An angry spider in my garden

[Bo_]

Yesterday I saw this nice little European garden spider in my front garden so I thought it was a good opportunity to take a macro picture of the little creature. But when taking the picture I hit the web (it was windy) - and the spider raised it's front legs - ready to fight!!

I tried to get the eyes in focus - but then one of the front legs got out of focus! Is that a problem?!?

What about the background - is that a problem (to uneven)?

Exif: Aperture f/4, shutter speed 1/125 and iso 100.

[windrider86]

I think the brighter spots int he background take away from the spider and the little bit of overexposure on his legs is a problem. Mind you not that I could do any betetr cause these are tough ones to get. Regardless you did a great job of shooting this scary creature

[matthewchj]

Whoa. Nice!! Looks as if he's gonna spring away from the web and pounce onto an unsuspecting victim.

Actually I think that the focussing is fine. The only thing I don't like about it is the slightly distracting background.

[wulf]

You have managed to get wonderfully close but the spider is overexposed - did you use flash? Also, as matthewchj noted, the background is a bit distracting (due to the light, pinky orange patches, which distract the eye - the dark green and sky blue are fine).

The out of focus front legs are perhaps not idea. One solution would be a smaller aperture, which would cut down the light (perhaps counteracting the glare to some extent) and give you a greater depth of field to play with.

Wulf

[aadam_21]

I agree that the spider is a bit overexposed, but to me it doesn't detract too much from the feeling of this shot. That is one ugly, angry looking spider and I commend you for getting in his face for this shot!

[clockdoc]

Hi Bo,
Do as you did and record the shot as best you can then use some colored or neutral tone card stock in back of the web. Depending on the light source and direction, you can usually manipulate the card to give a pleasing background. Remember too that the background color of the card stock can be changed in post production using the Replace Color feature of Photoshop.