Muppet? (first try at macro)

[pat lillich]

At San Jose's Heritage Rose Garden the other morning, there was dew on the roses and my husband suggested looking at the petals as if they were landscapes - so was focusing closely in and realized something was looking back. It was pretty tiny - the whole rose was 3-4" across and this is just a section of it.

I liked the way he(she?) seems to be looking out from a cave.

nikon d300, 105mm f/2.8, 1/1600 sec at f/9 iso 400
small crop in LR, increased exposure painted on spider, post-crop vignette (I was working on the idea that lights attract attention, so the spider should be lighter and the rest darker - but that looked horrible - kind of like this white vignette instead)
did noise reduction though it didn't seem to do much, and a little sharpening on the spider.

it made me smile.
suggestions on how to improve always appreciated

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

I like how the spider is sharp while the petals are soft and smooth (yet some details can be seen, really nice). The sharp spider amongst the soft environment does bring my attention to the spider directly, despite the petal being on the lighter tone. I also like how you mange to capture the four eyes of the spider looking right into the viewer. Also like the color, a beautiful image, TFS.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Pat - like this a lot - spider looks sharp and attention is drawn straight there - nice catchlight in his eyes to boot!
Not sure about the vignette - maybe a little less??
Either way - lots to like here!!

[John Chardine]

I think this is great Pat. Love the idea. I think the tilt of the spider is important to the design of the image, with the diagonals of the petals running LL to TR. I would like to see a version without the vignette.

[Katie Rupp]

Hi Pat,
As Lance said, lots to like here! What a neat find and I think you took full advantage of it. I like the contrast of the soft pink petals with the sharp four-eyed spider and the diagonal lines. A smile indeed and makes me think of an alien invader scoping out the territory. I've been following your recent posts; you're doing some good work and I'm learning from your questions and the expert answers. Thanks for sharing.
Best,
Katie

[Julie Kenward]

Pat, you are off to a good start in Macro! A few things that I think could make this even stronger:

First, the spider is rather centrally located in the vertical plane - moving him more to the left or right so he is closer to the ROT's position would strengthen the image from a compositional standpoint.

Also, the one very dark petal just to his left - if you toned that down some it would help to keep the eyes of the viewer from wandering over there. You might try grabbing a softer pink from another part of the image with the eye dropper tool, then use the brush tool at 20% opacity and brush over the darker petal to lighten it a bit. Another option is to use the clone tool set to "lighten" instead of normal and try it at 20-30% opacity and see if that blends it in a bit better.

You did a wonderful job of getting that spider in focus! You'd be surprised how many little critters live in the petals of a single rose bush. Keep your eyes open and the macro lens will soon be your new best friend!

[pat lillich]

thanks everyone - I really appreciate your suggestions and will try them. just quickly - here is how it looks without the vignette, and with the dark petal to the left lightened, without the vignette I should do similarly to the petals around the edges of the picture I think...

there is a bit more of the photo to the right and below - I played some with putting him in the different ROT positions but liked the way the diagonal lines laid out with this one - will look again to see what happens
in the other positions

Katie -hi! the folk here are extraordinary about helping to improve - I just saw how many threads you have - will go search, would love to see some of your wild horses...

[James Shadle]

The first crop was very good, IMO the crop Jules recommended(and it ain't much - I said ain't to bug Jules) puts this image over the top.
First macro??????

[Doug Brown]

What a cool little spider! Julie's suggestions helped get the most out of an already excellent image.

[Julie Kenward]

James, if your grandmother had been an English/Grammar teacher you'd have been slapped silly for using the word "ain't".

Good thing I was a fast runner growing up... ;):D;)

[Arthur Morris]

James, if your grandmother had been an English/Grammar teacher you'd have been slapped silly for using the word "ain't". Good thing I was a fast runner growing up... ;):D;)

Let's not forget: it ain't just birds! With all due respect to the great folks above my very great preference is for the original crop and tonality. Is it a wolf spider? (Notice "it" not "he" or "she" :))

[pat lillich]

did some in depth :) web research, and believe this is a member of the Habronattus genus - a jumping spider. they tend to be between 1/8 to 1/4" in size which seems about right. Didn't find any one species that seems to match but they seem to be really numerous. One characteristic that was mentioned was curiousity - a tendency to turn towards motion or sound to see what it was, instead of immediately running away ---

definitely a combination of curious spider, a good camera, a really good lens and luck in getting the picture - all i really saw was something fuzzy moving between the petals when i took the picture - was really happy to see those eyes looking at me from lightroom!

thanks again for everyone's comments and help - I'm going to play with it some more and then maybe even print this one.