Summer moth at the carwash

[Exposures]

I stopped at the carwash for a quick vacuum and found this little guy just hanging out. The original looked kind of dull. The yellow vacuum he was sitting on was neon yellow and the original lacked that pop of color.

BEFORE

AFTER


BEFORE

AFTER

Shot the picture in RAW (my PP results have improved a lot just from using RAW).
Bumped up the saturation and clarity. Increased the contrast.
Then I made a selection around the center of the image, feathered to 250 and selected the inverse. Set the black paint brush to a low opacity and burned the outside edges. Made a thin black border and added my watermark.

I'm new, so any critique would be awesome!!

[sedetweiler]

I must have something against vignettes today. love your changes in contrast and other adjustments but the addition of the vignette is distracting. you know it is normally something people try and avoid right? it is an error caused by poor optical design. I can see where it is often an artistic addition, but in this case it really takes away from the image.

Also, the crop of the original top image is interesting, and when you centered the subject you took the interest away. The top one is interesting because you can see where the bug is "going", because the path in front of it is visible. One would do the same when shooting a bike or car traveling down the street as you want to see where it is going, or sometimes where it has been. By centering it you have removed the story-telling capability of the shot and made it a specimine photo. By the way, the top shot is great right out of the camera, and if I was going to fix anything I would clone out the white sign and call it done. Nice eye seeing this as well, I often overlook these smaller subjects.

[Exposures]

thank you for taking the time to reply. that is very helpful!!

I usually don't do the 'vignette' but for some reason felt like trying it today. It's been bothering me all day though.

But as far as the change is saturation, i'm wondering if that is too much.

[Tyler]

I like the last image best but like sedetweiler said, the vignette is a little heavy...for me anyway. The background is simple enough and doesn't distract from the subject. How'd you get so close without it flying away?

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by Exposures

thank you for taking the time to reply. that is very helpful!!

I usually don't do the 'vignette' but for some reason felt like trying it today. It's been bothering me all day though.

But as far as the change is saturation, i'm wondering if that is too much.

I missed this - the saturation looks okay to me.