasure. My son became interested and we built him a darkroom in the basement and I became interested in processing my own prints. My boys were active in sports and I began taking pictures of them at play. My husband and I retired to Florida in 2002 and I joined him in the summers at a children's summer camp in MASS where he had worked for almost 20 years. I graduated from taking some camp photographs on the weekends using black and white film, to being the full time photographer using a digital camera and mounting the pictures on the internet each night for parents to see. I shoot about 40,000 images during the 7 week season. You can see my work at www.camplenox.com. I took my first photography class in 2009 and continue to work with that instructor in Delray Beach, Florida. I am working hard to move beyond my sports photography and images of children to take more artistic and better planned out images. I also love taking pictures of our grandchildren. I use PS Elements and Topaz Adjust to tweak my images. I use a Nikon D300 for most of my work but also own a Lumix point and shoot camera.