Pierre Williot
November 2025 - Cabbage White Butterfly feeding on a Purple Loosestrife.
About the Image(s)
Equipment: Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 200-800 mm, Hand held.
Set-up: 432 mm, ISO 1000, 1/4000 sec, f/9, EV -0.67, Manual focus
Location: Virkkula, Liminka, Finland - August 18th, 2025
Post-processing: Slight cropping, noise reduction and light adjustments using ON1 Photo Raw.
As per last month, I was not expecting having subjects for close-up photography that day!
I encountered significant difficulties in perfectly removing the small blade of grass on the left wing. I tried cloning, erasing, generative AI, but was never satisfied. Any tricks?
6 comments posted
Hi Pierre: A really nice nature image in all ways.
You mention the blade of grass on the left wing. I would use my cloning tool with a soft brush starting out at 50% opacity for starters. Then I would enlarge the image to 200% or even more if necessary. I would clone in the same direction of the veins in the wings. Your cloning and the different settings will take some experimenting.
I have found in an image such as this if the photographer does a decent cloning job, the average person will never notice you worked on the image. Just my thoughts !! Posted: 11/13/2025 21:44:01
You mention the blade of grass on the left wing. I would use my cloning tool with a soft brush starting out at 50% opacity for starters. Then I would enlarge the image to 200% or even more if necessary. I would clone in the same direction of the veins in the wings. Your cloning and the different settings will take some experimenting.
I have found in an image such as this if the photographer does a decent cloning job, the average person will never notice you worked on the image. Just my thoughts !! Posted: 11/13/2025 21:44:01
Hi Murphy,
Thanks for the suggestions. I will have to try.
Posted: 11/18/2025 16:35:18
Thanks for the suggestions. I will have to try.
Posted: 11/18/2025 16:35:18
Hi Pierre: Barbara mentions using the spot healing brush. I do not think to use it instead of the cloning tool. Need to start using it and see what it will do. Posted: 11/19/2025 04:37:55
Pierre...I use the spot healing brush tool in Photoshop for everything! I find it to be a lifesaver when removing something small and use it all the time. Those little surprise photo ops that pop up can be a challenge. I think you did a nice job of capturing the white butterfly. The spot healing brush can also remove unwanted stems, etc. in a photo. Posted: 11/19/2025 00:13:32
This is a very effective image of the butterfly. The insect is clearly shown against an softer background. In order to make this subject stand out even more, I would consider darken the background just a bit. I was able to easily remove the blade of grass you noted in 5 seconds using the Photoshop Remove tool (here I am not talking about the Lightroom remove tool which is different. I was quite surprised how well it did this job, See the attached version demonstrating these two ideas. Posted: 11/20/2025 00:50:50
Wow... very nice.
Thanks. Posted: 11/20/2025 21:36:20
Thanks. Posted: 11/20/2025 21:36:20