White flowers with crab spider & prey

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon May 14, 2007 4:58 pm

I've decided there's a really easy way to find crab spiders -- just look around for large dead insects hanging from flowers.

Almost full frame.

And a closer crop.

It would have been a lot easier to shoot this one, if the wind had not been blowing. Wait for the lull, click the shutter, wait for the lull...

--Rik

Technical: Canon SD700 IS with auto-everything. Photoshop reports f/5.6 at 1/400 sec.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon May 14, 2007 5:27 pm

Here's a brief followup, with a manual stack in the style of Mark Plonsky, to get some more DOF on the bee. The breeze may actually have helped in this case, as it prompted me to shoot several frames from the same spot, with only the focus changing. The viewpoints were not exactly the same -- there was a bit of rotation in the bee -- but the differences were not anything that would affect the gestalt "honesty" of this photograph.

--Rik

Technical: 2 images aligned in PTgui to make a layered photoshop file, followed by manual editing of the layer mask.

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Tue May 15, 2007 10:37 am

There is a big difference in the third photo...lots more detail in the bee. Excellent post processing Rik, it really made a difference. I have to try the focus bracketing again on my camera. I guess the hardest part, if you were taking hand held, would be holding the camera still for three shots.