Hanging spider exoskeleton

[JBW]

[pnodrog]

The spider is the subject and is reasonably interesting but it only occupies about 15% of the frame. What purpose do you see in the rest of the image?

I do not intend to be negative about the image but I am happy to be blunt and I happy for you to disagree.

[JBW]

The spider is the subject and is reasonably interesting but it only occupies about 15% of the frame. What purpose do you see in the rest of the image?

I do not intend to be negative about the image but I am happy to be blunt and I happy for you to disagree.

Honest opinions are not negative they are critiques. There seems to be two distinct ways to approach bugs. One is to highlight the bug and the other is to get a contextual picture. i am moving (for now) towards contextual.

Without the leaf the spider is hanging from thisn would become a text book photo for me.

Maybe things will change in the future but for now context is important.
B

[Stagecoach]

Brian,

Why have you made this image so dark?

Grahame

[JBW]

Brian,

Why have you made this image so dark?

Grahame

the large white area in the background is a cement pad and it needed to be darkened to ease the glare and bring up the spiders details.
B

[pnodrog]

Hi Brian I agree showing some of the environmental context is important but it is nearly always secondary to presenting the main element of an image as well as possible. I have been looking at your other posts many of which I prefer to this but the two main areas that I think could help improve a lot of your images are by closer cropping and in many cases softer lighting or use of a white reflector giving better detail in any shadow areas. This is just an overall impression I have and softer lighting is definitely not required in this case.

Below is more the sort of treatment I envisage.

[JBW]

Hi Brian I agree showing some of the environmental context is important but it is nearly always secondary to presenting the main element of an image as well as possible. I have been looking at your other posts many of which I prefer to this but the two main areas that I think could help improve a lot of your images are by closer cropping and in many cases softer lighting or use of a white reflector giving better detail in any shadow areas. This is just an overall impression I have and softer lighting is definitely not required in this case.

I had tried a crop like yours but to me and I am a little claustrophobic it seemed 'cramped'.

But this morning I went out and found a rather neat insect. i tried the auto program, all of the manual settings and then went inside for my flash suppressor. When i came back i got the following which aside from a 'tight' crop is just about what i took. It was raining and i have found that means i will not get pin point focus.

But I did get good lighting(?) and the crop is tight.



Below is more the sort of treatment I envisage.

[jcuknz]

You have here, with the luxury of post shooting 20/20 vision, a good example of not considering the background when shooting the subject with that distracting vegetation merging with the skeleton ... slightly to your left and you would have had a clean image against the concrete.*

You need the stem for the spider to hang from but a lot of the top and bottom is too much environment

It is a tricky subject to edit so I pass, but I think I would go for a mix between your treatment and Prodnog's. The trouble darkening concrete pads and burnt out skies is that they 'go dirty' on us and currently without an answer I feel I must leave them alone.

*Perhaps if you have enough hands you need to organise yourself a nice background for these subjects