My First Macro - Credit to CIC tutorials

[dragon76]

Hi Guys


A mate of mine brought over this afternoon, a Sigma 105 mm Macro which he acquired secondhand recently and he wanted me try it out. I took a few head shots with the lens and it is a nice portrait lens but don't own a macro lens so I had no idea how to shoot macro. Anyway, I sat him down, I opened a bottle of Church Block (Cab Sav Shiraz Merlot), while I went through CIC Macro Tutorials. Half a bottle of red later and I went to my back yard and took a few images:

How great is CIC!! Clear and concise tutorials, I am still glad I've found this site.

Macro Guru, please let me know your opinion!

[Downrigger]

This is very nicely done. It is sharp. It is greatly enhanced by the way it is lit - both the direct light (flash?) and the background light make it work. Lovely image!

[chauncey]

It's not at all clear what I'm seeing, even assuming that it's a spider. I think the lighting is throwing me off.

[Saorsa]

As a macro, it's excellent. I think though that the bright colors at the top draw the eye away from the subject. I tried a non-conventional crop to get rid of them. It's on a low quality image but I'm sure your original would benefit from the treatment.

[dragon76]

This is very nicely done. It is sharp. It is greatly enhanced by the way it is lit - both the direct light (flash?) and the background light make it work. Lovely image!

Cheers Mark,

It was an all cast day in Brisbane and the spider is quite high up so the camera was pointing upward and the back drop would've been the boring blur brown tree trunks and sky grey. I put some old clear colored plastic folders to add some colors to the natural light and remote flash from side angle.

[dragon76]

It's not at all clear what I'm seeing, even assuming that it's a spider. I think the lighting is throwing me off.

Hairy legs and hanging from the web....I assume it is a spider too .
Point taken from the lighting comments

Cheers

[Shadowman]

Very nice.

[dragon76]

As a macro, it's excellent. I think though that the bright colors at the top draw the eye away from the subject.

I did think about cropping it but I thought I would try something a bit different from the usual bright subject and dark back ground. Beside, the spider and the back drop didn't have much color. So I angled the flash so that it accentuated the fore-web (connecting to its legs) to differentiate it from the back-web and this should give the image a 3-D effect and the colored lights would lead the eyes to perceive this dimensional effect a bit further but I guess it didn't work

I tried a non-conventional crop to get rid of them. It's on a low quality image but I'm sure your original would benefit from the treatment.

Yes I re-sized it heavily. From 11mb to 950kb for ease of uploading but sharpness is still there. Thanks for the comment

[deetheturk]

Well done Dean,great first try

[IzzieK]

I agree with David, Dean...for a first try you did very well. When I first saw it, I tried to ascertain what it was I was looking at then realized it was a spider, I thought more of your shot being artsy than concentrating on the spider really. Overall, without the crop (to emphasize what it really was) the colours are really brilliant, the shot very nice indeed. It could have been an artifact from outer space, who knows? but it has a lot of potential use as a shot the way you took it.
Cheerio......

[dragon76]

Well done Dean,great first try

Thanks

[dragon76]

I agree with David, Dean...for a first try you did very well. When I first saw it, I tried to ascertain what it was I was looking at then realized it was a spider, I thought more of your shot being artsy than concentrating on the spider really. Overall, without the crop (to emphasize what it really was) the colours are really brilliant, the shot very nice indeed. It could have been an artifact from outer space, who knows? but it has a lot of potential use as a shot the way you took it.
Cheerio......

Thanks Isabel. I just looked it up and it's Dome-web spider which has an unusual small head shape and plus the photograph angle therefore I guess it maybe a bit hard to recognize that it is a spider. I could have placed the camera directly under the spider and it would've appeared more symmetrically "spider-ish" but the wind was too great yesterday and the web was flying up and down so focusing was a nightmare. On an angle it was much easier to place the tripod, focus and wait for a clear shot. Besides, I didn't have much time before I had to attend to my new born son . Funny that you mentioned "outer space", I wanted the lights to appear like the hovering spaceship lights kind of like in the movie "Close Encounters" and that would give it a 3-D feel to it . But it only works on me

Cheers

Dean

[FrankMi]

For your first foray into the world of Macro photography, that is quite an impressive shot Dean. Not only is it technically good, but you were able to go beyond the basics and achieve something that is both dynamic and quite interesting.

[Loose Canon]

Nice Dean. Whatever it is!

I’m no macro guru. I use the lens best suited for the scenario! I have but don’t always shoot the traditional bugs, webs, etc.

This was a commercial type shot done with a 100mm macro in a studio environment.

Things I look for with this type of lens? Lots of detail within the DoF. Which typically means all the faults are detailed too so I have to spend more time in post! As far as that goes, dealing with a razor thin DoF is a challenge in itself.

I find that I can get away with sharpening the soup out of a macro lens shot. But have to beware of minor problems that may cause.

Very nice shot Dean. Keep the macro in your quiver even if borrowed! You won’t regret it!

Oh, and one other thing if I may?

The success of use of a macro lens is directly related to the Merlot decanted on location! You are already there!

[jcuknz]

Cropping is a rather brutal way of dealing with problems like this and spoils the overall look of the image. Ideally one watches for bright out-of-focus light sources and avoid having them and probably in this case organise a screen of some sort which is not lit by the light falling on the subject .... it is easy enoguh to organise a cardboard hood for the flash so its light only goes where it is needed instead of spraying everything with light.

But having got the photo the answer is in editing where a quick and simple solution though not as good as I would like is to simply duplicate the layer, you cannot do things like this in Lightroom but maybe it has other ways .... darken the duplicate top layer down so the OOF bright spots are not so glaring and the erase the rest of it to reveal the original shot in the layer below.

And for an idea about a simple cardboard hood for the flash

A key point about lighting is to have it where it is needed rather than splashing uncontrolled all over the place.
You can spend up and get professional equivalents or DIYer options like this. The hatch in the side permitted one light to do two jobs ... subject key light and background light when it was used in a near macro situation.

EDIT ... while I think originally the lights are too bright I did in passing get the 'close encounters' feeling and like the overall effect you achieved .. really interesting and well done.

[flashback]

Dean,
I guess I'm a bit of an arachnophile as I recognized it for what it was.
There's the usual full on plan view of the spider, or the close up head shot, but this is quite the different angle and I think it works well. The red on the abdomen is striking, as is the zig zag webbing.
As it's not the usual documentary style shot of a spider, the background doesn't bother me a bit and I think lends to the overall artistic quality of the image.

[Saorsa]

The zigzags are called semaphores. Large spiders like this don't like it when birds fly through their webs so the spiders put these in there to be avoided.

[flashback]

The zigzags are called semaphores. Large spiders like this don't like it when birds fly through their webs so the spiders put these in there to be avoided.

Stabilimentum. They reflect UV and are thought to be used to attract prey and may help to allow other creatures to avoid the web

[Stagecoach]

Dean,

It's a great start and 'different' from the standard way that we generally see spiders captured in close up. Personally I prefer your original to the edits.

Grahame

[dragon76]

For your first foray into the world of Macro photography, that is quite an impressive shot Dean. Not only is it technically good, but you were able to go beyond the basics and achieve something that is both dynamic and quite interesting.

Thank you Frank. I will be shopping for another lens real soon