Hello all, I'm new here. Well not new to Caedes but new to the discussion board. I come here because I have no friends! Unfortunately, that seems to be the only way to get any comments on your work. I Have this butterfly photograph I'd like you to take a look at. It has a pretty high CI which I feel good about, but it did not get put into the "real" galleries. Now I realize that there is tons and tons of subjectivity (and in my opinion a lot of problems) with the system...but that's not my concern right now. I just want to know what this photo lacks.

The photo was taken a while back with a fairly cheap camera, but I thought it came out nice and it was a good capture. I suspect my problem is that I don't really know much photo editing but I'll keep my thoughts to my self for now.

Thanks!

Weathered Monarch.

For me it would be a two part issue - firstly the composition which is slightly jumbled and then the DOF which has a strange 2 dimensional feel to it - I don't know how that has happened - it just could be one of those strange quirks. this is most obvious on the rear wing of the butterfly which also seems to have slightly strange colour and shadow balance to the rest of the butterfly. just some thoughts.

Having a good C-index should never be seen as a guaranteed passport to the perms - sometimes the sheer volumes of images that need to be sorted through mean that things get very 'picky' :-)

Butterflies are also a fairly common subject so you have alot of competition. A butterfly photo needs to be really outstanding to make it to the perms...

Thanks for the comments, gave me something to think about. Like I said I took this shot a while ago, but technical feedback is good to hear regardless. :) I'll be around. ;)

Well I played around with the colors, practicing my PS skilz :p Well I don't have any actually, so I'm learning. I realize the shot itself has some issues, but it'd be good to hear from the 3rd person if I'm doing good things with the post process. :)

Hello Josh. IMHO, the rear wing is very different from the closest wing yet it is on the same creature. This makes it appear very unequal. So it appears that this is not a focus problem as much as it is a choice of what to alter in post-processing (it almost appears that there's a white balance problem). If you went back and made the rear wing more like the one in the foreground I think you'll find that the shot is improved. Compositionally, the subject is in middle of the shot. Even though the head of the butterfly is positioned better, the large, in focus wing dominates the picture. Try re-cropping to attain a better composition. Keep shooting and having fun with the pics you get/make.