Spiderwebs with dew in a tree.

[Gerry F]

DSC04150 by gerald fraser, on Flickr

[Shadowman]

Took awhile to find them, perhaps a tighter crop might give the cobwebs more prominence.

[rpcrowe]

John beat me to that comment...

[Manfred M]

Gerry - my eyes go straight to that bright spot at the centre / top area of the image. That is because the human visual system is keyed to areas of high contrast and brightness. If this is not your subject or area of interest, then your image has an issue.

John and Richard have identified the other main issue I see with this image, too much competition with the leaves and the spiderwebs. The leaves are a distraction and their recommendations of a tighter crop to eliminate the distracting elements is a good one. I suspect that you are trying to show all three spider webs, but I strongly suspect concentrating on just one would give you a far more effective image. Robert Capa, the famous photojournalist once said "if your image is not good enough, you're not close enough". I think that applies to this image.

[Gerry F]

I thought this was of interest because I am not used to seeing multiple spider webs high in trees in the U.K. where this photograph was taken. Because they were high up, it was extremely difficult to see them at all since they are extremely fine. I could not have taken the pictures if there had not been dew on them. It was also necessary to angle the lens so the light lit up the water droplets, hence the distracting light. The photo has already been cropped considerably. However these were two additional photos:
#2
DSC04151 by gerald fraser, on Flickr

#3
DSC04155 by gerald fraser, on Flickr

[Manfred M]

I thought this was of interest because I am not used to seeing multiple spider webs high in trees in the U.K. where this photograph was taken. Because they were high up, it was extremely difficult to see them at all since they are extremely fine. I could not have taken the pictures if there had not been dew on them. It was also necessary to angle the lens so the light lit up the water droplets, hence the distracting light. The photo has already been cropped considerably. However these were two additional photos:

Thanks for the additional information. These are tough shots to get and with a 228mm focal length for the shot, you are certainly zooming in quite a bit although the 1/60th second shutter speed and ISO 80 look like you were really pushing things. Were you shooting with a tripod?

Regardless, my initial comments about the bright areas being distracting still apply. I've taken your second image and cropped it even more (there's not a lot of material to work with here), but it does demonstrate how the bright spots are taking the viewer away from the subject.

[Gerry F]

Thanks. This is the original cropped down further. Any better?

#1b

DSC04150 1 by gerald fraser, on Flickr

[Manfred M]

Thanks. This is the original cropped down further. Any better?

#1b

DSC04150 1 by gerald fraser, on Flickr

It certainly is! My eyes are heading right at the areas of interest now.

If it were my image, I would spend some time dodging and burning to open up the shot and bring out more "prensence".

[rpcrowe]

This is a great example of a learning experience on CiC... I have learned a lot here in the years I have been a member. Thanks Manfred and everyone else who has facilitated my learning process...

[Gerry F]

Thanks to you all especially Manfred. I always learn a lot from these interchanges.
For Manfred: I didn't have a tripod with me. When you suggest dodging and burning do you mean doing it to reduce the background lighting to allow the spider webs to be highlighted better?

[Manfred M]

Thanks to you all especially Manfred. I always learn a lot from these interchanges.
For Manfred: I didn't have a tripod with me. When you suggest dodging and burning do you mean doing it to reduce the background lighting to allow the spider webs to be highlighted better?

Garry - it's harder to explain than to demonstrate, so let me try by dodging and burning your version:



What dodging does is to open up the darker, shadow areas and what burning does is to reduce the bright and "hot" areas. These evens out these areas and they don't distract the viewer help direct the viewer's eyes to the subject / areas of interest.

Open up this image in Lightbox mode by clicking on it and then toggle back and forth with the arrows to look at the before and after versions. Is this making sense to you?

[Gerry F]

It makes a big difference. Thanks learnt a lot

[Wavelength]

Gerald's edit (post #7) really works and its enhancement by Manfred are very nice