One for Clarky . . .

I shot this today, natural light, tripod mounted K20D + FA 100mm Macro . . .



Question to all: What would you do with the background to improve this pic?. The beige colour is my front (coloured concrete) wall. The plant is a Lantana, the victim, a bee. The spider . . . I have no clue.

I've got a selection of A3 sheets in every colour of the rainbow courtesy of my local art supplies / craft shop. They only cost a few pence each and I often use them as backdrops, just slide them behind the subject and the job's done! In fact they're one of my most-used photographic accessories.

To change the background in post production is possible in Photoshop, but it's fiddly and rarely looks 100% convincing unfortunately. Shame, other than the mass of beige it's a great picture. I'm not a big fan of black and white usually but maybe a mono conversion would help here?

I cannot see what's wrong with this picture at all. The beige background makes the subject stand out in all its glory (or should I say horror).

I would say Mannesty gives Clarky a tough competition here...

I agree with Terje

I cant see anything wrong with the shot at all the background is fine.
Spider i think is a variety of crab spider,they hide whithin the flower petals awaiting their prey.
Nice

Roy

Hefty1: I'll try a white background tomorrow if the spider is still around after the deluge of rain we've had tonight. I think it needs a light background. If I use a black (or dark) background, the hairs on it's legs will not show up so much. Changing the background colour in Photoshop is not going to work without an awful lot of work.

Terje-l: Thanks for your comments. In contrast to Clarky, I've spent a shed load of money on macro lighting equipment . . . and I didn't even use it today. I had the sun very low, and just over my left shoulder when I took this. Hence the bright spots on the bee's body. I took one later with just the pop-up flash and it's not in the same league as natural sunshine.

royd63k: It was certainly waiting around the flower for its prey. After it had finished with the bee, it had a go at a wasp . . . but missed. I'd put the camera away by then though.

In the light of your various comments, I'll leave this one as it is and have another go at taking the shot with a different background, probably white, tomorrow.

Great shot Pete, It would have been better with a slightly darker background but it looks good as is so just leave it.

I like how you got it all in focus, it can be a challenge.

I think its a type of Lynx spider, going by its flat face and the shape of its carapace (rear end) Well done keep em coming

Thanks Clarky.

If I might make a small correction though, the carapace is what covers the front (cephalothorax) body component of a spider. The rear is its abdomen.

oops, your right, but I wasn't far off was I

Nice shot Peter, nothing wrong with the background, I'm really envious, almost as green as the spider