Hunting the hunter

[kevinmat]

Hunted by its shadow a black and yellow garden spider gets the Nik Silver effects pro treatment.

Canon 5D II 100mm Macro at F/16 1/50 sec

[Connie Mier]

I like the effect, but the bg seems strange to me, not sure why. I wonder how it would look if you had angled from your left a bit to merge the shadow a bit more with the spider.

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Certainly liked the idea of including the shadow to make the image different from regular spider images.
However, providing some space towards the bottom of the frame might improve the comp IMHO. Also placing the spider (and its shadow) along the diagonal by rotating the cam (or in PS if this is not fullframe) might help too.
Just my thoughts :)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Kevin,
Very cool idea with the shadow! I think a crop off the top and then a CW rotation will help strengthen the presentation. Very neat idea and vg detail on the web too!

[Julie Kenward]

I agree...this is really neat as is but would be really powerful if more on the diagonal. I'd also look at increasing the sharpness of just the shadow - I find doing a little selective sharpening on shadows really makes them pop!

[kevinmat]

Thanks for your comments all. I always find it intriguing to read different opinions it helps to gain a completely different perspective. This image was a bit "tongue in cheek" with no great though to composition - apart from wanting some separation between the spider and shadow to create a "Hitchcock" type feel. As ever, Roman is able to suggest ways to make a "silk purse out of a sow's ear" and gain a better presentation. The idea of selective sharpening on the shadow is an interesting one I will try - thanks Julie.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Very cool capture and the angle showing the shadow is what makes this for me. Good comments from above.