June 2014 - Admin's choice - Image of the month

[Marko]

Hi members,

In case you are new around here this is where the Admin (me) chooses one excellent photo each month from all the photos nominated by other members during that month in the Member's monthly choice forum.

Just so it's clear, the photo I choose is not necessarily the best one of the month. I've come to realize it's not really logical to pit images from totally different genres against each other. That's why there are categories in photo contests.

My goal is to simply choose an excellent photo and talk about why I think it rocks. This month, congrats to Runmonty for his Caterpillar image.

I chose this image for a couple of reasons;

1 - Sharpness and depth of field - The sharpness on the front of the caterpillar is just fabulous and sharp macros like these aren't easy. I really like how only the face (and food) are sharp in this image. Many people try to get crazy sharpness throughout the subject and of course there's nothing wrong with that. That said, this shot is a bit different and I really like the uber-shallow depth of field in this image.

2 - Post-processing - Colours look natural to me and the face is sharp without being 'too oversharpened' to my eye.

3 - Colour - I can't make out what surface the caterpillar is on but the white neutralish colour was a great choice as it makes the caterpillar's natural colours pop.

For all these reasons, this is my choice for image of the month. Since we all have opinions, some members may disagree with my choice. That's cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to further critique the image. The purpose here is to suggest strong elements in the photo that we may learn from.

Congrats again to Runmonty for making this fab macro!