Snail in my garden

Image Critiques Macro/Close-up Critiques
1

Pentax K20D 18-55 WS DA f/3.5 5.6 at 55mm f5.6

IMGP0859
IMGP08594672×3104 5.75 MB
I saw this snail as I was leaving my house to go to work, I only had time to run inside grab my camera and get a few shots, this one I think is the best

What technical feedback would you like if any?

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag ‘ig’ and leave your Instagram username below.
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
2

Timothy, the close look at the snail in a field of green is a fine concept and you’ve got a strong sense of a cool, damp morning. As I look carefully, I’m not sure that any part of the snail is completely sharp, although the far antennae looks to be close. I’m thinking that the softness of the snail’s body may be due to motion blur. What was your shutter speed? In close up work like this, the choice of what is sharp and what goes soft is probably the single most important part of the picture. I expect that for this view, you could never get the snail’s body and it’s shell sharp, unless you used a flash with a very small aperture (say f/22 or even smaller). A flash here would might render the background very dark or even black, which would ruin the nice sense of a cool morning find that this image has. As for post processing, some burning-in (darkening) of the white area to the left of the snail would be good.

1 Like
3

Timothy, I’m glad you put this into the Critiques Gallery. In the Showcase we are limited on the comments being in the form more of compliments rather than critiques. I think Mark did a fine job in his critique. My only other thought is that when taking a photo of a living creature, it is nice to include the eyes, and of course, they would need to be sharp, because the eyes are usually the main focus point. I am not familiar enough with snails to even know if they do have eyes! I am guessing that they do. With those antennas, the only way you might could accomplish that from this side angle is shooting from a lower position maybe. I am just amazed that you saw him with a shell and was able to capture this in his environment. Looking forward to more of your shots.

4

Hello Mark: Thanks for the critique, in this situation I was leaving to go to work, and did not have time to set up a flash off camera as I usually do, this was a quick grab and hope for the best I had to use ISO 400 to get a decent shutter speed of I believe 1/45 second and it was hand held, maybe next time I will be better prepared.