Spiders are capable of a great many things. For example, take Misumena, otherwise known as Flower Crab Spider, is an amazing type of spider that is capable of changing its color to match the flower it is hiding in. It is one of the few spiders in the world with this remarkable ability. Below you can see a picture of one of these spiders hiding on a flower.
By using photo editing one can make the crab spider easier to see. Below, the spider, which is now gray, can be seen against the background of the bright orange flower.
This was my first assignment from the assignment bank this week. The prompt was Splash the Color. I choose it because I thought it would be something that would be cool to learn how to do, and as I said in my DreamScape post, I am interested in learning more about photo editing and these assignments are a great excuse to do so. It was very frustrating near the end because there was one button I could not find for a while, which was the add mask layer one. However, in the end, I was quite pleasantly surprised at the result and thought the struggle was worth it.
It was also enjoyable to make because I like spiders and other creatures one can find outdoors. I also think some spiders are unappreciated and that people are often afraid of them, despite the fact that most spiders here in Virginia can’t harm them. I also wanted to share the fact that Flower Crab Spiders can change color because I thought that it was a really cool fact about them.
To accomplish this, I used Adobe Photoshop and copied the image twice to serve as two other layers. I desaturated the second layer and then used color range on the first layer to select some of the shades of orange from the flower. Then I added a color mask and was able to use a pen tool, and using black and white, un-color and color whatever I wanted.
It was worth 3.5 stars.
Sources:
USA Spiders-Misumena – Flower Crab Spider
This source provided me with the information about the Flower Crab Spider I used above.
The Color Splash Effect – How To Make A Photo Black And White Except One Color created by Brendan Williams.
I used this video to learn how to accomplish this feat.
