Thread: Photography Question

Take camera, find a spiderweb, press the TAKE PHOTOGRAPH button.

DONE!

ask this guy, he would know:

http://ranm187.proboards59.com/index.cgi?b...read=1155115835

his website: http://web.ecomplanet.com/CAME1044/mycustompage0066.htm (scroll down a ways)

If possible, you need a dark background and then find the right angle of light to highlight the webbing.

What kind of camera do you have?

^ Olympus Stylus or something like that? It's actually my boyfriends parents camera, we just haven't had a chance to give it back to them. I'll be buying one soon though, so what's your recommendation?

And what exactly is the right angle? And what kind of lighting is best? I swear I've tried a million times and it's just a blur or you can't even see it.

ooooh you know who you should ask? Jacobo (moderator)

he takes really great pictures and bought a nice camera recently on ebay I think

or try to find a photographer&#39;s forum and post a "Help&#33; SPIDERWEBS&#33;&#33;" post in their newbie section nah I&#39;m teasing, but there HAS to be a good forum out there for photographers << I looks >>

edit: oh this looks helpful, it addresses your question specifically: http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?...005ALm&tag=

Hey, I want to do the exact same thing&#33; There&#39;s 2 big webs right next to each other in my garden and they&#39;re both attached really high up the wall by one really long thread each, how the hell did the spiders do that?&#33;

I should have asked a couple of more questions earlier... does your camera have a manual focus or is it automatic?
And does it have different modes or settings. Find out if it has a dial setting that allows you to set the apeture. Usually marked A on a digital camera dial.

If you have manual focus it&#39;d be way easier to focus on the web and nothing else. A manual focus camera would be your best bet.

If you can adjust the apeture (the f with a number following it on a digital cam screen) try setting it to different levels and looking at the web to see how much of it is in focus. You can blur out the background and focus on the web if you find the right apeture setting.

If you&#39;re trying this with a camera that has automatic focussing it&#39;s harder because the camera sometimes doesn&#39;t &#39;see&#39; the web and focuses on whatever is behind it instead, which blurs the web.

Try having an assistant hold up their hand beside the web so that you can focus your camera on it. When the hand is in focus, press down the shutter button (but not all the way) to lock the focus. Have your assistant move his/her hand out of the pic, turn back to the web, frame it and press the shutter button all the way down. This can be annoyingly tricky sometimes but works well if you can keep the focus locked. Takes some trial and error.

When I&#39;ve done web pix I&#39;ve done them in the early morning or late evening when the sun is low. Morning is way better because of potental dew drops that will adorn the web. I move all around the web, looking through the viewfinder to see which angle the light shines best off the strands.

Oh yeah, have your trusty assistant hold up something dark behind it if possible. The darker the background the easier it is to see the web.

Heh heh... didn&#39;t think it would take that long to get that all out. Perhaps someone can explain it easier than I can... but that&#39;s basically what I go through to get a shot of a web. Takes patience but it&#39;s worth it if you get the settings and lighting right.



I have the feeling I just made this subject way more confusing that it originally was. Perhaps someone else can explain it easier than I.

I can&#39;t even see them with my eyes until I&#39;ve hit them, which sucked in the jungle.

Vex Kitten, you&#39;re awesome, I wasn&#39;t expecting such a thorough response.

Thank you&#33;

you need a macro lense.

now i assume you want a shot of water beading on a spider web... that means you need a macro lense and a squirt bottle.

but seeing as you have a "crappy little digital camera" you can&#39;t get a macro lense for it.

so you&#39;re shit out of luck until you get an SLR

***

a macro lense is a lense for a camera. they are flat glass lenses so they don&#39;t have any depth... perfect for spider webs. a good macro lense will make a grain of rice consume an 8x10 print.

an slr is basically a camera that you can change lesnes on. digital or film. i suggest the canon rebel.

I was going to mention the macro thing as a lot of digital cameras have a macro setting or two, but it really isn&#39;t all that great of a feature from what I&#39;ve experienced.

In one of my photo classes we had a list of assignments to choose from. I really wanted to do macro but couldn&#39;t afford the lens. So I used the magnifying glass we&#39;d used in darkroom. Had to mount my cam on a tripod and hang the mag glass off the end of my camera&#39;s normal lense. Had to focus and nudge the camera back and forth until the pic looked good. What was really effing frustrating was the magnifying glass kept dropping off the end of the lens so it took me two days to shoot a roll of slide film for that particular project.

Got a perfect on that particular assignment. (yeah brags) It did the trick that time but was no where near as magnifying as a macro lens would have been.

Used my Canon Rebel 2000 SLR (film)... fuck I love that camera. I even dream about using that camera...haha. Been hurting for a digital Rebel since last year.

For anyone wanting to get me a great christmas present....Canon Rebel Digital SLR... 8MP will be fine.

Originally Posted by jacobo

...but seeing as you have a "crappy little digital camera" you can&#39;t get a macro lense for it.

so you&#39;re shit out of luck until you get an SLR

***

a macro lense is a lense for a camera. they are flat glass lenses so they don&#39;t have any depth... perfect for spider webs. a good macro lense will make a grain of rice consume an 8x10 print.

an slr is basically a camera that you can change lesnes on. digital or film. i suggest the canon rebel.
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The plan is to get a camera that we can change lenses on, so hopefully I can put all these tips to good use soon.

Thanks again guys.

Originally Posted by kichu

The plan is to get a camera that we can change lenses on, so hopefully I can put all these tips to good use soon.

Thanks again guys.
[/b]

then you want an slr (single lens reflex) camera. the low end of a digital slr camera body is 300-350 and the high end is in excess of 5,000.