Monarch butterfly please critique

[niccapo]

SEE FULL SIZE

More detail about Closeup Monarch In the Rose Bush 3

Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 200 mm
Exposure: 0.00
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

File Size: 3.9 MB
File Type: JPEG
MIME Type: image/jpeg
Image Width: 3072
Image Height: 2048
Encoding Process: Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
Bits Per Sample: 8
Color Components: 3
X-Resolution: 240 dpi
Y-Resolution: 240 dpi
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time (Modified): 2009:09:21 17:02:08
Time Zone Offset: -4 -4
Exposure Program: Manual
Date and Time (Original): 2009:09:20 15:31:22-04:00
Date and Time (Digitized): 2009:09:20 15:31:22
Max Aperture Value: 5.6
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
Color Space: Unknown (-1)
Compression: JPEG (old-style)
Global Angle: 30
Global Altitude: 30
Copyright Flag: False
Photoshop Quality: 12
Photoshop Format: Standard
Progressive Scans: 3 Scans
XMPToolkit: Adobe XMP Core 4.1-c036 46.276720, Mon Feb 19 2007 22:40:08
Metadata Date: 2009:09:21 17:02:08-04:00
Creator Tool: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Format: image/jpeg
Lens: 18.0-200.0 mm
White Balance: Daylight

[Samanax]

Image seems slightly overexposed. Looks like you missed focus on the butterfly...the tiny flowers to the left of the butterfly look like the focus point. Colors look slightly washed out. The busy background to the right is pulling the eyes away from the butterfly.

Try reducing the brightness (or lower the exposure if you shot in RAW), increase contrast a tiny bit and increase the color saturation a bit. Might want to crop the image tighter to the butterfly so that it stands out a bit more. Right now it's kinda lost in the image.

[niccapo]

Originally Posted by Samanax

Image seems slightly overexposed. Looks like you missed focus on the butterfly...the tiny flowers to the left of the butterfly look like the focus point. Colors look slightly washed out. The busy background to the right is pulling the eyes away from the butterfly.

Try reducing the brightness (or lower the exposure if you shot in RAW), increase contrast a tiny bit and increase the color saturation a bit. Might want to crop the image tighter to the butterfly so that it stands out a bit more. Right now it's kinda lost in the image.

Thanks a lot for the tips. I did some post processing in photoshop cs4 but it doesn't want to save in jpeg (error). This might be because I got it through bit-torrent. I'll try editing in CS3 extended and post the results. When shooting a butterfly it's hard to lock on the correct focus point because it (and I) move so frequently. Do you think I should use a tripod next time?