A trip to the nature park *spiders*

[blackrose89]

A trip to the nature park. *warning* Spiders! Let's try this again, I just posted in the wrong forum lol. I deleted the previous info on the last post.

#1 An "Orb Weaver" walking down his web. I decided to take an excerpt from Lightspeed's "How to Book" and he is facing the wrong way!



Orb Weaver by blackrose1981, on Flickr


#2


White-backed Garden Spider by blackrose1981, on Flickr

#3 a squirrel hiding in foilage, sorta. I'm not sure if I'm going to something about what's in his face yet, I kinda like the foilage/hiding feel this adds..

#4 A lone feather. I found this lone feather along this really long trail. Love the detail and the way it contrasted with the ground.


Lone feather by blackrose1981, on Flickr

This was an accident. But technically a *first* self portrait lol. (not really meant for CC).

 

[cgipson1]

#1 is not a crab spider! It is a Spiny Orb Weaver (Gasterocantha cancriformis, Araneidae family, Araneoidea, Orbiculariae, Entelegynae, Araneomorphae)

#2 appears to be White-backed Garden Spider or Banded Argiope (Argiope trifasciata)

 

[LightSpeed]

Since I seem to have created a monster, I guess I'm going to have to step up with some advice.

Spiders: I made it look easier than it really is , didn't i?
For best image quality, this requires a tripod at low ISO and high Fstop. Usually between 11 and 16.
Push it much past 16 and image quality starts to degrade. Of course you can go high ISO and try to hand hold with a high Fstop.
Even at the brightest part of the day, shutter speeds will suffer with a macro lens. Image quality also degrades greatly.
Not recommended.

#2 : WIND. Wind blows subjects like spiders in and out of focus. Even with a tripod this becomes challenging.

#3 LIGHT : I've seen all kinds of contraptions rigged on speedlights, snoots, softboxes, you name it, giving incredible results.
I don't have any of those. All the photos you saw were done under natural light. In most cases diffused by the wooded areas I was in.
Throughout a day, diffused light in the woods will hit the spider a hundred different ways. To get that great shot, you'll make an entire day of it, you'll go back again and again
making note of what the light is doing as it hits the subject. Bring 2 sd cards.......shoot a lot. 5 minutes makes a huge difference because the earth is moving around the sun, and you're under diffused light in the woods.

This for instance.

30 seconds later..........this was gone. As the sun passes through the trees, leaves and whatnot, it doesn't last long and you have to be watching it and see it in a viewfinder.

#4 You'll need a cable release, or a wireless shutter release. I'm pretty sure your rig supports this. Get one.
You'll need it for a lot of things. I do not know if your rig has a mirror up function. If it does, you'll be rewarded by using it.
I also don't know if your viewfinder is electronic or Pentaprism, or even a pentamirror. Mines a pentaprism with 100% coverage.
It's big and bright, and I love it. You see exactly what you're getting when you release the shutter. Some will recommend using live view.
That's not how I do it. I can just see what's going on much better using the viewfinder, but that's just me. Live view on the other hand can be instrumental for composition purposes such as landscapes,
night shots and stuff.I still prefer the viewfinder.

I strongly feel that if you follow some of what I write here, that your spider shots will love you for it.

As to the images.
I like the last one of the hot chick, the best.

 

[cgipson1]

Lightspeed.. she is using a Point'n'Shoot... that will give better shots than we have seen, but she needs to learn to use it, and practice, practice, practice!

 

[blackrose89]

Lightspeed.. she is using Point'n'Shoot.

Technically, a bridge lol.

 

[cgipson1]

Almost ALL of my macro shots are handheld btw....

 

[cgipson1]

Lightspeed.. she is using Point'n'Shoot.

Technically, a bridge lol.

That is why I said it would give better pictures than what we have seen.. as the camera is capable of more. But I suspect you are still just Pointing and Shooting! Yes? The spider shots were done in PROGRAM.. aka Point and shoot!

You need to set the ISO to Auto also if you are going to shoot this way. Your shutter speed was 1/40 which is probably slower than is wise...

 

[blackrose89]

Almost ALL of my macro shots are handheld btw....

Any advice on shooting with what I am shooting with? Nikon CoolPix L120?

 

[RichardsTPF]

high Fstop. Usually between 11 and 16

Lightspeed, I got a question here. The spider is very tiny. Why don't you you use a wider aperture, such as F8 should give enough DOF? Unless you shoot it at very close distance?

 

[blackrose89]

Lightspeed.. she is using Point'n'Shoot.

Technically, a bridge lol.

That is why I said it would give better pictures than what we have seen.. as the camera is capable of more. But I suspect you are still just Pointing and Shooting! Yes? The spider shots were done in PROGRAM.. aka Point and shoot!

Actually I read the manual before I started. You can manually choose the ISO, WB etc, but only in auto. The macro mode isn't that good in Auto, So I used the etting specifically for Macro shot (although I know this is not true Macro) That have multiple scene settings with various Iso, Fstops etc.

 

[cgipson1]

Almost ALL of my macro shots are handheld btw....

Any advice on shooting with what I am shooting with? Nikon CoolPix L120?

yes... use aperture priority... learn to use it.. test it to see what the slowest shutter speed is that you can shoot at and still get sharp shots. Then stay slightly above that! Learn to use the flash that it has.. diffuse it if possible. Get a external flash.. I believe that camera has a hot shoe: learn to use it. Get a cable for OC flash.. learn to use it. Take it off of AUTO and PROGRAM.. or it not a "Bridge" it is only a Point and shoot in a bigger body!

 

[cgipson1]

high Fstop. Usually between 11 and 16

Lightspeed, I got a question here. The spider is very tiny. Why don't you you use a wider aperture, such as F8 should give enough DOF? Unless you shoot it at very close distance?

Macro shots have a very limited DOF by their very design... even F16 usually doesn't cover as much as we would like. I sometimes shoot at F32 or so.. and just deal with the diffraction...

 

[RichardsTPF]

Macro shots have a very limited DOF by their very design... even F16 usually doesn't cover as much as we would like. I sometimes shoot at F32 or so.. and just deal with the diffraction...

Thanks Cgipson. I don't know anything about macro shot. Looks like they are different monster. haha

 

[LightSpeed]

high Fstop. Usually between 11 and 16

Lightspeed, I got a question here. The spider is very tiny. Why don't you you use a wider aperture, such as F8 should give enough DOF? Unless you shoot it at very close distance?

The above photo was shot at f16 at 1.6 seconds with a 100mm macro at about 9 inches away. The lens was maxed out.
Pentax claims the minimum focusing distance is .99 of 1 foot.
Approximately 12 inches. I've noticed that mine gets much closer. May be due to the fact that the Pentax 100mm macro, becomes a 153mm Macro, on the K5.
DOF in macro, is tough.

 

[cgipson1]

Pentax claims the minimum focusing distance is .99 of 1 foot.
Approximately 12 inches. I've noticed that mine gets much closer. May be due to the fact that the Pentax 100mm macro, becomes a 153mm Macro, on the K5.
DOF in macro, is tough.

The focusing distance is measured from the Sensor Plane... not the end of the lens. Sensor size only changes the field of view... not that actual magnification!

You really should start using flash.... 1.6 seconds is a long time to expect a spider to hold still.. for there to be NO wind moving the web or branches, etc.....