Hi, I would be interested in any feedback on this. What made me choose this image is the activity of making the web, so it is that part this is in focus, but I am not sure if the image works as a whole or not. f/27 at 1.125th sec. with Tamron SP90mm lens. ISO 800. The spider is just a very common one that I happened to see in the garden.
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I think this does work, Philip. The “Vs” of web material leading from the bottom of the frame to the tips of the four front legs tell a great story. While it might be nice to have the rest of the spider in the frame, I think the reduction in scale of the webs would reduce the effectiveness of the image. A very cool image.
Philip: I’ll echo Dennis’ comments and agree it works very well. There is enough of the spider in focus and sharp to carry the image IMO. Nice find and a fine capture. >=))>
Phillip, I agree with Dennis and Bill. It almost looks like he is doing needle work of some sort. Nice shot.
Thanks, Shirley, I have to come clean and say that I had not noticed the activity until I was focusing in for the picture! Then, in editing, I found the high pass filter sharpening in Photoshop was excellent for subtly bringing out the web. Philip
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Phillip, this is a well done, very close look at this spider. The details and the depth-of-field are very good. There’s clearly no noticeable loss of sharpness from using f/27. She’s actually not spinning her web, since she’s clearly sitting in the center (not walking around adding threads using her abdomen). What she’s actually doing looks like she’s holding on to a couple of the long strands, which lets her detect when something (hopefully prey) lands in the web.
Thank you, Mark. I don’t know much about spiders, as you will have surmised, but I’m very interested in what you are saying - I hadn’t seen a spider do this before and assumed it must be to do with the construction or alteration of the web.
I am still learning to make full use of these very small apertures by ensuring I know not only what I want to focus on but also for example trying to ensure that I am using the very front of the focal plane if the supplementary interest is behind the focal point and vice versa. I made quite a few errors by not doing this and wondering why I was not getting the depth of field I thought - then realizing that the air in front of what I was photographing would have been sharply in focus!
I’m also trying to do my best to find some action or particular situation when photographing the insects etc. rather than just getting a good specimen. I think the more people get these amazing quality macro lenses, the more people will tire of just seeing yet another image of the insect without any context. Hard though!
Thanks again, Mark. Philip
Amazing capture Philip
Thank you, Dennis, and to all of you who have taken the time and trouble to comment on my image - much appreciated! Philip