jumping spider

Images taken in a controlled environment or with a posed subject. All subject types.

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Adalbert
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jumping spider

Post by Adalbert »

Hi
M10_1024_Q82.jpg
M6M2 + DCR150 + Mitu10x, 1/4s , LED, 561*(DOF/3)
Best, ADi

Troels
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Re: jumping spider

Post by Troels »

Amazing and spectacular.
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
Visit my Flickr albums

rjlittlefield
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Re: jumping spider

Post by rjlittlefield »

Nice!

Also unusual -- notably the absence of sharp reflections of light sources in the eyes.

Is that a matter of retouching or some special illumination?

--Rik

Adalbert
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Re: jumping spider

Post by Adalbert »

Hello Troels,
Thank you very much, I am very pleased!
Best, ADi

Adalbert
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Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:09 pm

Re: jumping spider

Post by Adalbert »

Hello Rik,
This is a combination of the extremely diffuse lighting, the lens hood on the lens and of course the image processing.
I wanted to avoid reflection from the lens at all costs.
Such photos of spiders with pupils in their eyes look good, are celebrated on Instagram and Facebook and considered natural by many people.
Unfortunately, spiders' eyes do not have pupils.
I am still looking for the best solution.
At the moment, I'm tending to take the centre of the eye from a photo of a black, shiny ball.
Do you have any other ideas?
Best, ADi

rjlittlefield
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Re: jumping spider

Post by rjlittlefield »

Adalbert wrote:
Sat Aug 07, 2021 4:26 am
Do you have any other ideas?
There are a couple of approaches that may help.

First is to avoid wrap-around diffusers, especially diffusers that are shadowed by the end of the objective and thus produce a sharp-edged circular "black hole" that looks like a pupil.

Second, probably in conjunction with the first, is to retouch from original source or from a slabbed output so that only the surface of the eye and reflections of nearby hairs are rendered in sharp focus. Reflections of "distant" environment, including diffusers, will always be focused somewhat behind the surface of the eye, so with careful retouching it is possible to avoid that sharp-edged black hole.

Here is a short and rather ugly test stack that illustrates both these ideas. The stack was shot long ago to investigate the first idea, and I have just now reprocessed it to incorporate the second. Note that the faint but large gray crescent at the bottom of each eye is the reflection of a large wood platform that the spider was sitting on. See viewtopic.php?t=13636 for an overview of the setup and effects of other diffusers and placements.
2021-08-07-07.28.jpg

A third idea is to shoot the spider twice, once with whatever illumination you need to make the body look good, then again with different illumination that makes the eyes look good, and combine those with retouching. Probably you will have to retouch outside Zerene Stacker in this case, because Zerene's alignment algorithm often gets confused by changes in illumination.

One final issue: it is unavoidable that viewers will infer the structure of the eye from the reflections that they see in it. (Aside from prior knowledge, the reflections are really the only cues they have.) If there are no sharp reflections, then the surface will look matte. If the reflections are blobby or mottled, then the shape will look dimpled, especially if the blobs or mottling are different in the two eyes. So, to convey shiny and spherical, the image must show some sharp reflections and no inconsistent blobs or mottling.

--Rik

Adalbert
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Re: jumping spider

Post by Adalbert »

Hello Rik,
Thank you very much for your suggestions!
I really like the eyes in your photo.
Now I also have something to try out :-)
Best, ADi

pawelfoto
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Re: jumping spider

Post by pawelfoto »

Lovely baby. :smt026 He reminds me a bit of ET. As for the reflection on the spherical surface of the eye, the method proposed by Rik produces an acceptably natural effect. Blurring in post-production can unfortunately seem like a blurry dead eye. I like the masterful photos in nature of Thomas Shahan, who uses a simple elliptical diffuser, but you can still see the lens in the eyes of his spiders and even his hand http://www.thomasshahan.com/wp-content/ ... raeyes.jpg
==best, Pawel

Pau
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Re: jumping spider

Post by Pau »

Another approach for avoiding reflections is crossed polarization.

Nice image, BTW!
Pau

rjlittlefield
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Re: jumping spider

Post by rjlittlefield »

Pau wrote:
Sun Aug 08, 2021 12:19 pm
Another approach for avoiding reflections is crossed polarization.
This is true, but without any reflections at all the eye becomes solid black and can look rather like a black pit.

It occurs to me that one might set up multiple light sources to get desired modeling on the body, cross-polarizing all but one of them to give an isolated catchlight from the eye surface. I have never tried that, so I don't know whether it actually works.

--Rik

Adalbert
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Re: jumping spider

Post by Adalbert »

Hi Rik,
Multiple light sources and polarisation could be difficult.
So the light sources would have to have the same position of the polarising filter, wouldn't it?
Best ADi

Pau
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Re: jumping spider

Post by Pau »

Adalbert wrote:
Sun Aug 08, 2021 12:49 pm
Multiple light sources and polarisation could be difficult.
Not that much if you use continuous illumination and each source polarizer is rotatable
So the light sources would have to have the same position of the polarising filter, wouldn't it?
Relative to the camera lens analyzer yes, they would

I've only used two configurations: a) two light sources and b) one ring shapped fiber optic or flash tube
Pau

Adalbert
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Re: jumping spider

Post by Adalbert »

Hello Pau,
each source polarizer is rotatable
OK, and the rotation of the polarizing filter is parallel to each other.
I've only used two configurations
do you happen to have an example photo taken with it?

Best, ADi

Pau
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Re: jumping spider

Post by Pau »

Yes, I'll search tomorrow, they are old threads.
Pau

MarkSturtevant
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Re: jumping spider

Post by MarkSturtevant »

A very nice picture and interesting discussion.
This season I've been experimenting taking pictures with the lights at different positions if I have a shiny subject. Each picture will have a highlighted area, but in different positions. I am trying to combine them in layer masks or whatever to get a final picture with less highlighting.
I do like highlights of some sort (personally), and I don't really mind seeing details of the lighting or the diffuser reflected in jumping spider eyes. In fact, those are worth surreptitious study. 8) But one thing I don't like are jumping spider eyes taken with a ring flash. The effect is very unnerving.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

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