Argiope Spider Wraps a Snack

[John Lowin]

Photographed in my yard last summer this Argiope Spider spins a web with this unique white zigzag pattern. She is just wrapping up her latest catch. Hope you like my image. C and C welcome, I'm here to learn. - John

f/8 1/50 ISO 400
Canon 1D MkII
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro
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[Grady Weed]

Glad I'm not an insect! Spiders and their webs make very interesting subjects. I like the backside pose to expose the markings.

[Gus Cobos]

A sweet image John,
I like the placement of the spider in frame...would only suggest on desaturating the greens a tad, because they are taking the attention away from your subject...aside from this, I like it, you did well...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Julie Kenward]

John, I think your whites are too bright and I don't care for the distracting images going on behind the web. I think f4 or 5.6 would have made a stronger image with less distractions because almost everything appears to be on the same focal plane.

I'd try toning down the whites a bit in pp. If you captured this in RAW, you could easily recover most of the blown highlights. Make sure next time you check the histogram after you take the initial image to look for flashing highlights and make multiple images at various f stops so you can choose the one you like the best once you've downloaded your day's images.

You did a great job of getting the spider in nice detail. If it were mine, I'd crop the image right below the spider to delete the hot white zigzag at the bottom.

[John Lowin]

John, I think your whites are too bright and I don't care for the distracting images going on behind the web. I think f4 or 5.6 would have made a stronger image with less distractions because almost everything appears to be on the same focal plane.

I'd try toning down the whites a bit in pp. If you captured this in RAW, you could easily recover most of the blown highlights. Make sure next time you check the histogram after you take the initial image to look for flashing highlights and make multiple images at various f stops so you can choose the one you like the best once you've downloaded your day's images.

You did a great job of getting the spider in nice detail. If it were mine, I'd crop the image right below the spider to delete the hot white zigzag at the bottom.

Hi Julie, I tried a major revision. I toned down the hot white areas, reduced the green saturation, and darkened the bg. I do not want to eliminate the zigzag white line because it is a defining characteristic of an Argiope's web. Do you like this darkened version better? - John

[Mike Moats]

Hey John, the repost does look better, like the nice sharp details.