Jumping spider in its webby tunnel - new member, first post

[Nancy Phillips]

Hello, this is my first post and first picture at BPN. I haven't filled out the "introduce myself" post yet, so some of that material is given here. I shoot bird photography the bulk of the time, but also shoot macro photography of insects, flowers, etc, and shoot an occasional landscape. I started in photography in the film era, using a fully manual 35mm SLR and developing and printing B&W, with very little color work. The next 30 years, I shot only at work (pathologist), using the microscope and a macro set-up for specimen photography, and shooting Kodachrome E6 process. I switched over to digital photomicroscopy and then macrophotography at work, and bought my first (only) personal DSLR a year ago. I am still on the low end of the technical shooting learning curve but have gotten more accustomed to automatic functions. My post-processing and printing skill is minimal, I can use some presets and have played with some of the sliders in Lightroom 3, but I don't yet understand (pre-visualize) what I am doing in LR. I am hoping to receive both artistic and technical critique. Also, if anyone has comments on the biology or ecology of the subjects, I would love to hear them.

This is a 2.5mm long jumping spider (species not known by me) lurking at the entrance to its tunnel made from a curled leaf and webbing. The presumptive ID as Salticidae (Jumping Spiders) was made on the eye number and arrangement - all 8 eyes in a single wrap-around row. The spider didn't display its jumping ability, I didn't qualify as prey. I believe that the plant in question is a wild indigo (Baptisia sp) not identified further as its blooming (1 purple species, 2 white species) had finished. The location is a re-seeded and maturing native prairie behind the wildflower garden at Shaw Nature Reserve, Gray Summit, MO, near St. Louis. The photo was taken at 8:00 AM, temperature probably at least 90 F, mildly breezy, June 23, 2012, at the beginning of the drought.

I took a series of photos of this spider and its leafy home because I liked the shape of the leaf tunnel and I was impressed at the diligence of this tiny spider in making its very dense webbing. I preferred this head-forward shot to another head-forward shot despite lesser sharpness, because I wanted to get the entire leaf in the photo. I have some shots of it turning around in place, side shot, butt shot, useful for ID assistance, but as with other creatures, the eyes are the major attention grabber. (I am curious to find out why spiders have so many eyes, 8 is the most common number. This spider should have 360 degree vision.)

Approximately 1:1.5 magnification. Canon 180 mm f/3.5 macro, f/11, 1/400 sec, Av (aperture-constant auto-exposure mode), 400 ISO, auto white balance, Canon 60D, L bracket, monopod with tilt head. Monopod was adjusted to the desired height, manual rough focus, minute movement forward or back for fine focus, used live view to focus and lock the mirror up. Shot RAW sRBG, imported into Lightroom 3, global exposure adjustment 0.55 stop increase, no other non-default values in development, "average" sharpening for jpg export.

[Ian Cassell]

Nancy, first let me give you a warm welcome to BPN. There are several other physicians on here (I'm a pediatric radiologist, Doug Brown is a cardiac anesthesiologist, and I know there are others).

On to your image!

What a great composition of the hidden little jumper! I'm working from a crummy monitor at work, but it looks to me like your focus is on the eyes - where it should be. If I had a nit, it would be that you could use a little more light on your subject. Your OOF BG is good, but that vertical leaf is a bit distracting to me -- I'm not sure how to handle that. I'll be interested to see what the macro gurus offer here. There is a dark little blob in the lower RHS which might be dust on your sensor.

Anyway, this is a great start here! I really like this image! Keep them coming!

[Karen Forderer]

A very neat photo! My eyes are drawn right to the spider, probably because he is in his white home. The eyes are nice and sharp.

Karen

[Nancy Phillips]

Thanks for your comments, Ian and Karen. Ian, you are right, the lower right hand dark blob must be a sticky sensor dust. I will check out similarly blurred photos to be sure. I haven't done any sensor cleaning aside from a rare filtered puffer squirt, as I am somewhat chicken about "sensor swabs" and have relied on the ultrasonic sensor cleaning that occurs on camera start-up and shut-down. It is possible that there is a minor amount of lube that won't shake off.

