4 eyed freak

[leighthal]

I bought a new macro lens and here is my first attempt. DOF needs to be increased (or would that be decreased?--am never sure of the terminology). Whatever.... I know it needs more of the spider in focus, but the lighting conditions were "eeekkk" and I was handheld. CC welcome.

 

[TiCoyote]

Wow, that is scary. You're right, I would like to see more of the spider and have a broader depth of field.

 

[Photoadder]

OMG great shot! Im really scared of this eyes heh. Awesome pic!

 

[leighthal]

Thanks for the comments. He was sc-ca-rry!! Every time he moved I squealed like a little girl. I envisioned him jumping on me and turning me into that poor grasshopper.

 

[pokopelo]

light seems to be ok, I also agree that more of the spider has to be in focus... but it is kind of creepy...

 

[Overread]

Why is it everyone can find jumpers barring me!!!!

Anyways I like the shot - you focused on the eyes which is always important in animal shots. As for depth of field I can't tell what aperture you were at but you can go as small as around f16 and retain good image quality - for a small bug like this I tend to stay around f13. At and after f16 diffraction starts to take effect, the noticable effect of it being to soften your images.
Depth of field is always going to be small in macro so you have to learn the effective use of it in a shot - going for the eyes is a good first move and the best method if you have a moving insect (or one which might move at any moment)/

Lighting is also key (as you have found out) reflectors can be used to direct more light onto the subject as can flashes with diffuses (I like the lumiquest softbox myself). That helps a lot since at macro distances things get dark normally and with such small apertures you need more light.
I would be interested to know the settings you used for this shot (aperture ISO and shutter speed).

 

[Antarctican]

Love the 'four eyes' looking back at me.

(These guys remind me of the villain in Monsters Inc)

 

[yoshi900]

Great shot.

What camera and lens were you using to take this?

 

[Breanna]

First things first- EW. That thing is friggin creepy!

Secondly- great shot. I don't mind the DOF since you are focused on "it's" eyes.

How close did you have to get to "it"? lol

 

[ANDS!]

No aperture size is going to get that spider completely in focus. At that focus distance, the entire body of the spider IS the fore, mid and background. Just like in a regular shot where you would expect certain sections of the photo to be out of focus, so too does the rule apply in 1:1 macro shots.

Really the only way to achieve greater dof, is to focus stack: you are essentially taking multiple shots of the same subject but at different focus distances. This way, as in a macro image, you can focus for the foreground, the midground and the background, and simply merge them into a single photograph (much as one would do with an High Dynamic Range photograph, except with luminosity values instead of focus distance values).

 

[leighthal]

Pentax K10 Exposure:0.004 sec (1/250) Aperture:f/6.7 Focal Length:50 mm
ISO Speed:100

Thanks for all the info on macro.
In answer to how close I was..... too freakin' close. The end of the lens was only an inch away from the beastie.

I may need to go buy a ring flash or something like that to move up to f16. I have a few shots at f16 and 22 but they are a bit wobbly looking from not having my new tripod.
I bought a Manfrotto tripod, the legs I got, but the head is on order. Can't wait until it gets here.


Thanks again.... Leigh

 

[ANDS!]

A macro flash (which a ringflash is not) is not the answer.

 

[nickisonfire]

yeah the spider has to be more in focus

 

[Overread]

Well a flash will let you go for those smaller apertures, but you still won't get vastly more of the insect in focus - for that you have to use the focus stacking, with a tripod and a focusing rail (note that I find the manfrotto design focusing rail poor for focus stacking as it will wabble as the pressure is turned on/off on the screwthread - leaving it on half on/off is a solution but I prefer the design of the ebay cheap focusing rails - or novaflex if you have a lot of cash).

Note that ringflashes are a popular form of flash lighting for macro, though the twin positional macro lights are often a bit more versatile. Myself I use a normal speedlite and if you don't currently have a flash then I would go for a speedlite and a diffuser (lumiquest softbox) since that way you also get a flash which has a wide range of uses rather than one which has only a limited use range