Wasn't sure about this one, but thought I'd try it here. I photographed this beauty in a creek on Biscayne Bay. I tried some shots without the external flash and in between maneuvering the canoe for a clean sky background, I tried to focus on the spider's body as much as possible while shooting handheld quickly. I opened the aperture as wide as 3.5 to allow more light in, providing me a shutter speed of 1/200, barely adequate under such conditions. I only increaed the ISO to 200 with the camera I used due to excessive noise at 400.
I thought the lack of dof would be a negative, but after seeing the results, I liked the effect.
Sony a100, 180mm Sigma macro, 1/200, f3.5, ISO200, no flash, very little PP, only cloned out minor web debris.
You managed well under difficult conditions Connie. The shallow dof is not a big problem and it can make for interesting macro shots. I would however have preferred the focus on the head of the spider instead of on the abdomen. Just a personal preference though.
Hey Connie, agree it has a nice abstract, high key quaility. As you mention a little more focus on the head would have been nice, but overall I think it looks pretty cool. Would have liked the body tilted a little more on an angle instead of straight up and down in the frame.
I'm with the others on the fact that your DOF is on the abdomen instead of the head but I also think you did really well under the circumstances. One option might be to convert this to black and white and sharpen the heck out of it, leaving you with a high key spider outline.
Backlit golden silk orb weaver
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