The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
More Arachtober fun!
When I first saw this on my deck railing, I thought it was a big tick, but it’s a male crab spider (Xysticus ferox). Quite small (4mm maybe front to back) and look at those boxing glove pedipalps! One way you can tell male from female spiders other than size (females usually much larger) is by their pedipalps. Their primary function for the boys is for mating and sperm transfer and so they are usually bigger than the females’. Pedipalps are more like antennae than legs and help spiders sense objects around them. A loose, but not too loose, translation from Latin is Pedi = foot, Palp = touch. This is a 3 image stack.
Specific Feedback
I’m open to processing ideas. This boy is long gone to a nice leafy hideaway for the winter.
Technical Details
Handheld, but with my hand resting on the railing itself. Got different focus points while trying not to scare him, which I eventually did.
Unfortunately I underexposed this little lad so had to raise both exposure and shadows quite a bit in Lr. Added texture and sharpening/nr to the shots and sent them to Zerene. This is a retouched DMap. The tiff needed a little work for contrast, then a crop and rotation and some wb adjustment.
Hi Kris, nice focusing with critical focus point where it needs to be. Always a treat to see these spiders. I’m thinking maybe a small crop from the bottom to eliminate some of the blob down there. A fine catch either way.
Thanks @Allen_Sparks - glad you like crabs, too. They’re such fun the way they sit and wait for something to come within range. I can revisit the crop. Thought it might balance somehow since the DOF is so shallow.
What a strange-looking beast! Don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like this. Good job getting the amount of stack you did. It works quite well for me and conveys some authenticity and the difficulty of an authentic wildlife capture.
Thanks @Diane_Miller - crabs are such fun spiders and boys in particular with their big pedipalps can be pretty funny. Yeah I think that I’m different than many macro photographers in that I try for a natural light shot over most everything and maybe that limits my abilities, but I find the end results more appealing. If I had used flash here it would be just fill which is my normal M.O.
Kris, what a cool look at this tiny little crab spider. I can see where you might have mistaken it for a tick! Great job seeing such a tiny fellow, and for the sharpness you managed to get. Looks like you did well in post processing because nothing is showing as underexposed. The light colored deck railing makes him stand out nicely. Well done.
