Hungry Spider

[cameraman]

I took this photo of a spider eating a fly in my garden. Aperture piority was used. f5.6, shutter 1/160, ISO 160 (auto), spot metering, focal length 100.0mm, light source daylight. I was using my Sony Macro lense. It was a bit windy. My objective was to get both the spider and the fly in focus. But as you can see, it is not. When one part of the spider is iclear, some other parts are blurred. I tried f22 as well. But didn't see much difference. Then tried with center-weighted metering. That also didn't help. Can someone please tell me how I can get a clear picture of this spider and the fly?

Thanks,

[martha36]

Hi! I think that's a great attempt at shooting a tricky subject, at least for me! I'm new to macro photography myself, but I think that when shooting macro, getting that kind of focal depth is very hard. When you're on top of something, only a small part is going to be in focus.

[photog1107]

I agree with martha36. I am beginning to learn that "macro" at a distance is no small feat. I think in this case, the only help would have been to have positioned yourself at an angle, so you had a better chance of getting both "bodies" in better focus. Keep it up!

[cameraman]

Thanks for the replies. Much appreciated. As I am also new to macro photography, I am still struggling. I took from an angle as well but that also didn't come out very well. Also, I was stranding very close to the spider. Probably about 5 or 6 inches away. Looks like more practice is required.

[fix4eyes]

I would say 2 comments: 1 remember to observe the background. The dark area is very distracting in your shot, I know it is not easy with spiders in spiderweb, but I think this would help a lot in this one..... and 2, Macro photography has this problem with with the shallow depth-of-field, there is a technique where you take several shots, every shot with a different area of your subject in focus, and you later fuse those shots toghether in one using some software programs, and work amazingly great. Take a look to this, (is the one I use): HELICON FOCUS.
Helicon Focus for Mac OS X

[daft_biker]

Am guessing you live in the UK? It looks like the underside of Araneus diadematus (a garden spider!).

If you can get a still enough day a tripod can make it much easier to focus and control DoF accurately - and be aware that about half your DoF is in front of the point of focus and half behind for a shot like this so in order to make the best used of what little DoF you have you need to focus a wee bit into the subject. Reducing magnification and stopping the lens down can both be used to increase DoF.

At 1:1 you'll get less than 2mm DoF - here you need more like 10mm so you need to reduce magnification to get it all sharp in one shot. If you want to get a close up shot of the spider eating the fly align the plane of focus to get the important bits sharp.

PS if you want to try focus stacking and have a PC CombineZM is free

[cameraman]

Originally Posted by fix4eyes

I would say 2 comments: 1 remember to observe the background. The dark area is very distracting in your shot, I know it is not easy with spiders in spiderweb, but I think this would help a lot in this one..... and 2, Macro photography has this problem with with the shallow depth-of-field, there is a technique where you take several shots, every shot with a different area of your subject in focus, and you later fuse those shots toghether in one using some software programs, and work amazingly great. Take a look to this, (is the one I use): HELICON FOCUS.
Helicon Focus for Mac OS X

Thanks for your reply. I will try photomerge using Photoshop next time after taking some shots as you have suggested. But I know it is not going to be easy with the spider moving and sometimes the wind getting on the way.

[cameraman]

Originally Posted by daft_biker

Am guessing you live in the UK? It looks like the underside of Araneus diadematus (a garden spider!).

If you can get a still enough day a tripod can make it much easier to focus and control DoF accurately - and be aware that about half your DoF is in front of the point of focus and half behind for a shot like this so in order to make the best used of what little DoF you have you need to focus a wee bit into the subject. Reducing magnification and stopping the lens down can both be used to increase DoF.

At 1:1 you'll get less than 2mm DoF - here you need more like 10mm so you need to reduce magnification to get it all sharp in one shot. If you want to get a close up shot of the spider eating the fly align the plane of focus to get the important bits sharp.

PS if you want to try focus stacking and have a PC CombineZM is free

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I live in Sheffield. I will try it again with your suggestions when the conditions are better. Hope the spider will come out again for a meal.