Rework:
Thanks for all the helpful suggestions in regard to cropping, color correction, dodge & burn etc. Some of the leaves are more or less burnt out which is probably why the first try was a bit dark and lacking in contrast. Also, no idea how I could have missed the green color cast 
. This second version feels more complete and vibrant so thanks all for your suggestions.
Original:
Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I have seen plenty of these flower crab spiders (Misumena vatia), but mostly in places where their camo is of no real use, but this had found the perfect flower to perch on. It completely ignored the ants running all over so probably waiting for a good-sized pollinator to catch. This picture is taken late in the evening and the ambient light levels were pretty low so a dark background was more or less the only option.
Specific Feedback
Anything really, but there are a few points I have been wondering about…
The spider sort of blends into the flowers really well. Should I dodge/burn to bring it out more or is this camo/stealth version better? The flowers in the lower left corner I am a bit skeptical about but I also feel the left edge would be a bit empty without them. What do you think? Asset or distraction? The upper left corner had a much more purple tone originally that felt a bit out of place (it’s the evening/night sky after all). Is the blue tone in there OK?
Technical Details
Canon EOS RP & Laowa 100 f/2.8 2x macro @ f/11, 1/180s, ISO 800. Diffused flash.
The spider but not the rest of the image is a stack/composite of 4 images to increase DOF. The background flowers and the ants running all over made too much of a mess with a “proper” stack.
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Ingemar, you captured a fairly good look at this crab spider. I would have liked to have seen his face more. You mentioned that you were using diffused flash, so I am guessing that caused the dark BG. I too don’t like the flowers on the LLC. If you have more of the flowers I wouldn’t crop in quite as close maybe, then, compositionally, you might could even crop some from the right, if that makes sense. Kind of balance things better, I’m thinking. I haven’t got my feet wet with stacking yet, so I was surprised that you were able to stack just the spider and not the flowers. I’m not seeing a blue tone. The spider does blend in with the flowers, which is to their advantage, but not necessarily the photographers. I think if he was on darker flowers he would stand out nicely.
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Interesting image!! The spider’s camouflage is definitely a great story. And kudos on being able to stack the spider. I assume you layered the stacked image on one with the ants in focus, or else edited the stack during processing. Great job in either case.
I would crop from the left a bit more than halfway to the spider’s leg and clone the petal remaining in the corner.
The first thing that struck me about the image was the low contrast – the histogram stops well short of whites. A soft-light look is a good feature, but it is tricky to keep the highlights from going flat. Here is a quick look at a more full histogram but it could be done much better in the raw stage.
And I didn’t think of it in time but a gradient burn from the top for the back flowers could be nice.
Like @Diane_Miller I’m curious how you selectively stacked the spider - and I do like her crop suggestion. It’s interesting how even the pink in the spider seems to echo the pink in the flowers.
A fine look at this spider and the red spots on the abdomen help to draw the eye in on the subject. The tighter crop helps the comp by removing the orphaned flower parts in the LH side of the image. The dark BG is OK and works with the lighter elements in the frame. There seems to be a fairly strong yellow cast to the whites, especially in the flowers. You might try to play around with the WB if and only if the flowers are truly white. Otherwise, a fine photo…Jim
Thanks @Shirley_Freeman, @Mike_Friel , @Diane_Miller and @Jim_Zablotny for the great feedback. I did a second (and third version) before I felt I had reached the point of decent, but I’m sure there are things to improve still. I corrected the green/yellow color cast and worked a bit on contrast. Graduated filter from the top to tone it down a bit (looking at the image now maybe I should I burn a bit from the right as well, but I also like that the spider is camouflaged and hides a bit even photographically). Cropped in a bit tighter and got rid of the remaining petals.
Normally when a stack fails to align it’s the main subject that’s wonky, but for some reason, the spider aligned pretty well so I stacked this in affinity photo (normally I use Zerene) and ditched the suggested stack but kept the aligned layers. I picked a layer with the most focus as the base and added the details via masks on the remaining three layers like a regular composite. This technique works pretty well for a few layers and minor details but you must choose your “base” layer well or the focus blending will look a bit weird.
2 Likes
Wonderful – a very nice improvement!!
1 Like
