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Aristotle Georgiou
12-29-2008, 08:55 PM
Hi to all,

I hope you all had a joyful Christmas!

This shot was taken today. I don't like my technique but I like the action of the two spiders fighting for the ownership of this web, which was very cool to see.

It was a windy morning, the light was harsh, plus it was side light which made things tough. Anyway enough of my excuses, I'm not to sure what could of made the lighting better in this situation. Would a polarizer help with any glare?

All suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

D200
150mm f/2.8
1/80's
f/18
ISO 200
Natural light
Cropped

Julie Kenward
12-30-2008, 08:58 PM
Ari, I think you're just a little bit overexposed is all. I used the exposure adjustment in Photoshop and took it down by about .20 and then readjusted the other two measurements and it looked much better. The white of the web is probably going to be overexposed with sidelighting unless you made the image underexposed and then drug the mid and high levels up using PS.

I'm not sure if polarizer would have helped here but I'm finding myself wondering if a neutral density filter might have. I have very little knowledge of both first hand so I can't offer much help there.

Do try putting this into Photoshop and dragging the exposure down a bit...see if you like that better.

I do like the action and like the composition as well. You did a nice job of keeping the spiders in the ROT's and you got a beautiful BG to go with the image!

Mike Moats
12-31-2008, 05:19 AM
Hey Aristotle, interesting image. Nice details on the spiders, I'm viewing this on my laptop and exposure doesn't look bad, but the laptop LCD isn't the best place to make this call.

Jerry van Dijk
12-31-2008, 08:27 AM
Hi Aristotle, I like the image, including the harsh light. I think it adds to the fierceness of the scene and I especially like the way it accentuates the web. I think your composition is very well with the spiders in the UL corner and the center of the web in the LR one. May even be better if the center of the web was somewhat more to the left.
Another remark regarding the spiders' behaviour: my guess is that you didn't witness a battle, but (an attempt at) mating! In the spider world there's usually not much difference. The top spider (the smaller one) is a male. You can tell by the large palps near it's mouth. The other one is the female and probably the owner of the web. Because the female will bite at anything that touches the web, the males have to communicate clearly that they are not lunch but have other intentions. They usually do so by performing a carefull dance on the web. The approach and mating looks much like fighting and many males don't survive the feat. Nonetheless, a fascinating performance to watch!
- Jerry -

Aristotle Georgiou
01-03-2009, 07:52 PM
Thank you Julie, Mike and Jerry for your kind comments suggestions and valuable information.

Much appreciated
Ari