www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I've just spent a couple of days in Norfolk and saw about ten swallowtails, one in the garden of the farmhouse we stopped in. However they were a bit skittish and it was not easy to get a good picture, I had to settle for this one. I would have liked it to have had a natural background but in the end I was very pleased to get anything at all


Cheers
Dave

Dave...You would be a whole lot more frustrated if you lived in South east Scotland, there are no swallowtails here...at all..!!!, and never likely to be..!!! ,however your picture and others I have seen inspire me to travel South to see these fantastic creatures..one day, it wont be this year...You are very lucky ,so I dont have too wish you good luck on your next attempt. ..cheers IAC.

I've succumed to temptation and dropped a new background onto the swallowtail to make it look better on my website.



Is this cheating?

Dave

I'm against photoshopping from a purist, 'photography' point of view, but if your aim is to demonstrate how the butterfly might look in it's natural habitat, feeding on it's larval foodplant, then why not?!

Looks fine to me, I am also against it too, but why not, just this once?

Dave...Dave....Dave...!!!!! Thats just wrong!!!!!.......however, you have made a very good job of it. Never turn frustration into desperation!!!!
Cheers IAC

Of course it's cheating but provided that is made perfectly clear, I see no problems with producing an aesthetic picture.

How did you do it (technically) ? I would like to try to do similar.

Jack

Hi Jack
It was done using Photoshop. You put the background image on the background layer and the butterfly image on the layer above it. A cut out is made around the outside edge of the butterfly using the lasso tool with a one pixel feather edge. The area outside the cut out is deleted and its done.
I hope this helps but if you want a more detailed explanation let me know
Cheers
Dave

Thats helps, though I won't be doing it much anyway. Only if I say its been done.