Thomas Shahan

A forum to ask questions, post setups, and generally discuss anything having to do with photomacrography and photomicroscopy.

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echomedia
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Thomas Shahan

Post by echomedia »

How does Thomas Shahan obtain such perfectly focused shots of jumping spiders with live specimens? Does he anesthetize them to slow them down long enough to line a shot up? Is he using a macro lens or something more like a microscope for the CUs of the spiders' faces.

Here's some of his work from his Flickr feed:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/opoterser/

Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

I'm no expert on stuff like this but I have spent some time shooting jumpers and I have found that once you have their attention, they pretty much stay focused on you, while you focus on them. Personally I like using a Sigma 105mm macro and flash, with a Canon D250 +2.5 diopter close-up lens attached for really close in work with a camera. :) Those are some really fascinating insect images that Shahan has! :o

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Google search on "thomas shahan" finds good info, notably https://www.youtube.com/user/terser, referencing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmMcCjEU68Y (Methods in Macro Photography with Thomas Shahan).

The same YouTube material is also linked from his "Methods in Macrophotography page at Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/opoterser/19977629431/ . Currently this shows up around the second screenful of results at the URL that you list.

His subjects are not anesthetized, and his equipment is not exotic. The perfect focus is a tribute to skill and undoubtedly careful selection from numerous shots.

In video sequences like 0:39 to 0:42, the effect of apparently zooming in toward an active spider, while maintaining perfect focus on the eyes, the zoom was probably added in post-processing, working from a video that was originally shot at a fixed location and scale.

--Rik

Chris S.
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Post by Chris S. »

Thomas Shahan also published an earlier video, An Introduction to High-Magnification Macro Photography. Taking both videos together, Shahan demonstrates that his key ingredients are perseverance, patience, and taking lots and lots of shots to choose the best of.

This makes sense to me. None of his images require involved technique nor, as Rik said, fancy equipment. But they can only be the result of countless hours, and a willingness to get many bad shots for each good shot. It's also clear that he works very actively on "seeing."

--Chris

echomedia
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Post by echomedia »

Thanks for the links!

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