Mighty hard to see 'em against that background...

love it!

Thank you, Bob, just saw your comment and tried to make some improvement at the very last moment

Great job on the antennae, and the background treatments are very effective. Beautiful shapes for these moths, too.

Love it! an instant fav here! Goodluck author!

Many thanks to all for the nice comments and favs

CONGRATS!!!

Interesting creatures Congrats!

congrats on second place.. wonderful use of source... had to add to my favs...

wow..... beautiful, congrats cornelia

Clever idea. Well done!

nice

Very good entry!

Very creative and curious idea.

Very creative, but the butterflies/moths look flat, not three-dimensional. Some Burn Tool on the bodies and refinement of the shadows falling on the background (different parts of the moth would be different distances from the background and thus would cast a slightly different shadow) would help. A stick pin through each moth might add to the realism.

Hi, everyone!¨Thanks for the comments!

@ DanLundberg

I didn't want to touch the original texture much but, you're right, some things should be improved. I uploaded it and decided to see what the others would have to say . I appreciate your suggestions and, yes, burn tool just might be the best solution for the "fake" inner shadows. i will try to improve that part!

And as for the pins- sorry, i just couldn't! ))) I made the pins and in the end decided not to use them, I couldn't stab the poor creatures!

Great idea author,i like your different approach to this contest...well done

thanks, erathion!

I made some changes! DanLundberg, thanks again for the suggestions- burn tool really did do the trick (I don't think I use it nearly as often as I should ). I did my best to achieve a more 3D effect and I think it looks better. I also used both burn and dodge tool to add the same effect to the frame. Then i added some smudges to the background and to the tags- i thought it should be older!

Anyway, I appreciate your inputs! Thanks!

i like it !!!!

I think there's some more depth now. BTW if you create a selection beforehand, that constrains where your burning occurs so you can easily get hard lines between burned and unburned areas..

Congrats...this is really really cool work...