Beware of the Spider...

Bend The Light

I recently got a long desired shot of a jumping spider (here). It was good, but a little noisy and shot with higher ISO than I would have liked, with narrow DoF as I needed a wide aperture for the light.

So, I made changes to my lighting...an old SunPak 3000 flash on a bracket, angled to be close to the subject, and diffused with plastic from a milk carton. Trial and error gave me 1/100s at ISO 100, with aperture of f11...decent enough settings, I think...

...What do you think to the results, sharpness, noise, etc.(original and crop)


Spider on Compost Lid by Bend The Light, on Flickr


Spider on Compost Lid crop by Bend The Light, on Flickr

Wicked_Dark

mmmm, spidery goodness. I think the iridescence you've caught is pretty terrific. I've never seen that before on one of those. Maybe a tad more diffusion, but otherwise I think you're headed in the right direction.

Bend The Light

Wicked_Dark wrote: »

mmmm, spidery goodness. I think the iridescence you've caught is pretty terrific. I've never seen that before on one of those. Maybe a tad more diffusion, but otherwise I think you're headed in the right direction.

I think I am going to splash out on a simple small softbox for the flash (about £2.50 on Fleabay) to get the diffusion better...

Thanks for your positive comments, though.

Lord Vetinari

Agree- looks good, lovely capture. As commented above perhaps a bit more diffusion needed.
Brian V.

Bend The Light

Thanks, Brian. I placed the order for a couple of small softboxes to try and sort that.

Thanks again.

DeVil

Definitely needs more diffusion, otherwise good shots

Bend The Light

Thanks, DeVil.
Awaiting the post from Hong Kong now for my diffusers.