Do you have a RAW of that last one? There's usually some more information in there if you underexpose it when importing into PS using Camera Raw. That last pic could make a great (pseudo-) HDR.
It was shot as a JPEG, and as I was walking with the family I only had a chance to grab the one shot.
Even if it had been RAW, the highlights are so blown PS would not be able to pull any detail out of them (they are 255,255,255 on the original - no detail left at all).
Spiders are truly beautiful and very interesting to take a picture of. I love the way the background in the first one is dark and blurred while the spider and the web are quite bright and sharp 👍
However, the second picture lacks something. You look at it gives a sense of, you want to see more surroundings, you want to see more of whats happening above the spider.
The two shots were actually taken at the same time of day and its amazing when a difference the way the light falls.
The first I do like myself, as its quite a big contrast difference between the subject and background, which I must admit I did maximise in PS.
With the second shot I wanted to try a more subduded look to the colours, as I tried a more saturated look and it just didn't work for me at all. Have to say I quite like the muted colour palette on it, but I'm still not 100% on the crop from the original.
As for the landscapes, I like the last picture, it has a good punch. I little problem, has you said, with the over dodged clouds, that seems to rob a bit too much attention, but I believe it could be overcome in Photoshop. 👍
As I mentioned above, those highlights are just too far gone to get anything back from at all, which is a shame as they do distract from the picture as a whole.
The first of the landscape, I am not too found of it, for almost the same reasons of the second picture of the spider. I would like to see more of the village and the lower part and less clouds and sea. Also, there seems to be something strange with that picture, it lacks detail, its strange, it's not you at all.
That's interesting as I put the shot up to see what people thought of it, from my own point of view its not my favorite shot. However my dad loves it (to the point that I had to frame an A4 copy of it for him), so I am interested to see what other thought.
One thing I would say is that getting a shot with a subduded/muted colour palette to work is a damn sight harder that getting a punchy, high contrast shot to work.
A I love a challenge its an area I want to put some work on, but don't worry my 'normal' output will still be the main body of my work.
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Scaff
Those extra bits are (partially) lost when converting it to JPG.
