A Spider Example

[Loupey]

We had a brilliant blue-sky evening today so I knew a nice sunset was out. But I wanted to shoot some more low angle directional lighting stuff so I headed to a spot I know gets the last rays of the setting sun.

Found this little guy over water between reeds busy catching gnats. First shot is about how I first found him. The background is the pond reflecting the darkening blue sky. The sun is trying to beat down the barrel of my lens. The second shot after shifting around a little among reeds and mud. Still couldn't find just the right angle where the web glows...

[Loupey]

... and a few more inches and another pocket among the reeds to shoot through ... there it is.

Got both knees pretty muddy. Oh well.

[paulnj]

Very contrasty images , might I suggest opening the shadows a bit in PS or .... some fill at -1.7 EV

[Loupey]

Thanks, Paul. I'm sure the contrast is not to everyone's liking but there was probably a 3 ~ 4 stop difference between the sunlight and the background/shadows.

I had the same situation with backlit milkweed on the same evening.

On this last final image, I actually popped a little fill flash. I may take another look at the RAW image and run the post processing again if I have time.

Thanks!