Spider spinnng an egg sack

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Nature Photography Image Critique : One Thread

Nikon F90x, 200mm micro, 4T diopter, flash Actual size of the spider is about 1/2 inch. Cropped and enlarged to show detail even more I know this one could be better, perhaps someone would have some suggestions?

-- Donna P. Bollenbach (cassidy@icubed.net), September 12, 1999

Answers

Well I guess the obvious first question is "Where is the web". Spider looks nice and sharp but appears to be hanging in mid-air. I guess maybe you could have spritzed the web with a little water but then I suppose Mr. spider would have fled in a hurry. Hard to believe you lit that up with a flash and there is not a trace of a web, I'm very curious to know why that is so. Maybe you have to backlight web in addition to front flash to see web in detail. Keep shooting I enjoy your posts..

-- Steven Sisti (stevesisti@aol.com), September 12, 1999.

For some reason I am not getting the photo you posted, I went back through and checked, I get everyone's but yours. Pat

-- pat j. krentz (krentz@cci-29palms.com), September 13, 1999.

At first glance, I thought the image appeared incomplete without the web visable. However, I very quickly decided that the web could have detracted from the image's very graphic qualities. Crop it closer and make a BIG print of it. I think this image deserves it!

-- Jim Erhardt (jimerhardt@hotmail.com), September 13, 1999.

I'm also getting a broken link

-- Larry Korhnak (lvk@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), September 14, 1999.

cool!

-- Jeremy Kindy (kindjd01@wfu.edu), September 14, 1999.



I finally found the photo, very nice. The only thing that bothers me is that the spider seems to be suspended in mid air, which is not bad I guess, it just raises cain with my sense of direction, it would have been beautiful if we had some web to go with it. Again, good image. Pat

-- pat j. krentz (krentz@cci-29palms.com), September 15, 1999.

Just to add a bit of info to this picture. It was a very overcast day to begin with, and this spider was spinning the treads around this egg sack very fast. To get sufficient dof and stop the action I had to use flash which apparently caused the background to go black (Why does that happen...anyone?)While it does not bother me in this photo that the spider is suspended in blackness, it does bother me that the spider is not as sharp and defined as I would like. I think I would like to try a similar shot on a brighter day using exisiting light to get some blur to the legs to suggest action. It would also enable me to capture the web. It may be difficult to get anything critical in focus without completely stopping the action because the spiders legs move like a juggler but faster. Now, just to find another spider spinning an egg casing (or a case around his prey- which is a little easier to spot)...

-- Donna Bollenbach (cassidy@icubed.net), September 15, 1999.

Donna, I also cannot get the link to work, but the black background thing is pretty simple: the flash illumination drops off as inverse square of the distance, so proper exposure for your subject results in inadequate light for the background. You can be clever about setting the ambient exposure right and then trying to get a couple stops reduced illumiation on your close subject (by shading, etc) so you can stop action and get an even exposure, or use background lighting, or anything else you can think of to even things out.

-- Andrew Y. Kim (andy_roo@mit.edu), September 19, 1999.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