As for the compositional issues: I haven't yet ventured into the dodging and burning and cloning techniques. I wanted the spider a bit lighter, but I can't get much more out of global exposure adjustment without blowing out the web on the right. In other words, I took the exposure adjustment up to the first few pixels of white clipping. I might like to darken (slightly) the pale near-vertical leaf edge on the top, to create a tiny bit of tonal depth, but I liked the leaf line sweep pointing to the spider and to the right-hand curled edge of the host leaf. I must say, despite the weight and bulk of this monster macro 180mm lens, I just love the background blurring.

[Ian Cassell]

Nancy, I was terrified of sensor cleaning initially. It's really not such a big deal, though. I use a device called the Arctic Butterfly, but there are several systems out there. If you work carefully, you won't have any problems and you will have a clean sensor. My Canon 7D has built in sensor cleaning (my 30D didn't), but I still occasionally need to clean it manually.

Be careful with puffer squirts. Puff it out a couple of times before you squirt your sensor. I once puffed a big blob right onto my sensor that somehow had been sitting in the puffer bulb.

[Nancy Phillips]

Thank you. I do puff the puffer a few times before aiming into the sensor area. I have a puffer with an intake HEPA filter attached to its backside. I haven't seen dust come out from the nozzle yet.

[John Chardine]

Hi Nancy- Also welcome to BPN and ETL! This is a great first post- very clever. I really like the "flow" of the leaf edge and the position of the star of the show! I like the depth of field you chose too. The light line upper centre is a bit distracting and could be removed if you wanted to.

At this stage we always invite new posters to have a look at images from other BPNers and offer up your comments. We are interested in everyone's opinion!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Nancy,

Welcome,..what an interesting moment with nature and super first post. Showing different aspects of life makes for fantastic photography and you are on the right track with this picture. I did not read the comments above so as not to influence my feedback. The line in the upper part of the frame leads the eye out of the picture consider alternatives crops. A tighter shot on the spider might be more compelling as well, of course as the photographer you control the frame and storyline. However any subject with eight eyes would probably be a good close up subject - this of course is very subjective.

I use LRIII too and interface with CS5 for heavy lifting. I have a 100 Macro lens that I rarely use. You have motivated me and I will post a macro picture soon. This is good work Nancy you have a good eye and see things that most do not - keep em coming and welcome,..will learn plenty here.

How do you like live view for focusing,.it is getting plenty of press lately nice article in Popular Photography last month discussing this technique using a hood loop.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Nancy, I'm a little late to this party, but let me add my welcome and appreciation. Thanks for choosing to share your images with us. Many of us (including me) started with film and are still learning the digital SLR. You have a very interesting and different subject here. Your exposure and color are good and you have a fair amount of detail. I love the spider lurking in that little pocket, and wondered if a tighter crop might bring more attention to it. I took a shot at cropping, adding some selective sharpening on the spider, and also brushing in some saturation on the arachnid presence. I also cleaned up sensor dust spots in the lower right and upper left of the image. Did a round of Topaz DeNoise on the whole image prior to that. There are many possibilities for cropping this image, this is just one idea. Looking forward to more from you.

[christopher galeski]

welcome Nancy,I like this image a lot,I think it is magic,your post is the one for me.well done.

[Jeannean Ryman]

Hi Nancy and welcome! I love your capture. The tiny spider peeking out of the web is much more interesting to me, than most shots of jumping spiders I see (including my own :). The lines through the frame are very nice, but agree a different crop would draw the eye in more. I tried my hand at it and have another "viewpoint" for you. Mine isn't quite as tight as Kerry's, but tighter than yours. Like Kerry, I ran it through Topaz Denoise first, reduced the red saturation overall, lightened the shadows a bit, and selectively sharpened the spider with Smart Sharpen at .03, 100, 0. I've learned there are so many ways to process and image and this is a great forum for helping us see other ways.