Vinod Kulkarni  


Spider by Vinod Kulkarni

June 2020 - Spider

About the Image(s)

"This spider was standing still while protecting her eggs which were safely deposited under the web. I kept on watching her for a few days and then decided to pick my gears and get a shot. This is a focused stacked photo of 39 images, I have not done focus stacking much so i am learning. I had less opportunity to compose this photo better given the limited space I had and the plant was constantly moving due to strong wind. Equipments used to shoot this photo;
- 7D Mark II
- Reverse Lens of 18-55mm
- External Flash with a Diffuser
- Tripod"


This round’s discussion is now closed!
4 comments posted




Charles Ginsburgh   Charles Ginsburgh
(Group 63)
It seems that this was a difficult shot given the space and the environment. Such conditions can make collecting focus slices challenging. Kudos for the effort. It was nice though that the subject chose to remain still as you collected your images. I am enjoying the clarity of the subject and of the surrounding area. The composition is especially effective with the parallel lines between the subject and leaves supporting one another. I do note that there are bands of sharp regions and of soft areas in this image and these areas of differential focus are somewhat distracting. Here I referring to the areas of the leaf in the background and foreground where parts are sharp and other parts are soft. There was a lot of distance to travel to capture all of the leaf sharp with our focus slices, so I understand the challenge., but never the less the distraction takes me away for the main subject. Here I have provided a edited image I have applied some rather aggressive cloning to remove the soft areas and to add back a bit of the spider's right claw (copied from the left) to illustrate how the image might appear if the banded areas of focus were not present. I am not suggesting that this is a better images, but only to demonstrate the points made here.   Posted: 06/15/2020 13:27:26
Comment Image



Thank you for your sincere feedback and an edited version Charles. I definitely can work on this image for some local adjustments as right not it does not flow smoothly. It is not a clean image for sure but I think that the spider is looking at the camera in a curious and interesting way.

If I am able to edit this further, I will surely share the image with you. Thanks again   Posted: 06/16/2020 09:18:21



 
The way the spider is looking at you is very interesting. She's not about to let you near those eggs and shows no fear! I like the adjustments Charles made, particularly with the legs and (I assume) the of the leaf in front.

Focus stacking can be an exercise in patience. I manually move the focus point (not the camera of course) since I don't have a rail, and it's always challenging. 39 images are a lot - it's a good thing you had a spider that stayed still.

Love her eyes and triangular shaped head.   Posted: 06/18/2020 18:32:18



 
The plane of focus is exactly right and captured good eye contact.
Thank you very much Charles for showing us what we can aim for to enhance the image.
My Fuji can scan up 20 slices at a time but I find that to cover all the hills and valleys the final number of slices is over 100. I still prefer to manually choose critical points to create my slices by changing the focus points on the LCD screen without moving the camera. A rail will change the composition produce slices that will be hard to merge ?
Thank you very much for sharing such an interesting image.   Posted: 06/23/2020 09:46:44