Whaur's The Burds?

Just like the legendary footballer /playboy Macca who's given catchphrase this is, these big beasties are out on the pull just now. It's mating season for these House Spiders just now and the males are frequently spotted scurrying across the floor whilst you sit perched on the couch watching Eastenders.

This one caused a work colleague to vacate her seat rather rapidly earlier today, after considerately trapping the amorous arachnid inside a plastic cup. There was a pretty even split between the workroom of those interested in seeing it close up, those that vacated the room, and those that cried "Gettit Oot!". As I released the creature to the outdoors I wasn't sure if I was doing him a good turn or not; apparently the female eats the male after their short marriage, but not until he dies of natural causes. Nice.

The original version of this picture did still creep me out but my arachnophobia is a lot better than it was. This treatment* though makes it all look very pretty though.

Keep your eyes peeled tonight as you sit watching the TV... that fleeting shadow and tiny scurrying sound might just be one of these.


Trying to backtrack on the treatment on this one, here goes...

Created in Photoshop CS3

:: Original image opened, Duplicated on a new Layer
:: Filter > Other > High Pass applied - 7-10 pixels. Layer blend mode changed to 'Soft Light' (sharpens image, good alternative to 'Unsharp Mask')
:: Duplicate Layer again - apply Filter > Blur >Radial Blur - 'Zoom' Method. Image > Adjustment > Invert applied to this layer. Layer Mode changed to multiply
:: Duplicate lowest Layer (Layer 0/Background) and move this to the top of the Layer stack. Image > Adjustments > Invert then Change Layer Mode to 'Screen'

This should achieve near enough the same effect, but will depend a lot on the original. There was a bit of a play around with Layer opacities after this and some extra sharpening but that should be about it...