Lighting Closeup, Garden Orb Spider, Araneus diadematus

Garden Orb Spider, Araneus diadematus

Found one of these in my back yard today, having snared a wasp and wrapped it in silk.

I decided to back light (dark field illumination) to emphasise the web and fine hairs on the spider. A black plastic sheet was suspended behind the spider on a short boom attached to a Kupo Grip C-stand. The flash was modified with a Rogue Flash Bender from Expo Imaging as I knew this would give me both soft and controlled spill to my light. Fill was nothing more than a hand held plastic mirror from a camping shop directly opposite the key light and just out of frame.

Lit with a Canon 580EXII firing into a Rogue Flash Bender, roughly 14 inches away, slightly above spider at 10 o'clock. Fill from a small plastic mirror just out of frame at 4 o'clock (not shown). Placing the flash on a lightweight stand with a tilting umbrella adaptor allows the flash to pan & tilt.

Canon 50D, 100mm ƒ/2.8 EF macro, ƒ/18, 1/160th sec, 320 ISO, WB daylight.b Flash triggered with Yong Nuo YN-622C TTL radio trigger/transceiver.

A tripod for this kind of image is essential as camera shake is exaggerated due to the magnification of the 100mm lens on the 1.6x sensor! Continual focus adjustments were necessary as the spider kept moving and the slightest movement from me or a slight breeze meant I lost sharp focus.

Camera on a Manfrotto 755MF3 carbon fibre tripod with a less than ideal Manfrotto 3 way pan/tilt head. Should have changed to my heavy ball head.

Canon cameras, Elinchrom flash & LEE Filters are available from The Flash Centre. Email Simon Burfoot or call Brian Collier at the Birmingham branch.

Kupo Grip is available in the UK from Ianiro UK. Rest of the world http://www.kupogrip.com/find-a-dealer/ 

If you're serious about your photographic lighting then maybe The LIGHT Side Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelightsidegroup/ will interest you. It's about all things to do with light and lighting. TLS is a closed group so someone will need to add you or you'll need to send a request to be added. It's a friendly group, with a degree of humour and some great photographers willing to share and contribute.