First night macro shot

[ahtiow]

Took this Lynx spider at Lower Pierce during at night. Here are the shooting info:
1/50s, F7.1, ISO 800, Rear Curtain flash (in-camera flash only, no $$ to buy SB-800 yet:embrass, flash were 'diffused' by wrapping the flash with a piece of tissue.

Would like C & C's on the following areas:
- composition
- DOF (is it too narrow?)
- and any other nits that are present in the picture

Cheers,
ahtiow

 

[ahtiow]

Ok! I'm desperate now...2 days and still no one said anything yet? That bad huh ???:cry:

 

[zac08]

First off... relax on the ISO speed. You are already using flash you can afford to drop the ISO down to 200 or 400. There is quite a bit of noise in this shot.

DOF is ok for this shot as you are aiming mainly for the eyes. But if you like more, drop down to f9 or f11... But with a smaller aperture, the flash needs to work harder or else the BG will be a sea of black.

May I also suggest a slightly wider view to show all the legs.

 

[Yappy]

Nice shot... I like the 2 eyes staring at you. To me the framing was just right and the colour please my eyes

 

[ahtiow]

[/QUOTE]

First off... relax on the ISO speed. You are already using flash you can afford to drop the ISO down to 200 or 400. There is quite a bit of noise in this shot.

Thanks! Will try again this Saturday's outing. Not sure if I can still get a clean shot at lower ISO. As you see, the shutter were at 1/50s with a 105mm on a D50 body and my handshakes are not helping at all :embrass:

Nice shot... I like the 2 eyes staring at you. To me the framing was just right and the colour please my eyes

Thanks!

 

[ssping83]

would prefer more of the spider to be in focus.. i.e. increase your DOF..

 

[Leong23]

Hi ahtiow

1.) Increase you f/stop, for this subject f/16 is a good reference point.
2.) Lower your ISO, noise is very bad.
3.) Since you are using handheld and full flash, increase your shutter speed.
4.) lighting is too harsh, sometime diffuser don't work wonder, dial down your flash.
5.) The colour is very fake, be more easy with saturation during post process, we should show the correct natural colour, not just pleasing to the eye.
6.) Take it that this is a uncropped image, more back a bit, prefer you showing all the legs, if not, you should move in closer.
7.) The out of focus body and legs are very distracting. For head shot, lower the angle to exclude the body, even f/22 can't get everything in focus unless it is low magnification rate.
7.) The 45 degree tilting or sloping down composition don't work here, creating too much unneccessary tension.
8.) The white in the bg is very distracting, quite a no no in nature macro photography.
9.) The shadow don't serve any purpose in the image, get rid of it with a reflector or a slave flash.
10.) Don't believe other people comments that lots of nits are unavoidable, this is a very very common subject, you have a choice not to shot this particular spider and move on to look for a better one.

Hope the above help.

 

[ahtiow]

1.) Increase you f/stop, for this subject f/16 is a good reference point.
2.) Lower your ISO, noise is very bad.
3.) Since you are using handheld and full flash, increase your shutter speed.
4.) lighting is too harsh, sometime diffuser don't work wonder, dial down your flash

Will try all these pointers when I get myself an external flash.

The colour is very fake, be more easy with saturation during post process, we should show the correct natural colour, not just pleasing to the eye.

Noted.

Take it that this is a uncropped image, more back a bit, prefer you showing all the legs, if not, you should move in closer.

Yeah, it's uncropped. I thought I got all the legs in the frame, but well, still got some portions of the legs out

The 45 degree tilting or sloping down composition don't work here, creating too much unneccessary tension

Its just me maybe, I kinda liked the orientation of the subject. :embrass:

Don't believe other people comments that lots of nits are unavoidable, this is a very very common subject, you have a choice not to shot this particular spider and move on to look for a better one.

I'm a noob, this spider is not common to me, it is special to me