Ana welcome to Critique and thank you for posting this fine image. Yes originality might be your problem. I've tried a few things to give your image a lift it's up to you if it worked or not. See Attached - This is what I've done. A tighter crop to take the viewer closer to the action. Dehaze +30 to add more depth, Nik Tools Tonal contrast painted on the wood stem and butterfly only. Some burn tool work on the wings and wooden stem.

Ana Maria,

Thank you for sharing the photograph with us here in Critique.  The technical details are very good - sharpness, good composition, colour and tone, etc.  - all the things we appreciate in a macro photo.   Your craftsmanship is apparent. 

We usually try to offer suggestions for further editing for the posted photos.   All I could think of here was to try a closer crop and rotating the frame 90° clockwise.  Sample below. 

I am curious about your technique.  It's difficult to focus stack images of insects because they don't usually hold still long enough to get all the necessary shots.  You wrote that the focus stack was made from approximately 50 frames.  Why so many?   The low f-number (wide aperture) is best for sharpness, so that was a good choice.  Did you move the camera or focus the lens between frames?   Was the camera on a tripod?  Sorry to ask so many questions, but this is the section of 1X where we learn from one another.  I've dabbled in macro photography and focus stacking so the details are interesting to me.  I know one way to get an image like this is to set the camera shutter to continuous mode and move the camera back and forth while shooting.  

Thank you.

I made a slight colour saturation of the bright orange spots on the wings.  it's interesting to see how that part of the butterfly draws attention away from the eye.  I suppose that's a protective mechanism that Nature provides to confuse predators?   

. . . . . Steven, senior critic

Hello, Maria

Welcome to our forum. You did a good job with you image. I can see that you have put great effort in to creating it. Your image though its good values lacks some impact on the viewer. What could have been done? First of all I tjin the background could have been more saturated and have a different hue to help the subject pop out. Then the flower on the left could have been removed and the subject could have been brought closer through cropping. That's my opinion. I wish you good light. Cicek...

Thank you very much for your advice! In the end the photo was published. I am new to 1x and I don't understand exactly the flow, how one photo is not selected and in the next day it is. But I am happy that it is.

For the technical details:

- yes, I used a tripod

- 80 shots : ISO 200, 105 mm,  f 3/5, 1/500 s , why so many shots? I was experiencing, probably I would have got a similar effect with less?

- manual focus, I set at the closest point, my camera (Nikon Z6) has focus stacking in its software so I just set the number of shots and leave it do its job

- for the software : Helicon Focus

About the subject, indeed its hard to have it still , but in the early morning, butterflies are less active.

Ana Maria,

Thank you for the information.  You answered all my questions!  I did not know that Nikon cameras had that focus-stacking feature.  The resulting photograph is very good.  Congratulations on having it Published.  That's an honour!  As for understanding how Curation works, many members puzzle over it lately. 

. . . . Steven