I know this jumping spider is not a great shot but it is interesting

[JBW]

Any suggestions on how to pp this will be appreciated. This is as good as I could get it. The white top hat seems to be a decoy as it rarely stays still... neither does the jumping insect under it.

[ajohnw]

You have over exposed the white on that one Brian. If in doubt and it's a shot like that, fairly "even" tone levels and important modest areas of white try adjusting the exposure the camera gives by 1 stop / 1 EV darker or set the camera to bracket shots.

On some other shots I have wondered if you have deliberately under exposed to get the effect you want but it's best to correctly expose the shot and adjust afterwords but it's important to capture the bright tones fully. The other end of the tone curve can adjust the way bright areas look but if clipped it wont work.

On the other hand having played with some of your shots a bit of under exposure to force shadows might not be a bad idea.

John
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[JBW]

You have over exposed the white on that one Brian. If in doubt and it's a shot like that, fairly "even" tone levels and important modest areas of white try adjusting the exposure the camera gives by 1 stop / 1 EV darker or set the camera to bracket shots.

On some other shots I have wondered if you have deliberately under exposed to get the effect you want but it's best to correctly expose the shot and adjust afterwords but it's important to capture the bright tones fully. The other end of the tone curve can adjust the way bright areas look but if clipped it wont work.

On the other hand having played with some of your shots a bit of under exposure to force shadows might not be a bad idea.

John
-

I do tend to underexpose. With the macro settings on my camera i have F3 or 8. so there is not a lot of choice.