Where I live, in August we usually have hot days but pretty cool nights, which creates a lot of dew if you get out early enough in the morning. This shot was taken just after sunrise, and at this time of day the wind is often calm enough to get sharp images of subjects like this without having to resort to high ISO. The sunlit grass in the distant background added a nice splash of warm color.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any critique and comments are welcome
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
canon 5D MKIII, Canon 180mm Macro Lens, ISO 100, 0.6 sec at f14
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
3 Likes
This is really beautiful. The background really adds a lot of dimension to the image. Nature is always full of amazing imagery and you captured it with this one!
This is a very nice shot of the beads of dew on a spider web, Ed. The background is just far enough away, and lit well with the early sun, that it makes the droplets stand out nicely. 
This is a beauty, Ed. Great patterns and detail in the droplets and the background works great.
@Keith_Bauer @Shirley_Freeman @Harley_Goldman thank you all for your comments, I’m glad that you enjoyed the image. It’s sort of a simple basic shot, but i just really liked the “droop” of the web strands.
A simple shot perhaps but all the elements come together for a gorgeous image. Very well seen and taken.
Exquisite Ed. Very impressive that the droplets are so sharp throughout with the limited DoF. Did you use Helicon or other focus stacking software? Lovely BG too. You mentioned it was sort of a simple “basic” shot. Basic perhaps, but even the slightest hint of a breeze makes it anything but simple IMHO. LOL. Shooting webs at sunrise always makes me wish I was shooting a video instead of a DSLR.
Just a personal nit, the droop on the left draws my eye for some reason and takes my attention away from the overall image. I downloaded it and played with it but I’m not sure at all I improved upon it. Out of the different crops I tired, the only one I liked was a square crop. I also darkened the BG just a bit to make the droplets stand out a bit more. Not saying it’s an improvement, but just another take on it.
Ed, I’ll echo the others by saying it’s pretty stunning, nice and simple. Less is often much more. You really had ideal, enviable macro conditions for such a long exposure. And what’s most appealing to me is the obvious stellar quality of that lens showing the dew drops. And especially with high quality glass, you invariably you get the myriad of photographer’s mug shots. 
Execution is simple, colorful and with the pleasing kind of natural gradient with the green/gold BG. There’s certainly nothing to fault here.
Ed, getting a perfect string of dew drops all sharp is a special feat adding a fine background just adds to artistry. This is beautifully done.
This is so neat, Ed! I love it. The colors in the background are soft and lovely, which help make the dew drops stand out so nicely.
