My House Caught in a Web

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

I was greeted with dense fog when I went out to the Duck Pond to look for bugs. With Fall advancing, a few unremarkable flies were perched on damp grass stems. Then I saw a tiny spider’s web strung between the wire mesh of our fence. My rig was ready for tiny insects and decided to see if I could come up with a reasonable comp. I setup the tripod and fired off a few shots with most of the dew drops being too bright with featureless highlights. I repositioned everything and under-exposed by a full stop. Each dewdrop featured an upside-down view of my house. I also use a diffused flash which provided better definition of the edges of ech water drop.

Specific Feedback

I lost a small amount of sharpness with the teleconverter and the wind popped up causing me to adjust the focus on the scene. I put the central region of the web up into the top third of the frame and thought that this provided the most interesting comp. What do you think? Thank you for taking a look…Jim

Technical Details

Z9 105mm F2.8 Micro + 2.0 TC (1/160 sec at f25, ISO 320, Full Frame) DeNoise, slight bump up in exposure, Reduction in Highlights, Increased darkness of shadows, enhanced micro-contrast…Jim


Critique Template

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Vision and Purpose:
Conceptual:
Emotional Impact and Mood:
Composition:
Balance and Visual Weight:
Depth and Dimension:
Color:
Lighting:
Processing:
Technical:

5 Likes

Wonderful!! A great find with good exposure, lighting and processing. Repeating bits of magic.

I think the comp is fine, and you could have a twofer with just the top 2/3 – for my taste I wouldn’t rate one as better than the other. I would consider removing the drops that are cut at or just touching the edges, but again that’s just personal taste. I love the gradient in the BG! Well done!

Jim, this is great! Nicely composed and processed. The detail is excellent, and the background is perfect. I have no nits or suggestions.

Well done!
-P

Very good find and your technique really worked well. I really like the simplicity of this composition, Jim.

One Beautiful Image. Outstanding and I have never seen anything like this.

How cool is this! The dew drops themselves almost appear to be floating against the dark background. To have captured your house reflected in each is genius. Congratulations on a really great shot.