The Garden Spider

[Bev Barker]

This little spider lives in my porch, and has taken residence there for the past 4 months.
I was aiming to get a close up of her face and head..

Canon 20D - 50mm 1.8ll - 1/250 - f16 - ISO 100. 12mm Kenko tube.

[Robert Amoruso]

Bev,

Downright scary looking. I love it. I would clone out the polygon shape on the left-lower. That one is a bit distracting. The others are not. Of course the web would make that harder.

[Jim Poor]

Wow, don't let my wife see this, she'll be in a panic for a week ;) Oh Tammy. . . come look here....
Oh, never mind :D

Very nicely done with lots and lots to look at. The "cross" shaped markings on the back are over exposed in the JPG version (255 in all three channels) but you might have some detail in the RAW file.

On getting rid of the brightest pentagram, the way I would do it is to clone / patch the whole area and then clone in new bits of web.

[Robert O'Toole]

I like the good amount of detail and the soft light, although, as Jim mentioned the abdomen is much brighter, too bright, than the rest of the spider. You can darken this area easily with a quick mask or layer mask.

For this and most insect close ups the looking down view is rarely as sucessful or as interesting as the head on view. Maye you can try this view next time.

Robert

[Bev Barker]

Thanks everyone alot to think about, i use CS2, but try not to let manipulation take me over!! i use levels/curves etc but i have no idea how to do masks and layer masks, but im always open to learn.

[John Cooper]

Lovely and sharp where it counts Bev - also looking a bit bright on my monitor (abdomen and back legs). an interesting challenge to clone out that heptagon high-light on the left while still preserving the web!!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Bev, nice in your face shot. Agree with the brightness issue, but overall a fine shot.