John, you sure captured some good detail in this little guy. You indicated that this is a 50 shot focus stacking shot. Having never used stacking, I am not that familiar with it, but sounds like quite the process and time which causes me to wonder how you were able to get this Jumping Spider to sit still for you that long. I am doing well to get him to hang around for a few shots, and none of which are going to line up for a stack. As for composition,I think I would have preferred a more face on to him that looking down, but that is my personal preference probably, just to be more at eye level. Shooting from the angle that you did, I think I would also prefer not cutting off the legs. I love the colors on his face, which really shows up great.
1 Like
Thanks Shirley, my answer on keeping the spider still works sometimes. I usually work from a light table which gives me control of shadows. The ring light helps with the overhead shot but can interfere with straight on shots because the lens is really close to the subject. Thanks for your helpful suggestions.
Shirley I forgot to mention my practice of keeping the spiders briefly in the refrigerator to calm them down. Calming my wife down is even more difficult.
Yes, John, chilling insects has a long history for keeping the subjects still during macro work. This “from above” view shows of the details in the spider very well. It has really let the iridescence in it’s palps show strongly. While a view of the complete spider would be nice as an alternative, your tight view and the positioning of it’s head looks great. There does seem to be a fair amount of noise in the background, which is sometimes an artifact that the stacking software adds.