photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
ctfchallenge | all galleries >> The Best of CTF Challenges >> Best of 2007 > 2nd: Riding the Waves of Grain by Michael Shealy
previous | next
25-JUN-2007 Michael Shealy

2nd: Riding the Waves of Grain by Michael Shealy

Canon EOS 20D ,Sigma 150mm f2.8 EX DG Macro
1/400s f/6.3 at 150.0mm iso800 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
comment | share
ctfchallenge02-Jul-2007 03:31
Fantastic shot, Michael! Britt
ctfchallenge02-Jul-2007 03:13
What a beautiful butterfly and amazing color. Well done. jano
ctfchallenge30-Jun-2007 02:13
Now's the time to tell me to shut up ;) LOL
Perhaps the more saturated yellow and reds on the butterfly obscured some of the detail of the wings. I just had the old version in the browser cache before and compared the two. Maybe pull back the saturation on the colors of the butterfly, just a tad?

-Techo
ctfchallenge30-Jun-2007 00:38
Thanks, Techo for the info. I'll keep an eye on that setting. As for the detail, I don't see how that is possible. Cheers, -mikey
ctfchallenge29-Jun-2007 00:08
Mikey, I opened up the photo in photoshop to checkout the crop. Photoshop warned me that my workspace was sRGB but the image file was AdobeRGB. The Color Settings options I think have to do with setting the work space color profile. To check the embedded color profile of the photo go to Image->Mode->Convert To Profile.
I do really like the greens here but the originally posted one seemed to have more detail.
-Techo
ctfchallenge28-Jun-2007 22:08
Lovely image Mikey with great color, DOF and composition. CJ
ctfchallenge28-Jun-2007 05:47
Thanks for the comments, Doug, Tom & Techo. The breeze was blowing and the little gal was blowing back and forth, making it hard to stop her. Techo - I darkened the highlights a shade and notice that all the colors came out more, esp. in the butterfly. As for the color profile, I went to PS Edit>Color Settings and found the default set at sRGB. I read the EXIF in the previous pic posted using Firefox Exif Viewer and found nothing about Color Profile settings except one remote-seeming statement: "Color Space = 65535" How did you see that its saved in AdobeRGB? After messing with these settings and saving again I now find it saved and stated in the EXIF as Color Space: sRGB???? Well, thanks for your comment and I hope you find it looking better, cuz I'm stumped as to what actually has happened here ":^) Oh, yah, took out the little bit of grass at the bottom of the pic; thanks for the suggestion. Cheers, -mikey
ctfchallenge28-Jun-2007 03:50
Great capture!, Mikey. The clarity and dof is excellent. Nicely composed of course. Delicately captured.

The shot was saved in a AdobeRGB profile, when viewed on the web the shot seems to lose some of it's vibrancy. If you open up the shot in Photoshop and compare it the webbrowser view you should see a slight difference. Would also darken the highlights just a tad, and maybe crop out just a sliver of the twig near the bottom of the frame.

-Techo.
ctfchallenge27-Jun-2007 01:50
You are stirring my interest in that lens, Mikey. Very nice shot and evocative of the title. It does indeed appear that the butterfly is clinging especially tightly to the "grain" at its unstable angle. -tv
ctfchallenge27-Jun-2007 01:46
Love the DOF here Mikey. Nice composition and nice lens. -COAmature
ctfchallenge26-Jun-2007 17:30
Thanks for the comments, Tom & Maurice. This is a butterfly, Tom ":^) ... one of those little yellow ones that flit about. I chased her all over the yard waiting for her to light long enough for me to get a shot or two. The lens I used promotes this type of background bokeh very well. Thanks again for the kind words. Cheers, -mikey
Maurice Allain26-Jun-2007 09:03
I like the composition, colours and light in this shot, you get a feeling of space in the background meadow.
Guest 26-Jun-2007 05:50
Great use of repetition of the grass in front & background, & unreal colors on that (moth/butterfly?) thingy. I really like the contrast of the clarity & out-of-focus background.